Open Source Development

Cleveland Thermal Energy and The Plain Dealer Publishing Company... I know the Pieces Fit!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 12:12.

An ambient film of real NEO people walking, shot from outside the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper headquarters, featuring late afternoon activity in the newsroom as seen from Superior Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, realNEO... "Schism" by TOOL is playing in the background, accompanied by the sounds of realNEO..

I've often wondered why the Cleveland Plain Dealer has been so disrespectful and harmful to me - I believe the following documents will explain - The Cleveland Plain Dealer is a Cleveland Thermal customer and so Cleveland Environmental Justice criminal - I know the Pieces Fit!

Document Record

View Image
Date Filed:  Document Type:  Number of pages:  Case Numbers:  Summary: 
2/5/1997 7:20:03 AM
TX-Text
000012
89-0362-HT-AEC
Alternate energy steam service agreement between Cleveland thermal Energy and The Plain Dealer Publishing Company, filed on behalf of applicant by S. Howard. (12 pgs.)

Dear Sierra Club President: Please Add Cleveland State University to your "Campuses Beyond Coal" Campaign and Begin Organizing!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 10:47.

Dear Sierra Club President and Nachy Kanfer - Campuses Beyond Coal:

Please Add Cleveland State University to your "Campuses Beyond Coal" Campaign and begin organizing against their primary energy provider, the astoundingly deadly, coal-polluting, private-investor-owned Cleveland Thermal coal furnace in the Cleveland Flats!

Cleveland State University (CSU) is the largest customer of Cleveland Thermal, and so must take a lead in moving this community beyond coal.

I don't imagine President Obama realized this sad situation, prior to his recent visit to Cleveland to meet with small business leaders and government representative at CSU about "jump-starting" our local economy, killed by pollution. I'm sure if he knew he was supporting environmental injustice here, in that way, he would have chosen a more socially-just venue to promote. Cleveland State University is not included in your "Campuses Beyond Coal" campaign, and should be added and activated immediately - Cleveland Thermal is one of the largest polluters in America - we must bring this to light and move them beyond coal to protect Clevelanders.

From realNEO:

Shock and Awe: House votes to eviscerate 40 years of bipartisan environmental safeguards

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 10:30.

From the Environmental Defense Fund:

Shock and Awe: House votes to eviscerate 40 years of bipartisan environmental safeguards.
Fight moves to the Senate next week.

Please email your Senators today urging them to reject the polluter assault on our clean air and climate future.

Dear Friend,

You're going to breathe dangerous air, drink dirty water, be exposed to toxic pollution… And you're going to like it.

Oh, and you can forget about a safer climate future.

Why This Cop Asked the President About Legalizing Drugs - and What Obama Said In Response

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 16:56.

Why This Cop Asked the President About Legalizing Drugs

You might not think a 65-year-old retired cop would take to the Internet to ask the president of the United States to consider legalizing drugs, but that's just what I did recently. The answer I got from President Obama in YouTube's "Your Interview with the President" contest pleasantly surprised me.

In stark contrast to when the president literally laughed off discussion of marijuana policy in a similar online question-and-answer session in 2009, Obama responded to me by saying that legalizing drugs is "an entirely legitimate topic for debate." Although he noted that he remains personally opposed to legalization for now, he acknowledged that "we have been so focused on arrests, incarceration, interdiction... that we don't spend as much time thinking about how to shrink demand." This welcome statement validated the viewpoint I developed over my 15 years of trying to enforce the drug prohibition laws.

EPA Establishes Clean Air Act Standards for Boilers and Incinerators - What is the Impact in Northeast Ohio? Who Knows?!?!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 02/23/2011 - 13:28.

Cleveland Thermal Pollution, Cuyahoga River, Cleveland, Ohio

There has been considerable conflict in industry and government - and Federal courts - over the emissions from large boilers and incinerators in America, and so Northeast Ohio, leading to new Clean Air Act standards for boilers and certain incinerators announced by the EPA today. As all America now acts to implement these new standards, it will be interesting to see what branches of government in Northeast Ohio monitor or even are aware of all the boilers and incinerators in this region - their current emissions and control technologies - which are out of compliance with the new standards - what they need to do to comply - what costs are involved to comply with the new act - what reductions in pollution will result, where - who will see reductions in their ambient and point source pollution - what benefits to public health will result - and how that will improve the value of property in this area. The public should be provided with this information immediately so we may make long term plans about where we live and what property we choose to own.

Battles over such rules are at the root of all evil in industry and America today - the heart of the tea party efforts to corrupt government by the Koch Brothers and their billionaire murderers and fans and followers in industries like coal and oil - The Fossil Boys - and the harm they have caused activists for clean energy, clean social networks like realNEO, the American people, and global climate. Thank you Federal EPA for your good fight for the health of Americans.

And you thought the tea party was actually about ending gays, abortion and unions! It was always all about the right to pollute and kill Americans! Time to end the party and fix America, everyone!

EPA Establishes Clean Air Act Standards for Boilers and Incinerators  

Sensible standards provide significant public health benefits while cutting costs from initial proposal by nearly 50 percentWASHINGTON – In response to federal court orders requiring the issuance of final standards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing final Clean Air Act standards for boilers and certain incinerators that achieve significant public health protections through reductions in toxic air emissions, including mercury and soot, but cut the cost of implementation by about 50 percent from an earlier proposal issued last year.

Mercury, soot, lead and other harmful pollutants released by boilers and incinerators can lead to developmental disabilities in children, as well as cancer, heart disease, aggravated asthma and premature death in Americans. These standards will avoid between 2,600-6,600 premature deaths, prevent 4,100 heart attacks and avert 42,000 asthma attacks per year in 2014.

Dear President Obama, Thank you for coming to Cleveland to bring attention to environmental injustice in Northeast Ohio.

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 11:30.

Dear President Obama,

Thank you for coming to Cleveland to bring attention to environmental injustice in Northeast Ohio.

I assume EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has briefed you that, in addition to being the most lead poisoned big city in America, we are one of the most polluted, unhealthy, and so undereducated places on Earth.

As you ride into Downtown Cleveland - the most lead poisoned big city in America (the world?) - you pass one of the most environmentally unjust industrial facilities in America - Arcelor Mittal's Cleveland Works steel production and processing superfund site (AKA the Cuyahoga River Valley) - and, as you meet with Ohio taxpayer-funded business development agents here, you sit in the shadows of the privately-polluting Cleveland Thermal district coal plant (owned by some shadow out-of-state investors, it appears) immediately downtown... providing excessively polluting heat to the very Wolstein Center where you shall hold your small business conference today... "Cleveland Thermal’s largest customer is Cleveland State University (CSU)" (and they don't care).

Don't breathe too deeply here.

EPA Administrator Jackson and Department of Energy Director Chu may certainly tell you there are better ways to make steel and warm citizens, business development agents and the President of the United States of America than burning coal within 100s of yards of homes, offices and you.

As Milan Kundera’s insight reminds us, the struggle against power "is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 02/21/2011 - 23:51.

Bill Moyers: America Can't Deal With Reality -- We Must Be Exposed to the Truth, Even If It Hurts
Many people inhabit a closed belief system on whose door they have hung the "Do Not Disturb" sign. - February 14, 2011

History Makers is an organization of broadcasters and producers from around the world concerned with the challenges and opportunities faced by factual broadcasting. Bill Moyers was the keynote speaker at the 2011 convention on January 27, 2011, in New York City.

Thanks to all of you for your welcome - and for the chance to be here among so many kindred spirits. Your dedication to factual broadcasting, to our craft and calling; your passion for telling stories that matter; for connecting the present to the past, has created a community whose work is essential in this disquieting time when "what is happening today, this hour, this very minute, seems to be our sole criterion for judgment and action." It is a sad world that exists only in the present, unaware of the long procession that brought us here. As Milan Kundera’s insight reminds us, the struggle against power "is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

I talked about this gathering when I was in California this past weekend and spent time with a good friend and supporter of my own work on television, Paul Orfalea. He's the maverick entrepreneur who founded Kinko's in a former hamburger stand with one small rented Xerox copier and turned it into a business service empire with more than two billion dollars a year in revenue. After selling Kinko's, Paul became one of the most popular, if unorthodox, teachers of undergraduates at the University of California/ Santa Barbara. When I told him what I would be doing today he applauded and understood immediately the importance of what you do. He described to me how he teaches history "backwards" to college students who have learned little about the past in high school, don't know that the past is even alive, much less that it lives in them and question its value today. He hands his students a contemporary story from some daily news source, tells them to begin with the "now" of it and to then walk the trail back down the chronology to trace the personalities, circumstances and choices that made it today's news. Their assignment, in effect, is to begin at the entrance to the cave and rewind Ariadne's thread in the opposite direction, back to the deep origins of the story. In an era marked by the lack of continuity and community between the generations, this strikes me as an inspired way to stretch young imaginations across the time zones of human experience.

1,000,000s of lives will be bettered in very few years - and I appreciated your help accomplishing this

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 22:56.

 

MCCO near complete - next steps

Norm Roulet <norm [dot] roulet [at] gmail [dot] com>     Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 12:40 PM
To: Chris Ronayne <Cronayne [at] universitycircle [dot] org>
Cc: hershel daniels <hersheldanielsjunior [at] gmail [dot] com>

Chris,

I'm pleased to see posted to the MCCO site that they are now committed to shutting down their coal boilers and will add no more. You should feel great satisfaction for this - 1,000,000s of lives will be bettered in very few years - and I appreciated your help accomplishing this.

Anyone using the Internet Must Know: Denier-bots live! Why are online comments’ sections over-run by the anti-science crowd

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 20:20.

While I believe we do a good job of keeping spammers from contaminating realNEO, we do not have a way we verify the identity of users and so may be exposed to "sockpuppets". But members of realNEO attack and kill them upon discovery. On the other hand, a poorly managed online world like Cleveland.com is certainly fully occupied by such evil forces. Now you may know, for a fact, those "people" you are interacting with, when you discuss important issues to you, on these poorly managed portals like of your monopoly newspaper in Cleveland... or that silly little Facebook of yours... are aliens from another universe.

Denier-bots live! Why are online comments’ sections over-run by the anti-science, pro-pollution crowd?

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 06:38 AM PST

I’ve been reposting the ThinkProgress exposé on the head-exploding tactics of Chamber of Commerce hacks (henchmen?), like Aaron Barr who heads the private security firm HB Gary Federal (see “Chamber lobbyists solicited firm to investigate opponents’ families, children.”  Daily Kos has a stunning post on HB Gary’s tactics that I reprint in below, since it involves:

creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated “persona management” software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other.

Environmental History Resources - The Role of Wood in World History

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 02/19/2011 - 22:50.

Environmental History Resources - The Role of Wood in World History

By: K.J.W. Oosthoek

The destruction of the world's forests is a major concern in our age. According to the UN about 40 percent of Central America's forests were destroyed between 1950 and 1980 and during the same period Africa lost about 23 percent of its forests. A whole range of environmental problems is associated with deforestation, among them severe flooding, accelerated loss of soil, encroaching deserts and declining soil productivity1. Sometimes we get the impression that these problems are unique to our time, but vast areas of surface of the earth were stripped of their tree cover well before the modern period.

The ancient Middle East

Today it is hard to believe that in antiquity vast forests were growing in the Middle East. However, during the early part of the third millennium BCE, the mountain slopes of this region were covered with massive cedar forests. These forests disappeared in the millennia before Christ's birth about two thousand years ago. The destruction of the cedar forests of the Middle East is told in the oldest know, surviving written story in the world: The epic of Gilgamesh. The epic was written in Mesopotamia sometime during in the 3rd millennium BCE. The second episode of the epic is known as “The forest Journey” and is the story of deforestation in the Middle East2.

Humbaba
Humbaba

Sierra Club says We all need to call Senator Brown today with a single message: SUPPORT CLEAN AIR ACT

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 02/19/2011 - 18:24.
PO Box 476 | Avon, OH 44011 US
 
Dear Fellow Ohio Sierra Club Members,

At the start of this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally began using its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Already, however, powerful forces in Congress--including some Democrats--are working to strip that authority away or delay its long-overdue implementation. We need to make sure Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown stands firm in defense of EPA's authority to cut greenhouse gas pollution right away.

EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases is the only tool we have right now at the national level to start combating climate change. Taking it away--or delaying it after all these years of inaction--is absolutely unacceptable.

We all need to call Senator Brown today with a single message:

Mayor Jackson - This Is Your "Green" Legacy?!?!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 02/19/2011 - 05:08.
2011-02-17-Picture28.jpg

Balloon Over Coal-Fired Chicago: Mayor Daley, is This Your Green Legacy?

Posted by jeffbiggers on @ 12:07 pm

Only days before Chicago voters launch their city into a new era with a new mayor, Chicago activists greeted departing Mayor Richard Daley in the City Hall atrium this morning with a giant balloon question mark on his self-proclaim “greenest city in America” legacy.

Featuring a picture of the decrepit and deadly Fisk and Crawford coal-burning power plants in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods, the balloon loomed over the heads of city officials and visitors with the stark reality of Chicago’s ailing neighborhoods. The balloon banner read:

“Mayor Daley, is this your ‘green legacy’?”

On Air, Waters and Places - from the earliest work on human ecology, by Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC)

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/18/2011 - 09:43.


MCCO Coal Fired Steam Generation plant - polluting the poor, urban core of Cleveland Ohio since 1932

Regarding the fact that University Hospitals, of Cleveland, Ohio, gets its heat from a coal burning power plant on their urban campus - the Medical Center Company (MCCO), operated by US Senator Sherrod Brown's Brother - located in a largely poor, urban community, which has for over 70 years harmed the health of area and global citizens... and considering the fact no University Hospitals or other area physicians will publicly condemn this and such industrial practices in Northeast Ohio... I posted to realNEO: Doctors at University Hospitals Should Turn In Their Licenses to Practice Medicine, as Hypocrites.

As they do not practice medicine ethically, all Doctors at University Hospitals Must Turn In Their Licenses to Practice Medicine - including my Father - as they do more harm than good as they pollute this community with soot from burning coal that is unnecessary and that causes certain harm and death to area citizens - especially the young, old, poor, black and weak... and these supposed "doctors" know that very well now.

This lack of responsibility by physicians practicing "healthcare" in a geographic area with certain poor health from pollution - including unnecessary pollution from the doctors' own hospital - confirms findings of Alice Hamilton MD, in 1914... "There is here a great neglected field in American medicine and one of growing importance, for each year the number of industrial establishments which employ physicians increases, and the opportunity for expert hygienic control of our dangerous trades increases. But there will have to be a more general understanding of the problems of industrial hygiene before the service rendered by the majority of company physicians becomes of much real value."

The Environmental History Timeline reports "Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC), considered the father of medicine, notes the effect of food, of occupation, and especially of climate in causing disease. One of his books, De aëre, aquis et locis (Air, Waters and Places), is the earliest work on human ecology." This work, reproduced below, offers to all future physicians the guidance "when one comes into a city to which he is a stranger, he ought to consider its situation". The first observation of any physician coming into Cleveland - Stranger or otherwise - should be this is an unhealthy place due to excessive point source polluting from industry, including the MCCO power plant at University Hospitals.

It is not so easy to understand why American physicians have neglected industrial plumbism - Alice Hamilton MD in 1914

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/18/2011 - 08:30.

Pathetic, unsafe public housing built at taxpayer expense in the pollution killing-fields of Mittal Steel Cleveland Works
Pathetic, unsafe public housing built at taxpayer expense in the pollution killing-fields of Mittal Steel Cleveland Works

As you read the following account of lead poisoning in America, you will come to realize physicians in America do not work for citizens, they work for corporations, and those corporations protect the interests of their owners, stockholders, and other corporations, rather than citizens, by using their physicians to hide from citizens the dangers of real environmental threats from industry, like lead poisoning. I brought this issue to the attention of realNEO readers with the publication of Perhaps the best way to eliminate bad climate science is to discredit bad lead poisoning scientists... starting with Dr. Schoen, and intend to provide the public with exhaustive ongoing analysis of this sad reality, harming all humanity.

Alice Hamilton MD was smart enough to understand this... very few American physicians have followed in her footsteps... none in Northeast Ohio, that I know of, ever. But if you've got a lot of money, or good corporate insurance, some doctors here may be able to repair your broken, polluted heart.

Her conclusion, from 1914 - "There is here a great neglected field in American medicine and one of growing importance, for each year the number of industrial establishments which employ physicians increases, and the opportunity for expert hygienic control of our dangerous trades increases. But there will have to be a more general understanding of the problems of industrial hygiene before the service rendered by the majority of company physicians becomes of much real value." That never happened - the "Tea Party" has been alive and well in America our entire post-Native history - humans physically and mentally polluted by Industry... the American Heritage... the unreal NEO way still today:

DOE Requests $3.2 Billion for Renewable Energy, Efficiency in FY 2012 - Energy Secretary Steven Chu's budget summary

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 18:20.

DOE Requests $3.2 Billion for Renewable Energy, Efficiency in FY 2012

Photo of President Obama at the State of the Union speech in 2011 with U.S. flag in the background.

President Obama called for more clean energy in his 2011 State of the Union Speech and continued his support in his new budget proposal.
Credit: White House Photo by Pete Souza

President Obama unveiled on February 14 a $29.5 billion budget request for DOE covering fiscal year (FY) 2012, including $3.2 billion for DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). The budget request for EERE represents a 44% increase over the current FY 2010 appropriation of about $2.2 billion. The proposed budget aims to strengthen renewable energy sources, boost clean energy research, and cut expenses as the United States pursues the president's vision of generating 80% of its electricity from clean sources by 2035. Overall, the DOE budget would grow 12% over 2010 levels while cutting a number of programs and administrative costs. (FY 2010 numbers are used here for comparisons because Congress never passed an FY 2011 budget, and the federal government is running on a stopgap budget resolution reflecting 2010 levels).

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY PLAN EJ 2014 - JULY 27, 2010 - Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 16:28.

Whitehouse.gov screenshot of Lisa Jackson speaking at First White House Environmental Justice Forum

Whitehouse.gov screenshot of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson speaking at First White House Environmental Justice Forum

Plan EJ 2014

Plan EJ 2014 is an overarching strategy intended to advance EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s priority to “expand the conversation on environmentalism and work for environmental justice.” Plan EJ 2014, named in recognition of the 20th anniversary of President Clinton’s issuance of Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations PDF (6 pp, 122K, about PDF), is a roadmap to help us integrate environmental justice into all of our programs.

The goals of the plan are to:

  • Protect health in communities over-burdened by pollution
  • Empower communities to take action to improve their health and environment
  • Establish partnerships with local, state, tribal and federal organizations to achieve healthy and sustainable communities.

Over the next four years, we will implement the plan and work to strengthen our efforts to carry out the Administrator’s priority through continuous and meaningful engagement with communities and all stakeholders.

EPA will host Webinar on Air Pollution Prevention and Control (CAA 101)

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 15:21.
02/25/2011 - 14:00
02/25/2011 - 15:30
Etc/GMT-4

REGISTER FOR CLEAN AIR ACT 101 WEBINAR TRAINING

WHO: Environmental Justice and Tribal Community Members and Organizations

WHAT: Webinar on Air Pollution Prevention and Control (CAA 101)

WHEN: February 25, 2011, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Eastern Time

On Friday, February 25, EPA will host a webinar on air pollution prevention and control. The webinar is designed for community members who would like a better understanding of the Clean Air Act and the roles of state, local, and tribal agencies and EPA in air quality management. Clean Air Act 101 will cover topics such as:

  • How agencies plan and manage air pollution
  • How commonly found pollutants are regulated
  • How toxic air pollutants are regulated
  • Opportunities for public involvement

Location

Webinar - WWW
United States

VA in a difficult position - 300,000+ brain-damaged veterans may NEED to use illegal marijuana to treat stress, anxiety and PTSD

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 06:06.

Cannabinoid

Cannabidiol - 2-[(1R,6R)-6-isopropenyl-3-methylcyclohex-2-en-1-yl]-5-pentylbenzene-1,3-diol

I was talking to my drug-dealing father, the other day, about the future of a class of drug he has never been allowed to deal - Marijuana, and its derivatives - cannabinoids patented by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, in 2003.

As a physician, in the psychiatry field, my father has prescribed 1,000,000s of doses - $1,000,000s worth - of scores of pharmaceutical toxins - many which certainly proved ineffective, over the years, and may be addictive and fatal - to humans who were not born to take such drugs... in a society now being torn apart by the consequences. But, he has never had the opportunity to prescribe one dose of natural, safe, non-addictive, organic, God-given, freely-available marijuana or a derivative.

While marijuana has consistently been found to be safe and effective for 100s of medical concerns, for over a century, and is increasingly being made legal at the local level, by enlightened communities, the use and abuse of pharmaceutical drugs has become one of our Drug Czar's greatest and most fatal crises across America... and getting worse daily.

This self-inflicted American healthcare crisis was driven home by the February 13, 2011, New York Times, which reported that well over 300,000 troops have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan with P.T.S.D., depression, traumatic brain injury or some combination of those.... and, when doctors diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder, they prescribe powerful cocktails of psychiatric drugs and narcotics, which are proving largely ineffective and often fatal - whereas safe marijuana is considered a valuable treatment for P.T.S.D..

United States Patent 6,630,507 - Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants - Assignee: The United States of America

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 02/13/2011 - 02:45.
United States Patent 6,630,507
Hampson ,   et al. October 7, 2003
Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants - See at USPTO Here

Abstract

Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. A particular disclosed class of cannabinoids useful as neuroprotective antioxidants is formula (I) wherein the R group is independently selected from the group consisting of H, CH.sub.3, and COCH.sub.3. ##STR1##

Inventors: Hampson; Aidan J. (Irvine, CA), Axelrod; Julius (Rockville, MD), Grimaldi; Maurizio (Bethesda, MD)
Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services (Washington, DC)

TheDC Interview: Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske on Mexico, pill mills, and the medical marijuana stalemate

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 02/13/2011 - 01:50.

All Americans should have a great interest in the actions of our Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, as he impacts all our lives and $ billions of tax dollars. Always AT WAR WITH AMERICANS and in denial of healthcare (and our national debt) - disrespectful of the medical profession - killer of innocent Mexicans - his job has become more complex and urgent, in the last few years, as his failed war on drugs has continued taking turns for the worst... turning Mexican pot fields into killing-fields and suburban America into a pharmaceutically-poisoned waster-land - as his entire credibility in battling God-given marijuana is undermined by effective medical legalization efforts America-wide, and by his own Federal government... as far more significant crises have surfaced with pharmaceutical drugs that fail to provide healthcare, but do kill - which marijuana does not.

As America is bankrupt, and going down the toilet - along with all Gil Kerlikowske's pills and poison piss, poisoning our natural resources, wildlife and all humanity - the following thorough interview by The Daily Caller of our Drug Czar is required reading:

TheDC Interview: Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske on Mexico, pill mills, and the medical marijuana stalemate

 
Mike Riggs is a staff writer at The Daily Caller. He has written and reported for Reason magazine and reason.com, GQ, the Awl, Decibel, Culture 11, the Philadelphia Bulletin, and the Washington City Paper, where he served as an arts and entertainment editor.
Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy, speaks during a press conference in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2010. Kerlikowske spoke on the Obama adminstration's drug control strategy. AFP PHOTO/Jewel Samad

Does Egypt hold any lessons for climate hawks — for "a generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology"?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 02/12/2011 - 13:27.

February 12, 2011

And above all, we saw a new generation emerge — a generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a government that represented their hopes and not their fears, a government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations.

… it was the moral force of non-violence….

That’s Obama speaking Friday.  I’ve been asked by a couple of ClimateProgress regulars if there are any lessons for climate hawks in the incredible Egyptian revolution.

For instance, the 25-year-old Ian of “What should Ian do with his life?” fame asks

I’m just wondering if you think it would be worth discussing Egypt in the thread this weekend. I could be very wrong but it seems like it might give people hope to change things here in the states. Maybe its possible to focus some of that energy into grassroots efforts on climate change. Huge, sustained, passionate rallies seem like they work now. Is that possible in regards to action on climate change?

real Al Jazeera - Watch Al Jazeera's live reporting on the situation in Egypt on realNEO below

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 02/10/2011 - 17:40.

Watch Al Jazeera's live reporting on the situation in Egypt below - video not optimized for mobile devices (audio may be in slo-mo):

 

 

Something to Cheer-Up Clevelanders, in the Middle of February - “The term ‘100-year event’ really lost its meaning this year.”

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 02/10/2011 - 11:09.


15 Day Extended Weather Forecast for Cleveland, Ohio - February 10-24, 2011

Following the warmest year in the recorded history of mankind on our planet, Earthlings should certainly expect more of the same... meaning after suffering through brutal Winter storms caused by intense climate change in the Arctic, we shall experience unseasonably warm weather for much of the month of February.

What may July have in store... when we must grow the crops that must feed and fuel the world?!?!

Some food for thought, from Climate Progress, for those balmy Cleveland February evenings to come...

UN food agency warns severe drought threatens wheat crop in China, world’s largest producer it is - FAO also warns floods and heavy rains in Southern Afria "threaten food security"

Posted: 09 Feb 2011 09:45 AM PST

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization issued an alert Tuesday that a severe drought was threatening the wheat crop in China, the world’s largest wheat producer, and was even resulting in shortages of drinking water for people and livestock.

The state-run news media in China warned Monday that the country’s major agricultural regions were facing their worst drought in 60 years and said Tuesday that Shandong Province, a cornerstone of Chinese grain production, was bracing for its worst drought in 200 years unless substantial precipitation came by the end of this month.

World wheat prices are already surging and have been widely cited as one reason for protests in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world.