July 30, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
With gasoline prices at record highs, and the strain on a weak American economy already at an extreme, Pres. Bush is pushing Congress to hold an “up-or-down vote” on renewed exploration of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) before its August recess. Opponents protest that none of any oil found there would be available for production for 10 to 15 years, and the OCS plan is an attempt to deliver oil firms an otherwise unjustifiable gift, taking advantage of the pressurized situation of exorbitant prices.
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July 30, 2008 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The longest serving Republican member of the US Senate, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), called by some the “king of pork” for his success in bringing federal money to his state, has been indicted for not reporting, under penalty of perjury, gifts he received from at least one oil firm, totaling as much as $250,000. The gifts are allegedly related to a home-renovation project and assistance obtained through his connection to an oil firm.
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July 27, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
There are few things more damaging to the right of witnesses and bystanders to contribute to the resolution of a given problem than harboring the assumption that no one involved has anything to contribute. For western and Asian lookers on, viewing the problems of the African continent as outsiders, there is absolutely nothing to be gained by surrendering to the ugly bias of the belief that Africans cannot contribute to the change and development they both need and deserve.
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July 25, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) today gave a major address on foreign policy and international security and cooperation at the foot of the Victory Column, in the heart of Berlin, Germany. German authorities estimate the crowd exceeded 200,000 individuals. Reports from Berlin indicate the crowd included people of all races, and from many countries, eager to hear the Democratic nominee deliver what the US media have treated as an historic address and an attempt to demonstrate the ability to achieve renewed unity.
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July 24, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is focusing on the places he most needs to shore up, while his rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) travels American war zones and visits with foreign leaders. McCain has sought to reach out to voters in Michigan and Ohio, two industrial states hit hard by economic woes, and is reported to be campaigning more actively in his home state of Arizona, which his campaign has reportedly added to “a list of 24 battleground states” they are concerned about.
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July 24, 2008 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Sen. Barack Obama meets with Israeli political leaders, seeks to reassure key US ally he supports its efforts to achieve peace and security without seeking to diminish its influence or impede key political goals of the state. He did say he believes to achieve peace, both sides need to make key concessions, and that “a US administration has to put its weight behind the process” for peace in Israel and Palestine. He added that he felt sure that none of the politicians he met with would come away with the impression he would pressure them to make concessions that would work against the interests of the state of Israel.
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July 24, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Radovan Karadzic, considered one of the three “most-wanted” men in Europe, has been captured in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. He is accused of war crimes for his role in allegedly planning the murder of 8,000 men and boys at Srebrenica and of 12,000 during the siege of Sarajevo, during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. His alleged crimes have been officially classed as genocide by the war crimes court at the Hague, and the accusations are the worst allegations of mass murder in Europe since World War II.
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July 23, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), just one week after backing Pres. Bush’s proposal to initiate new offshore oil and natural gas drilling in currently protected areas, has proposed a major nuclear power initiative, modeling his plan on France’s highly developed nuclear power grid. He also accused his rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) of opposing new offshore drilling, new nuclear plants, and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels. McCain wants to build 45 new nuclear power plants in order to produce more electricity from non-carbon-based sources, and claims the new plants would not be an environmental danger.
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July 23, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Sen. Barack Obama is traveling to vital foreign-policy hotspots as part of a Congressional delegation, including Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), but there is no missing the relevance of his tour of Germany, Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel, among other places, to his preparation on foreign policy matters and his labors as a presidential candidate. The media are covering it as if it were both a spectacular and ongoing campaign event and a foreshadowing of what Pres. Obama might look like when meeting with foreign leaders.
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July 23, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has reportedly signed an agreement with the government of Robert Mugabe to meet to discuss a power-sharing arrangement between the ruling Zanu-PF party and Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change, which many believe won disputed elections outright earlier this year. The meeting would be the first face to face meeting in ten years between the rivals.
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July 21, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The United States is firmly in the thrall of a banking meltdown, in which the normal structures, the means of measuring performance, and the meaning of debt-holdings, are all out of balance. More than one Wall Street firm or investment bank has written of tens of billions of dollars in uncollectable debt. Financier George Soros has published a book on the Great Credit Crisis. Economic growth figures have been worrying, with some seeing federal figures as “nudged” upward to avoid playing into a downward spiral of apprehension.
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July 18, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
The former vice president of the United States, Al Gore, yesterday announced an ambitious goal, which he says the nation can meet, of transitioning its entire domestic energy production to clean resources by 2018. The speech marks a major moment in the process of transition to the green technology boom, which will be the next step in the ongoing economic development of the United States and the world. Gore, however, warned that failing to meet the challenge to date means “the United States of America as we know it is at risk”.
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July 17, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Former US vice-president Al Gore is calling on the nation to marshal its resources and divorce itself from the combustible fuels economy. Gore says the US can produce all its energy requirements from renewable resources within 10 years, if action is taken. The bold initiative is designed to drive debate on the topic and move discussions about how to deal with high fuel prices toward the new opportunity they provide for funding renewable infrastructure development.
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July 17, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) raised $52 million in campaign cash in the month of June, far more than twice what his rival Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) raised. McCain’s campaign raised about $30 million less than Obama, according to the Boston Globe, though when national committee cash is combined with that held by the individual candidates’ campaigns, McCain and the RNC have about $93 million, as compared to the $92 million held by Obama and the DNC.
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July 16, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The Hague human rights court’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, investigating allegations of war crimes and genocide in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, has recommended to the International Criminal Court it indict Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and genocide. Bashir would be the first serving head of state to be indicted by the court.
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July 15, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
US pres. George W. Bush has lifted the executive ban on offshore oil drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and has challenged the US Congress to act to open the OCS to new oil exploration, saying the US needs to increase domestic production to reduce its dependence on imported oil. The ban was put in place by his father, George H.W. Bush, the 41st US president, for environmental concerns and in part because the oil companies have leases for huge expanses of underwater terrain they have not explored or exploited.
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July 14, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The New Yorker magazine has chosen for its cover cartoon for the 21 July 2008 edition a caricature showing Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) dressed in traditional Muslim garb, his wife with a large afro and an AK-47, bumping fists, with an American flag burning in the fireplace and a portrait of Osama Bin Laden on the wall. The cartoon has caused widespread offense, and both candidates’ campaigns have said the cartoon is tasteless and offensive. Subscribers have reportedly begun canceling their subscriptions.
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July 14, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The chairman of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Stephen Johnson, says the Clean Air Act is “ill-suited” to fighting the greenhouse effect, and that Congress should pass laws mandating the regulation of carbon emissions, with global warming in mind. The move may lead to a more comprehensive regulatory regime, but as the Guardian newspaper notes: “Last year’s Massachusetts v. EPA Supreme Court ruling had found that greenhouse gases can be regulated under the U.S. Clean Air Act. The decision pressured the EPA to reconsider its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and trucks.”
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July 14, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will take regulatory action to prevent internet service providers (ISP) from blocking or controlling users’ access to online content. The announcement came from the FCC chairman after Comcast moved to manipulate internet access —limiting their freedom to navigate— who had engaged in file-sharing online services, presumably in an effort to control access to content for which the cable provider was not being paid per-content-access.
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July 11, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
President George W. Bush yesterday signed an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) into law, after the Senate passed the controversial legislation, giving telecommunications firms retroactive immunity for cooperating with warrantless wiretapping conducted on American citizens, with no foundation in US law and in direct violation of the original FISA law, and the US Constitution. A federal court had ruled that the warrantless wiretaps violated the US Constitution, prompting a move by Pres. Bush and his allies in Congress to pass a new law correcting the legal problem.
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July 11, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Amid plummeting stock values and fears of an expanding threat of mass numbers of mortgage foreclosures —estimates range from 3 to 6 million homes in foreclosure within one year—, observers have suggested failure of one of the two major government-backed lenders could push the American economy into “depression”. The Treasury Department is reported to be considering a takeover of one or both of the mortgage-backing giants, which between them control $5 trillion in debt.
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July 11, 2008 :: admin :: No Comment Yet
Karl Rove has chosen to ignore a subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in relation to allegations he was part of an administration campaign against officials who did carry out a partisan agenda. By not appearing to testify under subpoena, he has opened himself up to charges of contempt of Congress, and the committee’s chairman, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has threatened to prosecute Rove if he does not comply, as has Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), chairwoman of the subcommittee on commercial and administrative law.
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July 11, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Special transparent dyes coating glass or plastic panes concentrate the Sun’s rays, guiding them to solar-voltaic cells lining the edges, allowing a window to act as a solar panel with 10 times the electricity generation capacity of solar cells, by current standards. The ‘organic solar concentrator’ (OSC) system also reduces cost, by reducing the surface area that needs to be coated by solar-voltaic cells and by eliminating the need for large concentrating mirrors and sun-tracking mechanisms.
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July 10, 2008 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
T. Boone Pickens has started what USA Today reports will be “the biggest public policy ad campaign ever” to promote a national economic shift from oil to renewable fuels, primarily wind. The campaign is centered on the PickensPlan website, which shows the oil tycoon explaining how and why the US can and must break its dependence on foreign oil —for which American consumers pay $700 billion per year— by transitioning to an energy economy founded on exploiting the massive wind resources of the Great Plains.
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July 9, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
After many accusations and much speculation, a US government whistleblower has said the vice-president ordered testimony altered to hide findings of the negative impact of carbon emissions and the threats from global warming. VP Cheney is accused of demanding that official EPA findings be altered and that sworn testimony before Congress be “redacted” to exclude […]
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July 9, 2008 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Petroleum is the most pervasive base resource other than water in the global economy of the 21st century, and as demand is exploding, production is nearing its geological peak, and untenable price increases are hitting a strained economy hard. Oil prices could be in a stagflation lock, unable to readjust to consumers’ means, unable to compete as emerging energy sources repeatedly slash development and commercial prices. Whatever factors are at play, crude oil prices have jumped over 900% since 1998, and it looks like production cannot meet global demand.
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July 7, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The green technology transition is gaining momentum. Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota has announced it will add solar panels to some of its fleet of hybrid vehicles. The “high-end” third-generation Prius models will sport Kyocera-produced solar panels on the roof, aimed at assisting with powering the air-conditioning and other peripheral operations, freeing up battery energy to give the hybrid engines more non-combustion mileage.
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July 7, 2008 :: admin :: No Comment Yet
As the United States emerges from its national independence celebration, traditionally a holiday when citizens across the nation take to the roads to visit family, friends or vacation sites, regular unleaded gasoline has hit a record high price of $4.11 per gallon. With some economists having forecast an unusually slow driving holiday, and anecdotal reports […]
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July 7, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The plane carrying Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, of Illinois, has been forced to make an alternate landing in St. Louis, after the pilot of his plane detected a “control ability issue”, related to the “pitch of the plane” according to a CNN reporter on board the flight. The plane has landed, and the senator is safe, being escorted into the airport while his staff and retinue of reporters await a new plane. The pilot is said to have recovered full control of the plane while in descent, and the CNN reporter called it “one of the smoothest landings” he had experienced.
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July 4, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Fourth of July is an American standard. It is a day of celebrations, of national fanfare, national idiosyncrasy, encounters with the outdoors, and the landscape and the feel of people coming together, a celebration of common experience, and of difference. It is so intimate a part of the national fabric that this particular holiday actually helps illuminate what sense of connectivity there is across the cultural spectrum that comprises American society.
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July 3, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
TheHotSpring.com :: Every participant in any system, is dependent upon the quality of information behind the major forces at play, just as any player in any system is beholden to the quality or jeopardy posed by the system’s prevailing methods. Free flow of information is the best hope of achieving the optimum level of functionality […]
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July 2, 2008 :: admin :: No Comment Yet
A 3-judge panel on the DC-circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against the evidentiary grounds on which the Pentagon has held Huzaifa Parhat, a Uighur Muslim from western China, for 6 years as an enemy combatant. The government argued it had grounds to hold Parhat because the charges they allege against him had been repeated in three secret documents; evidence supporting the claims has not been made public.
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July 1, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The historic and landscape canvases of J.M.W. Turner have invaded the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a bath of vibrant color and the artist’s characteristic ability to paint the energy of forces converging in space and time. The exhibit is more than a mere retrospective; it will deliver to many visitors their first real taste of the pioneering British painter’s ambitious experiments with light, scale and texture, and it illustrates how his work informs many of the innovations that would later come in imrpessionist and avant-garde movements.
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