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"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change." - Al Gore Good Friday Morning,
Just when you think Washington can't remove itself any further from reality, the White House orders the National Petroleum Reserve opened for additional oil speculation and drilling. This, so says the Executive, will help Americans by lowering prices for gasoline and other fossil fuel derivatives. There is also pressure on the Congress to open our shores to oil drilling and exploration and yesterday a bill failed to pass the House which would have forced oil companies to drill on lands they have already leased before they drill on new acres.
Then there's a Reuters article sent by News That Matters reader Bob Montwillo that says this in part:
"While the U.S. oil industry want [sic] access to more federal lands to help reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, American-based companies are shipping record amounts of gasoline and diesel fuel to other countries."
Now, ain't that something? According to the article (linked below) we're shipping some 1.6 million barrels of refined petroleum products each day out of the country. I'm sure you're all feeling pretty good about that right about now.
On July 1st, the State of Connecticut began offering subscriptions to their state-wide health insurance plan. Since then, more than 3000 people have signed on at rates that run between $79 and $259 a month, depending on the ability to pay. Since Albany is deaf, I'm hoping our County Legislature is listening.
If you're looking for something to do on Saturday night, something fun, Arts on the Lake's Open Mouth Night is back with Midsummer Madness at 8 PM at the Cultural Center on Lake Carmel.
The show includes guitarist/singer Steve Kirkman, the world’s tallest female comic Kim Blacklock, new short plays by Lora Lee Ecobelli and James Shearwood, Irish Raconteur Jerry Furey, old plays by Ring Lardner and the Federal Theatre Project, a moment of Tennessee Williams and – this just in – singer/songwriter Mike Latini. The performers, in addition to those above, include Jocelyn Beard, Greg Brown, Bart Cook, Blythe Beard-Kitowski, Peggity Price, Steve Schreiber, Midhat Serbagi and Daniel Simon. As usual, yours truly will be running lights and sound so you can be assured the performers will look good and sound great! Admission is the usual $6 and $5 for members. Write for reservations.
The other day I wrote about an event that took place at a Pawling Town Board meeting between Supervisor Beth Coursen and Pawling Republican party Chairman Glenn Carey. The Poughkeepsie Journal wrote a piece about it and the Journal News jumped on the bandwagon in an attempt to kick a dog they've been kicking for years. Comments in the "blog" relating to the story are not all that dissimilar from this:
"Did I log on to the National Enquirer? Can we ever count on our local news media to report on issues that have an impact on real issues that effect our communities? Poor LoHud and POJO - still ranked as trash. Poor sensitive guy and poor councilwoman's wife, who takes the high moral ground of repeating "overheard" conversations. This is classic 5th Grade he said/she said. No one at the Town Board meeting heard the remark..."
While the editorial staff at the POJO wrote:
"In short, the Journal stands behind the reporting of Michael Woyton."
An editor defending his reporter. What else could one expect?
The Census Bureau reported the other day that they will not be counting same-sex marriages in their tallies for the 2010 accounting of Americans. They claim the federal "Defense of Marriage Act" prohibits recognition of these types of relationships even though they are legal in several states. However, following recently enacted Federal guidelines the Census Bureau has created a new category called, "Godless Sodomites" which will be used to tally those relationships instead.
In the presidential race, a new Q Poll reports that 12% of respondents support John McCain and 15% support Barack Obama, while 75% support putting them both in a cage and letting them duke it out on prime-time TV. Las Vegas officials were still setting odds at press time.
If you can remember to head outside later this evening, a most wonderful thing awaits: a flyby of the International Space Station! If you haven't witnessed this before make a point of it for it's an experience you won't soon forget. It is, save for the moon, the brightest thing in the night sky and even small binoculars will give you some hint as to its size and shape.
At 9:49 PM tonight, head on out to a place with a wide view of the sky, especially to the south southwest. While it's unfortunate this puts the sky into the glow of the megalopolis to our south, the ISS will quickly rise in the sky to about 54º above the horizon at 9:51PM and then take another two minutes to pass into the northern horizon. It will be the really bright "star" moving silently through the sky.
If you're out in the early morning hours, the ISS will repeat it's crossing of our skies beginning at 4:11 AM tomorrow morning coming out of the west northwest and will reach an elevation of 85º, almost directly overhead.
If you miss this evening's flyby or cannot get up in the morning, you can repeat this tomorrow night starting at 10:12PM looking a bit further to the west than tonight. The ISS will reach 44º elevation at 10:15PM.
And now for a little (in)sanity, the News:
- US oil firms seek drilling access, but exports soar
- State report: Carmel police HQ a 'living nightmare'
- Putnam's first triathlon attracting hundreds
- Getting the short end of the stick
- N.J. Highlands Council passes regional master plan
- Sign-ups surge for health plan for uninsured
- Americans can’t live without their lawns—but how long can they live with them?
- Al Gore lays down green challenge to America
US oil firms seek drilling access, but exports soar United States - By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON3 (Reuters) - While the U.S. oil industry want access to more federal lands to help reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, American-based companies are shipping record amounts of gasoline and diesel fuel to other countries.
A record 1.6 million barrels a day in U.S. refined petroleum products were exported during the first four months of this year, up 33 percent from 1.2 million barrels a day over the same period in 2007. Shipments this February topped 1.8 million barrels a day for the first time during any month, according to final numbers from the Energy Department.
The surge in exports appears to contradict the pleas from the U.S. oil industry and the Bush administration for Congress to open more offshore waters and Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
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State report: Carmel police HQ a 'living nightmare' Associated Press - July 15, 2008 7:55 AM ET
MAHOPAC, N.Y. (AP) - The work area at the police headquarters in a suburban New York City community is a "living nightmare."
That's according a report issued yesterday by the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.
The agency conducted a study of the Carmel Police Department's headquarters in Mahopac in Putnam County and concluded that the station is in "desperate need" to be updated and possibly expanded to ensure the safety of employees as well as visitors.
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Putnam's first triathlon attracting hundreds By Stephen Blackman • The Journal News • July 18, 2008
Athletes from as far away as Aruba and New Mexico are expected to come to Putnam County this weekend for the inaugural Tri 'n Du Putnam, a combination triathlon and duathlon.
Participants on Sunday will swim, bike and run on a course in and around Putnam County Veterans Memorial Park in Kent. The triathlon consists of a 0.3-mile swim, a 14-mile bike ride, and a 3-mile run. The duathlon replaces the swim with an additional mile run.
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As of yesterday, there were 303 registered entrants - 53 for the duathlon and 250 for the triathlon.
Online registration closes today, but participants can register tomorrow in person at the park.
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Getting the short end of the stick NYJN Editorial
Among the many shadow victims of the subprime mortgage mess in the Lower Hudson Valley are apartment dwellers: Oftentimes it is they who are forced to move from properties their landlords can no longer afford, even when their own housing payments are current. Renters also face the prospect of increased competition for units, and the higher costs, as the occupants of foreclosed property move down in the food chain and search for less-costly digs. Of course, being dutiful taxpayers, renters also get to help bail out any federally insured lenders, and perhaps fund any assistance accorded overextended borrowers, despite the fact that they themselves were compelled to sit on the sidelines while others luxuriated in properties that were ultimately their undoing.
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N.J. Highlands Council passes regional master plan by Paula Saha/The Star-Ledger
Thursday July 17, 2008, 6:03 PM
What began four years ago as a bold vision for ending sprawl in a huge swath of northern New Jersey took a giant step toward reality today when the New Jersey Highlands Council, in a 9-5 vote, adopted the plan that will govern development and preservation in the region for generations.
"I believe if we adopt this plan, we will have protected the Highlands and saved it," Jack Schrier, vice chair of the council, said before the vote.
But environmentalists, who had lobbied for passage of the Highlands Act four years ago, said the plan falls short of its aims, allowing too much development and degradation of the region's water. They called on Gov. Jon Corzine to veto the guide.
"After fighting for the Highlands for 20 years, what was supposed to be a celebration is just more frustration," said Jeff Tittel, director of the state Sierra Club.
The Highlands provides water to more than 5 million New Jerseyans, from Bergen County in the north to parts of Gloucester County in the south. For years scientists argued that unchecked development was beginning to foul its pristine waters, and the 2004 Highlands Act was the state's answer.
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Sign-ups surge for health plan for uninsured By SLOAN BREWSTER , Journal Register News Service
MIDDLETOWN - After quadruple bypass surgery and a diagnosis of diabetes, Jo-Ann DiNello, who is unable to work full time due to a disability, could not qualify for health insurance.
Chea Hoeub, an immigrant from Cambodia, was recently laid off from his manufacturing job. With preexisting conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and mental-health issues, the genocide survivor may have a difficult time getting medical insurance; but the state's new insurance plan - Charter Oak Health Plan - will cover both DiNello and Hoeub.
DiNello said she is grateful she will now be able to get educated on how to eat better and determine which carbohydrates she should eat or avoid based on her illness.
"Because I have to learn how to take care of the diabetes," she said.
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Turf War
Americans can’t live without their lawns—but how long can they live with them? by Elizabeth Kolbert
In 1841, Andrew Jackson Downing published the first landscape-gardening book aimed at an American audience. At the time, Downing was twenty-five years old and living in Newburgh, New York. He owned a nursery, which he had inherited from his father, and for several years had been publishing loftily titled articles, such as “Remarks on the Duration of the Improved Varieties of New York Fruit Trees,” in horticultural magazines. Downing was dismayed by what he saw as the general slovenliness of rural America, where pigs and poultry were allowed to roam free, “bare and bald” houses were thrown up, and trees were planted haphazardly, if at all. (The first practice, he complained, contributed to the generally “brutal aspect of the streets.”) His “Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening” urged readers to improve themselves by improving their front yards. “In the landscape garden we appeal to that sense of the Beautiful and the Perfect, which is one of the highest attributes of our nature,” it declared.
Downing’s practical ideas about how to achieve the Beautiful included grouping trees in clusters, importing shrubbery of “the finest foreign sorts,” and mixing forms and colors with enough variety to “keep alive the interest of a spectator, and awaken further curiosity.” Essential to any Perfect garden, he held, was an expanse of “grass mown into a softness like velvet.” As an example of what he had in mind, Downing pointed to the Livingston estate, near Hudson, New York. (Privately, in a letter to a friend, he noted that maintaining the grounds of the Livingston estate required the labors of ten men.) “No expenditure in ornamental gardening is, to our mind, productive of so much beauty as that incurred in producing a well kept lawn,” he wrote.
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Al Gore lays down green challenge to America Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Friday, July 18, 2008
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore pauses as he speaks at... Al Gore presents his vision of a renewable-energy America...
(07-18) 04:00 PDT Washington --
Former Vice President Al Gore, seeking to shake up an energy debate that is focused mostly on drilling, challenged the United States to shift its entire electricity sector to carbon-free wind, solar and geothermal power within 10 years, and use that power to fuel a new fleet of electric vehicles.
The goal is the most ambitious energy plan by a major U.S. political figure - and one many energy experts say is unrealistic. Gore insists the only real obstacle is the reluctance of America's leaders to seek bold solutions to high energy prices and global warming. He likened his challenge to President John F. Kennedy's 1961 call to put a man on the moon.
"This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative," Gore told more than 1,000 cheering supporters at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall in Washington. "It represents a challenge to all Americans in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers and to every citizen."
Gore is seeking to pressure the presidential candidates and Congress, which is in the middle of a fierce debate on energy policy. He said he has spoken to both Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama about his ideas. Obama issued a statement Thursday saying he strongly agrees with Gore's goal.
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