Evacced to Kandor

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Naikun Wind update

(The Olympic torch rides the Lootaas on the sea leg of its trip through Haida Gwaii.)

The big news is that the Burrard thermal plant has been thrown off the rolls of BC’s baleline electrical generation. It don’t count. This means that BC Hydro is now under that much more pressure to scramble to find renewable sources – like Naikun Wind – to meet mandatory targets for renewable energy sources in the province.

Naikun is thrilled with this development.

FeDoRa

Among other things he is not, Barack Obama is not FDR.

It was painful to listen to his Saturday talk, talking about those courageous men & women, who risk their lives protecting our nation. Flat & unconvincing. How in hell is the military protecting us? They are pawns.

the “news” gets the bends

Does our over-stressed military ever even occasionally get the truth out?

The dead-but-alive-guy-with-the Muslim-hanging-over his American identity is said to have objected to our wars in distant Muslim lands.

A lot of Americans without Muslim shading do that, too.

Huge suicide rates in the GWOT. Loads of PTSD. Failed states in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

And the brass wants MORE TROOPS. And I suppose that Obama wants to look at everyone’s point of view.

The bi-paritisan thing he will get, when he destroys this country along with the countries of our “enemies”.

I’ve turned to reading crime novels as the

Endosulfan: one step closer to a global ban

(One of the thousands of endosulfan victims in Kasaragod, Kerala. The district was hosed down with endosulfan for over twenty years by a Kerala state run agency, all for the sake of a blemish free cashew crop. Indian activists often refer to it as the “second Bhopal,” but as the numbers continue to rise an outsider cannot help but think in terms of another Minamata.)

Last month, the Review Committee of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants effectively declared endosulfan a POP, setting the stage for a global ban to come into effect in 2011, after just a couple more rounds of bureaucratic rigamarole.

Finally.

Next stop Copenhagen

Greenpeace welcomes climate change negotiators to their talks beginning today in Barcelona.

Criticism of the complete absence of leadership from the US and Obama is heating up. Today, from Connie Hedegaard, the Danish environment minister:

I feel it [is] very hard to imagine how the US president can receive the Nobel peace prize on December 10 in Oslo only a few hundreds kilometres [from Copenhagen] if he has sent an American delegation to Copenhagen with no offer. I remind the US that it is not the only country in the world that has to have discussions with its domestic parliament.

Can underwater lesbians save us from drowning?

Has anyone noticed that Hillary Clinton is one testy Sec. of State? She’s no Josh Bolton, for sure, but I don’t think she played very well in her most recent open forum in Pakistan.

“it’s your choice….”

Does “crabby diplomacy” work?

Whatever Hillary is, she is not a diplomat. But as the Obministration has proved, they have felt the need to suck up to the Clinton era in several ways.

USFWS: $800K for White Nose Syndrome – Virginia big-eared bats go into protective custody

Fish and Wildlife Service Awards $800,000 in Grants to Explore Cause, Control of White-Nose Syndrome in Bats

One of the grants was awarded to the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park to establish a captive population of the Virginia big-eared bat at the Conservation & Research Center near Front Royal, Virginia. There are only 15,000 Virginia big-eared bats remaining in a few caves in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina. White-nose syndrome has already infected some of the caves in this area, and if it continues, this bat subspecies could likely become extinct.

Ellsberg on Afghanistan – Updated

On the military analyses being drawn up for Afghanistan: “I know that horseshit.”

The last few minutes are the most chilling. Ellsberg believes that Obama will commit many thousands more troops to a war he knows can’t be won for fear of a revolt by the generals if they don’t get their way. As we all know, there are far too many Americans who would support a coup.

Hate those long goodbyes

 
Goodbye³⁵⁰

The slideshow above was put together in about half an hour. It only has 100 pics, not because there aren’t 350 or 3500 lying around, but because photobucket was running out of patience.