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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Ernie Moniz, Obama's nominee for Energy Secretary, heads to easy confirmation in Senate; Former NRC chair says US nukes should be replaced; Fukushima is drowning in a sea of radioactive water; Exxon gets a medal for safety?!? PLUS: Conservative icon Margaret Thatcher believed in SCIENCE, and ACTION on climate change... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Frackers Losing $1.5b Yearly to Leaks; Australia's Coal Industry Headed For Failure; Judge denies BP's attempt to reduce oil spill payouts; Worst wildlife disease in N. America just got worse; Toxic chemicals in Great Lakes plastic pollution; Cost of air pollution scourge underestimated; Billionaire Koch Brother's bizarre self-delusion on climate science; When You Account For The Oceans, Global Warming Continues Apace... PLUS: How Far Can Climate Change Go? ... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• Leftie Commie Pinko Treehugger Margaret Thatcher Called For Action on Climate Change: (The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC)





• How Margaret Thatcher led the way on climate change (Australian Broadcasting Company)
• How Thatcher Made the Conservative Case for Climate Action: (Mother Jones):
  The year: 1990. The venue: Palais des Nations, Geneva. The star:
  Margaret Thatcher, conservative icon in the final month of her prime ministership. The topic: global warming. Thatcher went to the Second World Climate Conference to heap praise on the then-infant Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and to sound, again, the alarm over global warming.
• How North Sea Oil Helped Margaret Thatcher (Christian Science Monitor)
• Ex-NRC Chief Warns U.S. Reactors Have Major Safety Flaw:
• NRC Ex-Regulator Says U.S. Reactors Are Flawed (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  Shutting them all down at once is not practical, he said, but he supports phasing them out rather than trying to extend their lives....Dr. Jaczko cited a well-known characteristic of nuclear reactor fuel to continue to generate copious amounts of heat after a chain reaction is shut down. That "decay heat" is what led to the Fukushima meltdowns.
• The Long, Tragic Trail of Failed General Electric Nuclear Plants: (Cascadia Times):
  Newly found court documents from long ago are raising fresh questions about the safety of nuclear reactors made by General Electric.
• Fukushima: Drowning in a Sea of Radioactive Water:
• Damaged Nuclear Plant in Japan Leaks Toxic Water (NY Times):
  The leak highlights the daunting challenge of what to do with the huge amounts of contaminated water created by makeshift cooling systems at the plant, after a huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out its regular cooling systems two years ago in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Since then, Tepco has essentially been pouring water onto the damaged reactor cores and storage ponds to keep them from overheating.
• Japan's TEPCO May Run Out of Space for Radioactive Water: (Reuters):
  Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Monday it does not have enough tank space should it need to move contaminated water from storage pits that started leaking over the weekend at its wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
• TEPCO Finds Second Pit Leaking in Fukushima (Japan Times)
• EXXON Receives Safety Award After AR Pipeline Spill:
• Exxon Receives Safety Medal From National Safety Council Days After Arkansas Oil Spill (Huffington Post Green) [emphasis added]:
  The Green Cross for Safety medal, presented at the council's annual fundraising dinner in Houston on Tuesday, honored ExxonMobil for its leadership and "comprehensive commitment to safety excellence.... It is evident that ExxonMobil is committed to excellence in safety, security, health and environmental performance," said NSC president Janet Froetscher, who presented the award to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson.
• Exxon Works To Cut Out Pipeline Section After Arkansas Spill (Reuters)
• ExxonMobil Pipeline Spill Triggers Lawsuit (AP): The $5 million class-action suit charges the pipeline spill has permanently diminished property value.
• Amazing Aerial Footage of Arkansas Tar Sands Oil Spill (via Comedian Lee Camp's Youtube Channel)
• Exxon's Duck-Killing Pipeline Won't Pay Taxes To Oil Spill Cleanup Fund (Climate Progress)
• New spill reveals how horrible Keystone could be: Unsure what to think of Keystone pipeline? Check out this video of a shorter pipeline leaking oil all over a street
• MIT's Ernie Moniz and His Hair Head For Senate Confirmation:
• Energy Nominee Moniz: We Need Carbon Price To Double Or Triple Cost Of Dirty Energy: Moniz is exceedingly knowledgeable about carbon issues. Just last year told the Switch Energy Project he supports a carbon price that would substantially increase electricity costs. (Climate Progress):





• DOE nominee mum on carbon tax (The Hill's e2 Wire)
• DOE nominee open to reviewing natural-gas export study (The Hill's e2 Wire)

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

• How Far Can Climate Change Go?: (Scientific American) [emphasis added]:
  How far can we push the planet?
  ...
  What are the ultimate limits of the change that we are causing? The best historical example comes from the 100-million-year-old climate of the Cretaceous period, when moist, hot air enveloped dinosaurs' leathery skin, crocodilelike creatures swam in the Arctic and teeming plant life flourished in the CO2-rich air. The greenhouse that is forming now will have consequences that last for hundreds of thousands of years or more. But first, it will profoundly affect much of life on the planet—especially us.
• Look who's talking: Cape Wind proponent and William Koch, the project's biggest opponent, have been negotiating privately for more than a decade (Commonwealth Magazine):
  But what about Cape Wind’s potential to slow the march of global warming? Where does the coal billionaire stand on what many consider the environmental issue of our time? Koch pauses for awhile, and then launches into a long analysis that essentially acknowledges climate change is rapidly occurring but rejects offshore wind turbines as the answer.
• Frackers Losing $1.5b Yearly to Leaks: (Climate Desk): Leaky pipes are the 'super low-hanging fruit' of climate change.
• Australia's Coal Industry Headed For Failure: (RenewEconomy.com):
  Australian based analysts at Citigroup says fossil fuel reserves in Australia face significant value destruction in a carbon constrained world, with the value of thermal coal reserves likely to be slashed dramatically if governments get serious about climate action. It says fossil fuel asset owners could be best advised to dig the resource up as quickly as they can.
• Judge: BP Payouts Are Upheld; An Appeal Is Likely (Reuters)
• The Worst Wildlife Disease Outbreak Ever in North America Just Got Way Worse (Mother Jones): A fungus tied to a disease devastating hibernating bats in the United States has been found in an Alabama cave system critical to the survival of endangered gray bats.
• High-Altitude Ice Reveals A Climate on the Rocks: (Daily Climate):
  Ohio State scientist Lonnie Thompson tests the limits of science --- and his health --- to unlock climate secrets frozen at the top of the world's highest mountain ranges.
• Toxic Chemicals Turn Up In Great Lakes Plastic Pollution: (Great Lakes Echo):
  Toxic chemicals clinging to plastics could cause health problems for fish and other organisms in the Great Lakes.
• Air Pollution Scourge Underestimated, Green Energy Can Help (Scientific American): Air pollution is an underestimated scourge that kills far more people than AIDS and malaria and a shift to cleaner energy could easily halve the toll by 2030, U.N.
• Study: When You Account For The Oceans, Global Warming Continues Apace (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  "Most of this excess energy was absorbed in the top 700 meters (2,300 ft) of the ocean at the onset of the warming pause, 65 percent of it in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic oceans," they wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change.
• Getting Serious About a Texas-Size Drought (Op-ed, NY Times):
  "Texas does not and will not have enough water" in a bad drought, the state's water plan warned last year. More than two dozen communities could run out of water in 180 days, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Looking ahead, the already-dry western half of the state is expected to be hit particularly hard by climate change. State leaders generally accept such projections, even as they question the scientific consensus that humans are a major cause of climate change.
• Yum! Brands announces 'greener' paper policy (MongaBay.com):
  After a prolonged campaign by environmental activists, the world's largest fast food company has announced a new sourcing policy that will shift it toward greener packaging materials.
• Third major oil spill in a week: Shell pipeline breaks in Texas (Russia Today):
  By Monday, Shell spokespeople said inspectors found “no evidence” of an oil leak, but days later it was revealed that a breach did occur. Representatives with the US Coast Guard confirmed to Dow Jones on Thursday that roughly 50 barrels of oil spilled from a pipe near Houston, Texas and entered a waterway that connects to the Gulf of Mexico.
• 'Tsunami fish' story: Flooded boat. A 4,500 mile trip.: 5 live Japanese beakfish wash up in Washington State after a cross-Pacific ride from Japan in a tsunami-wrecked boat. The Japanese beakfish survived in a flooded bait box. [Then they killed them.]
• For Scientists, An Exploding World of Pseudo-Academia: (NY Times):
  Those scientists had stumbled into a parallel world of pseudo-academia, complete with prestigiously titled conferences and journals that sponsor them. Many of the journals and meetings have names that are nearly identical to those of established, well-known publications and events.
• Land Surface Warming Confirmed Independently Without Land Station Data (Skeptical Science):
  [A new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, Independent confirmation of global land warming without the use of station temperatures by Compo et al. (2013)] seeks to bypass all criticisms of the thermometers themselves by creating a surface temperature record that does not include land thermometer station data.
• First California Fracking Challenge Is Defeat for U.S (Bloomberg):
  U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal in San Jose, California, said the BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act by relying on outdated reviews, conducted before the extraction process known as fracking spurred massive development of energy deposits, when the U.S. sold four leases in 2011 for 2,700 acres of federal land in Monterey and Fresno counties.
• VIDEO: Nanowires have the power to revolutionize solar energy (PhysOrg):
  Imagine a solar panel more efficient than today's best solar panels, but using 10 000 times less material. This is what EPFL researchers expect given recent findings on these tiny filaments called nanowires.
• National Review heralds the 'wonderland' of tar sands with a photo of a blighted hellscape (Grist)
• You Can Have More Fossil Fuel. Or You Can Have Water. Your Choice. (Climate Crocks):

New Research: World on Track for Climate Disaster:

• COVER STORY: It's Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  If all that doesn't impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century --- way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

Essential Climate Science Background:

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It's simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. ...It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don't want to hear it.
• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming--if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will 'lose for ever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  "The door is closing," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. "I am very worried - if we don't change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever."
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)

It's just the cost of doing business for the world's most profitable corporation. And that "cost" is barely a blip (that may be an overstatement) on their daily profit sheet.

As Rachel Maddow noted on Friday in the short report below, ExxonMobil is the nation's largest and most profitable corporation. It is larger than Walmart, Google, McDonald's, American Express and Goldman Sachs...combined.

And yet, the penalties they pay for violating federal safety laws leading to oil spills is almost nothing at all. For example, when Exxon was caught failing to inspect a portion of the Pegasus Pipeline --- the one fill with sticky, gooey, tar sands crude that we don't know how to clean up...the pipeline that ruptured last week in a suburban neighborhood in Mayflower, AR --- they were fined a grand total of $26,000.

That's a $26,000 fine out of the $122 million dollars in profit that Exxon makes in per day.

"There is nothing that Exxon fears from the federal government," Maddow notes. "They have so captured the parts of the government that are supposed to punish them when this sort of thing happens, that the pain that that sort of punishment could cause them, redounds to them, essentially, not at all."

Yes, it pays for companies like Exxon to violate the law with impunity, so it will be left to the people of Arkansas, as Maddow explains, to make the company pay any kind of real price for their crime...if they can...

More photos of the Pegasus tar sands pipeline rupture in Mayflower, AR, taken by the EPA, are now posted here. Give 'em a look. If President Obama approves the Keystone XL pipeline, this is the type of spill that could be coming to a neighborhood near you very soon.

Source: Huffington Post

By Ryan J. Reilly

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday called on the American people to “stand with and support” politicians who support proposed gun reforms when the Senate votes on the proposals in the coming weeks.

“Many have said that these will be ‘tough’ votes, and I understand that the gun lobby will attack some who support reform But progress is never easy, and taking risks to ensure change is almost always necessary,” Holder said during a speech before the National Action Network on Thursday.

“The American people must stand with and support those who will be with us on this critical issue. The collective voice of those who overwhelmingly support the proposed reforms must overcome the efforts of the well-financed few who stand for a violent and dangerous status quo. Those whose lives have been impacted by gun violence — the victims and the survivors — are depending on us,” Holder said.

More:

Source: Americans Against the Tea Party

By Jason

The New York Police Department is investigating death threats against another Democratic lawmaker for daring to take steps to reduce gun violence. Maloney supports a bill requiring gun owners to carry liability insurance or face a fine of up to $10,000. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) received calls threatening her life, which prompted her to cancel a public appearance on April 2nd.

This isn’t the first time supporters of gun safety regulations have been threatened by TEApublicans.  AATTP reported that in February a crazy Tea Partier was arrested for threatening to kill a Colorado lawmaker and her daughter over her support for gun safety regulations.

More:

Source: Huffington Post

By Christina Wilkie

The National Rifle Association’s top two leaders on Thursday blasted Connecticut’s new gun control law aimed at preventing violence like the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the pro-gun lobbying group, called Connecticut’s law, passed early Thursday, part of a “decade-long agenda against firearms” during an interview on Fox News. NRA president David Keene, meanwhile, told the conservative publication Newsmax that gun control laws like those passed in Connecticut and Colorado were “the real threats.” New York and Maryland also have toughened gun laws since the school slaughter in December.

The NRA opposes any restrictions on high-capacity magazines or military-style assault rifles, both now banned by the new Connecticut law. The law also provides funding for school safety and has stricter eligibility requirements for ammunition purchases. New gun control laws like the one in Connecticut and another recently passed in Colorado represent rare public losses for the powerful gun lobby, which helped to organize opposition to both bills, as well as large protests in Denver and Hartford.

“I think the problem with what Connecticut did, is the criminals, the drug dealers, the people that are going to do horror and terror, they aren’t going to cooperate,” LaPierre told Fox News host Megyn Kelly. “All you’re doing is making the law books thicker for the law-abiding people.”

More:

Source: AlterNet

By Steven Rosenfeld

The NRA wants to make every student and school employee a suspect, and arm security officers with legal authority to shoot back.

The NRA doesn’t just want to put armed teachers, armed guards and volunteer vigilantes in schools to prevent more school shootings. It wants to turn schools into veritable prisons, where security staff patrol and lockdown schools, and indentify and spy on problem students and employees, according to an NRA-sponsored  report that included model legislation to allow such measures.

The National Federation of Teachers and well-known civil rights  advocates slammed the report, issued by former GOP congressman and Department of Homeland Security official  Asa Hutchinson. They said militarizing schools with more guns was not the answer to gun violence. Nor was putting more police into schools, particularly in communities of color. That only increases hostilities for students, not safe learning environments.

What follows below are 16 excerpts from the 225-page  report showing how the NRA would choose to deal with the potential for gun violence—primarily by locking down schools, making every student and school employee a suspect, and arming a cadre of security officers with legal authority to shoot back.

Notably, the report does mention that anti-bullying programs have an important role to play in lowering hateful acts. It also says that all school employees, contractors or community volunteers carrying guns should have extensive background checks, which pro-gun lawmakers in Congress are saying would be unacceptable in new federal gun controls.

But the bottom line is that the  report by Hutchinson’s security-oriented consulting firm for the NRA would militarize schools and turn them into lightweight versions of modern prisons. Nowhere does it suggest the obvious—that taking guns out of circulation will lessen their use. Instead, it seeks to make guns in schools the new normal.   More:

Source: International Business Times

By Christopher Zara

Embroiled in a running war of words with Fox News and gun zealots, the normally manic Jim Carrey took off his zany mask this week and posted a surprisingly earnest response to his conservative critics.

In a Huffington Post blog on Tuesday titled “I Never Wanted to Take Your Guns Away,” the rubbery-faced actor wrote that “bullies” were trying to marginalize his message by viciously attacking him online over a satirical pro-gun-control video he’d posted last week on Funny or Die.

“These thugs, though menacing, are a minority, but they will have their way if good people don’t step forward now and make a difference,” Carrey wrote. “Every American has the right to speak their mind.”

The Canadian-born Carrey became a naturalized American citizen in 2004. In the blog post, he wrote that recent gun massacres in Colorado and Connecticut should serve as an invitation for a civilized debate on gun reform in the United States, adding that we shouldn’t “shut our eyes and ears and scream at those with a different opinion than ours to ‘f–k off and go back to Canada.’”

More

Source: CNN

By Lateef Mungin and Brittany Brady

Saying he hopes it sets an example for the nation, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy on Thursday signed what advocacy groups call the strongest and most comprehensive gun legislation in the nation.

The new law bans some weapons as well as the sale or purchase of high-capacity magazines like those used in the Newtown shooting in December that left 20 children and six adults dead.

It also requires background checks for all gun purchases.

“This is a profoundly emotional day, I think, for everyone in this room,” Malloy said at the signing ceremony. “We have come together in a way that relatively few places in our nation have demonstrated an ability to do.”

However, he noted, “Today does not mark the end of our efforts” to combat gun violence.

With the governor’s signature, Connecticut became the third state to pass such tough measures since the December rampage in Newtown. New York and Colorado passed gun-control legislation limiting magazine capacity, among other provisions.

More:

Source: USA Today

by Jackie Kucinich

The school safety project funded and promoted by the National Rifle Association released a series of recommendations Tuesday to make schools safer, including a training program for teachers and other school staff who want to carry a firearm.

The release of the National School Shield report comes a week before the Senate is scheduled to take up a package of gun-related bills in response to the shootings in Newtown, Conn., where 20 schoolchildren and six adults were killed by a gunman.

While the NRA has dismissed criticism that its sole solution to the problem of school violence is more guns in schools, the National School Shield’s recommendations included several training programs that would arm school staff.

One “model training program” would include a background check for school staffers who want to carry a firearm as well as 40-60 hours in training, former representative Asa Hutchinson, director of the project, said during a press conference at the National Press Club. While the NRA initially advocated for former police officers to volunteer to guard schools, Hutchinson said the NRA’s research caused the group to back off that approach.

“In terms of volunteers, my impression of school superintendents is they would have great reluctance and so it’s not the best solution,” Hutchinson said. “That’s why we have shifted to school staff, trained school staff, that’s designated by the superintendent of the school board.”

The report acknowledged many schools were unable to afford adding school resource officers (SROs) to their staff, which they suggest as an “important layer of security for prevention and response in case of an active threat on a school campus.”

Legislation to enhance school safety is part of the larger gun-related bill expected to hit the Senate floor next week, but those funds could not be used for programs like the NRA has proposed. Instead, the bill, introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., would provide $40 million in grants for infrastructure improvements such as cameras, fencing and bulletproof glass.

 Democrats and teachers groups immediately rejected the findings, saying putting more guns in schools will only make the problem of violence in schools worse.

More:

Source: Associated Press

By Susan Haigh

HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut lawmakers announced a deal Monday on what they called some of the toughest gun laws in the country that were proposed after the December mass shooting in the state, including a ban on new high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the massacre that left 20 children and six educators dead.

The proposal includes new registration requirements for existing magazines that carry 10 or more bullets, something of a disappointment for some family members of Newtown victims who wanted an outright ban on the possession of all high-capacity magazines and traveled to the state Capitol on Monday to ask lawmakers for it.

The package also creates what lawmakers said is the nation’s first statewide dangerous weapon offender registry, creates a new “ammunition eligibility certificate,” imposes immediate universal background checks for all firearms sales, and extends the state’s assault weapons ban to 100 new types of firearms and requires that a weapon have only one of several features in order to be banned.

The newly banned weapons could no longer be bought or sold in Connecticut, and those legally owned already would have to be registered with the state, just like the high-capacity magazines.

“No gun owner will lose their gun,” said House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero Jr., a Norwalk Republican. “No gun owner will lose their magazines.”

The bill also addresses mental health and school security measures.

More:

Source: NBC News First Read

By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Brooke Brower, NBC News   The NRA fights back — with mixed success so far… How the Newtown tragedy changed politics (at least inside one party)… Will the Arkansas pipeline spill affect the Keystone decision?… Mark Sanford on the comeback trail… Will the DCCC get involved if he wins today’s GOP run-off?… Polls close at 7:00 pm ET… And the second round of SENATE MADNESS continues!!!

*** The NRA fights back – with mixed success: At 11:00 am ET, the National Rifle Association will unveil its details to arm school guards across the country. This comes as the NRA — after the Newtown school shooting tragedy — has decided to fight all the gun-control legislation as aggressively as possible, despite early indications that it might look the other way on the trafficking or background-check bills. And while it has enjoyed plenty of success so far at the federal level (the assault-weapons ban has no chance for passage, and even universal background checks appear to be on the ropes), the state level has been a different story. First, Colorado recently passed gun-control laws that places limits on ammunition clips and institutes a universal background check, and President Obama will travel to the state this Wednesday to highlight those new laws. And now Connecticut is on the cusp on passing gun-control measures. The Hartford Courant: “Easy passage of the legislative response to the Dec. 14 [Newtown] killings is expected in House and Senate votes scheduled for Wednesday, leaders of both the Democratic majority and Republican minority said after completing weeks of negotiations on the bill.” The measures include strengthening the state’s existing ban on semi-automatic weapons, restricting high-capacity magazines, and requiring background checks for all gun purchasers.

More:

Source: Huffington Post

By Marian Wright Edelman

Why is the National Rifle Association so afraid of the truth? There are many misconceptions about guns and gun violence swirling around in Americans’ minds—and in many cases, this misinformation is no accident. For years the NRA has blocked the truth and actively fought against and prevented research on the causes and costs of gun violence because they don’t want Americans to know the truth about guns, how to prevent gun violence, and how to make themselves and their children safer. Why else would they have Congress pull gun injury prevention research funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health? Why have we put up so long with efforts to block all research on a huge public health threat that injures and kills tens of thousands of Americans every year?

As Drs. Arthur Kellermann and Frederick Rivara write in the February 2013 Journal of the American Medical Association article “Silencing the Science on Gun Research”:

What can be done to reduce the number of U.S. residents who die each year from firearms, currently more than 31,000 annually? … The nation might be in a better position to act if medical and public health researchers had continued to study these issues as diligently as some of us did between 1985 and 1997.

More:

Source: Huffington Post

Jim Carrey has some harsh words for Fox News. Carrey released a statement on Friday blasting the conservative news network as “a media colostomy bag that has begun to burst at the seams.”

Carrey’s issue with Fox News stems from the response to his recent anti-gun lobby video “Cold Dead Hand,” produced in conjunction with Funny or Die.

Greg Gutfeld, a Fox News personality, attacked Carrey after the clip went viral, saying, “He is probably the most pathetic tool on the face of the earth and I hope his career is dead and I hope he ends up sleeping in a car. [...] This video made me want to go out and buy a gun. He thinks this is biting satire going after rural America and a dead man… He’s a dirty, stinking coward… He’s such a pathetic, sad, little freak. He’s a gibbering mess. He’s a modern bigot.”

More:

Source: Huffington Post

By Jeffrey Young

The bullet exploded like a fragment from the past, piercing his present and laying waste to the future he envisioned. It tore through Jerome Graham’s back, wrecked his spleen, damaged his pancreas and kidney, and left him paralyzed from the waist down.

And while the direct medical consequences of that gunshot fired a year ago in East Baltimore end there, the full force of its destruction has reverberated more broadly, encompassing Graham’s friends, his family, his community. It has carried into the American health care system, while confronting American taxpayers with costs reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Before he was shot last year, Graham, 33, supported his wife and three children by working as an electrician. Barring a medical miracle, he will never walk again, greatly complicating his ability to earn a paycheck. Since the shot went through his body, he and his family have come to rely on government programs like Medicaid, Social Security and subsidized housing.

In the American conversation, discussion of gun-related violence generally centers on the tragic loss of life or permanent injuries that result. But beneath these headline-grabbing, life-shattering facts are costs measured in vast numbers of dollars.

More:

Other than what appears, at first blush, to be the front entrance to the official Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Sewer System, the entire complex, shining at the top of a hill in Simi Valley, CA, is beautiful. Had we not arrived so late in the day, we would likely have paid the somewhat pricey $21 per head entrance fee to tour the actual museum, see the old Air Force One that is on display and, perhaps, even pay the extra $6 to check out the "Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives" exhibit which is also currently on display there, for some reason, until the end of the month.

As late as it was, however, we decided this time around to just enjoy the grounds, the memorial site, and the gift shop --- all free to access --- and make a mental note to try to go back for a full day at some point in the not too distant future.

But we were still able to take a few photos that you may enjoy, including this one just outside the entrance to the museum portion of the Reagan Presidential Library. I call it: "Trust But Photograph"...

Here are a few more of the photos we took yesterday, some odder and/or more ironic than others...

Desi Doyen (of The BRAD BLOG's Green News Report) observes the "No Dancing" sign at the Reagan Memorial Site on the grounds...

Here's a somewhat creepy --- almost Joker-ish bronze bust - near "The Peace Garden" (not to be confused with "The Freedom Path" which leads from the parking lot to the main structure and where, we surmised, we might not be quite as free to do whatever we wanted, as the name otherwise implies)...

You'll find that bust right near this...

There is a series of actual fading magazine covers framed along the wall in the "Reagan Country Cafe", including this one...

Not far from this one (note the NRA Endorsement on the bottom)...

Next to the cafe, we find the excellent gift shop, with lots of cool stuff, including books from many Rightwing authors, and the occasional historian.

Here's a copy of George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation, right next to an autographed copy of The Joy of Hate by Greg Gutfeld of Fox 'News'...

The book by former RNC Chair Michael Steele doesn't seem to be moving very quickly...

Neither does this one by this guy...

You can also purchase this blonde woman in a plastic bag at the Reagan Library Gift Shop...

What a twist! Obama gets co-opted for a Reagan t-shirt!...

Of course, at the Reagan Library Gift Shop, freedom isn't free. It's $2.95 plus sales tax.

And then, the final and perhaps cruelest irony from our photographic tour of the Presidential Library gift shop and grounds of the President who took down the solar panels President Jimmy Carter had placed atop the White House...this sign spotted above each urinal in the men's room...

Hope you enjoyed the tour. We'll be back to tour the actual museum exhibits themselves someday. If they let us...

In January of 2012, just as the GOP Primary election cycle for President was getting under way, The BRAD BLOG reported exclusively that the office of the Virginia Attorney General had opened a criminal election fraud investigation into the failed effort by the campaign of Newt Gingrich to appear on the primary ballot in the Commonwealth.

Now, a woman hired by the campaign has "pleaded guilty to felony counts of fraud and perjury," according to a report just out tonight from Charlottesville's NBC affiliate WVIR.

31-year old Jennifer Derrebery reportedly worked for Gingrich's election contractor Stillwater LLC and, according to prosecutors, turned in campaign petitions with some 400 signatures in the failed attempt to collect the 10,000 needed for Gingrich's name to appear on the primary ballot last year. According to WVIR, nearly all of the signatures submitted by Derrebery were fake.

Prosecutors say she turned over stacks of signed and notarized forms to the Virginia Board of Elections containing roughly 400 signatures - nearly all of them fraudulent.

"We don't know what was going on, and we are pursuing charges for the people who did something wrong here in Augusta, on Mr. Gingrich's primary election," said Rupen Shah, assistant commonwealth's attorney.

Shah says there were similar problems in other parts of Virginia, where GOP candidates needed 10,000 valid petitioners to get on the ballot. Gingrich submitted more than that, but a quarter of the names could not be verified.

The report also notes that the "investigation is still active, and may result in additional arrests" and that Derrebery is cooperating with prosecutors and state police. WVIR says the "judge suspended all of her prison time". That is likely in exchange for her cooperation on the case. Her co-defendant, Adam Dustin Ward, faces a total of 42 criminal counts and will face a judge in June.

In late December of 2011, after Gingrich had failed to turn in enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, he was caught on video tape telling a supporter in Iowa that the reason for the failure was due to a campaign worker who created 1,500 fraudulent signatures.

"We turned in 11,100 --- we needed 10,000 --- 1,500 of them were by one guy who, frankly, committed fraud," Gingrich is seen and heard saying in video originally aired by CNN.

Clearly, the effort was by more than just "one guy," as Gingrich asserted at the time.

The former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives downplayed the incident, by explaining to the woman that the entire affair was "just a mistake," after they had "hired somebody who turned in false signatures."

In late January, an official at the Virginia State Board of Elections (SBE) described to described to The BRAD BLOG what had happened as "definitely an illegal act." He told us that the matter had been referred by the SBE to the office of VA's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R). The Director of Communications for the office, Brian J. Gottstein, then confirmed to us that an investigation was "underway," though he could not disclose the details at that time...

Gingrich and GOP hypocrisy

As Chris Hayes, sitting in for MSNBC's Rachel Maddow noted at the time of the incident, citing a 2009 op-ed by Gingrich, the 1,500 acts of alleged election fraud committed on behalf of his campaign came straight from "from the Department of Shameless Schadenfreude."

Gingrich had joined his fellow Republicans years earlier in blasting the community organization ACORN for alleged "voter fraud" (which they never committed) in his op-ed, falsely claiming "ACORN has a long history of engaging in voter fraud."

But, of course, while a handful of ACORN's tens of thousands of voter registration workers turned in fraudulent signatures at various times over the years, there is no evidence that it was either condoned or ordered by ACORN themselves. Moreover, in almost every instance, when fraud by one of their workers was discovered, officials were notified of the fraudulent forms by ACORN themselves who also turned in the names of those workers to officials for prosecution.

There is no evidence that any illegal vote has ever been cast, in any election, due to an improper registration by any ACORN worker.

Those handful of voter registration fraud (not "voter fraud", as Gingrich described it) incidents by ACORN workers was condemned by Gingrich and his fellow Republicans. Famously, during a 2008 Presidential debate, then GOP nominee John McCain described those cases as "one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

Gingrich, McCain, Fox "News" and many others in the GOP opportunistically and inaccurately described the cases as "massive voter fraud". Yet, when 1,500 cases of actual fraud was apparently carried out by Gingrich's own campaign (and prosecutors indicate it may be more than that), he marginalized the matter as "just a mistake."

The Republican Party has continually misrepresented the ACORN worker cases in order to push for new laws requiring state-issued Photo ID at the polling place for voting, even though such laws would not deter the type of fraud they were accusing ACORN of committing. They are pushing for such laws not because it will deter incredibly rare acts of in-person impersonation at the polling place, but because those laws will disproportionately disenfranchise Democratic-leaning voters, such as minorities, students, the poor and the elderly.

At the time of Gingrich's caught-on-tape admission to his supporter about his campaign's own fraud, Mediate's Tommy Christopher aptly described what he admitted his campaign had done to be "arguably worse than what ACORN was accused of."

"ACORN was required, by law, to submit each and every voter registration that they gathered, no matter what, but unlike Gingrich," wrote Christopher, "ACORN reviewed and flagged tens of thousands of dodgy applications to make it easier for registrars to weed out the likes of Mickey [Mouse] and Donald [Duck]."

"ACORN had a much better ratio of valid registrations to fraudulent ones than Gingrich," Christopher also noted. "13% of Gingrich's signatures were bogus, while ACORN's error rate was around 1.5%, according to Project Vote. Most of the ACORN applications that were rejected were duplicates, not fraudulent ones."

Gingrich's 2009 op-ed was littered with other inaccuracies and scurrilous false charges, including what he described as ACORN's "illegal and illicit activities." When it came to his own campaign's actual "illegal and illicit activities," however, those were "just a mistake," as he described it to his supporter in the Iowa video. The ongoing criminal investigation by the Virginia Attorney General, however, has clearly determined otherwise.

The question now is: How many more arrests will there be and how high will they go? Given the recent record of the VA Attorney General however, and other Republican prosecutors in the state --- as detailed in our report earlier this week on felony charges just dropped against a GOP registration worker caught dumping registration forms into a dumpster just before last year's election --- we're not holding our breath. But we shall see what happens next.

Year of GOP Election Fraud

We documented, throughout the Presidential election cycle last year, the pervasive record of recent election fraud carried out by high-ranking Republicans, many of whom had previously been (inappropriately) critical of non-existent "voter fraud" by ACORN. See this article --- written last August when four U.S. House staffers of then Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) were indicted on charges of ballot petition fraud almost identical to those which Gingrich's campaign worker has now pleaded guilty to --- for a quick summary of the some of the most recent cases of alleged and/or confirmed voter fraud and election fraud by high-ranking Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White, the CA Republican Party, Rep. Todd Akin, James O'Keefe, Ann Coulter and several others.

* * *Please support The BRAD BLOG's fiercely independent, award-winning coverage of your electoral system, as available from no other media outlet in the nation --- now in our TENTH YEAR! --- with a donation to help us keep going (Snail mail, more options here). If you like, we'll send you some great, award-winning election integrity documentary films in return! Details right here...

What happens if we start with known public corruption cases and work backwards to the intersection with elections?

What you will find is kickbacks and bid-rigging schemes; at least two of these, in New Orleans and in Pennsylvania, connect back to Ciber, the Independent Testing Authority (ITA) that supposedly tested and then signed off on most of the U.S. voting machines currently in use in all fifty states, on behalf of the federal government.

You will learn of a now-admittedly corrupt government technology official who benefited from rigged bids, (courtesy of Ciber) who had placed, as one of his first priorities, setting up his very own Internet Voting system.

And when you look into money-laundering, the mechanism providing the juice for corruption, you'll find out about a strikingly odious situation: a New York City Democrat who bribed New York City Republicans to help him run for Mayor (as a Republican). The case has recently made news as at least 5 high-ranking elected and party officials were rounded up this week as part of a sweeping FBI sting in the Empire State.

"Trust" will never suffice when it comes to conducting elections. There can never be a place where counting votes in secret, or governmental snooping on how we voted, or hidden money behind campaigns, or hiding records on elections, can be accepted by the public, yet that is happening right now. In all fifty states.

Vendors who do business with the government do participate in bid-rigging and kickback schemes, and both politicians and government employees sometimes deprive the public of honest services, as we find in the New Orleans case involving Ciber, the company which signed off on almost every electronic voting system in use across the country today.

Political corruption spreads like cancer. It creates a neural system of one politician beholden to another. The public always needs to retain its right to know, to examine documents, and to see what's going on. Otherwise, who's gonna notice? Who's gonna tell?

I write about it all in great, and sordid, detail today at BlackBoxVoting.org, where, as I note, the moral of the story is this...

Before we go skipping down the road trusting any politician to know what's best for us regarding our own right to see and authenticate elections...

Before we agree to some pie-in-the-sky idea that secret vote counting processes are safe because some company tested them...

Before we accept the idea that some legislators can pass a law telling us we have to cede over our right to know...

We need to understand that when it comes to elections, trust is childlike. It's wishful thinking. It's immature.

It's not how the world works, and we owe it to our children to remember that.

See Black Box Voting for the full story...

* * *

Bev Harris is the founder of BlackBoxVoting.org, a non-partisan elections watchdog organization. Her work and investigations at BBV have been featured by dozens of national media outlets, and she is featured prominently in HBO's 2006 Emmy-nominated documentary Hacking Democracy. Follow her on Twitter: @BlackBoxVoting

 

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Disturbing updates on the Exxon tar sands oil pipeline spill in AR; Majority of Republicans believe global warming a 'hoax'; 'Tsunami of rain' in Argentina; China cheating on fish catches?; Golf in the Arctic? PLUS: 'Monsanto Protection Act' - Sneaky legislation exempts GMOs from the law... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link: Embed:

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Climate science denier calls for "alarmists" to face death penalty courts; Amazon tribe threatens to declare war amid row over Brazilian dam; NV Energy to decommission coal plants; Ogalalla Sioux: Resounding NO to Keystone XL Pipeline; Bill Gates, investors, back sodium battery startup; Canada may abandon expensive mine cleanup; Green pols get billionaire ally, money; climate researchers discover 1,800-year-old 'Rosetta stone' ice cores; PLUS: Obama on climate change: ‘The politics of this are tough’ ... and much, MUCH more!...

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• Poll: Majority of Republicans Believe Climate Change a 'Hoax' (The Hill's e2 Wire) [emphasis added]:
  58% of Republicans believe that global warming is a “hoax,” compared to 11% of Democrats, according to new polling that underscores political divides over climate change among U.S. residents.
  ...
  The scientific consensus is that the planet is warming and human activities are a key driver, but a very small minority of scientists holds other views.
• Monsanto Protection Act: Exempt From Judicial Review:
• VIDEO: You Stuck What Where Now? - The Monsanto Protection Act: The Monsanto Protection Act shows that the laws of the most powerful nation on Earth are written with the same level of accountability as Internet comments. (The Daily Show)
• Monsanto Provision Tucked in Spending Bill Draws Critics (Bloomberg):
  Why has Obama approved a law giving immunity to the production and sale of genetically modified food in the US?
• Chinese fishing fleet in African waters reports 9% of catch to UN (Guardian UK):
  Researchers say a new way to estimate the size and value of catches shows the extent of looting of Africa

  Just 9% of the millions of tonnes of fish caught by China's giant fishing fleet in African and other international waters is officially reported to the UN, say researchers using a new way to estimate the size and value of catches. Fisheries experts have long considered that the catches reported by China to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) are low but the scale of the possible deception shocked the authors.

• 'Tsunami of Rain' Kills 54 in Buenos Aires Flooding:
• Federal study: Global warming means stronger ‘extreme’ rains (The Hill's e2 Wire)
• 'Tsunami of Rain' Leaves At Least 54 Dead in Argentina (Latin American Herald Tribune):
  “It was a deluge without historical precedent. So, the people have been surprised in the worst way and some did not have time to be able to escape this fatal trap,” [Governor Daniel] Scioli said.

• Argentina floods 'catastrophe' for La Plata, Buenos Aires (BBC)
• UPDATE: Exxon Tar Sands Pipeline EXEMPT From Oil Spill Tax:
• Amazing Aerial Footage of Arkansas Tar Sands Oil Spill (via Comedian Lee Camp's Youtube Channel)





• VIDEO: Shocking aerial video shows magnitude of Arkansas oil spill, as cleanup continues and frustration at Exxon grows (Treehugger)
• Exxon’s Duck-Killing Pipeline Won’t Pay Taxes To Oil Spill Cleanup Fund (Climate Progress):
  A 1980 law ensures that diluted bitumen is not classified as oil, and companies transporting it in pipelines do not have to pay into the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. Other conventional crude producers pay 8 cents a barrel to ensure the fund has resources to help clean up some of the 54,000 barrels of pipeline oil that spilled 364 times last year.
• At Oil Spill Cleanup in Arkansas, Exxon Running the Show, Not Federal Agencies (InsideClimate News):
  Jay Carney, White House spokesperson, said the EPA is the federal on-scene coordinator, but the reality on the ground is a different story.
• Exxon's Unfriendly Skies: Why Does Exxon Control the No-Fly Zone Over Arkansas Tar Sands Spill? (DeSmogBlog)
• Exxon Replacing Oiled Arkansas Lawns, Ruptured Pipeline Still Shut (Reuters)
• Arkansas AG: Oil Spill Shows Need For Inspections: (AP)
• New spill reveals how horrible Keystone could be: Unsure what to think of Keystone pipeline? Check out this video of a shorter pipeline leaking oil all over a street
• Exxon oil spill cleanup ongoing in Arkansas, pipeline shut (Reuters) [emphasis added]:
  Exxon...was fined in 2010 for not inspecting another portion of the Pegasus line with sufficient frequency.
• Arkansas, Minnesota Tar Sands Oil Spills: Slipping on Keystone XL Pipeline Reality (The BRAD BLOG)
• Koch Brothers Positioned To Be Big Winners If Keystone XL Pipeline Is Approved (InsideClimate News)
• Keystone Komics: The incredible, illustrated history of the Keystone XL oil pipeline (Grist)
• Teeing Off at Edge of the Arctic? A Chinese Plan Baffles Iceland (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  Prodded by diplomats from the United States and other countries to take a hard look at Mr. Huang's intentions, Mr. Jonasson questioned what might lie behind China's curious interest in Grimsstadir. "One has to look at this from a geopolitical perspective and ask about motivations," Mr. Jonasson said.

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

• Obama on climate change: ‘The politics of this are tough’ (The Hill's e2 Wire):
  "The politics of this are tough. [T]he thing that I’m going to have to try to work to persuade the American people a little more convincingly on is this notion that there’s a contradiction between our economy and our environment — it's just a false choice,” Obama said at a San Francisco fundraiser.
• Obama Talks Up Climate Agenda at Keystone Foe’s Home (Bloomberg News)
• OP-ED: "Keystone XL: The Pipeline To Disaster" (Dr. James Hansen, Los Angeles Times)
• Hanford Nuclear Site: Treatment Plant for Waste in Nuclear Cleanup Has Design Flaws, Panel Says (NY Times)
• Climate Science Denier James Delingpole Calls For "Alarmists" To Face Court With Death Penalty Powers (DeSmogBlog):
  "The climate alarmist industry has some very tough questions to answer: preferably in the defendant's dock in a court of law, before a judge wearing a black cap." To those not au fait with the traditions of the English courts, black caps were only worn by judges when handing out death sentences.
• Brazil: Amazon tribe threatens to declare war amid row over Brazilian dam project: Munduruku leaders hit out at 'betrayal' after government pushes on with dam construction without community's consent (Guardian UK)
• NV Energy to decommission coal plants, shift to gas and renewables (Las Vegas Sun):
  “This does three things: it retires coal from Nevada, builds renewables, and it creates jobs,” said Tony Sanchez, NV Energy senior vice president.
• Oglala Sioux Tribe: Resounding NO to Keystone XL Pipeline - Cite Water Concerns (Native News Network)
• Bill Gates, investors, back sodium battery startup Aquion Energy (Giga Om):
  Bill Gates is continuing to fund next-generation battery startups. On Tuesday, battery startup Aquion Energy announced that it is working on raising another round of $35 million, with a first close on that round from Bill Gates, as well Bright Capital, Gentry Venture Partners, and existing investors Kleiner Perkins and Foundation Capital.
• Ottawa reconsiders toxic site priorities after Giant cleanup costs balloon (The Vancouver Sun):
  Cleanup costs at a single northern mine next to Great Slave Lake are ballooning so high they are forcing Ottawa to rethink plans for thousands of contaminated sites across the country.
• Greens get billionaire ally, money (The Hill's e2 Wire) [emphasis added]:
  Tom Steyer, who made his riches as a hedge fund manager, told The Hill on Tuesday that he wants to make climate change a campaign issue for years to come and Democratic support for environmental protections as widespread as support for gay marriage and immigration reform.
• OSU climate researchers discover 1,800-year-old 'Rosetta stone' ice cores (Columbus Dispatch)
• New Insight Into Photosynthesis (Science Daily) [emphasis added]:
  Pigments [carotenoids, the same pigments which give orange color to carrots] found in plants and purple bacteria employed to provide protection from sun damage do more than just that. Researchers from the University of Toronto and University of Glasgow have found that they also help to harvest light energy during photosynthesis.
• Why Abundant Oil Hasn't Cut Gasoline Prices (BusinessWeek)
• National Review heralds the ‘wonderland’ of tar sands with a photo of a blighted hellscape (Grist)
• Innovation: A Building Not Just Green, but Practically Self-Sustaining (NY Times)
• You Can Have More Fossil Fuel. Or You Can Have Water. Your Choice. (Climate Crocks):
• U.S. Energy Shift: Life After Oil and Gas (NY Times):
  [Increasingly, scientific research and the experience of other countries should prompt us to ask: To what extent will we really "need" fossil fuel in the years to come? To what extent is it a choice?
• NOAA: 'Robust, Unambiguous' Independent Evidence Confirms The Recent Global Warming Measured By Thermometers: Yes, The Modern Instruments Are Right. Just Ask The Coral. Or The Caves. Or The Ice Cores. Or The…. (Climate Progress)

New Research: World on Track for Climate Disaster:

• COVER STORY: It's Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  If all that doesn't impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century --- way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

Essential Climate Science Background:

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It's simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. ...It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don't want to hear it.
• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming--if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will 'lose for ever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  "The door is closing," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. "I am very worried - if we don't change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever."
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)

After watching Shadows of Liberty: The Media Monopoly in American Journalism over the weekend, I didn't expect I'd be surprised by much during my interview with the documentary's filmmaker Jean-Philippe Tremblay on The BradCast today on KPFK/Pacifica Radio. But I was.

It's a beautiful and maddening film, featuring many voices --- such as Julian Assange, John Nichols, Dan Rather, Amy Goodman, Robert Parry, Robert McChesney, Dan Ellsberg, Sibel Edmonds and many more, including even yours truly --- who will be familiar to readers of The BRAD BLOG. While aspects of a number of the stories told in the film may be familiar, there were elements that even I hadn't heard about it, in just about every one of them.

I had planned to ask Tremblay about his struggles finding commercial theatrical distribution for the film in the U.S. I'd presumed that, at least, would be next to impossible, given the subject matter of the film (the corporate takeover/merger of the near-entirety of our mainstream media in collusion with the highest levels of the U.S. government.) What I hadn't counted on --- what caught me completely off-guard --- was that Tremblay said that, while the film has been featured at prestigious film festivals around the world, the bulk of the major festivals in the U.S. had turned the film down. Yes, those supposedly "independent" film festivals are, apparently, not quite as independent as they used to be, it seems.

Our conversation, today, was the first, as I understand it, that Tremblay has been able to have in the U.S. media about this important film which has been several years in the making. (I was interviewed for the film about three years ago as I recall.)

The good news: We were able to talk about all of that today, unencumbered by any corporate filter and over our public airwaves on Pacifica Radio in L.A. (and over 110,000 blazing FM watts across much of Southern and Central California!)

The even better news: You can watch the film, in its entirety, streaming on the Internet as of tomorrow, Thursday, April 4 at Shadows.KCETlink.org. (You can watch a number of clips from the film there already.)

And, the even better news still: Shadows of Liberty will air on actual television, beginning Friday, April 5th at 8pm ET and PT on independent KCET in Los Angeles and nationwide on Link TV (DISH Channel 9410, DIRECTTV Channel 375).

Until then, you can listen to my conversation with Tremblay from today's BradCast, which includes a number of clips from the film --- along with a few more items of note in the news week (such as concerns about the 100% unverifiable voting systems set for use in the race of Stephen Colbert's sister, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, in her run for the U.S. House in S. Carolina against former Gov. Mark Sanford; the Virginia GOP voter registration worker who was caught tossing registration forms into a dumpster just before the Presidential Election last year, but who seems to now be getting off the hook, and, of course, a visit from our own Desi Doyen, as usual, with the latest Green News Report) --- all right now here.

Download MP3 or listen online below [appx 58 mins]...
[See post to listen to audio]

P.S. Please be the media and spread the word. Thanks.
P.P.S. If I haven't "sold" you enough on the film here and in the radio show above, see the official trailer embedded below. Those of you who know my voice will recognize it a few times...