Mr. McKibben goes to Washington

The Middlebury College professor  and activist went with three students from Unity College, which is located out in the "sticks" near my hometown in Maine. The little school, housed on a former commercial chicken farm, is known for its natural resource focus, as opposed to the business and liberal arts colleges that populate the area. Idealism is hard to juxtapose on the reality of dealing with the human animal. The mission was symbolic: to have the Obama administration reinstall a solar panel that once graced the roof of The White House under the Carter administration. Reagan remo ved them upon taking office, another symbolic gesture. Here we are, faced with pending peril at the hands of our own ineptitude to deal with scientific reality. And now fear of Fox News. But remember, Mr. President. There's a wind generator at the Bush Manse on Walker's Point in Maine. Of course that's a facade, but they know how to play the game. Our side clearly does not. 

"We've run out of spare decades to deal with climate change — the summer's events in the Arctic, in Russia, in Pakistan proved that with great clarity. We know what we need to do, and we must do it. Enthusiastically."

A Governor Scorned

As Josh Marshall reports, not the sort of temperment desired in a quasi-chief executive.

So let's put this all together. We rely on elected officials not to use the power of their office to pursue personal agendas or vendettas. It's called an abuse of power. There is ample evidence that Palin used her power as governor to get her ex-brother-in-law fired. When his boss refused to fire him, she fired his boss. She first denied Monegan's claims of pressure to fire Wooten and then had to amend her story when evidence proved otherwise. The available evidence now suggests that she 1) tried to have an ex-relative fired from his job for personal reasons, something that was clearly inappropriate, and perhaps illegal, though possibly understandable in human terms, 2) fired a state official for not himself acting inappropriately by firing the relative, 3) lied to the public about what happened and 4) continues to lie about what happened.

These are, to put it mildly, not the traits or temperament you want in someone who could hold the executive power of the federal government.

Polar Bears Gain Threatened Listing

As much as it pained Secretary Kempthorne to say it, he did. Sure there were some pathetic caveats, but the basis is there legally, now. I applaud it.

Sea Ice decline

The Bush Comissars

The Regulation politzi. Yeah this is a step up: Welcome aboard Comissar Lysenkoist. "There will be no stinkin rules without 'market failure,'" minister for internal budget concerns Rosa Cleb said. "Let them eat soot."