April 2011 archive

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence

I’ve written several times about the direct potential of the Steel Interstate project to cut our oil imports by 10% by getting long haul freight trucking off the road. It would at the same time relieve the crushing burden imposed by long haul trucking on our over-worked, under-maintained Interstate, National and State highways, help get renewable energy resources from places that they are to places people need electricity, and of course support long distance Rapid Passenger Rail offering dramatically improved reliability and transit speed, supporting operating surpluses with multiple services per day.

I don’t recollect that I have written very much about the benefit that the Steel Interstates offer to passenger rail elsewhere. So that’s what I aim to do. Today I will look at one rail transport ideas I have talked about previously ~ Northeast Ohio Regional Rail ~ and what help it would receive from the Steel Interstates. Then sometime in the next week or two, I will look at the Columbus / WV / Atlantic Coast “RidgeRunner”, and the benefit it would receive from the Steel Interstates.

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I hope everyone has enjoyed the Holiday week. Next Sunday is May 1 and Beltane, one of the eight Wiccan Sabbats, marking the midpoint in the Sun’s progress between the Spring equinox and Summer solstice and the last of the three spring fertility festivals, the others being Imbolc and Ostara. Come light the fires with me and celebrate.

The Stars Hollow Gazette

This is an Open Thread

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/na…

Radiation leaks from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant will force people in Iitatemura to abandon satoyama–natural woodlands near human communities. Residents of Nagadoro district in southern Iitatemura have been devoted to preserving the picturesque satoyama woodlands. A gentle stream burbles through the landscape, where residents grow vegetables.

Hatsuo Sugishita, 61, who left his company to operate a stone processing and sales business in the town after he inherited a plot of land there, has cherished the satoyama with his wife, Takiko.

“We haven’t decided anything–where we’ll go or how to earn a living. If nobody lives in the satoyama, this place will soon be ruined. Even if we can come back, the satoyama can’t be returned to its original state,” Sugishita said. “I want people in the Kanto region who received the benefits of the nuclear power plant to understand our feelings.”

By Eóin Gilligan:

The recent election results and the demonstrations and public sector strikes of 2010 showed the willingness to struggle, only a leadership dedicated to taking over the major parts of industry and the banks under workers’ control can truly make the causes of Ireland and labour one. The events of 1916 marked a major development in the struggle for a socialist, united Ireland. We must finish what Connolly and the working people of Dublin began!

Good reading.  There’s more about 1916 on Socialist Appeal’s front page.

I’ll add one point.  Notice that the reaction of Labour (the party) is much the same as the reaction of the Dems in the US.  They run and sound as if they support a Left platform, and then scurry to the right as soon as the votes are counted.  The disillusionment with the Dems right now is because they, as a national party, have done this since 2008.  Should they be successful in 2012, it is likely that they will do so again.

On this Easter Sunday, I reflect that among the followers of Jesus were sex workers.  In the Gospel of Matthew, an particularly telling exchange takes place between Chief Priests and Elders who have questioned Jesus’ very authority.  In response, he tells a parable, which concludes, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.”  Though much has changed between now and then, this statement still has the power to shock and offend.    

 Majestic views, ancient culture, money fight

Spectacular Skywalk is center of a legal battle between developer and tribe

By MARC LACEY

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. – Think of a Caribbean glass-bottomed boat hung out over the edge of the Grand Canyon and you have the idea behind the Skywalk, a modern, vertigo-inducing moneymaker that is drawing hundreds of thousands of people annually onto the Hualapai Indians’ reservation to stare down beneath their feet at the distant canyon floor.

That the views are spectacular, no one would dispute. But a fierce legal battle has erupted over whether these are million-dollar views or whether they are considerably more valuable than that.

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

They say liquor is quicker.

Wisconsin Recall Fight Heats Up As Democrats Complain Of ‘Shots For Signatures’ Deals (AUDIO)

by Amanda Terkel

WASHINGTON — In an effort to gather enough signatures to trigger recall elections of state senators in Wisconsin, some backers are turning to peculiar, unconventional and, it appears, even intoxicating means.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party is planning to file a complaint to the state Government Accountability Board alleging that a Republican signature-gatherer offered alcoholic beverages to a group of women to get them to sign a recall petition against a Democratic state senator.

Although that’s not illegal in Wisconsin, it is strongly discouraged and, Democrats argue, evidence that Republicans don’t really have enough grassroots support for their recall campaigns.

Wisconsin Democrats Laugh Off “Republican Recall Racket”

by David Weigel

Today, a bit less than a week before the deadline, recall petitions are being filed against three Wisconsin Democratic senators. State Democratic party spokesman Graeme Zielinski has given me the party’s response to the petitions, which can be summed up as “ha, ha.”

Without any real enthusiasm on the part of the citizens of the districts to support the anti-Wisconsin Walker agenda, the Republican recall racket was forced to rely on road agents from a Colorado firm and elsewhere, mercenaries from out-of-state who came in and were paid money per recall signature. The only real press that this practice got was the reporting on a Colorado canvasser with a dangerous felony record who was was preying on visitors to Lambeau Field and taking stolen items to a motel room paid for by Republicans. But that dangerous Colorado felon employed by the Republican Party was just the tip of the iceberg.  At the heart of the Republican effort from the start was a mercenary spirit that naturally used deception and fraud to gain signatures.

snip

The Republican recall racket used unethical practices to gain signatures. In Burlington, for instance, a Republican canvasser offered patrons of a tavern shots of liquor in exchange for recall signatures against Sen. Bob Wirch. And in Green Bay, Republicans left recall signatures unattended with a sign that said, “Out to lunch,” an unethical and forbidden practice.