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By Ricardo Cortes $17.95
By MacDonald Harris and Philip Pullman $14.95
$18
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By Joe Conason — Obama can be expected to behave as Bush ought to have acted in a time of national crisis. That means drawing on goodwill wherever he can find it, drawing on talent regardless of party and drawing on the powerful desire of most Americans to live again in one nation.
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 myspace.com
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Calls have been going out in Virginia and Pennsylvania, telling people to vote tomorrow, on Nov. 5, according to Jonah Goldman, director of Election Protection at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. Goldman says he doesn’t know who’s responsible, but similar misleading messages are being distributed via e-mail, FaceBook and fliers, often targeting young and minority voters.
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By Marie Cocco — The line for early voting wound up one side of a corridor in the Loudoun County voter registration office and down the other. Those in line were, collectively, the face of change in Virginia that could tip the state into the Democratic column for the first time since the LBJ landslide of 1964.
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 commons.wikimedia.org
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Cuba may have just hit the oil jackpot, with a revised estimate of its reserves doubling. That means the small island nation has about as much oil as the United States. American conservatives may soon have to choose between their love of oil and the half-century-old embargo that would keep Cuba’s petroleum away. How do you say “drill, baby, drill” en Español?
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 pnt.gov
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Three reports from the Department of Interior’s inspector general found wide-ranging ethics violations between the department’s Minerals Management Service and the energy companies from which it is charged with collecting royalties. Allegations of financial improprieties, illegal gifts, and even the occasional sex- and drug-crazed indiscretion created what the author of the reports called “a culture of ethical failure” within the agency. Ouch.
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By William Pfaff — NATO has now been broken because it was used by the United States and the European NATO members as a tool for expanding Western power into the Russian “near abroad,” and after that, to make an inexplicably rash and dangerous effort to break into and split off portions of the Russian empire as it existed in the 19th century—long before the Soviet Union existed.
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 wikimedia.org
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China’s unceasing economic growth has always worried environmentalists, and a new report by the Center for Global Development may put those concerns on a new level. After increasing power-plant emissions by a third this year, China’s coal-based power sector is poised to be the most polluting in the world ... even worse than that of the United States.
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 flickr.com/terrapin_flyer
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Although this might strike the kids involved as a good deal, it’s a definite sign of the times for the adults: A rural Minnesota school district has decided to strike Mondays from the calendar this fall in order to save money, making classes slightly longer on other days to make up the lost time.
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By Joe Conason — Touring America’s oil rigs and nuclear plants, John McCain sometimes sounds as if he’ll produce enough wind to power the nation all by himself.
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John McCain has found a theme he likes and he’s sticking with it: Barack Obama is popular and that’s bad. Much worse, apparently, than the Reagan-era economic philosophy the presumed Republican nominee is peddling.
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 guardian.co.uk
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A national strike left South Africa’s streets largely deserted Wednesday as 2 million people refused to work in protest of soaring food and fuel prices. The action, led by a coalition of trade unions, was symbolic and precautionary, suggesting additional strikes if the government and business remained inept at managing the national economy.
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 Flickr / ccgd
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According to the Politico, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has given her blessing to vulnerable Democrats to rebel against the party’s position on offshore drilling. The strategy goes something like this: Pelosi plays the liberal from San Francisco while representatives of more conservative districts berate her. With a majority intact, the Democrats push through a comprehensive energy policy sometime in 2009.
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In her video response to John McCain’s “celeb” commercial, the heiress unveils her own energy policy and threatens to paint the White House pink. Thanks again, Sen. McCain, for making this campaign about the issues. Or not.
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Both Barack Obama and John McCain have recently changed their positions when it comes to dealing with the burgeoning energy crisis and America’s all-too-apparent dependence on foreign oil, but that doesn’t mean each presumptive nominee isn’t going to keep pointing out the other’s potential inconsistencies and flaws, as Obama’s new ad here demonstrates.
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 twitter.com
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House Republicans are camping out in the Capitol, trying to pressure an up-or-down vote on offshore drilling. The lights and the C-SPAN cameras are off, but a number of lawmakers have turned to new media sites such as YouTube and even Twitter to microblog their dissent.
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By Joe Conason — John McCain’s newfound enthusiasm for oil drilling probably has more to do with campaign donations than any public benefit—that’s because there isn’t any.
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The former vice president had some choice words for big oil on Saturday, when he stopped by the Netroots Nation conference in the liberal heart of Texas to elaborate on his energy ideas and connect the dots between America’s economic and foreign policy quandaries.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — On the issue of gasoline prices, Republicans think they have a winner in their call for new drilling and Democrats are playing defense. Democrats need—this is a technical term—a lot more oomph. Al Gore wants to help them.
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 Flickr / World Resources Institute Staff, File
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The former vice president has given America 10 years to completely shuck carbon energy or face dire national security consequences. In remarks to an energy conference in the nation’s capital, Gore compared his challenge to John Kennedy’s 1961 moongazing.
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By Amy Goodman — While the presidential candidates trade barbs and accuse each other of flip-flopping, they agree with President Bush on their enthusiastic support for nuclear power.
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 AP photo / Lisa Poole
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The once-mighty U.S. dollar is full of hot air, or at least the rate of inflation is at a 26-year high due to the recent economic toils and astronomical energy prices. Prices U.S. consumers pay shot up 1.1 percent in June—or more directly, your paycheck just got 1.1 percent smaller.
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Sen. Barack Obama was careful to praise U.S. troops in Iraq during Tuesday’s speech outlining his foreign policy strategies, while declaring that Iraq has been a costly distraction for America. “This war distracts us from every threat that we face and so many opportunities we could seize,” he said, before laying out his five goals “essential to making America safer.”
Posted on Jul 16, 2008
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By Marie Cocco — There’s nothing like the Saudi version of straight talk to put in perspective the tongue-twisting of American politicians.
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 U.S. Air Force / Airman 1st Class Nadine Y. Barclay
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The Guardian reports that New Mexico, with its thousands of square miles of sun-soaked, wind-swept land, is vying to become the epicenter of the new green economy. Given the right tax breaks and technological breakthroughs, the Land of Enchantment could become the Saudi Arabia of sun.
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 engadget.com
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Fuel economy has done wonders for Toyota’s bottom line, so the hybrid pioneer has decided to add a plug-in to its lineup by 2010 and will have a hybrid version of every vehicle it makes sometime in the 2020s. Why so long? Because new batteries have to be developed in order to make the plan work.
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 Flickr / XcBiker
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Forty-one Senate Republicans stayed in lock step with the oil industry Tuesday as record gas prices have big oil rolling in profits at consumers’ expense. Even as they face another tough election, Republicans in Congress refused to allow a tax on oil companies’ “unreasonable” revenue.
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By Marie Cocco — In 225 days, at least one high-ranking politician will become unemployed. How many will join President Bush in retirement?
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 Flickr / LHOON
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Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton agree on many issues, but it’s a bit surprising to see two candidates who’ve talked so much about the climate crisis and a new green economy tout their love of coal. Obama has an ad up in Kentucky that claims “Barack understands” the plight of the coal industry, while Clinton has promised voters in the state she would put more money into coal programs.
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 Flickr / azrainman
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Exxon Mobil made $10.9 billion last quarter, but investors were disappointed that the world’s biggest oil company had only its second-biggest quarter ever. With a product that is harder and harder to find, shareholders who demand even bigger windfalls and consumers who are about ready to revolt, you almost have to feel sorry for the oil companies. No, you really don’t.
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 boston.com
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President Bush announced that rebate checks will start winging their way to taxpayers as early as Monday, helpfully observing that Americans need a little help paying for necessities like groceries and gas during this economic “slowdown”—a slightly different story from his initial justification for this economic stimulus plan, and one that wasn’t lost on his critics.
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 The Sydney Morning Herald
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Iranian President and up-and-coming schoolyard brawler Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared in a televised address Wednesday his country’s willingness to “bloody the enemy’s nose” in order to defend its national sovereignty. At issue is Iran’s controversial nuclear program, which Ahmadinejad has declared is negotiable only with U.N. nuclear officials, not the politicized Security Council.
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By Marie Cocco — The latest plot twists are stunners, even as they unfold against the scandalous backdrop of the Bush administration’s sorry regulatory record.
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Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection has launched a $300-million ad campaign in hopes of getting every last SUV-driving, thermostat-cranking Bush voter to see the fluorescent light. Warm monger William H. Macy narrates the first of what will surely be many ads.
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Actor Jeremy Piven wants you to turn your lights off. Especially you, Atlanta. It’s part of a global campaign to raise awareness about climate change.
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By Marie Cocco — Of all the reasons to be hopping mad, helplessly shaking your head or hoping beyond reasonable hope that somehow the Bush presidency will get better before it ends, blaming the president for failure to know the price of gas at the pump isn’t one of them.
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By Marie Cocco — With the economy teetering on recession, there’s a way out of the usual political impasse, if the politicians want to find it.
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 philadelphiaweekly.com
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During his midnight Christmas mass at the Vatican on Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI paid special attention to what he called the “ill-treated world” and our “selfish and reckless exploitation” of energy. He’s not just all talk: it turns out the Vatican bought carbon credits this holiday season to offset emissions. It’s just a little present to the world from the biggest little city in Italy.
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By Amy Goodman — While Al Gore and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were once again warning the world about the devastating effects of global warming, Senate Republicans and the United States government were working at home and abroad to bring us closer to catastrophe.
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By Marie Cocco — After a generation of self-indulgence, America is very close to taking a big step away from foreign oil and all of the environmental and security problems we’ve come to associate with that phrase. Now, if we can just keep the energy industry at bay… .
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By Amy Goodman — Fires rage through Southern California. Massive rainstorms drench New Orleans. The Southeast is in the midst of what could be the worst drought on record there. Atlanta could run out of water. What links these crises? Global warming.
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By Eugene Robinson — Because the problem is likely to stretch on for decades, even centuries, even if humankind acts immediately, we had better get used to the idea of adapting.
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Russian officials say they have proof to back up Moscow’s claim to the north pole—and nearly half a million square miles of neutral Arctic territory—but don’t expect Denmark, Canada and the U.S. to go down without a fight. It’s all part of a nakedly opportunistic attempt to cash in on energy resources made available by global warming and melting ice caps.
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A flurry of legislative activity over the weekend left a mixed bag of progress and surrender. While the House voted to require clean-energy standards for the first time and cut oil industry tax breaks, enough Democrats caved to the White House to pass the president’s preferred FISA rule changes.
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 Truthdig / Zuade Kaufman
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By Kasia Anderson — Those readers who have followed the saga of Gore Vidal’s bid to harness the sun may be heartened to hear that the esteemed author has emerged victorious in his green-minded mission: Vidal’s solar system is back in working order. Here, he offers a wry retort to counter his detractors, along with a spirited response to a recent New York Times report about solar power that left him quite cold, it would seem.
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 news.bbc.co.uk
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Russia is launching an underwater expedition to the North Pole in order to back up its claim to a massive section of the Arctic, which may contain vast energy reserves. “The Arctic is ours and we should demonstrate our presence,” said a Russian parliamentarian and explorer who will participate in the flag-planting expedition.
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President Bush is preparing for next week’s G8 summit in Germany by stressing the importance of long-range environmental action goals for the U.S. and several other nations, including China, to adopt by the end of next year.
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 news.bbc.co.uk
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Evidence of Iran’s influence over the global economy appeared Wednesday as the oil-rich nation agreed to release 15 British captives and petroleum prices consequently fell. If a relatively minor diplomatic dispute can perturb investors, imagine how invading or bombing Iran would affect global markets.
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 pbs.org
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Although California has a reputation for smog-choked freeways and self-indulgent excess, the Golden State consumes less energy per capita than any other state in the union. What’s the secret? A combination of tough regulation and high prices.
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 AP Photo / Denis Poroy
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By Joshua Scheer — Annie Nelson, wife of Willie Nelson and co-chairperson of the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance, speaks to Truthdig about stomaching the State of the Union and the myth that alternative fuels are years away.
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