Monthly Archives: November 2014

EPA Proposes Tougher Smog Standards to Further Safeguard Americans from Air Pollution

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Based on extensive recent scientific evidence about the harmful effects of ground-level ozone, also known as smog, the Obama administration is proposing to strengthen air quality standards to better protect Americans’ health and the environment. The Clean Air Act requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review the standards every five years…

The Shaft Revisited in Ferguson Missouri

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Eschew Obfuscation – By Michael Douglass – It was all over before the shouting when county prosecutor Robert McCulloch opted to actually try the case before a secret grand jury as opposed to simply and traditionally allowing the matter to be tried in a public court of law. The fix was in from the start.…

Documentary Released on Mobile Living

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By Bob Wells – Back in the summer of 2012 I was contacted by Michael Tubbs, a Professor at the University of Texas, about the possibility of being in a new documentary he was going to make about mobile living. He had started to do research on the topic and had come across my Website.…

From New Mexico’s Festival of the Cranes to Flagstaff

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By Bob Wells – I’ve just arrived back in Eherenberg, Arizona from my trip to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico. It was an amazingly wonderful trip that I liked so much I’m already planning to go again next year. I took four classes and they were all truly outstanding; I…

The Curse of the Vice Presidency: Is Joe Biden is Different?

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By Nicholas Sheppard – John Adams once described the vice-presidency as “The most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived.” In the 1930s, John Garner went one further, famously describing the office as being “not worth a bucket of warm piss”. Things have hardly gotten better since Garner’s time. Richard Nixon’s painfully wrought…

The Problem With Washington, D.C.

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – The world is populated by many very good people. Then there are the assholes, who simply do not get it. When I set out on this adventure back in September to live with a very low carbon footprint in a camper van in the…

Some Facts About Bob Riley’s Alabama Opportunity Scholarship Fund

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Education Matters – By Larry Lee – You have to tip your hat to former Alabama Governor Bob Riley’s Alabama Opportunity Scholarship Fund and the great job they do with public relations. Hardly a day goes by without someone trying to convince us the best way to help kids in struggling schools is to take…

Tar Sands End Runs

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Coming Clean – By Michael Brune – In a narrow victory for common sense, yesterday the Senate rejected an attempt to legislate approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Senators like California’s Barbara Boxer, Hawaii’s Brian Schatz, and Virginia’s Tim Kaine stood up as environmental champions and deserve our thanks for their leadership. But…

Today Feels Like ‘The Day After Tomorrow’

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Could a Massive Climate Shift Really Happen? – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – LURAY, Va. — It’s been so cold the past couple of days that I’ve felt like a character in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” I woke up just before dawn this morning and the iPhone weather said it…

Shenandoah’s Lewis Mountain Campground Welcomed African Americans

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Watch the Video – By Glynn Wilson – LEWIS MOUNTAIN, Va. – When the National Park Service was established in 1935 and the U.S. Department of the Interior along with President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps began building roads, retaining walls, campgrounds and trails to get ready for visitors, there was an interest on the…

And Now the Richest .01 Percent

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By Robert Reich – The richest Americans hold more of the nation’s wealth than they have in almost a century. What do they spend it on? As you might expect, personal jets, giant yachts, works of art, and luxury penthouses. And also on politics. In fact, their political spending has been growing faster than their…

Climate Change Comes to Shenandoah

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Watch the Video – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — The Shenandoah salamander is no endangered polar bear, cuddly panda cub or playful dolphin the American public may warm up to in the cause of fighting global warming from the burning of fossil fuels. Yet it is the latest poster child from…

Politics in the Age of Social Media

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By Nicholas Sheppard – It’s a growing trend in the age of social media — quirky and awkward moments involving politicians and public figures that go viral, piercing the monotony of carefully scripted public appearances and exposing the best efforts of spin doctors and image-conscious, risk-averse politicians. We get a strange, silly buzz from quirky…

Why I love The Southwest: Sunrise, Sunset and Rainbows

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If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive. — Eleonora Duse By Bob Wells – Sometimes I get to…

Three Strikes for the Democrats

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Eschew Obfuscation – By Michael Douglass – So, we smoked a turd in hell with Satan himself while midterm fires raged all around us. We opted for that as opposed to showing up at the polls. A Michele Bachmann bathroom stall door closed, a Joni Ernst toilet overflowed and fecal chocolate logs made their way…

Racing to the Top with China

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Coming Clean – By Michael Brune – What a difference a week makes. This morning we awoke to the news that President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry have negotiated a historic joint announcement on climate change and clean energy cooperation. Coming from the world’s two largest economies and two biggest carbon emitters, the new…