“Michelle Chen” - Anti-Union Forces Try to Knock Out New York City’s Hard Hats

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/30

Published on Saturday, April 30, 2011 by In These Times

by Michelle Chen

On Thursday, construction workers held hard hats in thick hands in the glow of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. In honor of International Workers' Memorial Day, they solemnly honored the sacrifices of fellow workers who had been injured or killed on the job. The scene embodied the heavy legacy of the city’s building trades: the labor that sculpted gotham's majesty, muscular but embattled, angled precariously against the city's powers that be.

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Vandana Shiva: Understanding the Corporate Takeover

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2011/04/30

Published on Saturday, April 30, 2011 by GRITtv

"The American people should see that corporations have abandoned them long ago," says scientist, environmentalist, and food justice activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, named one of the seven most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine.  "The people will have to rebuild democracy as a living democracy."

Dr. Shiva has been fighting corporate takeover in every area in her native India, combating a nuclear plant one week and patented, genetically modified seeds another. She joins Laura in studio to advise American activists how they can fight the merging of corporations and government here at home and around the world.

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2011/04/30

Listen to Gary Null’s great interview with Vandana right here:

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-gary-null-show-wnye/2011/4/22/the-gary-null-show-042211.html



“Christopher Mims” - Awesome video shows us what the messaging on climate and clean energy must become

http://www.grist.org/list#item-2011-04-29-awesome-video-shows-us-what-the-messaging-on-climate-and-clean-e

By Christopher Mims

29 Apr 2011

Holy hickory-smoked pole beans, did you just see that? That's what happens when the messaging on climate shifts from scare tactics -- which studies show only work on about 10 percent of the population -- to a totally honest, positive but not Pollyanna-ish attempt to get people excited about real change.

Carbon Nation is the logical next step after An Inconvenient Truth: We know there's a problem; now, how do we get everyone to do something about it? 

Carbon Nation also, not incidentally, sidesteps the issue of whether or not you believe in climate change. I don't think it's ever a good idea to stop talking about the insane, dinosaur-extinction level of change that is coming at us like a freight train on account of all the greenhouse gases we already pumped into the atmosphere, but the fact remains: From a near-term perspective, climate change is the least good reason to get off of fossil fuels.

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“Christopher Mims” - Is the future of solar centralized or distributed?

http://www.grist.org/list#item-2011-04-29-is-the-future-of-solar-centralized-or-distributed

By Christopher Mims

29 Apr 2011

Solar power produces only a tiny fraction of America's energy, but that hasn't stopped greens -- who are always up for expending at least as much energy fighting each other as fighting fossil fuels -- from commencing a debate that we'll probably be having for decades, if not centuries to come: Is it better to build gigantic, centralized solar power plants that function like the fossil fuel-powered plants they're designed to replace, or should we do something more radical and create a distributed power generation system, in which solar photovoltaic panels are sited as close as possible to the users of the electricity they produce?

The arguments in favor of distributed solar are myriad -- putting solar panels on your roof or in your neighborhood doesn't require a gigantic new transmission infrastructure, like building a plant in the middle of the desert would, and there are no losses due to transporting that electricity to remote markets, which can be significant.

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‘Pollwatcher” – A story of a mini ecological disaster

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/30/970521/-A-story-of-a-mini-ecological-disaster

Sat Apr 30, 2011 at 07:52 AM PDT

by pollwatcher

When we think of global warming, we think of sea levels rising and ice caps melting and maybe more and bigger hurricanes.  Big events that will probably happen decades in the future.  But maybe the effects of global warming can manifest themselves on many, many micro scales with even more disastrous results, and maybe it's happening right now.

Here in the west, the pine trees are being devastated by a pine bark beetle because the winters just don't get cold enough anymore to kill them.  In Alaska and northern latitudes the permafrost is melting and disrupting the lives of indigenous people who depend on frozen ground.  Spring is coming early in many parts of the country and fall is coming later.

Of course it's almost impossible to attribute any single weather event, or even an entire years weather events to global warming.  But since this isn't an article to be published in a scientific journal, and this is a Democratic blog site, I'm going to do it anyway.

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Latest Wikileaks Release Shows How US Completely Drove Canadian Copyright Reform Efforts

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110428/15020614073/latest-wikileaks-release-shows-how-us-completely-drove-canadian-copyright-reform-efforts.shtml

from the surprise,-surprise dept

With Wikileaks State Department cables showing how much the US influenced copyright policy in Sweden and in Spain, it shouldn't really be much of a surprise that the US unduly influenced copyright policy elsewhere as well. The latest Wikileaks report confirms what pretty much everyone knew already: copyright reform in Canada was driven mainly by US interests. Michael Geist points out some of the highlights, including the US Government demanding anti-circumvention provisions (things that the creators of those provisions in the US have even admitted were a failure). Yet, the US demands this, while maintaining that it would prefer there be few, if any, exceptions on circumvention:

If there are any exceptions to TPM or rights management information (RMI) liability, the exceptions should be clearly enumerated and narrow in scope

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“Kase Wickman” - Breitbart on Maher: Dems are ‘Dirty Sanchezes’

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/04/breitbart-on-maher-dems-are-dirty-sanchezes/

04.30.11

By Kase Wickman

Risque filmmaker John Waters and controversial conservative Andrew Breitbart went head-to-head on Friday night’s Real Time with Bill Maher. Waters and Maher discussed the meaning of the word “teabagger,” and mocked CBS for censoring Maher when he said it on-air, then Breitbart came back with a zing of his own.

“I don’t mind being called a teabagger, but Democrats have acted like Dirty Sanchezes over the last few years,” Breitbart said.

“Are you a teabag top or bottom?” Waters retorted.

Watch the full clip below, which aired on April 29, 2011 on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/04/breitbart-on-maher-dems-are-dirty-sanchezes/



“David Ferguson” - Gallup: Tea party negative ratings at record high

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/29/gallup-tea-party-negative-ratings-at-record-high/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=7589a2fac3-4_29_114_29_2011&utm_medium=email

By David Ferguson
Friday, April 29th, 2011

Gallup polling released new survey results on Friday, showing that negative opinions of the so-called tea party movement have risen sharply in the US. Independent voters have turned away from the conservative group.

The poll shows that only a core constituency of Republicans and conservatives now view the fledgling political movement positively.

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“Reuters” - House Budget Chair Ryan backs cutting oil subsidies

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/29/paul-ryan-backs-cuts-to-oil-company-subsidies/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=7589a2fac3-4_29_114_29_2011&utm_medium=email

REUTERS
Reuters US Online Report Top News

Apr 29, 2011 07:17 EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said on Thursday he supports cutting tax breaks for the oil industry as lawmakers search for ways to battle rising gasoline prices.

In response to a question at a town hall meeting in Waterford, Wisconsin, the Republican congressman said he agreed that oil company subsidies should end.

"We're talking about reforming the safety net, the welfare system, we also want to get rid of corporate welfare," Ryan said to applause.

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"Reuters - Shocker: GOP Rep. Paul Ryan says he also wants to cut ‘corporate welfare’

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/29/paul-ryan-backs-cuts-to-oil-company-subsidies/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=7589a2fac3-4_29_114_29_2011&utm_medium=email

By Reuters
Friday, April 29th, 2011

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said on Thursday he supports cutting tax breaks for the oil industry as lawmakers search for ways to battle rising gasoline prices.

In response to a question at a town hall meeting in Waterford, Wisconsin, the Republican congressman said he agreed that oil company subsidies should end.

"We're talking about reforming the safety net, the welfare system, we also want to get rid of corporate welfare," Ryan said to applause.

A video of the question and answer was posted online in a blog run by the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress Action Fund.

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