crabbtown

Hilary and Obama- Why no energy talk?

2008-02-15T18:09:48Z

I've been really perplexed by the lack of energy dialog during the Democratic presidential debates. something has seemed fishy about the absense of any kind of "green" talk, especially with the placement of that annoying and oh-so-untrue "Clean Coal-America's Power" slogan all over the commercial spots for the debates.
Ben Jervey wrote this really revealing article over at ItsYourNature.Org.
There's a call to action at the end with an attached letter that you should forward questioning the lack of environmental debate during these "coal-sponsored" talks.

Americans for Balanced Energy Debates

by BenJervey

Last Monday, the Democratic presidential candidates debated on CNN. And once again, there were exactly zero questions asked about global warming. The perplexing absence of discussion about an issue that countless scientists, economists, and politicians hold up as the fundamental challenge of our times is fast becoming familiar. (Earlier debates in Nevada and Florida similarly didn't touch the subject.) It seems a bit dubious, then, that all three of these CNN-hosted events have been sponsored by the coal industry lobby group Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC).

Now the League of Conservation Voters has been calling attention to Big Media's blind eye towards global warming for awhile now through their "What Are They Waiting For?" campaign. And, indeed, on MSNBC last Thursday, Tim Russert finally brought clean energy and global warming into the primary conversation. Still, CNN hasn't touched the issue, and the exclusive sponsorship of the debates by the industry that stands to lose the most by strong global warming legislation is certainly raising eyebrows.

The placement of ABEC's "Clean Coal-America's Power" slogan across print and tv spots for the debates are revealing, but not isolated. The debate sponsorship is but a small part of a $35 million PR campaign (referred to by plenty as a "disinformation campaign") targeting early primary and caucus states, aimed at rallying public support for coal power and to halt the progress of global warming legislation now making its way through Congress. In Iowa, Nevada, and South Carolina alone, ABEC has spent $1.3 Million on billboards, print ads, and tv and radio spots, and has even hired folks to pass leaflets and carry signs outside of debate sites. Head to the CNN Debates website and you can't miss the big flash ad for "Clean Coal."

Tonight and tomorrow, there are two more CNN debates, and again, both are being brought to you by ABEC. Considering his preference for asking the tough questions about UFOs and Halloween costumes, what are the chances Wolf Blitzer will call upon the candidates to discuss global warming and clean energy in these debates sponsored by coal? You can drop him a line here and let him know you're one of the 87% of Americans who want cleaner energy and that you'd love to hear how the next president would deliver it. Here's what I sent (feel free to c&p it as your own!):

john.he.is

2008-02-15T15:09:54Z

i'm usually not into negative ad campaigns or commercial spots that paint the opposing candidate in a bad light. i'd much rather hear and see a candidate rationally, intelligently prove that he or she is the way to go without ever resorting to "hey, at least i'm better than that guy." (hilary and obama continually fail to prove themselves to me in that singularly bold way i need them to to make up my mind, although i'm feeling more and more sold on obama.)
now i probably i wouldn't vote for anyone on the republican ticket in a million years. that being said, when your party's best hope is john mccain, you know there's trouble. so i just wanted to take several moments to run my own brief and very low budget smear campaign against the man.

first of all and most unforgivably: The former prisoner-of-war is actually going to vote AGAINST the bill to ban torture (waterboarding, putting hoods on prisoners, forcing them to perform sex acts, subjecting them to mock executions, depriving them of food, water, and medical treatment.)
Look, I never particularly liked the man, but the fact that someone could go through the experiences he did during wartime and NOT support this bill is just sad. Especially in light of mccain getting more support from Bush and the republican party urging him to embrace some more "right-wing" ideals. It shows a real lack of character and posits him as an almost vengeful type of person in regard to his views about battle and enemy confrontation.
So now he's immoral AND a sellout.
(BTW, he got a deal with lions gate pictures and word on the street is that he's the new "jigsaw" character in "saw 5.")

Secondly, his attitudes about war are so... well, hopeless. I know that Obama's utopian speeches can sometimes come off a little sacharin and over-simplified, but mccain seems to have a near-bloodlust when speaking of battle. Some of his arrogant, nihilistic speeches have been chopped up and made into a music video that i find really amusing.
so grant me this moment to run my own little smear campaign featuring a bunch of celebrities that will undoubtedly get called out by right-wing douchebags claiming "it glamorizes an important issue that belongs in D.C., not hollywood." (AKA- "please stop trying to get young people to vote or we're fucked.")
enjoy.

Roses are Red, Valentines are GREEN

2008-02-14T00:28:16Z

Send a little eco-love to your valentine!

Share some love with the earth by checking out these great green
postcards to send to all your loved ones!

You can also check them out and send them to your loved ones here.

X-Games

2008-02-13T15:38:01Z

This month, ItYourNature went to Aspen to cover the X-Games. They've got quite a system set up as far as their recycling, composting, and sustainability goes. The event leaves behind almost no carbon footprint.
In this video, 3-time X Games gold medalist Gretchen Bleiler shares her tips for stopping global warming and protecting the sport she loves.
X Games Gretchen Bleiler and Global Warming

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Here's an excerpt from the article located at ItsYourNature:

"The Ski Industry has been hurting for some time now because of Global Warming. In Aspen/Snowmass alone, winter has started 18 days later and ended 10 days earlier over the last 50 years. In addition to less snow and fewer ski days, other changes include canceled races/events and fewer jobs for resort employees, which means higher unemployment and less tax revenue for important services such as health care and education. Now Aspen/Snowmass is one of the lucky mountain resorts with their base elevation at almost 8000 feet, but they are not immune to the effects of GW. Ski-resorts in low-lying mountains are putting more and more money into their snow-making programs, some as much as 20% of their overall budget. Internationally, glaciers throughout the Alps are reportedly losing one percent of their mass every year to warmer temperatures; two-thirds of the world-wide skiing market is found outside of the United States. The resorts rely heavily on the glaciers to provide the best international skiing and snowboarding possible, so more time and energy are put into making snow. As we all know, Global Warming affects us all. But for Skiers and Snowboarders, they take it personally. And they're doing something about it."

Check it out and make sure to sure to sign IYN's global warming petition here.

crabbtown @ itsyournature.org

2008-02-06T20:14:21Z

hello all,

my new blog area at NRDC's itsyournature.org is up and running. you can find it at:

http://www.itsyournature.org/crabbtown

NRDC is awesome because of what they do:

1. Taking on corporate polluters and government indifference in court;
They sued the U.S. Navy and stopped them from blasting the world's marine mammals with deadly hi-frequency sonar.

2. Helping companies and institutions see the 'green' light;
They've partnered with Warner Music Group to revolutionize their music label into the greenest on earth. They've also "greened" this year's Grammy and Oscar ceremonies.

3. Making smart sustainable policies the law of the land;
We ensured that a half million kids in California are getting tested for lead poisoning every year.

If you're into environmentalism, check it out. If not... then check it out.

-peace

Vincient, Buddhist Part 1

2008-02-06T19:32:18Z

Here's a fun video in which I play Vincient Haroldson, an unorthodox and sometimes hypocritical Buddhist, who teaches (badly) how to attain enlightenment.

His first lesson: inner growth through volunteering

directed by Daniel Califf-Glick

OK Polluters: Radiohead

2008-02-04T14:14:25Z

This is an article by Ben Jervey from www.itsyournature.org. They've got a great blog at their myspace page. Ben's a great writer and I just haven't quite gotten my fix of heaping compliments on the world's best band. Enjoy.

OK Polluters: Radiohead, a band that gets global warming
by Ben Jervey

Radiohead's an easy band to love. Not just because their the best rock band on the planet (IM-not so-HO), but because they take serious issues seriously, and talk about them with candor, intelligence, and thought. Like global warming.

Consider these tidbits:

--For their upcoming US/European tour, they're partnering with the Oxford-based company Best Foot Forward to reduce the ecological footprint of the band's tour--right down to the collective impact of fan's travel. From a Treehugger post:

After gathering lots of information about their own environmental impact, Radiohead wanted to include their fans' footprint too. Best Foot Forward has analysed the two different types of tours Radiohead recently did in Amercia; the big gigs held out of town versus the smaller ones in city centres. This way they could find out which type of touring has the lowest impact 'per person entertained' as bassist Colin explains on their web site, based on transportation, food consumption and waste left behind by the fans.

Because the transport mode of the fans makes a big difference when it comes to carbon emissions and environmental impact, Radiohead encourages people to use public transport to get to their shows. They therefore have decided to play as many gigs as they can in cities because those provide better transport possibilities and don't require private cars to get to the event.

--Or Thom Yorke's conversation in Wired with David Byrne, during which they touch upon these same touring concerns:

Yorke: ... [At] the moment we make money principally from touring. Which is hard for me to reconcile because I don't like all the energy consumption, the travel. It's an ecological disaster, traveling, touring.

Byrne: Well, there are the biodiesel buses and all that.

Yorke: Yeah, it depends where you get your biodiesel from. There are ways to minimize it. We did one of those carbon footprint things recently where they assessed the last period of touring we did and tried to work out where the biggest problems were. And it was obviously everybody traveling to the shows.

Byrne: Oh, you mean the audience.

Yorke: Yeah. Especially in the U.S. Everybody drives. So how the hell are we going to address that? The idea is that we play in municipal places with some transport system alternative to cars. And minimize flying equipment, shipping everything. We can't be shipped though.

--Or, more metaphorically, Yorke's comments about "sustainable urban planning" through the lens of record contracts:

Signing a new major-label contract "would have killed us straight off," he added. "Money makes you numb, as M.I.A. wrote. I mean, it's tempting to have someone say to you, 'You will never have to worry about money ever again,' but no matter how much money someone gives you -- what, you're not going to spend it? You're not going to find stupid ways to get rid of it? Of course you are. It's like building roads and expecting there to be less traffic.

--And let's not forget Yorke's 2006 solo effort, The Eraser, which was entirely inspired by global warming. Or, actually, on the lack of political action to address it. As he told the LA Times:

In the paper one day, [Friends of the Earth activist] Jonathan Porritt was basically dismissing any commitment that the working government has toward addressing global warming, saying that their gestures were like King Canute trying to stop the tide. And that just went "kaching" in my head. It's not political, but that's what I feel is happening. We're all King Canutes, holding our hands out, saying, "It'll go away. I can make it stop." No, you can't.

IYN is no stranger to bands that back up their beliefs with action, and we're pretty fired up to see that one of the most influential and (to be blunt) awesome bands of our era is so hip to the real issues of our times. Maybe we'll catch them at All Points West. It is, after all, just a short train ride from IYN's NYC HQ.

Talking heads

2008-02-02T16:44:16Z

There was an odd exchange on CNN the other day.
CNN "Open House" host Gerri Willis was discussing the economy and joked with anchor Kyra Phillips that if she could predict the stock market, she and Phillips could run off to an island, prompting Phillips' co-anchor, Don Lemon, to ask not to be left out of the girls' getaway. This resulted in the following exchange:

Gerri: Alright Don, you come too.
Kyra: We could bring him along with the girls.
Gerri: Come on!
Kyra: He's paying! Thanks, Gerri.
Don: A little sandwich!
Kyra: Ooh!
Gerri: Whoa, I have to go now!
Kyra: Yeah, good time. You don't want to talk about the reverse oreo!

Willis was obviously embarrassed by Phillips' joke, though Lemon seemed to enjoy it, laughing out loud and announcing, "Oh, she said it! I'm glad she said it."

No one seemed particularly angered by the joke. Actually, everyone involved quite enjoyed it. Now, I hate to come off like some kind of Puritan, but my question is: Was it appropriate? This is the news (yeah... "news") and I can't help but feel like the people delivering it should have some sense of decorum when it comes to interacting with each other.

I remember in the early nineties watching CNN and feeling like I was really watching journalists at work. Even the anchors seemed somewhat invested in what they were saying, occasionally reviewing their notes and spontaneously changing up the way they imparted information (This could be seen most obviously by anchors on Headline News who had to recite the same loop every ten minutes.) Now, they just stare at that damn TelePrompTer and say the exact same thing over and over again. Watching Headline News for too long is like a bad acid trip. It's just impossible that these people aren't robots. I think "How can they be reading this text and saying these words yet again with such precision blandness?"

Watch CNN midmorning and you'll experience the saccharine coma of Christi Paul- a bobbing blonde head styled to within an inch of her life. Whether it's a fatal car crash or a feel-good story about found puppies, her tone never really changes. If you watch her for long enough, you begin to go numb. And just when you start to take her seriously, she'll say something like "Welcome back friends. I am so happy y'all are spending the morning with me." AAAAHHHHH. Shut up and tell me about Obama and Britney already. She does to me Mary Hart did to Kramer on that hilarious episode of Seinfeld.
Here she is in a silk blouse that has apparently been glued to the undersides of her breasts.

Watch CNN in the evening and prepare yourself for the fresh hell of Glenn Beck. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a man who's own opinion of his sense of humor is at such odds with the reality of how genuinely boring he is. The only compelling thing about him is shady sense of humor. He occasionally makes jokes that get you thinking he might have a naked girl trapped in a well beneath his basement. This guy is like your best friend from high school's creepy new stepdad who just can't stop trying so hard to be accepted.

What has happened to the televised news industry? Is it just me or does every anchor seem like a failed actress or male model from a J.C. Penney catalog? Who are these castrated automatons? How can so many bloated egos lack any distinguishing character definition? Where do these people come from? Do they have broadcasting backgrounds? And...
Why do any of them think it's okay to refer a fellow black coanchor as part of an Oreo?

oh wow.

2008-02-01T18:27:08Z

I could go on about this article and racism, but I'll let Alec Baldwin do it instead. The original story scans below aren't that great, so please click on the pic to enlarge the image and read the story.
Reprinted from the huffington post

The Ascendancy of Barack Obama in Small Town America
by Alec Baldwin

For those of you wondering how the Obama ascendancy is playing out in Small Town America, I offer you this column from the Independent, a weekly newspaper published on the East End of Long Island by Jerry Della Femina, the former advertising executive turned restaurateur and columnist. This particular piece was written by Rick Murphy under his weekly "Low Tidings" column. Murphy is also credited as a publisher of the Independent.

This article has caused quite a stir in East Hampton and beyond. So much so that the paper has pulled it from their website and Murphy, a regular antagonist of the Democratic Party, both locally and nationally, and the Clintons in particular, has replaced it with a brief apology. The Independent is considered the more right-leaning and Republican-endorsing paper of the East End community. Della Femina himself is regarded as one of the great Hillary-Haters in all of the world.

On the heels of Barack Obama being endorsed for the presidency by the normally close-to-the-vest Caroline Kennedy, whose invocation of her father's enduring legacy carries, in some people's hearts and minds, more weight than any ten such endorsements by others, please read what the local Republicans in my home town are thinking, and publishing, about Senator Obama. This is, quite clearly, not to be believed.

crabbtown blog 1-25-08

2008-01-28T15:01:23Z

Whole Foods/Plastic Bags

This is what you get for shopping at the Wal-Mart "bakery."

2008-01-24T04:39:41Z

Read the cake first:

Sad but true. This actually happened.

Customer: "On the cake I would like written: "Best Wishes Suzanne." And underneath that "We will miss you".

Wal-Mart store by Ruskin, FL

philip cooney and his lot

2008-01-22T22:21:03Z

Phillip Cooney is a bastard. A sad, sleazy symbol of everything that's wrong with contemporary politics.
Prior to working for the Bush Administration, Cooney was a lawyer and lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group representing the American petroleum industry.
Who better to be appointed chief of staff of the Council on Environmental Quality? HAR HAR.
In spite of having NO scientific background, George W. Bush made him the leader of the environmental policy body. In 2005, it was reported that he had altered government climate reports to downplay scientific consensus about climate change.
Weeks later, Cooney announced his resignation, having actually resigned a few weeks beforehand. Cooney also announced his hiring by ExxonMobil, beginning in the fall 2005, which had also been agreed-upon in the preceding weeks. He was basically hired from the petroleum industry to fudge the numbers and then sent right back with a bigger paycheck.
Educate yourself about creeps like this and the truly terrifying regime that is running our country.

People like Philip Cooney are the guys that disprove all the skeptics. Just when I start to slightly consider all the wacked-out, FOX-watching conservatives, a guy like this comes along and behaves in a way that proves we are being lied to and manipulated by the powers that be.
There's no point in whitewashing when there's nothing to whitewash... Right?

Watch Cooney get reamed here by the Oversight Committee. But keep in mind as you watch him squirm and falter that he's making more money in the ten minutes you watch this than you'll probably make this month... or year.

i wanna...

2008-01-12T18:55:17Z

In the early 90's a lot of really wonderfully awful dance music was written and produced. it was silly and trite and vapid, but in ways that were way more inspired than any of the craptastic-ly boring dancepop that gets cranked out nowadays. Whenever i talk about this era of music and my foggy memories of it, I always mention a song that was literally called "I Wanna F*ck You In the A**." Whenever I mention it, people say "Oh, David... You're such a kidder!" I laugh and insist I'm telling the truth and no one believes me.
Who knew that one day this very song would be used... in a commercial! So here, thanks to some brilliant Dutch advertisers, is that wonderful song reborn!

What Would Jesus Watch?

2008-01-09T00:50:46Z

You should really check out the new "What Would Jesus Buy?" It's a documentary by Morgan Spurlock, who made the great "Supersize Me" and the even greater TV series "30 Days." It's part exploration on the holidays and consumerism/part documentary about Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. The film dabbles its feet in some heavy issues and never really beats you over the head with statistics and disturbing sweatshop footage. It's quite entertaining and has some really engaging parts. At one point, the crew motivates a group of 3 thirteen year-old girls to contact the companies who manufacture their favorite clothes to inquire about their policies and production. Its an amazing thing seeing these giddy teenagers get excited about finding out the answers to questions they never realized they wanted answered. I hope the film makes some people think that way.

The release is very limited, but you can check the website to see if it's playing in your area code.

http://wwjbmovie.com/

Part of the promotion for the film, in conjunction with www.itsyournature.org, was to get people to make their own videos discussing how they would attempt to celebrate a less materialistic holiday. People made some wonderful videos about handmade gifts, holiday memories, and their favorite charities.
I am a smart ass though...

all i want for christmas

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