Step It Up at Paul Smith's College, Adirondacks

Step It Up 2007 was alive today in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains at Paul Smith's College.

See the story.

PAUL SMITH'S COLLEGE GOING GREEN

PAUL SMITHS– Paul Smith's College announced Wednesday that it will purchase wind-generated power to provide all of its electricity, joining just a handful of colleges and universities nationwide to do so.

The College will purchase the electricity from Community Energy Inc., a Pennsylvania-based wind-energy marketer and developer.

"Purchasing renewable energy is an important step that the College can take to preserve our natural resources," said John Mills, president of Paul Smith's College. "Being the College of the Adirondacks also means providing environmental leadership. Every day, the threats posed by climate change and our reliance on fossil fuels create more tangible dangers. We're excited to take this step and hope that others might follow."

As part of the switch to wind power, Paul Smith's has joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership program. As of March 30, just 13 other colleges and universities in the partnership relied entirely on renewables for their electricity needs. "Paul Smith's College has stepped up as a leader in New York," said Brent Alderfer, president of Community Energy. "Their renewable energy purchase puts their energy dollars to work to benefit the state economically and environmentally. As more customers choose to follow their lead and purchase renewable energy, we can bring more clean power resources online to meet that demand."

Because of the nature of the electric grid, the actual wind-generated electrons the College purchases won't be delivered to campus. However, the renewable-energy credits bought by Paul Smith's will ensure that an amount of power equivalent to the College's energy use is generated by clean, renewable wind.

Based on its past usage, the College expects to purchase 3,625 megawatt-hours of electricity a year. When that electricity is generated using renewable resources rather than fossil fuels, it offsets approximately 5 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year. That's equivalent to planting more than 341,109 trees, or removing 357 cars from the road.

In addition to the green energy purchase, Paul Smith's is pursuing several other initiatives to preserve the environment. This semester, waste from the campus dining hall is being composted at a nearby farm, and officials are examining the feasibility of integrating green building principles and strategies on campus construction projects.

Additionally, the College community will be among hundreds nationwide hosting a Step It Up rally this Saturday, an action aimed at encouraging Congress to reduce carbon emissions. Megan Veley, 19, a sophomore from Ithaca, N.Y., who is helping to organize the campus' Step It Up rally, said she was heartened by the College's decision.

"Small actions lead to big things," said Veley, who is majoring in natural resource management and policy. "It's very encouraging to know that there's something being done and we're taking a step forward to help the environment."

Paul Smith's College is the only four-year institution of higher education in the Adirondack Park. The school, on the shores of Lower St. Regis Lake, encompasses 14,200 acres of forests, streams, lakes and mountains that are available for students to explore and study. The College offers both bachelor¹s and associate degree programs which focus on experiential learning in a variety of majors including biology; fish and wildlife sciences; natural resources; environmental science; forestry; surveying; recreation, adventure travel and ecotourism; hospitality, resort and culinary management; liberal arts; and business.

Community Energy, Inc. (CEI) is a marketer and developer of wind energy generation founded in 1999 and headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania. CEI has over 2 billion kilowatt-hours of wind energy sales, 40,000 residential and business customers and marketing arrangements with 18 investor-owned and municipal utilities. CEI cites its utility partners and customers, which include many of the largest retail purchases of wind energy in the country, as the reason for its success in bringing wind energy to market in new regions of the country. CEI developed and jointly owns the Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm and has wind projects under development in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.

www.communityenergy.biz

Related: Adirondack skiers join national global warming protest

WILMINGTON, N.Y. -- While other demonstrators in more than 1,400 spots around the U.S. denounced global warming Saturday, a dozen people skied up Whiteface Mountain to unfurl their protest banner in mid-April snow. [..]

[..] "From melting glaciers to unseasonable and erratic weather patterns, we are already feeling the impact," Bill McKibben said of global consequences. The former Johnsburg resident and author of "The End of Nature" helped organize Saturday's "Step It Up" protests nationally to push Congress to impose an 80 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

McKibben went to New York City among a "sea of people" in blue shirts Saturday to show where the new higher tide line will be. But his 1989 book "was written in large measure out of my fear for what would happen to the Adirondacks _ a fear that is already starting to be borne out in changed winters and summers," he said.

Backcountry skiers unfurl a banner after skiing and hiking 5.5 miles to the summit of Whiteface Mountain

Skiers Open Global Warming Protests By Michael Virtanen, Associated Press Writer

Juan Cole on McCain's Silliness

"John McCain's silliness about how safe it is to walk around Baghdad should be decisively put to rest by this incident."

- Juan Cole, speaking about a suicide bomber wearing a bomb vest who managed to get into a cafeteria in the parliament building in the fortress-like Green Zone in downtown Baghdad and to detonate his payload. He killed 8 persons and wounded 20, among them two members of parliament. They included an MP from the secular Sunni National Dialogue Front (11 seats) and another from the Kurdistan Alliance

To Thine Own Self....

Purity is the alignment of energy. It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks about anything. It only matters what you think about it.

....be true

A Chance for Peace in Iraq - If U.S. Leaves

"We have to speak out and say that blood is precious. We will stand against those who have no value for human life and speak out against them openly."

- Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai


I reported on the forming of the Council of Ulama of Iraq a couple days ago and I see that it's gotten very little "play" in the blogosphere. [Other than a blogpost at National Journal.] I think (and hope) that this group will be an important key to finding a higher level of peace and cross-religious-faction respect among Iraqi citizens.

Last week in Iraq..

..a group of Sunni clerics, including some hard-line figures who fiercely oppose the American presence here, issued a statement Friday urging their fellow Sunnis to join the Iraqi Army and the police. The edict, signed by 64 imams and religious scholars, was a striking turnaround for the clerics, who have often lashed out in sermons at the fledgling army and police and branded them collaborators

For all we know (because it hasn't been widely reported), the female suicide bomber who killed 17 potential recruits (who were in line to BUY application forms to join the police?) may have been meant to be a statement of rebellion against such an edict. The antagonizing factor is clearly the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq. If we were to remove those troops, I believe that Sunni clerics, who represent the minority population of Sunnis vs. Shia in Iraq, could convince Sunnis to end the civil violence.

American and Iraqi officials welcomed the edict as a sign that Iraq's Sunnis, who largely boycotted the January elections, are taking steps toward joining the political process.

"It is a positive step," said Saad Jawad Qindeel, a member of the Shiite alliance that won the largest bloc of seats in Iraq's new national assembly in January. "We are hoping the clerics will take an even more definite attitude in preventing terrorism."

Samarrai delivered the edict Friday at the mosque in western Baghdad that houses the headquarters of the influential Muslim Scholars Association. The signatories included Ahmed Hassan al Taha, a hard-line imam at Baghdad's Abu Hanifa mosque.

But the leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, Harith al Dari, did not sign the edict, and it was not clear whether he or the Association was offering some tacit support by hosting the announcement. The association, like some of the scholars who signed the edict, is widely believed to have some influence over the armed resistance, but it is impossible to say how much.

If you read this excerpt from the article, you will see that these Sunni clerics celarly seem to be offering their help under the condition that the U.S. troops leave the country and end the occupation of Iraq.

The edict, signed by 64 imams and religious scholars, was a striking turnaround for the clerics, who have often lashed out in sermons at the fledgling army and police and branded them collaborators.

Many if not most insurgent attacks in recent months have been aimed at the police and army, which are largely composed of Shiites.

The prominent cleric who announced the edict, Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, said he believed the new directive would undercut those attacks.

But Samarrai also made it clear that the edict was aimed at regaining some control over Iraq's new security forces, not saving Shiite lives.

Sunnis dominated the higher echelons of the military under Saddam Hussein, and many, enraged by the American decision to dissolve the army two years ago, joined the insurgency.

The edict contained a condition, seemingly aimed at sweetening the pill for resistant Sunnis: the new police and army recruits must agree "not to help the occupier against his compatriots."

American and Iraqi officials welcomed the edict as a sign that Iraq's Sunnis, who largely boycotted the January elections, are taking steps toward joining the political process.

"It is a positive step," said Saad Jawad Qindeel, a member of the Shiite alliance that won the largest bloc of seats in Iraq's new national assembly in January. "We are hoping the clerics will take an even more definite attitude in preventing terrorism."

Samarrai delivered the edict Friday at the mosque in western Baghdad that houses the headquarters of the influential Muslim Scholars Association. The signatories included Ahmed Hassan al Taha, a hard-line imam at Baghdad's Abu Hanifa mosque.

But the leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, Harith al Dari, did not sign the edict, and it was not clear whether he or the Association was offering some tacit support by hosting the announcement. The association, like some of the scholars who signed the edict, is widely believed to have some influence over the armed resistance, but it is impossible to say how much.

Religious groups in other nations, such as Indonesia, have taken it upon themselves to try to find a way to greater peace between Shiite and Sunni. Iran's involvement would have been important, but tensions over UN Resolution 1747 have caused the Iranians to turn their faces from the urgent necessity of peace. This is where the United States could have a hand in the peace process. To use all available tools of diplomacy, even with Iran, is our responsibility - and the absence of such diplomacy is our failure to help bring peace to the war-torn people of Iraq. The U.S. lack of interest in the recent Indonesia meeting is also a missed opportunity. War seems to be the first option in the decidedly dull minds of the Bush administration.

Note: Ulama, defined:

A lot of words in Arabic have both an older, religious meaning and a newer, secular one. Thus, `ilm means "science" in modern Arabic but can also still mean "religious branch of knowledge." Someone who specializes in `ilm is an `aalim, plural `ulama'.
- Juan Cole

War Tsar - No Top Brass Wants the Job!

Bush is struggling to find a candidate who would accept a new post of "War Tsar" for Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bush administration's chaotic/stubborn approach to the terror-wars, along with Dick Cheney's non-pragmatic attitude is being blamed for the near-total lack of interest in the job. Marine General John Sheehan is quoted as saying:

"The very fundamental issue is they don't know where the hell they're going."

Ouch!

Quote of the Day From Robert Wright / NYT

"In early 2003, a few die-hard fans of multilateralism asked why America was launching an essentially unilateral war. A common reply was that the multilateral body whose support America sought, the U.N. Security Council, wouldn't vote to authorize war, so President Bush had to proceed without it. Blame Security Council 'gridlock.'Now that we know how the war turned out, it's tempting to ridicule this logic by comparing Bush to a driver who runs a red light, kills a pedestrian and blames the tragedy on the light's redness."

Robert Wright,
senior fellow at the New America Foundation who runs the Web site Bloggingheads.tv
Making the U.N. Look Good - New York Times

Since the guest column is for subscribers only, I wanted to share some of Mr. Wright's thoughts about the ways that he believes, in the case of the Iraq war, that the U.N. did much better than some institutions, notably the U.S. government.

In a remarkable precedent, the Security Council had demanded that Iraq submit to pervasive arms inspections, and had prevailed. On the eve of war, inspectors were being let into every facility they asked to see.

Indeed, inspectors had checked out the sites American intelligence deemed most suspicious and had found nothing. So the idea that the inspectors should scram so America could invade and then do a better job of finding weapons struck some Security Council members as less than compelling. They gave America the red light. (Insert ridicule here.)

Oddly, and accidentally, Mr. Bush had catalyzed the evolution he then aborted. Iraq would never have admitted the inspectors had American troops not been poised to invade. This points to a flaw that future evolution should remedy: the U.N. lacks the power to get arms inspectors where they’re most needed. The sort of toughness Mr. Bush showed needs to be institutionalized multilaterally and integrated with such structures as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Habitat For Humanity:Pope Benedict XVI Car Auction

I got a note today and I wanted to pass it on to anyone who might like to help Habitat For Humanity.

I thought you and your readers might be interested in some post-Easter news about Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope's car is being auctioned off to raise money for Habitat for Humanity www.buyacarvideos.com/popecar.htm
The bidding is already more than $200,000! Personally, I think this is a really fun and creative way to raise money. The auction goes until April 14th if you and your readers want to check it out.

AUCTION ENDS SATURDAY, APRIL 14th, at 9:18 PDT.


For more details about this ultimate "celebrity" car, click here and for the EBay page, CLICK HERE

See story at Catholic World News

MoveOn.org: Edwards Speaks Out on Iraq

You can see John Edwards' comments about Iraq at this transcript taken from the MoveOn.org Virtual Town Hall meetings held across America tonight.

Excerpt:

..this is not the time for political calculation, this is the time for political courage. This is not a game of chicken. This is not about making friends or keeping Joe Lieberman happy. This is about life and death—this about war. We are done letting George Bush manipulate the rhetoric of patriotism, only to use our troops as political pawns. If Bush vetoes funding for the troops, he's the only one standing in the way of the resources they need. Nobody else.

Congress must stand firm. They must not write George Bush another blank check without a timeline for withdrawal—period. If Bush vetoes the funding bill, Congress should send another funding bill to him with a binding plan to bring the troops home. And if he vetoes it again, they should do it again.

The American people are overwhelmingly in favor of ending this war. If our side stands firm, if we show courage now, we can finally bring our troops back home and bring this war to an end.

Press Release: National LGBT Leaders Endorse John Edwards For President


You may also want to check out this Bloomberg article on Edwards and Labor by Heidi Przybyla.

Excerpts:

Edwards, the only 2008 candidate to offer a specific universal health-care plan, is critical of free trade and vows to eradicate poverty. These positions resonate with many union leaders. [..]

[..]On the stump, Edwards ties his emphasis on fighting inequality to his support of unions. ``The greatest anti-poverty movement in American history is the organized-labor movement,'' he said last week at a town-hall meeting in a packed high school gymnasium in Des Moines. ``I've walked picket lines all over this country standing up for health care, for working people, for pension protection.''

[...] Bill Buck, a strategist for the Democratic Party in Nevada, expects Edwards' battle plan to be particularly effective in Iowa and in Nevada, where the bulk of the vote will come out of the union-rich Las Vegas area. ``The race has always been more wide open than the popular opinion,'' Buck said.

Edwards is ``trying to use momentum from early primary and caucus states to roll into what's shaping up to be a national primary,'' said Mike Feldman, former Vice President Al Gore's chief of staff during the 2000 campaign. ``He's not going to get there with muscle. He's going to get there by being opportunistic and strategic.''[..]

See: Democratic Hopefuls Court Activists in 'Virtual Town Hall' - WaPo

In a few informal interviews, members said they were most impressed by Edwards. "He was very clear about getting out of the war. He was emotionally compelling," said Marcia Jansen, a D.C. resident.

Moderate Sunni Clerics Form Group in Iraq

According to Stratfor.com, a group called the Council Of Ulama of Iraq has been formed.

Forty prominent Iraqi Sunni clerics have formed the Council of Ulama of Iraq, a group that will seek to curb the influence of al Qaeda in Iraq by issuing balanced and more moderate fatwas (religious edicts) to urge Iraqis to respect other groups and not take up arms against them, Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai said April 9. Regarded as de facto mufti of Sunni Iraqis, the sheikh will head the group within the council charged with issuing the fatwas.

I'd imagine that this group should not be confused with a Muslim group of clerics by virtually the same name that was formed before the Iraqi elections and that was, at one time, considered "too radical for the [then operating] Coalition Provision Authority to deal with comfortably as an organization representing the Sunni community," according to an article in Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) from 9 February 2004. The group, at that time, did not recognize the legitimacy of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, and it had called for resistance against them. The group had also called for Shari'a law to stand as the chief source of legislation in Iraq, and I don't know how the leadership of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai will change that - or to what extent.

According to Reuters, this group is newly formed.

"The new grouping includes some of the most illustrious Sunni scholars in the first such body to be formed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003."

Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai told Reuters:

"It's high time our clerics unify their utterances. Religious scholars have to work on teaching Muslims respect for the others ...," he said referring to radical Islamists with ideological links to al Qaeda. [..] "Scholars should speak and not have fear of anyone but Allah (God). We have to speak out and say that blood is precious. We will stand against those who have no value for human life and speak out against them openly," Samarrai added.

A report at GulfNews.com reports on how, why, and where the group was formed.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Sunni scholars meeting in Jordan set up a body that would have the sole authority to issue fatwas, or religious edicts, while also urging an end to the US occupation of Iraq through "legal means."

The two-day meeting of the Sunni Religious Affairs Council, or Waqf - the fifth in four years - was held in Jordan because of safety concerns. It was attended by about 150 scholars.

The council was formed after the US-led war, when Iraq's ministry for religious affairs was dissolved and replaced by separate councils, or Waqfs, for the Shiite, the Sunni and other religions.

Yesterday, the gathering formed a body that would be the sole authority among Iraqi Sunnis in issuing fatwas, the scholars said in a statement. The move was an attempt to pre-empt fatwas issued by those without the required scholarly qualifications.

It seems that the council, with new members and leadership (not so different from the "radical" group by the same name in 2004), are hoping at this time that their urging for the U.S. to end the occupation of Iraq, with their decidedly anti-al Qaeda faith-based message of respect, will work to see an end to occupation since U.S. support for the war and the Bush/McCain surge is at an all-time low.

Stale Politics - Sunday Talk Show Panels

Sunday political talk show panels have gone stale with a carefully guarded stable of careful talkers. It doesn't reflect the reality of what's happening becuase it demonizes anyone who fails to talk straight down the gooey center. I think it's bad for us - as any stale product would be.



Related: See David Sirota

John Edwards Proposes Changes Toward Good Government

Good Government Should Help Economic System So Good Times Benefit Everyone

John Edwards believes that markets should serve people, not the other way around.

Senator Edwards expects that, in a Working Society, Americans who receive any form of assistance from the government should be willing to work and should be given the opportunity to work. Building on that idea, Edwards believes that the "other America" - the one that reaps the rewards off the backs of those who work so hard for a halfway decent lifestyle - is Bushworld, is unjust, and must be changed.

Corporate social responsibility is key to the new Working Society. Rather than existing in a bitter political atmosphere where corporations are distrusted, CEOs of corporations MUST be leaned on, by a leader who understands that a corporation EXISTS to survive and in truth, cares little for society, to be accountable, through regulation if necessary, to become a SOLUTION to the problems of the Working Society rather than the chief and central PROBLEM. The rigid political rhetoric of the past - no new taxes; no corporate regulation, etc - must change if a healthy democracy and a successful Working Society will be able to emerge. We have to find a better way of talking about the issues focusing on corporate America having to be part of the solution - or face more regulation. (Especially when it comes to environmental issues).

Alleviating Poverty is not Charity

As a new kind of populist, Edwards makes the all-important point that alleviating poverty is not a charity issue. The Bush administration has beaten the drums of faith-based charity being a more effective poverty-crusher than "the bureaucracy." Faith-based charity is a very good thing for this country, but it should certainly not be the primary pathway to poverty alleviation. Why? Because alleviating global poverty is key to so many other issues - especially national security in the current fear-stained era of what the right wing has unjustly capitalized upon as "global terror". All along, the Bush administration has silenced those who could put two and two together, acknowledging that poverty and economic injustice were factors in the Middle East and eventually brought 911 to our doorstep. Anyone who dared mention the fact after 911 was told to shut up and watch what they say. There were many truths we turned our knowing heads away from in those days.

Alleviating poverty is not a charity issue.

Related discussion by David Mizner at Daily Kos

Candidates' Rhetoric Needs to Be Issues-Focused

The candidate I hope for ..


The voting public talks so much about how the nature of politics has to change because it's all that they hear. It's all that they are conditioned to ask for.

If a leader is worth his or her weight in democracy, progress, and social justice, he or she would frame their message to the people (in a way that the MSM could not avoid) to condition the voting public to start demanding change on the issues as those issues relate to their lives (including the Iraq War, for which the public has never been made to feel particularly involved in any way) - instead of a meaningless change in the nature of the politics.

We have to ask ourselves - are the individual Democratic candidates appealing to the voting public for solid progressive change - or more of a change in the nature of the horserace?

I want the candidate who best turns around the voters' thinking about why they vote for the one they vote for - despite a brainwashing media (whether the brainwashing's intentional or not) that poses a barrier to a message about anything other than wedge issues and "the horserace".

Related discussion led by Matt Stoller at: MyDD