It’s sadly true. Most Americans don’t know very much about energy, much less about the energy issue facing America today-all they know is that gasoline is more expensive than it used to be, and somehow it’s the Arabs’ fault. Conservatives might like it that way, with the American people dull, uninformed, and full of hate, but progressives don’t. Information and knowledge are the keys to unlock the doors of power and change.

So let’s get everyone an energy primer-debunking the notion that Americans have some “right” to cheap energy and that when energy gets expensive, something must be “wrong.” What’s “wrong” is our insistance on continued and unending supplies of cheap and environmentally harmful energy, and what’s “wrong” is our collective (and that includes industry) resistance to improving energy technology, investing in new forms of energy, and resisting change and progressive reform and improvement of our societal energy consumption. America could lead the world in this regard; we have the people and the technology, but instead we opt to sit and spin, and that’s unacceptable. Get informed, and act for change.

This article serves to give readers some of the basics about the current energy situation in America, what we can do, and acknowledge that there’ll be no silver bullet, no magic energy source to change everything-we’ll have to conserve, we’ll have to invest in new technologies, we’ll have to work with global partners to make changes, it’ll have to be comprehensive. But the first thing we can all do is realize what’s truly good or bad for us, and it’s not just the numbers on the board at your local BP.

[ Energy Literacy - What You Don't Know Can Hurt You ]
Source: The Augusta Free Press

Perhaps one of the bravest women in the country is being tossed around again, this time by her own people.

I don’t think Cecelia Fire Thunder, president of the Oglala Sioux Nation, misunderstood the risks she was taking at all-I think she knew there would be an anti-choice backlash against her from her own people, probably pressed on and encouraged by the radical right-wingers outside the reservation in South Dakota who would, like with any revolutionary, want to see her quieted or worse. Sadly, Fire Thunder now faces impeachment after the tribal council-all men, by the way, at the behest of your typical torches and pitchforks style mob, suspended her and is calling for her impeachment. They passed a resolution to ban abortion on the reservation and banish anyone who participates in or aids anyone in obtaining an abortion on the reservation from the reservation. She could certainly use some support.

It seems that as usual, the anti-choicers are completely blind to the facts, instead turning their heads to their own contradictory sense of morality:

Legal abortion, Fire Thunder said, is particularly important for Native American women, who lack access to birth control, who tend to live in poverty and who face epidemic sexual violence.

Native American women are raped three times more often than women of all other races in the United States, according to 1999 U.S. Department of Justice data.

Abortion, Fire Thunder said, is part of the aboriginal right of tribal women throughout North America.

Okay, so let me get this straight: what kind of “life” are they “pro,” again? No birth control and they don’t want to tackle that. Horrific rape and sexual assault, and they don’t want to tackle that. As usual, a group of mostly men and misguidedly religious women who want definitive control over not just their own bodies, but everyone’s body-they want to choose for us all when we can have children, when we can raise a family, and what goes on between our doctors and our selves.

We’ve seen this line before, and even if Fire Thunder isn’t successful in her efforts, the only people who will truly suffer will be her own people and the people of South Dakota, and the only ones to gain will be those obliged few who demand complete control over the lives of others. It’s saddening, and I can only hope she prevails. From the looks of it, Fire Thunder’s bravery hasn’t wavered in the least. She’s not one to shy away from a fight. And for that, regardless of what happens, she has my eternal respect.

[ Pine Ridge Leader Faces Battle Over Abortion Ban ]
Source: Women’s ENews

On Monday, John Kerry gave a speech in Boston, where he announced, with more vision and leadership than any American official has to date, especially considering the current administration, a plan that would significantly address America’s energy issues with regard to national security and energy self-reliance as well as environmental protection. His plan consists of three parts:

(1) Reverse and Stop Emissions that Cause Global Warming

(2) Mandates for Reducing Oil Consumption

(3) Developing Energy Technologies for the Future

And he makes an excellent case for all three.

He perhaps spends the most time at the second, explaining that it’s not just about a spearhead approach in the form of forcing auto makers to build more fuel efficient cars (although that’s in there) by raising federal fuel economy standards, but also by investing in cellulosic ethanol that promises to bring ethanol closer to being a true gasoline replacement by giving us more sources from which we can produce ethanol that don’t include food crops, and developing methods to keep ethanol competitive with gasoline, as well as closing the “SUV loophole” that allows SUVs to be considered “light trucks” that don’t have strong fuel requirements, and giving tax incentives and credits to companies that move towards more fuel efficient vehicles, rather than those that just complain and lobby over keeping the status quo.

Beyond Kerry’s lengthy speech transcript are the breakdown and bullet points of the plan, and what he’d very much like to do. It’s excellent reading, and I seriously hope that it’s taken seriously. Unfortunately, conservative republicans who could care less about the economy or the environment, much less watching out for both, will fly the “it’ll wreck the economy/cost jobs” flag they always do, capitulate to the energy and auto industries, and pretend Kerry’s words don’t ring true and timely.

[ Our Energy Challenge ]
Source: TruthOut

Okay, well, I don’t completely agree with the statement that Bush isn’t incompetent, I really do think he is, but George Lakoff, Marc Ettlinger and Sam Ferguson of the Rockridge Institute have an excellent point that helps flesh out a point I’ve been sorely worried about for a very long time, ever since I read parodies of conservative commentators on the radio that wildly exclaimed that liberals and progressives have “no positive agenda.”

Progressives, to a certain degree, have fallen into the “We hate Bush” trap-this endless loop of criticizing everything he does without seeing wider implications, focusing on the man on the throne instead of the workings of his regime. I’ll allow the authors to say it, as they do in the introduction to their exceptional article:

Progressives have fallen into a trap. Emboldened by President Bush’s plummeting approval ratings, progressives increasingly point to Bush’s “failures” and label him and his administration as incompetent. Self-satisfying as this criticism may be, it misses the bigger point. Bush’s disasters — Katrina, the Iraq War, the budget deficit — are not so much a testament to his incompetence or a failure of execution. Rather, they are the natural, even inevitable result of his conservative governing philosophy. It is conservatism itself, carried out according to plan, that is at fault.

Without a doubt, this is truth. Conservatism is the enemy here, not so much the current administration, not so much the current president, not even the republicans in congress. While we should very much continue to criticize them, and root out similar mindsets from the progressive community, the problem is that we’re looking past the issue to the people who embody it-the problem with America isn’t so much the President himself, or the people in power, but their mindset and their political and social philosophy-one so backwards and contrary to the equality, justice, freedom, and civil society that America stands for at her very foundation.

This is the root of the problem, this is where our attacks should be aimed, and in the process, by rooting out this philosophy and exposing its cracks and corrupt, base nature for the world to see, we can then topple the puppets and narcissistic figures who stand atop it.

[ Bush is Not Imcompetent ]
Source: The Rockridge Institute

Get a load of this:

They pulled out their AKs so I could see

… So I grabbed her little sister and pulled her in front of me.

As the bullets began to fly
The blood sprayed from between her eyes
And then I laughed maniacally

Then I hid behind the TV
And I locked and loaded my M-16
And I blew those little fuckers to eternity.

And I said…
Dirka Dirka Mohammed Jihad

Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
They should have known they were fucking with a Marine.

Wow. So much for “winning hearts and minds,” eh?

That’s just part of the song, “Hadji Girl,” written and performed by U.S. Marine Corporal Joshua Belile. Now let’s not mince words; the Marine corps isn’t there to be sensitive. They’re not there to be receptive to the feelings and mindsets of the people of Iraq. The Marine Corps, and every other serviceperson in the middle east are soliders and seamen, trained to do their job, and that job is to kill people and keep themselves from being killed. There’s no plainer way to say it; that’s the ultimate mission and responsibility of the military. Kill the enemy and avoid casualties. When you task the military with occupying territory, with having to live among people who can and will turn on them in an instant, hatred burns, anger looms, and evil like this springs forth in a way that only the soliders on the front lines can find amusing. Those of us back home can’t possibly understand.

Now. That all being said and the benefit of the doubt being given, let’s flip the coin.

There’s no circumstance that really allows this kind of behavior to be forgiven, acceptable, or glorified. As long as American troops have to be in Iraq-a mistake from the get go-this kind of behavior is to be expected-the head of the spear is being wieghed down by the handle-our military forces, excellent at what they do, are being pushed into being policement and occupiers, something they’re not so good at. We saw the same condition in World War II, when the “japs” were the enemy, and wide American propaganda used stereotyped images to stir up hatred of the enemy. In the Korean war and Vietnam we had “gooks” and “chinks,” and they were equally hated. I’m sure songs were written about them too. Perhaps the beauty of America is that we’re perfectly capable of showing shock and horror at this kind of behavior, but understanding it at the same time, but there is no beauty in making excuses for it.

For example, I’m not nearly about to side with these folks, some of the people to comment on the outrage about the song:

“Damn it, we are in a fucking war! Nobody whined about ‘insensitivity’ to the fucking Japs and Jerries.”

Sheldon Rampton, of the Center for Media and Democracy, calls this nonsense for what it is; another conservative’s lament at having to give up their comfortable old hatreds, the same as the racists and homophones have to-keep it to yourself, and stop whining about “oh no! The PC police are out to get me! I should be angry about this!” Rampton has this to say:

As these comments illustrate, defense for the song quickly turns into traditional conservative anger at what they see as censorious “political correctness.” They have a right, they insist, to be insensitive and hostile to Arabs and Muslims. I would argue, in fact, that this cultural xenophobia is the main theme of the song and that the violence in it is a secondary byproduct.

That sounds about right. Another example of people who are threatened and frightened by a pluralistic society that just might happen to value equality and justice, so they burn the torches of their hatred for everyone to see, and for like-minded people to rally around and stare. Sadly, those are the same people who burn crosses, beat up gay and lesbian people over their bumper stickers. It’s not acceptable, and the only “understanding” that can be applied in this scenario is that it’s a war zone, which changes some of the numbers on the dial, but it’s the same station, don’t doubt that.

What worries me more than the hypocritical nature of Americans in this regard is the adverse effect it’ll have on any kind of relationship we’ll have with the Iraqi people, and any people in the middle east. They already constantly view America as a nation that could case less about the people but will do whatever it takes to get the resources under the soil that they have, and this only exacerbates the problem. The Iraqi people already view our soldiers as men and women who’ll shoot anyone who moves the wrong way, for no other reason than they feel like it, and stories coming out of Hamdaniya and Hadditha don’t help matters any. And then this turns up? How on earth are they supposed to trust us, and how on earth are we supposed to react to keep our soldiers as safe as possible? A stunt like this, by one marine, can breed a whole new group of jihadis and incense the anger of many many more.

So in the end, a very sarcastic tip of the hat to Corporal Belile. I couldn’t possibly have come up with a better way to put both your fellow soldiers and brothers-in-arms in Iraq in harms way by just opening your mouth, and put every single American citizen you’re sworn to protect in harm’s way from terrorists who will now only hate us more because of our hypocritical view of “liberation through bullets and hatred.” Great job.

[ The Hatred Behind 'Hadji Girl' ]
Source: AlterNet