Bob Morris @ May 27th 2008 22:15 - Category: Unfiled ;
In an effort to improve electronics recycling in the United States, the U.S. Postal Service is developing a free national collection program for small electronic items.
They provide pre-paid postage envelopes for small electronics to be shipped to a company that will recycle them. This innovative idea is being tested in a few areas now. Let’s hope it expands to being nationwide.
Bob Morris @ May 27th 2008 17:34 - Category: Unfiled Tags: Tom Hayden;
Hayden touches on many important points in this wide-ranging interview on the publication of his new book Writings for Democratic Society.
One key quote:
The Sixties are on trial in this national election. Because of the broad brush of the Republicans and media, all of us who went through that time will be defendants this time. We must stop guilt-by-association techniques. We can denounce or oppose certain methods as we are inclined, but we must defend the idea of the Sixties overall, especially the idea that people should not be persecuted for what they may have thought or done forty years ago.
When I met Bill Ayers, incidentally, it was almost fifty years ago. He was operating a small school center in Ann Arbor. The winds of war, I think, blew him into his late-Sixties militancy. By the time Barack Obama ever met him, Bill was back at creating small schools, counseling in and writing about juvenile halls, focused on inner city youth, publishing books as a children’s advocate. He was right back where he was meant to be, and that’s all there is to that.
On the election.
If Barack wins, in a way we will be restarting where we were in 1968 …. Fortunately there is a new generation of young activists who don’t carry the scars and burdens that weigh upon the 60s generation.
I am suggesting the most hopeful scenario, not necessarily the most likely one. But opportunities like this are very rare.
Back in the 60’s I was more of a Yippie and thought Hayden overly serious and not radical enough. I was wrong. In his own steady way, working as an organizer, then as a politician, now an author, he’s shown a decades-long commitment for genuine social change. His writings and interviews are invariably thoughtful and filled with good ideas. Read the whole interview.
Bob Morris @ May 27th 2008 13:22 - Category: Unfiled ;
The pattern has become familiar: Customs officers wave in vehicles filled with illegal immigrants, drugs or other contraband. A Border Patrol agent acts as a scout for smugglers. Trusted officers fall prey to temptation and begin taking bribes.
HSA is greatly increasing the size of their internal affairs unit as high profile busts of corrupt border and customs guards continue.
Most troubling for them is that some corrupt guards were allied with smugglers before taking their jobs. And of course, some of them could conceivably now be in internal affairs too.
I read somewhere that the Great Wall of China was breached not by force, but by bribing the guards, a time-honored (and highly effective) method indeed.
Bob Morris @ May 27th 2008 10:41 - Category: Credit crisis Tags: auto sales, HELOC;
In 2007, 11% of new car sales nationwide were financed by using a Home Equity Line of Credit. In California, it was nearly 30%. Yikes.
With the sharp dive in home prices, using HELOC money is no longer an option for most. Repos on cars are soaring. New car sales are sharply down.
I think the concept of “pulling out equity” gave people a sense that they were actually taking a bit of the profit on their imagined home price increase, instead of just taking out a loan against it.
Now, credit card delinquencies are rising. With HELOC money often no longer an option (either the house is worth less than they owe or the bank has revoked the HELOC), homeowners now are using credit cards or payday loans to pay the bills. But the interest rates on those are extremely high, and once that money gets burned through, there is nothing else, no other way to borrow.
Most get into financial trouble because of a job loss or medical bills, not so much because of living beyond their means. Yet once you fall in a financial hole, getting out is hard indeed, especially in these unforgiving times.
Bob Morris @ May 27th 2008 06:43 - Category: Renewable energy ;
DSIRE is a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and federal incentives that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.
There’s an amazing amount of information here, well-organized and presented, detailing numerous incentives for energy available from all levels of government.
Bob Morris @ May 27th 2008 00:38 - Category: Unfiled Tags: carbon credits;
Billions of pounds are being wasted in paying industries in developing countries to reduce climate change emissions, according to two analyses of the UN’s carbon offsetting programme.
Leading academics and watchdog groups allege that the UN’s main offset fund is being routinely abused by chemical, wind, gas and hydro companies who are claiming emission reduction credits for projects that should not qualify. The result is that no genuine pollution cuts are being made, undermining assurances by the UK government and others that carbon markets are dramatically reducing greenhouse gases, the researchers say.
The researchers found that most of the projects claiming carbon credits would have been built anyway, something which directly contradicts the goals of the program, which are that the projects would not have happened without the credits.
“Traders are finding ways of gaining credits that they would never have had before. You will never know accurately, but rich countries are clearly overpaying by a massive amount,” said Victor.
Yet another apparently good idea destroyed by the “magic of the marketplace.” Sounds like the opportunities for corruption and kickbacks are massive here too.
Carbon credits will only work when they are legally enforceable and monitored by an international organization with the power to prosecute those violate or try to evade the rules. Period. Otherwise the system will continue to be gamed and will accomplish little if anything in the way of real carbon reduction.
The “marketplace” can not and will not self-regulate and do the ethical thing. This has been rather conclusively proven by the collapse of Enron and the current mortgage and credit debacles.
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