Liberal College Kid

What a crazy year! Of course, I will especially remember 2007 for many reasons. One of which is certainly that LCK started in March of 2007. Rather than go through all of the stories we’ve posted on here, though, I thought I would go through the biggies whether or not anything about them appeared on our site.

* Where better to start than with the Presidential Election that seemed to kick off way too early?

This picture is great because it really shows that despite all of the added time this race has gotten it really hasn’t made that much difference. Well, maybe except in the case of Huckabee who inextricably is moving up the charts in the hearts and minds of Republicans. Other wise, though, the 08 race is exactly where it was at the start of 2007. Despite my best attempts, Kucinich is still waffling on the bottom of the heap and the Obama vs. Clinton match up that everyone was calling in January seems to be exactly what’s on the horizon.

* February was a great month in the news because of one person, Lisa Nowak. To be honest, I felt kind of bad for her. The story as I first heard it seemed like a love story of sorts, two astronauts who fell in love at zero gravity. How romantic right? That is, until it came out that she wore the adult diapers astronauts wear in space on her drive from Texas to Florida to stalk her man.  Nothing says I love you like a soiled diaper…

<Hottie!>

* Then of course is my pick for person of the year: Larry Seidlin. The infamous judge of the Anna Nicole Smith trial, who told stories of his days as a tennis player, his relationships in the past, orange juice, his college days… Words fail me, so here is a good highlight reel of the madness that was the Anna Nicole case:

* The story that perhaps most rocked college students this year was the Virginia Tech tragedy where Cho Seung Hui killed 32 of his peers and then killed himself. The way he went about it, however, is perhaps the most distressing. He sent his own press kit to NBC, depicting him with guns, in camouflage and many other violent and frightening images. The political fall out around this issue is of course unfortunate, with some on the right claiming that had other students been allowed to have guns on campus this killer would not have claimed so many victims. I don’t understand this logic at all, but, in 2007 everything whether it was political in origin or not, became political.

* On August 1st a suspension bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minnesota collapsed and killed 13 people. This tragedy came with some baggage though. Minnesota and the Twin City area in particular had just approved a tax payer funded new home for the Minnesota Twins. Money was going to building a new baseball stadium rather investing in infrastructure. Of course, immediately after this reports came out that perhaps as many as 3 in 4 bridges in America were not structurally sufficient which led me to one question: why can’t we be building bridges here and not just in Iraq?

* In August, Larry Craig made us all reconsider our public restroom behavior. There were two truly horrible things about this event. The first was how Craig handled the whole thing. He has been and continues to be a bigot actively campaigning against gay rights. And second, who wants to have sex in an airport bathroom? It’s hard enough to bring yourself to just use the facilities in an airport bathroom, you know? Despite all of this, he is staying in office… Good luck with your reelection Larry.

* The evil genius, the architect, Bush’s brain… Call him what you will 2007 saw the end of the great Bush & Rove partnership. Despite him being wrong, in my opinion, on virtually every political front, I will certainly give Karl his props here. He got an idiot elected Governor and then President, then convinced the entire nation that his party would be better for them because of “morals” and “values” which should have been read “profit margin” and “tax break.” Rove may be one of the most brilliant men to ever work in the White House, and he was never elected nor approved. Nonetheless, he was a terrible dancer and rapper. And Karl, for me you will always be MC Rove!

* Our boy Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize! How sweet is that? He won it, of course, for his work with An Inconvenient Truth and shared the award with the UN group responsible for coming out with the report on global climate change.  Gore has taken the issue beyond a partisan debate to make it a sticking point on both sides of the asile and he has now accomplished something very few Americans have: he is a Nobel Peace Prize winner.  You go Gore!

* And then finally and tragically 2007 ended in catastrophe in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated less than a month from the first formal election since 1999.  She was campaigning for that race when she was killed.  She had been living abroad for the last 8 years after General / President Musharraf seized control of the government in a military coup.  The two had reached an amnesty agreement and had agreed to restore democracy to the country.  Now, however, while the election appears to still be coming on January 8th questions still surround the assasination.  Of course Al- Qaeda is claiming it and there are numerous reports of their pressence in Pakistan.  However, Musharraf has had nothing but support from the US since he seized power and while Bush has condemned the act as cowardly it still bodes well for our strong military alliance in Pakistan as we continue the War of Terror.  Sorry, War on Terror.

Well folks, there it is!  2007 was our first year at LCK and while it had its ups and downs we hope that you will continue to read us from time to time, post some comments about how we’re too young to understand anything, and get into great debates about a Dennis Kucinich  Ron Paul campaign.  Cheers and Happy New Year!

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Call what follows a naive and idealistic suggestion if you like but I think it’s worth some consideration. Paris launched a program this past weekend which could translate well to some cities on this side of the Atlantic. The program is called Vélib (an amalgamation of the words vélo [bike] and liberté [freedom]) and gives both locals and tourists alike a different way of getting around in the city of lights. I won’t take too much time describing how the program works; both the New York Times and Charles Bremner do a great job of that on their own. Suffice it to say that after buying a reasonable priced pass for a given length of time (a day, five days, a month) you’re able to pick up a rental bike at a station and ride it for “almost free” (it’s free providing that you return it in half an hour and seeing as how the stations will be no more than 300 yards apart from each other when the project is completed, that shouldn’t be much of a problem) all over the city.

The cost of the program is being deferred through the sponsorship of a French advertising company that gets advertising rights on all city owned billboards in return for paying for the program. This program is almost perfectly suited for Paris; the wide, Haussmann built boulevards, the exorbitant taxi rates, the millions upon millions of tourists that pour into the city every year, the beauty of the city which is missed when riding on the Metro, all of these factors make the Vélib program ideal for the French capital. This program, however, is one that should be considered in U.S. cities as well.

Cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, San Diego and others could use a program such as this one to both decrease traffic congestion and help the environment at the same time. Granted winters in the northeast and August in the Deep South may cause a slump in ridership but if cities can get large, private sector, contributions to pay for the program why not go for it? It could be used to draw tourists to cities by promising them freedom and independence from rental cars and mass transit systems. It would promote the exploration of the city as a whole rather than just the main tourist attractions. For those that live in the city it would provide residents with a cheap and easy alternative to trying to find a parking space when going to a restaurant or movie.

Obviously cities like LA, Phoenix and Houston- where sprawl is so great as to necessitate a car- and San Francisco- where insurance issues would arise with thousands of tourists careening down Nob Hill- might not be well suited for a bike rental program but that shouldn’t stop other cities from trying it out. Why not encourage a little exercise for a population which desperately needs it? Why not empower people by letting them make a tangible contribution to the environment by trading in a day or two of driving per week with biking? Why not, if you can find a private backer for the program, (which I believe could be done through a variety of methods) go for it? I realize my optimism and enthusiasm for a bike rental program is probably making some of you a little queasy at this point so go ahead and bring me down off the cloud I’m currently perched upon. Explain why a program such as this one wouldn’t work in the U.S., as Darrell Hammond says while doing a great O’Reilly- “tell me where I’m wrong”

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I had been waiting to post about Live Earth until it actually happens (7/7/07 or this Saturday) however, I thought it’d do more good to put the link to the Live Earth Pledge up here. The pledge is:

1.To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;
2.To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become “carbon neutral;”
3.To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;
4.To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;
5.To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;
6.To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,
7.To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.”

More Live Earth stuff to come…

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The Republicans in the Senate yesterday acted like the heartless, self serving bunch of rich white guys they are and blocked:

a $32 billion package of tax breaks for renewable energy that would have been financed mostly by new taxes on major oil companies.

The bill would have been the first real effort by the federal government to make some serious effort to reduce our use of oil and combat global climate change. Even though the Republicans running for President, with virtually no exceptions, have said that we do need to take steps to reduce our use of foreign oil. They don’t want to admit to believing in global warming (because SCIENCE IS SCARY!!!!!!) but with Giuliani’s rhetoric the right has been able to turn global warming into a national security issue. The logic being that we need to reduce our use of non-renewable fossil fuels not because of it’s impact on global climate change but because of who we get those fuels from. I guess I’m ok with that, but the Senate Republicans have completely missed this point.

Junior moronic senator from Arizona, Jon Kyl, said on the bill:

“When you put a tax on a business it gets passed on to consumers. Instead of reducing gasoline prices, this bill is going to add to the cost of gasoline.”

Wake up! This bill was supposed to reduce our use of gasoline. If we don’t take any steps to force oil companies to start seriously developing renewable sources of energy we’ll be left in the dark (literally) as the rest of the industrial world passes us by with new technologies. We have to make energy companies change the way they’re doing business and the way the federal government regulates that is taxing. Of course, for Republicans who have big oil lobbyists breathing down their necks we should never expect them to do the right thing or act like they care about the will of those they represent.

< The apparent goal of Senate Republicans…

Walk your talk flip floppers! If your party is serious about curbing the effects of global climate change do something about it. Or the right wing safe version: end our reliance on foreign oil from countries that are a “national security threat.” Gas prices are not going down because the amount of oil is going down. We need to stop thinking minutely about what gas will cost tomorrow or next week and start thinking about what will happen if we don’t change the way we power our lives.

The Dems were just three votes shy of forcing the issue that could have made this law. $32 billion in funding for renewable energy… And the Senate Republicans are too hamstrung by their big oil financiers. Shame on you Jon Kyl and friends, and thanks for doing your part to ruin the country.

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I learned two things this morning. The first is that the name of one of the hosts on NPR’s “Morning Edition” is Steve Inskeep and not, as I had always thought Steve Inskee- who knows, maybe the “P” is silent but I swear I’ve never heard it before. The other thing I learned is that, while there is “no doubt that a trend of global warming exists” we don’t need to worry about it. Well hooray for us, that’s a load off of my mind! It sure is good to know that NASA’s top official doesn’t think that global warming is a problem, even though he acknowledges it is occurring. On the aforementioned Morning Edition, Griffin said about global warming “I am not sure that it is fair to say this is a problem we must wrestle with” and went on to say that “to assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change”. Right… so I guess intact polar ice caps and a lack of pollution (including, interestingly enough, coke and pot) in the atmosphere aren’t part of our “optimal client”.

I haven’t done a lot of research on Michael Griffin but I’m assuming (and I realize that with the Bush administration this is taking a HUGE leap of faith) that his previous position wasn’t one which included judging horse shows. The man holds six degrees (okay so I’ve done a little research on the guy), how can anyone with six degrees not think that global worming should be stopped? Is it possible that after you get degree number four any further education dumbs you down? That appears to me to be the only possible explanation because to admit global warming exists and then to say that it’s not a problem feels like a contradiction in terms to me.

At this point I think it’s safe to say that the Bush administration has completely given up on trying to be either A) coherent or B) an asset to the Republican Party in the 2008 elections. Bush has now decided he will save Darfur on his own (something I’m pretty sure Republican’s are against) and he’s also decided to overhaul his environmental policy, and is now floating a few test balloons to see what the country would think if he decided that September is a little too soon to decide if the “surge” is working (probably because he realizes that the “surge” will never work so he figures he can just keep stalling until he’s out of office). I swear I half expect him to call a news conference and emerge with nothing on but and American flag thong to announce his new initiative to declare Crawford, Texas the new capital of the United States. Seriously, I half expect that to happen, that’s how much he’s given up on trying to appear like he knows what he’s doing. It’s almost like Karl Rove fills out policy mad libs every day and then tells Bush what to do based on that alone. I’m pretty sure next week Bush is going to: Buy Canada while wearing a tunic and listening to Peter Frampton’s Greatest Hits. He will then appoint Michael Emerson as Ambassador to Your Mom and watch Silver Spoons for three hours.

In the end though, I guess after the Democrats bent over and grabbed their ankles with the Iraq spending bill last week the Bush administration (and consequently anyone connected to it) realized that they can pretty much do whatever they want and get away with it. Great, good thing everyone went out and voted for a change in 2006, looks like it’s really paying off.

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I got the idea for this post while riding a train from Schaerding, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia. The majority of this train ride is rolling hills, plenty of trees and storybook villages. Storybook villages with one distinctive new feature: solar panels. Near farms and cottages, windmills speckled the countryside. I was so impressed by these things I felt the need to post something about it.

First, the solar panels. Solar panels are pretty much awesome. Ok, right now they still have a few kinks, and the photovoltaic cells used to generate power have to be replaced more often than would be ideal (but really, will anybody be satisfied until they never have to be replaced?). But to keep it simple, we’re not running out of sunshine anytime soon. Unless a meteor hits the earth, covering it a thick layer of dust and junk, we can pretty much count on the sun coming out eventually (although as I look out my window, it doesn’t seem like it will). The unfortunate thing about America is that it is actually illegal for many people to install their own solar panels. People who can afford to do this and are WILLING to do this are frequently told by city councils and neighborhood associations that they can’t. I can’t really think of good reasons for this. Riding through Austria, the solar panels didn’t detract from the beauty around me. This seems to be the only thing a neighborhood association could possible have against them. As for city governments and above, I can only assume that the electric company has a stronghold. In case you were unaware, in most places, if you install solar panels that supply your house with more energy than you use, you can sell it back to the power company. So I suppose if you could install enough you could actually profit (and your power company would be using a clean source of energy!).

And windmills. They are an incredibly old, time-tested source of power. And they are clean! Their main drawback (I’m being serious here) is that sometimes birds fly into them and die. I’m not overly concerned about this. Sorry PETA. And once again, some people consider them an eyesore. I find this argument stupid. Sure, if we tore down forests to build them, that would be bad. But when farmers place them in their fields, it is just adding another use to the land. And where would Holland be without their beloved windmills? They aren’t hideous, they can be quaint! Maybe if we switched back to the traditional Dutch design more people would jump on board. As with sunshine, I don’t see the wind going away anytime soon. And I think even if a meteor did hit earth, the wind would probably still blow all that dust around. So, really, they’re a fail-safe plan.

Tonight I went out to dinner with 2 American customers and 1 Austrian employee. The 2 visiting customers commented on the solar panels and windmills! Since I wrote this post yesterday, I found this worth noting. The Austrian was more than a little disgruntled with America’s carbon footprint. I also think I helped talk both of them into riding their bikes to work (at least occasionally). They also found the bird argument ridiculous. I also explained my recent conversion to vegetarianism (which is a big discussion point in Austria, people find it unbelievable that I haven’t starved yet), and both noted the need to reduce beef intake. They also mentioned an interested in buying more food from local growers. And they asked me for ways to reduce their carbon impact! Huzzah for environmentalism.

When I started writing this, I didn’t know if it was going to be an environmental rant, a report on Austria or some combination. So maybe I’ll educate everyone (including me) about Austria. Huzzah! If you don’t care about Austria then you can stop reading. Jerk.

First, Austria is a democratic republic with a president and two houses (sound familiar?). There are 9 constituent federal states. I am currently in Upper Austria. Vienna is both a federal state and the capital city. Currently 5 parties are represented in their parliament (20 seats out of 183 to the Green Party) (please see previous post: Everyone Likes Parties, Let’s Have More). The most exciting thing to me is that Austria is a permanently neutral state. Good for them! The current president is Heinz Fischer of the Social Democratic Party (SPO). They have elections every 6 years (next election: 2010). No incumbent has ever lost a presidential election. The president is mainly a figurehead, although technically the constitution grants him some very significant powers (like dissolving the Nationalrat, the more powerful of the 2 houses). The main exports are…just kidding. I’m done. But I really think it’s salt.

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Just a work conversation that irked me enough to write this…

I live in Arizona. At this point in time, it is much more of a personal lifestyle choice because I am no longer in college. By making a decision to live here, I believe I have to “deal” with the conditions (the heat, the dryness, the heat, etc.). Many of the residents of Arizona, particularly in the extremely dry, desert area of Maricopa County, drive me crazy on a regular basis. If you make the personal choice to live in a desert I believe you should use the natural ecosystem as a basis for landscaping. A coworker recently mentioned his desire for a tree in his new yard in Maricopa, AZ (Maricopa is an actual city, not just the county. It is located southwest of Chandler.). This angers me because there are few trees our climate can actually support, and Maricopa already has a severe water problem. And no, he did not want a palm tree.

I am extremely annoyed by the amounts of grass that people have in their lawns. I know it “looks nicer” than rocks or sand, but the desert ecosystem is not built for grass. The thousands of gallons of water that are used to water this grass could be put to much better use, and come drought season we’d all be thankful to have it. 5000 square feet of Buffalo grass requires nearly 78,000 gallons of water per year. I am happy to say that the house I will be moving into next year has no grass. Not only will we save money on our water bill, this landscaping decision best supports the natural conditions of Arizona.

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