Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness: What You Need to Know about the Healthcare Insurance Reforms that President Barack Obama Signed into Law

Michael Moore's Sicko


Several Democratic offices around the nation had been vandalized in the days surrounding the House health care vote ... The local Rochester ABC affiliate now has more information on the upstate NY vandalism, including an assassination threat against the children of lawmakers who voted for health reform ... Think Progress, 3-23-10

"The homepage shows a big photograph of Nancy Pelosi, and in huge block letters it says 'Fire Pelosi' and she is against a backdrop of flames," [CBS "Early Show" anchor Maggie Rodriguez] said. "Isn't this a little bit extreme?"
"No, no, actually I tamed it down," responded [RNC Chairman Michael Steele] ... Raw Story, 3-23-10

The US Secret Service says it is investigating two Twitter users who called for the assassination of President Barack Obama. The threats were apparently made over passage of Mr Obama's health care reform bill ... ABC News, 3-23-10

Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness: What You Need to Know about the Healthcare Insurance Reforms that President Barack Obama Signed into Law

By Richard Power

Of course, it is not just hate-filled air waves and random violence that we must contend with. There is also the action taken by some State Attorney Generals, mostly belonging to the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party; they are preparing to spend taxpayers' money to deny those very same taxpayers the desperately needed relief signed into law today by President Barack Obama.

So let's take a moment to re-affirm "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

First, here is a brief excerpt from a blog post by Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation; the post highlights what are to me the most meaningful elements of the healthcare bill that was signed into law by Barack Obama, i.e., those provisions insisted upon Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Katrina Vanden Heuvel is a journalist worthy of the hope that the Founders placed in a free press; and Bernie Sanders is a Senator worthy of the power that the Founders bestowed on the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government.

Sanders' provisions designate "$10 billion over five years to expand, construct and operate community health centers," which will "double the number of health center sites nationally over the next five years from 7,500 to 15,000." (There is "another $2.5 billion for health centers operations is in the reconciliation package").

But that's not all that Sanders got into the legislation.

It also increases the investment in the National Health Service Corps to train more primary care doctors and other health care professionals ...
The number of patients served by these facilities will rise from 20 million today to about 40 million by 2015. That means most Americans will have access to primary care, dental care, mental health counseling, and low-cost prescription drugs on a sliding-fee scale so that no one is turned away ...
The $1.5 billion allotted for loan repayments and scholarships through the National Health Service Corps will add more than 17,000 primary care doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and mental health professionals in medically underserved areas ...
According to researchers at George Washington University, the healthcare centers will save Medicaid $17 billion over the five-year period that would otherwise be spent on more expensive hospital and emergency room care. The American Academy of Family Physicians found that total medical expenses for health center patients were 41 percent lower compared to patients seen elsewhere. Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Sanders' Healthcare Revolution, The Nation, 3-23-10

In addition, here is Joe Conason's summary of the benefits that take immediate effect:

Although many of the bill’s most significant changes will not become effective until 2014, several important reforms will take effect this year. Insurance companies will be prohibited from their notorious practice of dropping coverage of people who get sick. Their rules on lifetime limits will be eliminated and their limits on annual coverage will be liberalized.
Insurers will no longer be permitted to exclude children from coverage because of preexisting conditions. And uninsured adults who have preexisting conditions that prevented them from obtaining insurance will get coverage from a special risk pool that will end when the new insurance exchanges—where private companies will compete—go into operation a few years from now. A similar program will cover early retirees who are too young to qualify for Medicare, assisting companies in turning over their workforce and creating jobs.
The bill also closes the infamous “donut hole” that the Republicans created when they wrote the Medicare Part D drug coverage bill. Patients who fall into that gap will receive a $250 rebate right away, and the hole will eventually be closed completely.
The Limbaugh listeners and Fox fans will stick their fingers in their ears and scream “socialism,” but the rest of America may listen—and decide sometime between now and Election Day that passing health care reform was the right thing to do. Joe Conason, Health Care and the Wingnuts, N.Y. Observer, 3-23-10

Support Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and his six bills to Save Democracy.

Stand with Howard Dean on the struggle to deliver meaningful healthcare reform.

Richard Power's True North on the Pathless Path: Toward 21st Century Spirituality is available from Amazon.com

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available from Lulu.com.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, Healthcare, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Joe Conason

On Healthcare, Wall Street, Climate, War, etc. - Is This The Democrats Best or Worst Hour? Both. There is a Great Difference Between Hell & Purgatory

Arnold Böcklin's Prometheus


Robert F. Kennedy speaking to Civil Rights activists on the steps of the U.S. Justice Department in 1963


All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.

Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.

I thought they'd get one of us, but Jack, after all he's been through, never worried about it I thought it would be me.

Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968)

On Healthcare, Wall Street, Climate, War, etc. - Is This The Democrats Best or Worst Hour? Both. There is a Great Difference Between Hell & Purgatory

By Richard Power

There is a difference between Purgatory and Hell; it is the difference between a finite ordeal and eternal damnation. And that's the difference between the Democratic Party (besotted as it is with corporatist campaign contributions) and the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party. If you dispute this, I urge you to ponder the difference between a Sonia Sotomayor and a John Roberts; and if you think the SCOTUS card is overplayed by us apologists for the Democratic Party, perhaps you should ponder the impact of Bush v. Gore and United v. FEC again. (That's why Ralph Nader has NO CREDIBILITY whatsoever, and will not have any until he admits this difference, and acknowledges that by campaigning against Gore in FLORDIA on the last weekend of the 2000 campaign, he was complicit in the theft of the election.)

Does our great experiment in democratic government deserve better than this unpleasant choice? Yes. But remember this, if the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party is allowed to regain national political dominance, well ... it is unthinkable ...

So let's get a few issues straight, up front --

It would be good to see Rahm Emmanuel resign; not for the disrespect he showed those he didn't intend to insult, but for the disrespect he showed those he did intend to insult. Arguably, he should never have been appointed to run the WH operation. Has his coziness with the corporate money behind the DLC blinded him to the grim realities of the Middle Class, the Working Poor and the Poorest of the Poor?

It would also be good to see Geithner and Summers resign. Arguably, they should never have been put in positions of federal authority in regard to the US financial system and economy. After all, aren't they among the architects of the very Wall Street boondoogles responsible for the financial crisis that they are now charged with preventing in the future?

But don't hold your breath waiting for any of these resignations. They are not forth-coming. The progressive movement will have to keep pushing against them and pulling on President Obama's better angels.

Of course, with the exception of Energy Secretary Chu and the Labor Secretary Solis, I was disappointed in almost all of Obama's Cabinet-level appointments; underwhelmed with most, and outright offended by a few.

For the last year, I have railed against the drip drip drip weakening of the healthcare reform legislation; I am a proponent of universal, single-payer healthcare for all (i.e., Medicare for Everybody), and have argued fiercely that a robust public option must be included in the current legislation.

On most other issues, from the Climate Crisis to the foolish military adventures in the deserts and mountains of the Middle East and Central Asia; I have called for far more urgent, forceful and uncompromising action to extricate us from the multi-layered predicaments in which we have been mired.

Perhaps my most ardent disagreement is with the refusal to pursue investigation of the Bush-Cheney regime for war crimes, war profiteering, and the politicization of the U.S. Justice Department.

But having stipulated all of the above, let me make this as plain and simple as I can --

Did you hear the seditious Beckwashed mob on the steps of the Capitol yesterday?

Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol, angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted "nigger" Saturday at U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s.
The protesters also shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, lawmakers said ... Protestors also used a slur as they confronted Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., an openly gay member of Congress. A writer for Huffington Post said the crowd called Frank a "faggot." Racism, Homophobia Dominates Tea Party Protest Over Health Care Bill, McClatchy News, 3-21-10

Well, if you heard the Beckwashed mob, then you know the truth of this moment.

This is an ugly win, a dissatisfying win; but it is still a win -- for hope and change, not hope and change as quantified and qualified by Barack Obama, but hope and change as demanded by the compelling forward momentum of human history.

Savor this victory, despite its bitter taste; it is yours, not Rahm Emmanuel's.

Do not turn your back on the rabid cultural beast that has been turned loose among us.

Do not turn your back on those who game economic and environmental disaster at the expense of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" for all.

Here are some reasonable comments from two of the progressive movement's Designated Drivers on this wild ride:

Nothing that’s legislated is perfect and in my view the good that will come from passing health care legislation outweighs the bad, but be warned: the pending House bill (that will go to the Senate for a “reconciliation” vote) does not repeal the antitrust exemption for health insurers, nor does it contain a public insurance option. It thereby will allow health insurers to continue to consolidate into even larger entities, gain as much market power as they can, and charge ever higher prices. Yet Americans will be required to buy health insurance from them. Assuming the bill becomes law, this dissonance spells trouble. It will have to be addressed before 2014, when the bill takes effect. Robert Reich, A Worried Postscript to the House Health Care Bill, 3-19-10

Actually, the proposed reform does more to control health care costs than any previous legislation, paying for expanded coverage by reducing the rate at which Medicare costs will grow, substantially improving Medicare’s long-run financing along the way. And this combination of broader coverage and cost control is no accident: It has long been clear to health-policy experts that these concerns go hand in hand. The United States is the only advanced nation without universal health care, and it also has by far the world’s highest health care costs.
Can you imagine a better reform? Sure. If Harry Truman had managed to add health care to Social Security back in 1947, we’d have a better, cheaper system than the one whose fate now hangs in the balance. But an ideal plan isn’t on the table. And what is on the table, ready to go, is legislation that is fiscally responsible, takes major steps toward dealing with rising health care costs, and would make us a better, fairer, more decent nation. Paul Krugman, Why We Reform, 3-19-10

Support Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and his six bills to Save Democracy.

Stand with Howard Dean on the struggle to deliver meaningful healthcare reform.

Richard Power's True North on the Pathless Path: Toward 21st Century Spirituality is available from Amazon.com

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available from Lulu.com.

Paul Krugman, Healthcare, Robert Reich,

Hard Rain Late Night: Emmylou Harris - Coat of Many Colors

Hard Rain Late Night: Emmylou Harris -- Coat of Many Colors

Three Inconvenient Truths from Three Leading Economists Who Have Earned Respect as Dissidents; If We Ignore Them, We Do So At Our Collective Peril

Odilon Redon's Parsifal


Are we finally in a recovery? Who's "we," kemosabe? Big global companies, Wall Street, and high-income Americans who hold their savings in financial instruments are clearly doing better. As to the rest of us - small businesses along Main Streets, and middle and lower-income Americans - forget it ... Robert Reich, The Sham Recovery, 3-12-10

Deficits to finance wars or giveaways to the financial sector (as happened on a massive scale in the U.S.) lead to liabilities without corresponding assets, imposing a burden on future generations. But high-return public investments that more than pay for themselves can actually improve the well-being of future generations, and it would be doubly foolish to burden them with debts from unproductive spending and then cut back on productive investments. Joseph Stiglitz, Dangers of Deficit Reduction, 3-7-10

So what’s the reality of the proposed reform? Compared with the Platonic ideal of reform, Obamacare comes up short. If the votes were there, I would much prefer to see Medicare for all. For a real piece of passable legislation, however, it looks very good ... This is a reasonable, responsible plan. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Paul Krugman, Health Reform Myths, 3-11-10

Three Inconvenient Truths from Three Leading Economists Who Have Earned Respect as Dissidents; If We Ignore Them, We Do So At Our Collective Peril

By Richard Power

In recent days, Robert Reich, Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, two Nobel Prize winners and a former Secretary of Labor, have all written important opinion pieces in which they articulate inconvenient truths, and challenge ascending memes, as well as the ideological groupings peddling these memes.

Reich challenges the Wall Street world-view of Barack Obama's economic captains (Geithner and Summers), Stiglitz challenges the Deficit Hawk posturing of the Blue Dogs, and Krugman challenges those on the Left and the Right who blindly denounce the health care reform legislation which may well become law this week.

During the Bush-Cheney regime, these three citizens earned enduring respect as outspoken dissidents, and they have only added to their credibility over this last year by forthrightly offering constructive criticism of the Obama administration.

If we ignore them now, we do so at our collective peril.

Words of Power offers, if nothing else, an ongoing chronology of courage and clarity of mind.

Here are excerpts from the three op-ed pieces, with links to the full texts:

Are we finally in a recovery? Who's "we," kemosabe? Big global companies, Wall Street, and high-income Americans who hold their savings in financial instruments are clearly doing better. As to the rest of us - small businesses along Main Streets, and middle and lower-income Americans - forget it ...
Part of the perceived growth in GDP is due to rising government expenditures. But this is smoke and mirrors. The stimulus is reaching its peak and will be smaller in months to come. And a bigger federal debt eventually has to be repaid.
So when you hear some economists say the current recovery is following the traditional path, don't believe a word. The path itself is being used to construct the GDP data. Robert Reich, The Sham Recovery, 3-12-10

A wave of fiscal austerity is rushing over Europe and America. The magnitude of budget deficits -- like the magnitude of the downturn -- has taken many by surprise. But despite protests by yesterday's proponents of deregulation, who would like the government to remain passive, most economists believe that government spending has made a difference, helping to avert another Great Depression ...
Over the longer term, most economists agree that governments, especially in advanced industrial countries with aging populations, should be concerned about the sustainability of their policies. But we must be wary of deficit fetishism. Deficits to finance wars or giveaways to the financial sector (as happened on a massive scale in the U.S.) lead to liabilities without corresponding assets, imposing a burden on future generations. But high-return public investments that more than pay for themselves can actually improve the well-being of future generations, and it would be doubly foolish to burden them with debts from unproductive spending and then cut back on productive investments.
These are questions for a later day -- at least in many countries, prospects of a robust recovery are, at best, a year or two away. For now, the economics is clear: Reducing government spending is a risk not worth taking. Joseph Stiglitz, Dangers of Deficit Reduction, 3-7-10

The first of these myths, which has been all over the airwaves lately, is the claim that President Obama is proposing a government takeover of one-sixth of the economy, the share of G.D.P. currently spent on health ...
The second myth is that the proposed reform does nothing to control costs ...
Which brings me to the third myth: that health reform is fiscally irresponsible ...
So what’s the reality of the proposed reform? Compared with the Platonic ideal of reform, Obamacare comes up short. If the votes were there, I would much prefer to see Medicare for all.
For a real piece of passable legislation, however, it looks very good. It wouldn’t transform our health care system; in fact, Americans whose jobs come with health coverage would see little effect. But it would make a huge difference to the less fortunate among us, even as it would do more to control costs than anything we’ve done before.
This is a reasonable, responsible plan. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Paul Krugman, Health Reform Myths, 3-11-10

Support Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and his six bills to Save Democracy.

Stand with Howard Dean on the struggle to deliver meaningful healthcare reform.

For an archive of Words of Power posts on Economic Insecurity, click here.

Richard Power's True North on the Pathless Path: Toward 21st Century Spirituality is available from Amazon.com

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available from Lulu.com.

Paul Krugman, Healthcae, Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Reich,

At This Moment of Global & National Crisis, Do You have Eyes to See, & Ears to Hear? Are You Ready to Share the Hope & Courage this Moment Demands?

Gustav Klimt, Hope I (1903)


"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."

"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood."

"The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict."

-- Dr. Martin Luther King

At This Moment of Global & National Crisis, Do You have Eyes to See, & Ears to Hear? Are You Ready to Share the Hope & Courage this Moment Demands?

By Richard Power

At this particular moment in history, there are extremely dangerous circumstances for us to come to grips with, and extremely difficult decisions for us to be make.

Who will dare to speak honestly about our circumstances? Who will dare to articulate the hard decisions these circumstances demand?

And who will dare to walk with those who dare to lead?

We cannot afford to allow the future of the planet and the nation to be the plaything of the Karl Roves and Rahmn Emmanuels among us. Rove's role in the betrayal of U.S. secret agent Valerie Plame is evidence enough that he is a sociopath. Emmanuel's failure to understand how and why Obama was elected is proof enough that he does not know the world nearly as well as he thinks he does.

We have urgent and serious problems to address; and neither of these sick puppies have proven up to the task at hand.

Consider this story:

A new study released by the research and consulting firm Spectrem Group finds that the number of millionaires in the United States increased by double digits the last year. According to Spectrem Group’s data, “families with a net worth of at least $1 million, excluding primary residences, rose to 7.8 million in 2009,” an increase of 16 percent ... Number of millionaires in America increased 16 percent in 2009, Think Progress, 3-9-10

Yes, the number of millionaires in the US increased by double digits in 2009.

Meanwhile, there were tens of millions unemployed, tens of millions more uninsured, hundreds of thousands dying (literally) from lack of health insurance; there were also millions of foreclosures in 2009, and millions more projected in 2010,, as well as millions of personal bankruptcies ("in 2009, they totaled 1,412,838, up 32 percent from the 1,074,108 non-business bankruptcy filings in 2008").

Is the U.S. immolating itself on the pyre of predatory capitalism?

It may not be the only burnt offering ...

China's rural-urban wealth gap was the widest last year since the nation launched its economic transformation three decades ago, state media said Tuesday, amid concerns the disparity could spark unrest. China wealth gap widened in 2009: state media, Agence France Press, 3-2-10

Migrant Mother/Pea-Picker in the Dust Bowl, Photo by Dorothea Lange, 1936


Meanwhile, downstream on the river of tears ...

A new election law unveiled on Wednesday by Burma's ruling military bars pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running in upcoming elections and could force her own political party to expel her. Election Law Bars Aung San Suu Kyi, Irrawaddy, 3-10-10

Image: Aung San Suu Kyi, TIME 100


Listen, let's cut the crap.

Burma had a real election - in 1990; and Aung San Suu Kyi's party won 59% of the vote.

She was to be Prime Minister, but she was already under house arrest, and she has remained under house arrest for almost all the 20 years since.

There will not be another real election in Burma until the junta fails.

And at the Academy Awards, in Hollywood, an unfortunate choice was made:

Science fiction blockbuster Avatar was the big loser in the Oscar awards ceremony - not only a blow for director James Cameron but also seen as a symbolic reverse in the struggle to recover Amazon rainforest areas in Ecuador from the effects of oil pollution. Several environmental organisations, like the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and the Amazon Defence Coalition, had asked Cameron to "let his legions of fans know that while Pandora is fictional, what is happening to (indigenous) communities in Ecuador is as real as it gets." ECUADOR: Avatar Downfall a Blow for Indigenous Communities, IPS, 3-9-10

Avatar, a film by James Cameron

Can't you put your ear to the earth and hear what is happening?

Can't you gaze into the heaving of the sea and read what is written in its tumult?

A section of the Arctic Ocean seafloor that holds vast stores of frozen methane is showing signs of instability and widespread venting of the powerful greenhouse gas, according to the findings of an international research team led by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists Natalia Shakhova and Igor Semiletov. Arctic Seabed Methane Stores Destabilizing And Venting, Terra Daily, 3-9-10

At this profound moment in human history, those of us who hear and see are like a shipwreck survivor trying to stay afloat in deep water, while holding on to a flailing and hysterical friend:

The Heritage Foundation, a once-influential conservative think tank, has long had extreme views (see “Heritage even opposes energy efficiency“). Now it has completely lost its grip on reality, comparing the IPCC’s scientific work to what a magician at a children’s party does ... “The Heritage Foundation loses its grip on reality, calls science ‘magic’”, Climate Progess, 3-5-10

Perhaps we have to accept that there is no simple solution to public disbelief in science. The battle over climate change suggests that the more clearly you spell the problem out, the more you turn people away. If they don't want to know, nothing and no one will reach them. There goes my life's work. George Monbiot, The Unpersuadables: When Facts Are Not Enough, Guardian, 3-9-10

There are few writers who I respect more than George Monbiot, but I am not ready to give up on his life's work, or my own.


I prefer to stand with ICC president Sang-Hyun Song - in defiant hope:

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will eventually face justice in The Hague, according to the head of the International Criminal Court ... "When arrest warrants were issued against Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor, people laughed and said it was a joke, but it took less than three years to get them brought before the tribunal," Song said on a visit to London.
"President Bashir will be brought to the Hague to face justice." ICC chief: Sudan's Bashir "will face justice", Reuters, 3-4-10

Remember, everyone and everything everywhere is connected.

What you do counts. What you say counts. What you know counts. What you feel counts. What you are counts.

There is still time, there is still hope.

There is still a way, even if we have not yet found it.

Georgia O'Keefe, Blue Flower (1918)



For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.

Have you met Al Gore at the Wall yet?

I encourage you to find out why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love: go to 350.org or Google "Bill McKibben" for the answer.

As always, I encourage you to follow events in Darfur on Mia Farrow's site, it is the real-time journal of a humanitarian at work; the content is compelling, insightful and fiercely independent.

For an archive of Words of Power posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

Support Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and his six bills to Save Democracy.

Stand with Howard Dean on the struggle to deliver meaningful healthcare reform.

True North on the Pathless Path: Toward 21st Century Spirituality is available from Amazon.com

Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available from Lulu.com.

Al Gore, Darfur, Mia Farrow, Climate Crisis, George Monbiot, 350, Aung San Suu Kyi

Hard Rain Late Night: Po'a Girl -- Deer in the Night ( Lawrence, KS - Folkonmass House Concert - 11/2/2008)

Hard Rain Late Night: Po' Girl -- Deer in the Night ( Lawrence, KS - Folkonmass House Concert - 11/2/2008)

Why Don't US Biz, Gov & Media Leaders Understand What Louise Vet, Al Gore, Rep. Tom Perriello & the Loggerhead Turtle Mothers Understand?

Botticelli's Birth of Venus


It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it. Al Gore, NYT, 2-27-10

Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA): Until the Senate gets its head out of its rear end and starts to see the crisis we’re in, our country is literally at risk. Think Progess, 2-27-10

To halt the planet's declining biodiversity and loss of critical natural resources, both the economy we live in and communication about science needs to be changed profoundly, says a prominent Dutch ecologist [Louise Vet]. IPS, 2-21-10

Yesterday, the South Dakota legislature passed a resolution telling public schools to teach “balance” about the “prejudiced” science of climate change by a vote of 37-33. Earlier language that ascribed “astrological” influences to global warming was stripped from the final version. This act of conspiracy-driven ideology is hardly alone — a Wonk Room investigation has found at least fifteen state legislatures attempting to prevent limits on greenhouse gas pollution. Think Progress, 3-2-10

Why Don't US Biz, Gov & Media Leaders Understand What Louise Vet, Al Gore, Rep. Tom Perriello & the Loggerhead Mother Turtles Understand?

By Richard Power

The clearing of the earthquake rubble in Haiti will take 1,000 trucks 1,000 days. The 8.8 earthquake that hit Chile less than one month later shifted the earth's axis, and shortened our day by 1.26 microseconds. (Likewise, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, also shifted the axis and shortened our day, by 6.8 microseconds.) Meanwhile ... An iceberg the size of Luxembourg has split away from the Antarctic ice shelf and is floating free in the Southern ocean. It was created when another giant berg smashed into the Mertz glacier, itself cracked and weakened by global warming. A huge chunk broke off, and both are now side by side in normally ice-free water. The biggest worry is not navigation. The bergs may prevent cold, dense, super-saline water from descending to the ocean floor at one of the only places in the world where this vital oxygenating process takes place. It could also affect ocean currents around the world. Euro News, 2-26-10

The loggerhead turtle mothers understand what is going on. They can feel the earth changing radically all around them; they have recognized this crisis and they are responding as best they can.

A turtle researcher says global warming is behind an influx of loggerhead turtles breeding in south-east Queensland ... global warming is making beaches further north too hot for nests ... The heat is cooking the eggs instead of incubating them ... (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2-24-10)

The Dutch economist, Louise Vet, understands. She has recognized the crisis and is articulating a proactive human response.

To halt the planet's declining biodiversity and loss of critical natural resources, both the economy we live in and communication about science needs to be changed profoundly, says a prominent Dutch ecologist. We presently live in a linear "take, make and waste" economy in which natural resources are running out and ecosystems are being destroyed, says Louise Vet, extraordinary professor of evolutionary ecology in The Netherlands. But this clash between economic and ecological interests could be reconciled by implementing a so-called "circular economy", she argues. Liza Jansen interviews Dutch ecologist LOUISE VET, IPS, 2-21-10

But here in the what has devolved into Land of the Feeble and the Home of the Beserk, here at the center of the floundering Empire, there are only a few courageous voices raised within the corridors of power:

It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it. Of course, we would still need to deal with the national security risks of our growing dependence on a global oil market dominated by dwindling reserves in the most unstable region of the world, and the economic risks of sending hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas in return for that oil. And we would still trail China in the race to develop smart grids, fast trains, solar power, wind, geothermal and other renewable sources of energy — the most important sources of new jobs in the 21st century.
But what a burden would be lifted! We would no longer have to worry that our grandchildren would one day look back on us as a criminal generation that had selfishly and blithely ignored clear warnings that their fate was in our hands. We could instead celebrate the naysayers who had doggedly persisted in proving that every major National Academy of Sciences report on climate change had simply made a huge mistake. Al Gore, NYT, 2-27-10

[Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA)] has not one lick of sympathy for those in the Senate who deny these threats: That’s more insider baseball crap. I don’t really care. I’m sick of starting with what can we get through the Senate; let’s start with what solves the damn problem. Until the Senate gets its head out of its rear end and starts to see the crisis we’re in, our country is literally at risk. Our economy is at risk, because these jobs are being created overseas. It should have the same urgency with this problem that it had bailing out Wall Street. We are swearing an oath to do what’s necessary to protect this country, not do what’s necessary to get a bill through the Senate. Think Progess, 2-27-10

And what of those who deny the reality of this crisis out of greed and narcissism? Well, Dante left behind a travel guide for their journey to ultimate accountability.

Tell me, what will Hannity, Limbaugh and Beck say when the Atlantic Conveyor Belt stalls?

Waters from warmer latitudes - or subtropical waters - are reaching Greenland's glaciers, driving melting and likely triggering an acceleration of ice loss, reports a team of researchers led by Fiamma Straneo, a physical oceanographer from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). "This is the first time we've seen waters this warm in any of the fjords in Greenland," says Straneo. "The subtropical waters are flowing through the fjord very quickly, so they can transport heat and drive melting at the end of the glacier." Terra Daily, 2-25-10

Fourth Rung of Hell


What will Murdoch's Wall Street Journal say?

It simply boggles the mind — and raises serious questions of journalistic bias for the paper — that the WSJ can run this error-riddled attack on [Michael] Mann and the Hockey Stick without even mentioning any of these three central facts:
* The Hockey Stick was affirmed in a major review by the uber-prestigious National Academy of Scientists (in media-speak, the highest scientific “court” in the land).
* The Hockey Stick has been replicated and strengthened by numerous independent studies. My favorite is from Science last year — see Human-caused Arctic warming overtakes 2,000 years of natural cooling, “seminal” study finds (the source of the figure below).
* Penn State itself in recent review, concluded, “After careful consideration of all the evidence and relevant materials, the inquiry committee finding is that there exists no credible evidence that Dr. Mann had or has ever engaged in, or participated in, directly or indirectly, any actions with an intent to suppress or to falsify data.” Climate Progress, 2-26-10

What will the US mainstream news media say?

Mass media have been a key vehicle by which climate change contrarianism has traveled, according to Maxwell Boykoff, a University of Colorado at Boulder professor and fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES ... "One problem occurs when outlier viewpoints are not individually evaluated in context," said Boykoff ... Another issue in mass media is the tendency to flatly report on both the claims of contrarians, as well as the accusations made about their claims and motives, he said. The ensuing finger-pointing plays into the conflict, drama and personalized stories that drive news ... "Reducing climate science and policy considerations to a tit-for-tat between dueling personalities comes at the expense of appraising fundamental challenges regarding the necessary de-carbonization of industry and society," said Boykoff. Terra Daily, 2-24-10

Dante speaks to the Traitors in the Ice


What will the loose screws who shill for oil, gas and coal in Beltwayistan say?

Climate scientists say Senator James Inhofe's call for a criminal investigation into American as well as British scientists who worked on the UN climate body's report or had communications with East Anglia's climate research unit represents an attempt to silence debate on the eve of new proposals for a climate change law. Guardian, 3-1-10

What will the US Chamber of Coercion say?

Today, the U.S. chamber appears not to recognize the economic threat posed by climate change. Instead, the chamber's leadership continues to trot out exaggerated and one-sided claims about how the regulation of greenhouse gases would eliminate jobs and "strangle the economy." While some companies in the fossil fuel and power sectors will face reductions in profits under a cap-and-trade scheme, the long-term consequences of unchecked climate change will be harmful and expensive for everyone. Yale Environment 360, 2-26-10

Lower Hell Inside the Walls of Dis


For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.

Have you met Al Gore at the Wall yet?

I encourage you to find out why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love: go to 350.org or Google "Bill McKibben" for the answer.

Richard Power's True North on the Pathless Path: Toward 21st Century Spirituality is available from Amazon.com

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available from Lulu.com.

Al Gore, Tom Perriello, Louise Vet, Climate Crisis, Chile, 350, Haiti, Australia, Sustainability, Anarctica