The conservative blogosphere, led by up and coming right wing-nut Michelle Malkin have been frantically pushing to label the stimulus bill the “Generational Theft Bill,” and impressionable republicans on the hill are echoing this ill-conceived branding quip. Generational Theft? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Apparently in the eyes of these pundits and politicians all debt is not created equal…

When Bush nearly doubled the national debt from 5.7 trillion to almost 11 trillion dollars to fund the Iraq war and give tax cuts to the wealthy, that wasn’t “Generational Theft.” Even though we’ll be paying for his policies for years to come, he was investing in our future, and making the world a better, safer place.

>>See also: Who Wins with Passage of Stimulus? Google, of Course

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Campaign politics dominated the headlines in 2008, making it a banner year for the armchair pundit and the politically uninitiated alike. 2008 was also a year that issues like energy use, climate change and carbon footprints came to the forefront of popular culture and political reality. And that’s where we came in.

In the tradition of more credible media outlets, we’ve compiled our most popular stories of the year into an easily digestible top 10 list. As it is based purely on pageviews, we realize that our list of the top ten environmental politics stories of the year is by no means scientific - and we’re okay with that.

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This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post.

5. Imagining a $700 Billion Bailout for the Environment

Stemming from the fall of mortgage-backed securities, spiking oil prices, and a host of other variables, the economic crisis came to a head in September and October when the federal government began looking at corporate bailouts of unprecedented proportions. In a piece that did particularly well at StumbleUpon, Jennifer Lance considered what investments of this size could do for the environment:

“What if the US government had responded to the twenty years of dire warnings by James Hansen in the same manner as the current economic crisis?  Such an aggressive response may have stopped climate change and saved our economy through green jobs and technology.”

4. New York City to Get LED Street Lighting

This is the story responsible for a major re-arrangement in this year’s best of.  Just last week, Jerry James stone reported on big news out of New York City that city officials would be testing energy efficient LED street lights. If successful, all of the city’s 300,000 street lamps could potentially be replaced with the LED models. This post did well at digg, reddit, and StumbleUpon.

3. Did McCain’s Colorado River Gaffe Cost Him in the West?

While campaigning in Colorado, Sen. John McCain told the Pueblo Chieftan that, as president, he would consider renegotiating the Colorado River Compact:  a virtual no-no in headwater states like Colorado where Democrats and Republicans alike think downstream states already get more than their fair share of water. In a post that did well at digg, Timothy Hurst wrote:

“John McCain has again said something to cause his fellow western-state Republicans to wince at his political inexpedience and apparent naivete for the issue at hand. And even though the Senator has now recanted and begun damage control, Democrats are hoping that this one will cost him. Some even argue that the gaffe was so severe, he may have just lost Colorado.”

2. European Union Bans the Incandescent Light Bulb

EU energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg gave final approval to an EU-wide ban on incandescent light bulbs that would begin in 2010. The new light bulb scheme will initially apply to bulbs of 75 watts and higher. The phasing out of the traditional bulbs set to begin on March 1, 2009, is part of a larger EU strategy to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This story got a good bit of attention at reddit and digg.

1. How 1900’s Environmental Predictions Fared

Admittedly, the most viewed post in 2008 at Red, Green, & Blue is not about environmental politics, per se, and it didn’t really happen in 2008, but using our simple metric of popularity, it was the ‘biggest.’

In 1900,  John Elfreth Watkins put together a collection of predictions in the Ladies Home Journal about the future of the U.S. and the world by the end of the 20th century. Timothy Hurst cherry-picked 14 enviro-related predictions and looked at what actually happened one hundred years later. Some of the predictions are uncannily accurate, yet others were more than a little wide of the mark. This post had good traffic from digg and reddit, and especially Yahoo! buzz.

*We’ve included links to some of the social media networks where individual posts have performed well. For brevity’s sake we kept the number of those links to one or two per post. That notwithstanding, we are exceedingly grateful to ALL of you for the support you have shown on ALL of the social media and web 2.0 spaces in 2008. We would be nowhere without your help.

Images: © Imre Forgo (2008); © Foto.fritz (solar panel); (Palin); Clemson via flickr (flat tire); My Heromudpig via flickr (NY nightscape); laszlo-photo via flickr (light bulb); yahoo! buzz (crystal ball). (solar install).

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Being a member of the President’s White House staff is no easy task.  President Andrew Jackson actually had two cabinets to hold the union together.  One was the formal cabinet which met in the White House and the other was known as his “Kitchen Cabinet” which met after hours across the street.

The Secretary of Energy will not be an easy role to assume.  The price of gas may have fallen recently, but that does not make us immune to future shortages and overseas skirmishes over resources.  President-elect Obama has been a symbol of American progress.  I sincerely hope his choice for the head of the DOE will share his vision and make sure we are on the right path to energy independence.

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Beyond the rhetoric, the mud-slinging, the polls, and even the “issues” is the fact that this “American Experiment” of democracy is greater than any candidate running for office, or political party. Like Thomas M. DeFrank at nydailynews says

“After 931 days of campaigning, 109 primaries and caucuses, 47 debates and $5 billion spent, this marathon election nears its historic finish. Whatever Tuesday’s verdict, America will demolish political barriers that have stood through 55 quadrennial contests by choosing its first African-American President or its first female vice president.”

The previous 2 presidential elections (2000, 2004) also generated record levels of interest and voters from both sides of the political fence, much like today’s election. Following those elections, the country seemed to become very politically divided and the whole thing created a new breed of partisan-based patriotism. No matter who wins today, the next president will have the challenge of uniting the country and bringing opinions together to reach consensus. So when it comes to eco-policy, just how different are democrats & republicans?

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If you think you’ve heard those words a lot from our presidential candidates, you’re right. The Global Language Monitor, which has been tracking the entire Obama/McCain showdown, puts them as the top three “buzzwords” in this election.

Most of us have played the Buzzwords board game, but at GLM, “political buzzwords are terms or phrases that become loaded with emotional freight beyond the normal meaning of the word.”

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According to the New York Times, Exxon has exceeded $10 billion in profit in nine of the last 12 quarters. Earlier this year, in the second quarter, the company posted a then-record profit. In the third quarter, Exxon reaped an increase of nearly 60 percent beyond that, setting yet another record while dropping its production by 8 percent for the quarter.

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Elections are always riddled with controversy over voting. There’s that whole Bush stolen election thing (I think he did it), voting machine accuracy and the latest GOP attacks on voter’s rights brought to light by the ACLU.

Yes, it seems the Republicans will do almost anything to keep voters away from the polls. Of course, they aren’t the only ones.

So how can you fight back? Well, you cannot actually vote twice - that would be illegal and very very wrong. But you can carpool to your voting booth, ensuring other greenies like yourself vote yes on good green policy and save fuel along the way! And Al Gore’s Live Earth has partnered with Zimride.com to help you out.

Carpolling, if you will.

Image source: © Miflippo | Dreamstime.com

5. Imagining a $700 Billion Bailout for the Environment

Stemming from the fall of mortgage-backed securities, spiking oil prices, and a host of other variables, the economic crisis came to a head in September and October when the federal government began looking at corporate bailouts of unprecedented proportions. In a piece that did particularly well at StumbleUpon, Jennifer Lance considered what investments of this size could do for the environment:

“What if the US government had responded to the twenty years of dire warnings by James Hansen in the same manner as the current economic crisis?  Such an aggressive response may have stopped climate change and saved our economy through green jobs and technology.”

4. New York City to Get LED Street Lighting

This is the story responsible for a major re-arrangement in this year’s best of.  Just last week, Jerry James stone reported on big news out of New York City that city officials would be testing energy efficient LED street lights. If successful, all of the city’s 300,000 street lamps could potentially be replaced with the LED models. This post did well at digg, reddit, and StumbleUpon.

3. Did McCain’s Colorado River Gaffe Cost Him in the West?

While campaigning in Colorado, Sen. John McCain told the Pueblo Chieftan that, as president, he would consider renegotiating the Colorado River Compact:  a virtual no-no in headwater states like Colorado where Democrats and Republicans alike think downstream states already get more than their fair share of water. In a post that did well at digg, Timothy Hurst wrote:

“John McCain has again said something to cause his fellow western-state Republicans to wince at his political inexpedience and apparent naivete for the issue at hand. And even though the Senator has now recanted and begun damage control, Democrats are hoping that this one will cost him. Some even argue that the gaffe was so severe, he may have just lost Colorado.”

2. European Union Bans the Incandescent Light Bulb

EU energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg gave final approval to an EU-wide ban on incandescent light bulbs that would begin in 2010. The new light bulb scheme will initially apply to bulbs of 75 watts and higher. The phasing out of the traditional bulbs set to begin on March 1, 2009, is part of a larger EU strategy to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This story got a good bit of attention at reddit and digg.

1. How 1900’s Environmental Predictions Fared

Admittedly, the most viewed post in 2008 at Red, Green, & Blue is not about environmental politics, per se, and it didn’t really happen in 2008, but using our simple metric of popularity, it was the ‘biggest.’

In 1900,  John Elfreth Watkins put together a collection of predictions in the Ladies Home Journal about the future of the U.S. and the world by the end of the 20th century. Timothy Hurst cherry-picked 14 enviro-related predictions and looked at what actually happened one hundred years later. Some of the predictions are uncannily accurate, yet others were more than a little wide of the mark. This post had good traffic from digg and reddit, and especially Yahoo! buzz.

*We’ve included links to some of the social media networks where individual posts have performed well. For brevity’s sake we kept the number of those links to one or two per post. That notwithstanding, we are exceedingly grateful to ALL of you for the support you have shown on ALL of the social media and web 2.0 spaces in 2008. We would be nowhere without your help.

Images: © Imre Forgo (2008); © Foto.fritz (solar panel); (Palin); Clemson via flickr (flat tire); My Heromudpig via flickr (NY nightscape); laszlo-photo via flickr (light bulb); yahoo! buzz (crystal ball). (solar install).

Related Articles:

Low Impact Living: Who’s the Greenest? Obama vs. McCain
My Bottom Line is Green: McCain v. Obama on Renewable Energy

5. Imagining a $700 Billion Bailout for the Environment

Stemming from the fall of mortgage-backed securities, spiking oil prices, and a host of other variables, the economic crisis came to a head in September and October when the federal government began looking at corporate bailouts of unprecedented proportions. In a piece that did particularly well at StumbleUpon, Jennifer Lance considered what investments of this size could do for the environment:

“What if the US government had responded to the twenty years of dire warnings by James Hansen in the same manner as the current economic crisis?  Such an aggressive response may have stopped climate change and saved our economy through green jobs and technology.”

4. New York City to Get LED Street Lighting

This is the story responsible for a major re-arrangement in this year’s best of.  Just last week, Jerry James stone reported on big news out of New York City that city officials would be testing energy efficient LED street lights. If successful, all of the city’s 300,000 street lamps could potentially be replaced with the LED models. This post did well at digg, reddit, and StumbleUpon.

3. Did McCain’s Colorado River Gaffe Cost Him in the West?

While campaigning in Colorado, Sen. John McCain told the Pueblo Chieftan that, as president, he would consider renegotiating the Colorado River Compact:  a virtual no-no in headwater states like Colorado where Democrats and Republicans alike think downstream states already get more than their fair share of water. In a post that did well at digg, Timothy Hurst wrote:

“John McCain has again said something to cause his fellow western-state Republicans to wince at his political inexpedience and apparent naivete for the issue at hand. And even though the Senator has now recanted and begun damage control, Democrats are hoping that this one will cost him. Some even argue that the gaffe was so severe, he may have just lost Colorado.”

2. European Union Bans the Incandescent Light Bulb

EU energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg gave final approval to an EU-wide ban on incandescent light bulbs that would begin in 2010. The new light bulb scheme will initially apply to bulbs of 75 watts and higher. The phasing out of the traditional bulbs set to begin on March 1, 2009, is part of a larger EU strategy to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This story got a good bit of attention at reddit and digg.

1. How 1900’s Environmental Predictions Fared

Admittedly, the most viewed post in 2008 at Red, Green, & Blue is not about environmental politics, per se, and it didn’t really happen in 2008, but using our simple metric of popularity, it was the ‘biggest.’

In 1900,  John Elfreth Watkins put together a collection of predictions in the Ladies Home Journal about the future of the U.S. and the world by the end of the 20th century. Timothy Hurst cherry-picked 14 enviro-related predictions and looked at what actually happened one hundred years later. Some of the predictions are uncannily accurate, yet others were more than a little wide of the mark. This post had good traffic from digg and reddit, and especially Yahoo! buzz.

*We’ve included links to some of the social media networks where individual posts have performed well. For brevity’s sake we kept the number of those links to one or two per post. That notwithstanding, we are exceedingly grateful to ALL of you for the support you have shown on ALL of the social media and web 2.0 spaces in 2008. We would be nowhere without your help.

Images: © Imre Forgo (2008); © Foto.fritz (solar panel); (Palin); Clemson via flickr (flat tire); My Heromudpig via flickr (NY nightscape); laszlo-photo via flickr (light bulb); yahoo! buzz (crystal ball). (solar install).

Our destination was Washington D.C. and after careful consideration, we concluded that getting to the nation’s capitol by train was both the most energy efficient way (when compared to flying or driving) and a most enjoyable one. We stretched out on comfortable and spacious seats, had plenty of room to stretch our legs in the lounge or cafe car, avoided the hassles of airline check-in and security, and had ample free time to play games with our son, read a book, watch the world passing by out the windows, even sip a cup of Fair Trade Certified Green Mountain Coffee purchased at their cafe.

Hardly our first train trip on Amtrak (and no stranger to the European intercity rail system), we, as ecotravelers, found riding with Amtrak far more than an ecologically sound and more fuel efficient way to travel. We joined a community of fellow travelers eager to slow down more to enjoy the scenery, rather than flying thousands of feet overhead or speeding down boring Interstate Highways in a car.

Americans are riding the rails in a big way these days. From October 2006 to September 2007, about 25.8 million Americans took a trip on Amtrak. An average of more than 70,000 passengers ride on up to 300 Amtrak trains per day. Amtrak, officially called the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, was created by the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970. After a 150 years of passenger rail service by private freight companies largely disappeared due to the rapid growth (and, in hindsight, disasterous ecological and social impacts) of automobile and airline travel, the U.S. government stepped in to set up a public service passenger rail service so that intercity passenger train travel could still be continued. Fortunately for us.

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Who do you want to be the next President of the United States of America?

(A) An unbranded cow.

(B) A politician who doesn’t listen to his/her associates (AKA “The Decider”).

(C) A tool of war.

(D) None of the above.

Image credit: maverick. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved October 28, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/maverick

5. Imagining a $700 Billion Bailout for the Environment

Stemming from the fall of mortgage-backed securities, spiking oil prices, and a host of other variables, the economic crisis came to a head in September and October when the federal government began looking at corporate bailouts of unprecedented proportions. In a piece that did particularly well at StumbleUpon, Jennifer Lance considered what investments of this size could do for the environment:

“What if the US government had responded to the twenty years of dire warnings by James Hansen in the same manner as the current economic crisis?  Such an aggressive response may have stopped climate change and saved our economy through green jobs and technology.”

4. New York City to Get LED Street Lighting

This is the story responsible for a major re-arrangement in this year’s best of.  Just last week, Jerry James stone reported on big news out of New York City that city officials would be testing energy efficient LED street lights. If successful, all of the city’s 300,000 street lamps could potentially be replaced with the LED models. This post did well at digg, reddit, and StumbleUpon.

3. Did McCain’s Colorado River Gaffe Cost Him in the West?

While campaigning in Colorado, Sen. John McCain told the Pueblo Chieftan that, as president, he would consider renegotiating the Colorado River Compact:  a virtual no-no in headwater states like Colorado where Democrats and Republicans alike think downstream states already get more than their fair share of water. In a post that did well at digg, Timothy Hurst wrote:

“John McCain has again said something to cause his fellow western-state Republicans to wince at his political inexpedience and apparent naivete for the issue at hand. And even though the Senator has now recanted and begun damage control, Democrats are hoping that this one will cost him. Some even argue that the gaffe was so severe, he may have just lost Colorado.”

2. European Union Bans the Incandescent Light Bulb

EU energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg gave final approval to an EU-wide ban on incandescent light bulbs that would begin in 2010. The new light bulb scheme will initially apply to bulbs of 75 watts and higher. The phasing out of the traditional bulbs set to begin on March 1, 2009, is part of a larger EU strategy to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This story got a good bit of attention at reddit and digg.

1. How 1900’s Environmental Predictions Fared

Admittedly, the most viewed post in 2008 at Red, Green, & Blue is not about environmental politics, per se, and it didn’t really happen in 2008, but using our simple metric of popularity, it was the ‘biggest.’

In 1900,  John Elfreth Watkins put together a collection of predictions in the Ladies Home Journal about the future of the U.S. and the world by the end of the 20th century. Timothy Hurst cherry-picked 14 enviro-related predictions and looked at what actually happened one hundred years later. Some of the predictions are uncannily accurate, yet others were more than a little wide of the mark. This post had good traffic from digg and reddit, and especially Yahoo! buzz.

*We’ve included links to some of the social media networks where individual posts have performed well. For brevity’s sake we kept the number of those links to one or two per post. That notwithstanding, we are exceedingly grateful to ALL of you for the support you have shown on ALL of the social media and web 2.0 spaces in 2008. We would be nowhere without your help.

Images: © Imre Forgo (2008); © Foto.fritz (solar panel); (Palin); Clemson via flickr (flat tire); My Heromudpig via flickr (NY nightscape); laszlo-photo via flickr (light bulb); yahoo! buzz (crystal ball). (solar install).

1. Introduction
It’s obvious why Sarah Palin got the VP nod. And Saturday Night Live makes this point most brilliantly: Hillary Clinton.

2. Sarah Palin On The Environment
Just one day before being picked as the GOP vice president, she wrote a letter to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging him to shoot down policy aimed at pollution.

3. Sarah Palin On Ethics
Palin’s record is already dirty enough to warrant a trip to the free clinic, and that’s just as Governor! What is she capable of if elected as VP?

4. Sarah Palin On Energy and Big Oil
Sarah Palin dismisses alternative energy in favor of a pipeline built by God.

5. Sarah Palin On Foreign Policy
Colin Powell is jumping party lines because of Palin - can we afford her on the job training?

Image Credit: bobster1985 via flickr

5. Imagining a $700 Billion Bailout for the Environment

Stemming from the fall of mortgage-backed securities, spiking oil prices, and a host of other variables, the economic crisis came to a head in September and October when the federal government began looking at corporate bailouts of unprecedented proportions. In a piece that did particularly well at StumbleUpon, Jennifer Lance considered what investments of this size could do for the environment:

“What if the US government had responded to the twenty years of dire warnings by James Hansen in the same manner as the current economic crisis?  Such an aggressive response may have stopped climate change and saved our economy through green jobs and technology.”

4. New York City to Get LED Street Lighting

This is the story responsible for a major re-arrangement in this year’s best of.  Just last week, Jerry James stone reported on big news out of New York City that city officials would be testing energy efficient LED street lights. If successful, all of the city’s 300,000 street lamps could potentially be replaced with the LED models. This post did well at digg, reddit, and StumbleUpon.

3. Did McCain’s Colorado River Gaffe Cost Him in the West?

While campaigning in Colorado, Sen. John McCain told the Pueblo Chieftan that, as president, he would consider renegotiating the Colorado River Compact:  a virtual no-no in headwater states like Colorado where Democrats and Republicans alike think downstream states already get more than their fair share of water. In a post that did well at digg, Timothy Hurst wrote:

“John McCain has again said something to cause his fellow western-state Republicans to wince at his political inexpedience and apparent naivete for the issue at hand. And even though the Senator has now recanted and begun damage control, Democrats are hoping that this one will cost him. Some even argue that the gaffe was so severe, he may have just lost Colorado.”

2. European Union Bans the Incandescent Light Bulb

EU energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg gave final approval to an EU-wide ban on incandescent light bulbs that would begin in 2010. The new light bulb scheme will initially apply to bulbs of 75 watts and higher. The phasing out of the traditional bulbs set to begin on March 1, 2009, is part of a larger EU strategy to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This story got a good bit of attention at reddit and digg.

1. How 1900’s Environmental Predictions Fared

Admittedly, the most viewed post in 2008 at Red, Green, & Blue is not about environmental politics, per se, and it didn’t really happen in 2008, but using our simple metric of popularity, it was the ‘biggest.’

In 1900,  John Elfreth Watkins put together a collection of predictions in the Ladies Home Journal about the future of the U.S. and the world by the end of the 20th century. Timothy Hurst cherry-picked 14 enviro-related predictions and looked at what actually happened one hundred years later. Some of the predictions are uncannily accurate, yet others were more than a little wide of the mark. This post had good traffic from digg and reddit, and especially Yahoo! buzz.

*We’ve included links to some of the social media networks where individual posts have performed well. For brevity’s sake we kept the number of those links to one or two per post. That notwithstanding, we are exceedingly grateful to ALL of you for the support you have shown on ALL of the social media and web 2.0 spaces in 2008. We would be nowhere without your help.

Images: © Imre Forgo (2008); © Foto.fritz (solar panel); (Palin); Clemson via flickr (flat tire); My Heromudpig via flickr (NY nightscape); laszlo-photo via flickr (light bulb); yahoo! buzz (crystal ball). (solar install).

I can’t help but wonder if the Republican party’s vice presidential candidate’s disdain for wildlife has something to do with this horrendous act.  Sure Sarah Palin belongs to the NRA and can correctly dress a moose, which in itself does not make her a bad person if the moose is used for subsistence; however, the aerial killing of wolves and the opposition to beluga whales protection proves she is no animal rights advocate.

Read more of this story »

Of course, “best” is a qualitative judgment, so we need to have reasonable, rational judges available to take a look at the web pages discovered, comments added, and discussions started.  We’ve put that group together: the folks who will decide who wins the scavenger hunt on November 3rd are (drum roll, please):

• Nick Aster, founder of Triplepundit, media architect of Treehugger, and staffer at Mother Jones.
• Bobby Fishkin, CEO and Founder of ReframeIt
• Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, co-founder of Green Options Media, founder and editor of sustainablog (OK, yeah, that’s me)

Of course, the campaign’s not over, and neither is the scavenger hunt: you simply need to sign up at ReframeIt, join the RG&B group, and start hunting for and posting information on the most promising innovations and ideas related to building a green economy, and Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s readiness to do just that (’cause we want to see them hit the ground running on these issues, also, on January 20th).

Read more of this story »

Addressing the fact that the United States has historically contributed the most to global warming, and over the past eight years has done the least to stop it, 350.org has come up with an exciting and timely campaign.

Realizing that whoever takes office as U.S. President next year has a lot of work to get the country back in the game and to ensure that climate change is taken seriously as an issue, it becomes important that the the next US President participates in the Conference of Parties (COP) that will be held in Poznan in December. And to ensure that this does happen, it is important that the people of the world invite them for the same!

Read more of this story »

<< Previous Post: Big Oil, Part Four

Is it gross - sure. Yet the picture sums up the last eight years of foreign policy quite nicely, don’t ya think? We’ve suffered through too much of this cowboy politics crap (pun intended) to allow it to happen again.

But that’s exactly what we’re getting with Palin - more crap! Hell, even Colin Powell is jumping party lines because of this lady. It’s the same political myopia as George W. but with a nicer rack. For example, how could any politician admit to not focusing on the war in Iraq…much? What has she been doing since 2003? And can we afford another administration who thinks God speaks to them? Seriously, that kinda thing never really works out for the best.

More on Palin >>

From Think Progress

Palin Hasn’t Given The War In Iraq Much Thought. Palin told the Alaska Business Monthly, “I’ve been so focused on state government, I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place.” [Alaska Business Monthly, 3/1/07]

Palin Has Never Been To Iraq. In her only trip overseas, Palin visited Alaska National Guard troops stationed in Kuwait and Germany in July 2007. [AP, 7/25/07]

Palin Believes That The Iraq War Is A Task ‘From God.’ Speaking at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in June, Palin said that “our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God.” [Huffington Post, 9/2/08]

Palin Believes The Iraq War Was Fought Over Oil. “We are a nation at war and in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources,” Palin told BusinessWeek in an interview. [BusinessWeek, 8/29/08]

Palin Didn’t Have A Passport Until 2007. Palin first obtained a passport in July 2007 for her trip to Kuwait and Germany to visit Alaska National Guard troops. Her only other trips outside of the United States have been to Canada and Mexico. A Palin spokeswoman had previously said that Palin had also been to Ireland, although it was actually just a “refueling stop” on her Germany/Kuwait trip. [New York Times, 8/29/08; Politico, 9/2/08; ABC News, 9/12/08]

Palin Has Never Issued An Order To The Alaska National Guard. Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, the service commander of the Alaska National Guard, has stated that Palin has never personally ordered the National Guard to do anything. [McClatchy, 9/4/08]

Palin Is Unaware Of The Bush Doctrine. During an interview with ABC’s Charlie Gibson, Palin was stumped about the Bush Doctrine, thinking it was the President’s “worldview.” [ABC News, 9/11/08]

Related posts:

Amy Poehler does the ‘Sarah Palin Rap’ on SNL [w/ video]
Palin Protests Federal Listing of Beluga Whales as Endangered
Setting the Record Straight: Sarah Palin and the Bridge to Nowhere

Image source: saintbob on Flickr

5. Imagining a $700 Billion Bailout for the Environment

Stemming from the fall of mortgage-backed securities, spiking oil prices, and a host of other variables, the economic crisis came to a head in September and October when the federal government began looking at corporate bailouts of unprecedented proportions. In a piece that did particularly well at StumbleUpon, Jennifer Lance considered what investments of this size could do for the environment:

“What if the US government had responded to the twenty years of dire warnings by James Hansen in the same manner as the current economic crisis?  Such an aggressive response may have stopped climate change and saved our economy through green jobs and technology.”

4. New York City to Get LED Street Lighting

This is the story responsible for a major re-arrangement in this year’s best of.  Just last week, Jerry James stone reported on big news out of New York City that city officials would be testing energy efficient LED street lights. If successful, all of the city’s 300,000 street lamps could potentially be replaced with the LED models. This post did well at digg, reddit, and StumbleUpon.

3. Did McCain’s Colorado River Gaffe Cost Him in the West?

While campaigning in Colorado, Sen. John McCain told the Pueblo Chieftan that, as president, he would consider renegotiating the Colorado River Compact:  a virtual no-no in headwater states like Colorado where Democrats and Republicans alike think downstream states already get more than their fair share of water. In a post that did well at digg, Timothy Hurst wrote:

“John McCain has again said something to cause his fellow western-state Republicans to wince at his political inexpedience and apparent naivete for the issue at hand. And even though the Senator has now recanted and begun damage control, Democrats are hoping that this one will cost him. Some even argue that the gaffe was so severe, he may have just lost Colorado.”

2. European Union Bans the Incandescent Light Bulb

EU energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg gave final approval to an EU-wide ban on incandescent light bulbs that would begin in 2010. The new light bulb scheme will initially apply to bulbs of 75 watts and higher. The phasing out of the traditional bulbs set to begin on March 1, 2009, is part of a larger EU strategy to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This story got a good bit of attention at reddit and digg.

1. How 1900’s Environmental Predictions Fared

Admittedly, the most viewed post in 2008 at Red, Green, & Blue is not about environmental politics, per se, and it didn’t really happen in 2008, but using our simple metric of popularity, it was the ‘biggest.’

In 1900,  John Elfreth Watkins put together a collection of predictions in the Ladies Home Journal about the future of the U.S. and the world by the end of the 20th century. Timothy Hurst cherry-picked 14 enviro-related predictions and looked at what actually happened one hundred years later. Some of the predictions are uncannily accurate, yet others were more than a little wide of the mark. This post had good traffic from digg and reddit, and especially Yahoo! buzz.

*We’ve included links to some of the social media networks where individual posts have performed well. For brevity’s sake we kept the number of those links to one or two per post. That notwithstanding, we are exceedingly grateful to ALL of you for the support you have shown on ALL of the social media and web 2.0 spaces in 2008. We would be nowhere without your help.

Images: © Imre Forgo (2008); © Foto.fritz (solar panel); (Palin); Clemson via flickr (flat tire); My Heromudpig via flickr (NY nightscape); laszlo-photo via flickr (light bulb); yahoo! buzz (crystal ball). (solar install).

Since last night’s presidential debate, all I have heard from everybody around me is ‘What about Joe the Pumber’? Clearly, the most talked about man in the U.S. presidential election is now a 34-year-old Ohio resident otherwise known as Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.

Joe was referenced more than 20 times in Wednesday night’s presidential debate, and has quickly found himself caught in a deluge of media attention, political parody and personal scrutiny. Obama and his running mate, Biden, both criticized Joe as a false idol of the Republican cause.

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• By the end of 2005, US crude oil production had dropped to 4.86 million barrels per day, which is less than 45% of America’s peak production in 1970.
• By 2005, America was producing less oil than it did in 1950.
• The 1970 record oil production represented more than 40% of total world production, but it was still not enough to meet America’s appetite for oil-almost 15 million barrels per day in 1970.
• By the end of 2005, U.S. oil consumption had increased to about 21 million barrels per day, while U.S. production, as noted above, had dropped to 5 million barrels.  American now has to import more than 75% of the oil it consumes.
• By way of comparison, at the time of the 1973 oil crisis, during which Americans endured closed gas stations and gas lines blocks long, the United States imported less than one-third of its oil.

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  ]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/10/15/why-drill-baby-drill-will-never-be-an-energy-solution-and-is-not-an-energy-policy/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/10/14/my-recent-trip-to-the-swing-state-of-ohio-an-obama-voter-in-a-family-of-mccain-supporters/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/10/14/my-recent-trip-to-the-swing-state-of-ohio-an-obama-voter-in-a-family-of-mccain-supporters/#comments Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:48:43 +0000 Jennifer Lance http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/10/14/my-recent-trip-to-the-swing-state-of-ohio-an-obama-voter-in-a-family-of-mccain-supporters/ I’ve long suspected I live in a political bubble in Northern California.  The debates I hear among friends is whether to vote for Obama, Nader, or McKinney. I’ve never even seen a McCain/Palin yard sign or bumper sticker, but I knew that was all going to change when I traveled to Northern Ohio for my grandmother’s funeral.

  When my mother picked me up at the Detroit airport, and we drove to Toledo, she warned my cousins were hard core Republicans.  I promised not to talk politics, at least at the funeral home, as we drove by the Jeep factory which was temporarily shutdown to trim inventories of slow-selling SUVs.  At least, Chrysler plans to make an electric Jeep Wrangler at the Toledo Jeep Assembly Complex to keep the factory alive. I knew Toledo was a blue-collar town with close ties to the auto industry, and I expected the town to be for Obama.

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