tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-81247933239629580 2011-05-18T23:00:29-07:00 Stories of the pursuit of effective, real world change TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451b2ee69e201538e92ce9f970b 2011-05-18T23:00:29-07:00 2011-05-18T23:00:29-07:00

From Chris Hedges' The Obama Deception: Why Cornel West Went Ballistic: “Can you imagine if Barack Obama had taken office and deliberately educated and taught the American people about the nature of the financial catastrophe and what greed was really taking place?” West asks. “If he had told us what kind of mechanisms of accountability needed to be in place, if he had focused on homeowners rather than investment banks for bailouts and engaged in massive job creation he could have nipped in the bud the right-wing populism of the tea party folk. The tea party folk are right when...

Jeff tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451b2ee69e2014e887e58d1970d 2011-05-17T11:06:24-07:00 2011-05-17T11:06:24-07:00

Democracy School teaches citizens and activists to reframe exhausting and often discouraging single issue work (such as opposing ill-advised highway projects, stadium funding and corporate tax breaks, or proposing sick leave legislation, bans on toxic chemicals and common sense drug policy, etc.) in a way that we can confront corporate control on a powerful single front: people’s constitutional rights. Our next Seattle school will focus on activists and organizers interested in helping lead a rights-based movement in Seattle, similar to what Spokane began in 2010. Specifically, graduates of the school will be encouraged to participate in community building efforts to...

Jeff tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451b2ee69e20147e16acb17970b 2011-01-09T16:09:59-08:00 2011-01-09T16:09:59-08:00

"Own a power drill, right? That power drill will be used around 12 to 13 minutes in its entire lifetime. It's kind of ridiculous, right? Because what you need is the hole, not the drill." That's part of the case Rachel Botsman makes for collaborative consumption. Sharing physical goods is one of the collaborative scenarios we'll be building back into our open source NewsCloud platform soon.

Jeff tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451b2ee69e20147e10effa3970b 2010-12-27T11:13:21-08:00 2010-12-27T11:13:21-08:00

As I’m about to start a four-month book leave, I need to get a few things off my chest: President Obama understood, rightly, that our economy needed more stimulus, so, given the G.O.P.’s insistence on extending the Bush tax cuts for all, he struck the best deal he could. The country, we are told, is now in a better mood, seeing our two parties work together. I, alas, am not in a better mood. via www.nytimes.com I really appreciated Thomas Friedman's latest column. He speaks about the role of political leaders and the right and wrong ways to approach obstacles.

Jeff tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451b2ee69e20147e10edd42970b 2010-12-27T10:55:42-08:00 2010-12-27T10:55:42-08:00

The community of Durango, Colorado has completed replacement of all of its street lights to keep light from shining up into the night sky. This is part of an initiative to be dark sky compliant - to prevent light pollution and contribute to a more natural evening environment. See Stargazers Look Up. The “full cut-off lenses,” which replace traditional teardrop-shaped bulbs, shine down and not out, and are meant to save on energy costs, reduce light pollution and limit the impacts of artificial light on wildlife.

Jeff tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451b2ee69e20147e0410633970b 2010-11-29T21:06:18-08:00 2010-11-29T21:11:53-08:00

Democracy Now reports briefly today on a lawsuit filed against BP for the Gulf Oil Spill for violating the rights of nature (see the clip in the video below at 6:25). The Rights of Nature was added to the Ecuadorian Constitution September 28, 2008 by an overwhelming margin through a national referendum. You can read the English language complaint here (I've also embedded it below the video): We are filing this lawsuit because the international system of rights is clearly biased towards protecting the interests of transnational corporations that make excessive, irresponsible and predatory use of their rights to property...

Jeff tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451b2ee69e20134898f8f2a970c 2010-11-27T15:13:10-08:00 2010-11-27T15:13:10-08:00

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert acknowledges "the class war that no one wants to talk about" .. saying "[it] continues unabated." There is no way to bring America’s consumer economy back to robust health if unemployment is chronically high, wages remain stagnant and the jobs that are created are poor ones. Without ordinary Americans spending their earnings from good jobs, any hope of a meaningful, long-term recovery is doomed. Beyond that, extreme economic inequality is a recipe for social instability. Families on the wrong side of the divide find themselves under increasing pressure to just hold things together: to...

Jeff tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451b2ee69e20147e0333f99970b 2010-11-27T15:08:06-08:00 2010-11-27T15:08:06-08:00

Pastor Rich Lang of Ballard's Trinity United Methodist Church speech on hope and purpose at this year's Washington Physician's for Social Responsibility fundraising dinner. Transcript below (with permission). This is no time to sleep dreaming of what was once long ago. We must awaken to the seriousness of this moment and awaken further into the opportunity of this moment to radically change the world, to alter history’s script, to rewrite a vision of what is possible and what is desirable. This is our moment to reclaim the glory of our mortality even as we limit and tame and reduce the...

Jeff tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451b2ee69e20133f5d50e1e970b 2010-11-13T14:15:10-08:00 2010-11-13T14:16:31-08:00

Annie Leonard, producer of The Story of Stuff, has a new video up called The Story of Electronics. In it, she describes how most electronic goods are designed to be thrown away, that the short period in which we use them is a blip in their lifespan as they decay in landfills and that the toxics involved in their creation are poisoning people and our communities. The root of the problem here is the way globalized corporations are allowed to externalize their costs on to poor countries and the environment. Leonard doesn't question the right of corporations to pollute or...

Jeff tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451b2ee69e20133f5b9f345970b 2010-11-09T23:22:59-08:00 2010-11-09T23:55:13-08:00

It’s time for climate activists to admit our tactics have failed. I commend the movement for all of its efforts but the recent congressional takeover by Republicans demonstrates how ineffective we’ve been. Karl Rove is right, “Climate is gone.” And we’re not alone. The first two years of Obama’s presidency have seen the failure of many progressive groups: anti-war and health care activists most notably. So, who is winning? The wealthy, especially executives of multinational corporations. In Sunday’s New York Times, Nicholas Kristof wrote: “The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from...

Jeff