wade norris's blog

No, John Edwards is not raising money to stop poverty by performing marriage ceremonies, but he did influence me, and his advice directly led to me meeting my wife.

At his homecoming rally in December of 2006 John Edwards told us -

"don't wait for the next president to be elected to do something, get involved now"

So I got involved. I organized for Edwards in Colorado and started making connections with people and later, when he asked us, I went to protest Bush's vetoed war funding bill on May 2nd 2006 at our state capitol in Colorado. As luck (or fate) would have it, I ran into someone (the Coach) who I had spoken to once, a year earlier, who offered me my own radio show slot in the Denver market. (with zero experience)
And as luck (or fate) would have it, I had heard John and Elizabeth Edwards talk about the importance of Unions as the backbone of the middle class, so I started reaching out to local unions and union supporters...
(keep reading, I swear there is a wedding in here)

Welcome to part 5 of the series on Renewable Energy.
This next installment could easily be a stand alone story, but I wanted to keep it in the context of the entire problem. (especially in light of the Supreme Court's ruling reducing the penalty to Exxon for the Valdez oil spill - an average of $15,000 per plaintiff, some of who lost a year or more in wages)
This segment is about the human cost in blood and lives. I hope that your anger about what has been done in this world in our name, for the consumption of oil, will stir you to the necessity to GET OFF OIL NOW through an immediate change in U.S. consumption and policy.
Here is my interview with Doug Vilsack, son former Presidential candidate, Tom Vilsack and Iowa Governor. Doug is someone I met while stumping for John Edwards, and he was stumping for Hillary. After we met, I told him about the show I host and he mentioned this story, which although I had heard about it, could not believe the depth and scope of the despiteful tactics of big oil and the complicity of our Media, most notably, CNN.

In parts 1-3 of this 'blogumentary' we covered the amount of renewable energy just waiting for us to tap, how local governments and people are getting involved, and how we need the federal government to change the laws to support renewable energy. (and a good bit of information from Dcoronata on Geothermal energy.
Now for the bread and butter issue: jobs. With the economic forecast showing a continued housing slump and general signs of a recession, a decade long approach of offshoring jobs, bad unemployment numbers, and no real growth in any job sector except service jobs, there seems to be a lot wrong with our country's economic health. Fortunately, there is a solution for these problems, the emergence of green collar jobs.

Yesterday, we talked about how local politics can create a change in the way our cities and even states use energy, so much so, that we can change the policy of the utility companies themselves. AnotherMassachusettsLiberal commented on an interesting program in his community,called 'Green Start' and described it like this :

I pay extra to get renewably generated electricity, and the extra money I pay comes back, doubled, to my town in the form of grants for renewable energy projects. 32 total households in town are in the program, and there's currently almost $8,000 in the account.

Ideas like this are making ripples across the nation and making change, which is inspiring. However, as you will see in this interview with Ron Lehr of the American Wind Energy Association or AWEA, there has got to be some movement on the National level by the Federal Government, if we are really going to embrace the change necessary to move our country forward quickly.
Here is the interview:

Welcome to Part 2: Local Energy Initiatives: This will cover some of the ways citizens have gotten involved in passing laws to change their options for energy use, effectively giving a level playing field fo renewable energy. Now, although this post seems to be Colorado focused, the fact is, in part due to the location of the National Renewable Energy lab in Golden,Colorado combined with an active progressive community, Colorado has been leading the nation in embracing renewable energy. Here to tell us more about this and the Clean Energy Progress Fund - an initiative to be voted on this fall in Colorado, is Professor Thomas McKinnon, a Chemical Engineer,who has worked both with the NREL and with the School of Mines and now heads up the drive to support the Clean Energy Progress Fund.

This past week there has been a lot of talk from both Bush and McCain about the necessity for the Congress to start permitting new drilling sites for Oil companies in the face of high oil prices, as seen in this video
from the BBC, even though there is plenty of evidence that the real reason for the high prices are the insiders and speculators that Randi Rhodes first documented this week.
Followed by KO's investigation:

Now that we have a nominee in Barack Obama, it would seem that nothing can stop him from sweeping into the Oval office this fall. Curiously, however, some people seemed to be concerned that Obama can't win because he can't get white voters or can't keep the dissapointed Clinton supporters in his camp.
While some stories like this NPR story are fairly benign,
there are other stories documenting the growing number of Clinton for McCain supporters
and even a website boasting of 15,000 supporters and threatening the following

Our Plans

It is our mission to raise money, promote John McCain. We will set up a "527" to raise money, run TV and radio ads against Obama. The Democrat party has left us out in the cold, so we are going to build a fire that they cannot put out

.

Really? how did the "democrat" party leave anyone out in the cold? More on these McCan'ts...

EDWARDS WINS ON THE ROAD
We are now closer to the general, and we must win the election this fall. Time to rally behind the best ticket, and who the people already know and can get behind...
read more...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/02/politics/animal/main4147689.sh...

UPDATE
because Edwards said at one point he was not interested in VP, let me put this up, which basically reversed that statment
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/15/john-edwards-open-to-vice_n_101...

Mr. Edwards has carefully played down his aspirations for an administration role. In an interview in January, he said he would not accept a vice-presidential spot or Cabinet position. "No, absolutely not," he said, shaking his head emphatically when asked.

But privately, he told aides that he would consider the role of vice president, and favored the position of attorney general, which would appeal to his experience of decades spent in courtrooms as a trial lawyer in North Carolina; and his desire to follow in the footsteps of Robert F. Kennedy, one of his heroes.

HRC blames Obama for her insinuation about assassination.
More here...
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/05/clinton_camp_stokes_rfk_...

Clinton Camp Stokes RFK Flap by Blaming Obama

It is comical enough to make me wish SNL had not ended the season last week, so that Amy Poehler and Seth Meyer could have had an episode on Hillary called REALLY?
And, Hillary is calling for another debate?
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/05/senator-clinton.html

to debate what?
when you will exit?
why you are staying in?

OK let's review. Last Spring, Bush said their was no recession. This summer, 'a few bumps in the road' - this fall, "Stormy weather", now, well their might be a depression, but my tax break will fix it.
My opinion of these changes reflect that there is indeed a serious recession and possible depression occurring, but our news media doesn't cover the issues.
At least BBC has covered the newest element of our spiraling economy - Bush's own 'Hoovervilles' are here.