When interviewing folk for employment, I used to ask: "Gimme the names of 20 people that have known you for over 20 years and still like you." I figured that was a pretty dam good question; weeds out the jerks early. Of course, it's a good thing nobody ever asked me that question during a job hunt!
Well, most o' the maybe 20 or so that might vouch for the ol' TwoPutter were in the crowd that packed the Chan Legion last Saturday night for "Prairie DawgFest 2010" - headlined by local dawg David K with other denizen dawgs playing along. Local dawg Ricky Ybarra's band was alternating sets. Ricky might vouch for me. Well, maybe David, too. Ricky's wife? Prolly not; we went to Prom together...
Anyway, David sang a song that had me ROLFMAO. I sent him an email that night (from the bar; before I forgot), asking for the lyrics 'cause when I've had a cocktail or twelve, and there's a karoke machine around, I've been known to belt out a Buffet song or two 'cause since Buffett always ad libs with his songs in concerts (and I know, from experience), I figure it's ok to ad lib on 'em during karoke; but: that's a tangent. Back on point: David not only replied with lyrics (below the fold), he also gave me a link to footage they shot from the fest. Silly me; I figured that the guy with the camera was just another pathetic GOPer tracker... So, the YouTube is up, and I hope the regular readers and (im)posters here at MPP enjoy it too...
Nuclear power regaining favor amid recession, climate concerns
BY JUDY PASTERNAK
Investigative Reporting Workshop
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration may soon guarantee as much as $18.5 billion in loans to build nuclear reactors to generate electricity, and Congress is considering whether to add billions more to support an expansion of nuclear power.
These actions come after an extensive, decade-long campaign in which companies and unions related to the industry have spent more than $600 million on lobbying and nearly $63 million on campaign contributions, according to an analysis by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University.
Nuclear power has proven - PROVEN - time and time again it simply cannot be economcially viable without being firmly attached to the Taxpayer's wallet.
Why "Conservatives" support this taxpayer rip-off only proves, once again: "GOP stands for GreedOverPrinciples."
Today at the fair I got a chance to talk with Sen. Amy Klobuchar about the American Clean Energy and Security Act and the climate change legislation the Senate is currently developing. Amy sits on both the Senate Agriculture Committee and also the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, both have major roles in crafting climate legislation and so Amy will have a key role in this debate.
She said she has some concerns about the House bill (ACES) but thinks overall it's moving in the right direction. In particular she wants to change a few things in the Senate.
-Do more to protect middle class families It was a quick talk and their was a line waiting so I didn't get much of a chance to push back on this, but I think the concern about it's cost is overblown. Still she's a politician and posturing like this can be accepted.
-Focus more on energy: She thinks the focus (I'm not sure if she meant policy-wise or messaging-wise) should be more on the energy aspects, not that reducing GHG isn't important but that people understand energy much better and get the economic benifits. Politically, I think this is wise.
-Strengthen the RES: This is very good, she talked about how Minnesota has a strong RES and how weak the national RES in the House bill is. She said she's been working with Republican Olympia Snowe on getting the national standard higher up to 25 by 2025. I'm very happy about this, it's one of the biggest areas of improvement that advocates have been pushing for and can deliver a lot of the GHG reductions that are needed, it also drives ton of private investment into the green economy. I'm glad Amy's working on this.
I will have more on this later. But I'm fairly satisfied with Amy's stance. Much more so than her lack of a position on the healthcare bill and lack of a position on a public option. Worth noting when I left her a note I peeked and saw multiple notes supporting a public option. Time to do the right thing Amy.
Today Minnesotans who care about climate change and want to have decent public transit in the Twin Cites got some very good news. The Southwest Transitway, a proposed light rail line going from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie, received the cost and ridership estimates today from HDR Engineering, a consulting firm. Planners are considering three potential routes for the LRT which you can view here . HDR estimated costs between $1.2 and $1.8 billion and ridership between 28 and 30 thousand per day, about what the current Hiawatha line gets. And keep in mind that most LRT projects beat their ridership projections, Hiawatha did in just three years.
This news means that the 3A route is likely to be chosen. It's very hard to get funding to build LRT without federal funding, to get federal funding currently you need to get a cost per rider (Also known as Cost Effectiveness Index or CEI) of $29 or less. The 3A route currently has a CEI of just $30 which could easily be pared down to $29 while the Uptown route that some have argued for has a CEI of $44 which would mean forgoing federal funding and likely not seeing LRT in the Southwest Metro for decades longer. But with a route (3A) so close to meeting CEI requirements the Southwest Transitway is moving towards it's goal of completion by 2015. Here are the next steps.
-Hennepin County will hold public hearings on the potential routes (details below the fold)
-On Sep. 30th the Southwest Policy Advisory Committee, a group of 15 local officials chaired by Hennepin County Commissioner Gail Dorman, will make a final recommendation on which route to move forward with, likely the 3A route.
-On Oct. 20th Hennepin County will vote on the advisory committee's route recommendation.
-The Metro Council will vote on the recommendation sometime in Nov/Dec.
-The route will also need to be approved by the state legislature and all cites that the route runs through which will likely happen by February at the latest.
-After that if the FTA approves it it will go into preliminary engineering early 2010. If it gets to that point it's likely to make it to operation by 2015.
This is a important project for anyone who cares about climate change, economic growth in the Twin Cites and quality public transportation. It's a critical project that even many Republicans are backing. Today this important project moved one stop forward, and that's good news.
Nuclear weapons are like the favorite, playground swing. Kids can decide the swing is off-limits to some and then proceed to brutely enforce such a decree. This system works as long as the force is believable and the threat is ominous enough.
By using this kind of bullying tactic we've been able to deter nuclear war; effectively protecting our lifestyle and our beautiful mother earth. That's no small feat, although I've always thought it odd when unfriendly nations comply and disarm.
Currently the United States leads the pack against our old enemy, North Korea. We say: "North Korea shouldn't have nuclear capability and they most certainly shouldn't be committing 'acts of war'." Essentially, that swing isn't for you, and it's for your own good.
After all, we all know nuclear weapons have proven devastating. The world is lucky we've taken such an approach.
But what happens if North Korea doesn't comply?
I think it is time we asked for help from the only other superpower, China. Together we should ready arms, mobilizing faster than ever before. North Korea needs to realize we mean business, and when they lose, there won't be any North Korea anymore.
Acorns-- no, this isn't about a possibly deviant activist group. I'm thinking about oak trees. White oaks, red oaks, flying squirrels, and acorns. The Washington Post's Acorn Watchers Wonder What Happened to Crop has me wondering, could a lack of acorns be a troubling sign of global warming or is it merely incidental?
