Green Thursday: How to Go Green

Wisconsin State Fair starts today. It's a convergence of agriculture, hobbies and crafts, commerce, industry, entertainment, and food on a stick!

We've found a website that is like the Fair, because it brings together Green Living guides for all aspects of your life, including:

How to Green your Wedding

How to Green your Funeral

How to Green your Kid's Toys

How to Green your Car

How to Green your Kitchen

and lots more.

Check it out HERE

Every Green Thursday we post information vital to the survivial of the planet

Front Door Greetings

Visitors to the LipsYard House (mostly the Mail Carrier and Paper Person) are greeted with a splash of Crimson in the flower box.

Coleus (Solenostemon) sounds like a scientific name already, and in a way, it is. It has undergone a species name change, and the old classification was Coleus.

Coleus are usually selected for their colorful variegated leaves, typically with sharp contrast between the colors; the leaves may be green, pink, yellow, maroon, and red. The plants grow well in moist well-drained soil, are heat-tolerant, but do better in areas with some shade.

Coleus also make low-maintenance houseplants, and can often be propagated by clipping a length of stem just below the leaves and putting the stem in water to root.

Barack Obama was greeted in a similarly bright fashion on his recent Middle East and European tour, and as a result, now leads John McCain among national registered voters by a 49% to 40% margin in Gallup Poll Daily tracking conducted July 24-26.

This represents a continuation of Obama's front-runner position evident in the last three Gallup Poll Daily tracking updates. The margin, coincident with the extensive U.S. news coverage of Obama's foreign tour, is the largest for Obama over McCain measured since Gallup began tracking the general election horserace in March. A key question remains as to whether this "bounce" is short-term (as happens to bounces in some instances following intense publicity surrounding a convention) or if his lead will persist -- the answer to which will become evident in the next several days.

Ta Da, a new flower this year

Every year, in the depths of winter, Charmaine gets all her seed catalogs. As we look through them, we always strive to find something different to try in the LipsYard Gardens.

This year's newbie is Sea Holly (Eryngium.)

It has an otherworldly appearance and a blue color, something rare in the garden. Blue for a Blue House in a Red County!

Our next president will be a lefty. Regardless of whether we elect John McCain of Barack Obama, the man who takes up residency in the White House will be a lefty.

The United States has had four left-handed presidents since 1974: Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Even the ranks of vice presidents and unsuccessful contenders for the white House are heavy with left-handers: Al Gore, Bob Dole, John Edwards and Ross Perot were all lefties.

As a matter of fact, six of the twelve chief executives since the end of World War II have been left handed. Just add Harry Truman to the list above. That's a disproportionate number, considering that only one in 10 people in the general population is left handed.

The reason might be that left-handed people use the right side of the brian more, and that's the side that visualizes the whole of a problem, is more capable of multi-tasking, and even shows greater creativity. That explains why George W. Bush ISN'T a lefty.

Green Thursday: Atomic Bomb

Here's a guest opinion on nuclear (or NEW-que-ler as our President says it) power as a replacement for oil and coal to generate electricity, a big plank in the conservative right's energy policy (along with more drilling.) It is from Marketwatch.com

THOMAS KOSTIGEN'S ETHICS MONITOR
No nukes
Commentary: For all its advances, nuclear power still poses grave dangers. A recent nuclear reactor leak in France proves that the world needs a clean and reliable source of alternative energy -- not power that produces hazardous waste.

Nuclear power has been gaining serious attention as the replacement energy
source of fossil fuels: coal and petroleum. As the price of oil skyrockets and
there is a global cry about the carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants,
nuclear is increasingly taking center stage. Vice President Dick Cheney is
lobbying for more nuclear power plants to be built. Funding for nuclear has
increased 79% in the current federal budget, and it extends loan guarantees for
nuclear power programs. It also increased federal funds for nuclear waste
research.

Even some environmentalists have embraced nuclear as a better choice than fossil fuels because it's ostensibly a "cleaner" source of energy. To be sure, the nuclear power industry has come a long way over the past two decades and plants now are indeed safer and power-derivation is more secure.

Some even say nuclear is better than other alternative energies such as wind and solar power because it's more sustainable, can be brought online faster, and is cheaper.

However, many fail to recognize that the government subsidizes nuclear power, directly and indirectly, through various programs. It also helps insure plants. Imagine the insurance premiums on a nuclear power plant. Under the Price-Anderson Act, the government has also limited the amount that nuclear reactor operators would have to pay in case of a nuclear accident.

The government also subsidizes other alternative energy sources (coal and oil still receive some government funding, too). The federal government had put a moratorium on certain new solar projects developed on public land this year, but public outcry forced it to reverse its position. Still, that action speaks volumes about the government's commitment to alternative energy sources other than nuclear. Congress even has failed to find a proper legislative solution for extending long-term tax credits for renewable energy.

This is rather shocking to me. When the sun, as I've often written, can produce enough power for all of our energy needs in a second -- literally -- why would we focus on or subsidize other alternatives? Solar and wind power are gifts from nature. We should take advantage of them. Yet we continue to embrace technologies that pose us significant danger.

Uranium leak in France
In France, Agence France-Presse reports that the country's ecology minister has called for tests of the ground water near all of the country's 58 nuclear reactors after a uranium leak at a plant in the south polluted the local water supply.

"Residents in the Vaucluse region of southern France have been told not to drink water or eat fish from nearby rivers after the liquid uranium spill on July 7 at the Tricastin nuclear plant," AFP reports. "I don't want people to feel that we are hiding anything from them," Jean-Louis Borloo said in a newspaper interview Thursday.

But people do.
The news hasn't much made it into the mainstream press here. (After all, Brad and Angelina had twins! Obviously any reporter in southern France had better things to do than report on something as dull as a nuclear power plant spill.)

It's high time we took the lid off alternative energy information and exposed each for what it is. We should look at the good, the bad, and the ugly. For too long the cost of energy (commodities in general, really) has been obfuscated, causing many of the price-hike problems we are in today. The Washington-based think-tank the Cato Institute claims we spent about six times as much money defending oil supplies in the Middle East as we spent on oil imports during the 1990s.

Interesting.
We should get the truth behind the federal financing of nuclear power, and we should understand its disaster ramifications. Maybe the cost of nuclear, in terms of development and waste management, won't be as bad as many people think. Then again, maybe it will be worse. I, for one, am risk-averse and am already calling for a recycling of a popular slogan from the 1970s and 80s: No Nukes!

BREAKING NEWS

Another radiation leak was announced today! 100 employees have been "slightly contaminated" by a leak at a reactor site in southern France. It was the third incident in recent weeks.

Every Green Thursday we post information vital to the survival of the planet.

Yarrow, the sturdy plant

Yesterday, we featured the Moss Roses (Portulaca grandiflora ) which were bordered by the Yarrow (Achillea spp.) Today, we've got another Yarrow to show you...

...only this Yarrow is yellow.

It's a sturdy plant that doesn't demand a lot of attention. It quietly does it's job of looking pretty at 3' to 4' high.

Not so sturdy is the constant drumbeat from conservative talk radio pounding away that we need to cut more spending because we live in a Tax Hell.

Milwaukee Magazine's Bruce Murphy takes the heat out of that argument:

"On May 27, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance did a new report showing Wisconsin dropped out of the ranks of the 10 highest-taxed states for the first time in more than 25 years. Indeed, going all the way back to 1963, when the state first adopted a sales tax, Wisconsin has ranked in the top 10 every year except 1980 and 1968.

As recently as 1999, when Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson was near the end of his long tenure, Wisconsin ranked as the third-highest taxed state. Today, Wisconsin has dropped to 11th-highest. That’s quite a change...

...As to whether Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle deserves any credit, Republicans could certainly argue the GOP-led Assembly has helped forge compromises with Doyle that kept spending lower. But it always gets tricky as to who gets the most credit. Some time ago, I had an off-the-record conversation with a conservative GOP legislator who said he considered Doyle more fiscally conservative than most Republican lawmakers. I’m not sure I buy that, but certainly Doyle hasn’t spent money and added state employees like GOP empire builder Tommy Thompson.

Going back 40 years, every governor, including Republicans Warren Knowles, Lee Dreyfus, Thompson and Scott McCallum, and Democrats Pat Lucey, Marty Schreiber and Tony Earl, left office with the state ranked as one of the top 10 highest-taxed states. So doesn’t it seem newsworthy that we dropped out of the top 10 under Doyle? If you’re going to argue the rankings are important, then you have to report them consistently.

As for me, I think they’re misleading. The fact is that Wisconsin taxes more because its fees for roads (no tolls), university tuition (much lower) and other fees are lower than in other states. We also have to make up for the fact that we get less federal funding than other states.

A true measure of how spendthrift the state is comes from relative spending levels. And the latest Taxpayers Alliance study shows the state ranked 22nd in total state/local spending as a percentage of state personal income, just 5 percent above the national average. No doubt we could still improve, but this hardly justifies the charge that Wisconsin is a Tax Hell."

With our infrastructure crumbling, our school classroom size soaring, and our parks withering on the vine, a little financial loving could sure go a long way in raising the "livability index."

A rosey carpet

In the center of the LipsYard garden we have a walkway. A few years ago Charmaine planted Moss Roses (Portulaca grandiflora) between the stones. They continue to self-seed...

and make a pleasant entrance to the vegetable area.

The rosey carpet blooms in four colors: orange, rose, yellow and white, and look nice with their neighbor, the Yarrow (Achillea spp.)

Swept under the rug was a CIA report in 2002 that concluded up to 1/3 of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, might have been imprisoned by mistake. The Bush White House ignored the finding and insisted that all were "enemy combatants" subject to indefinite incarceration.

The CIA assessment directly challenged then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's claim that Gitmo detanees were the "Worst of the worst!"

Vice President Dick Chenney shrugged off the report and quashed proposals for a quick review on the basis that "The president has determined that they are ALL enemy combatants. We are not going to revisit it."

Meanwhile, down in Cuba, the top military commander at Guantanamo, Maj. Gen. Michael Dunlavey, not only agreed with the assessment but suggested that an even higher percentage of detentions, UP TO HALF, were in error.

This is all detailed in a new book, "The Dark Side," by Jane Mayer.

Time for a 'change' don't you think?

Giant Fluff Balls

These giant balls of fluff in the front LipsYard are Annabelle Hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborscens.)

The blossoms start as a bright lime green, and finish as spectacular white globes of tiny little flowerettes.

They work wonders covering up the less than attractive (ugly) newspaper box.

Covering up is also what the Environmental Protection Agency is doing about the chemical chlorinated Tris. One of the three most commonly used flame retardants, it was used in kids pajamas for years until it was discovered to be harmful by several international and national health and regulatory agencies, including the National Cancer Institute, the World Health Organization, and the Cosumer Product Safety Commission. One program within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified the chemical as a cancer hazard and notes that it caused reproductive problems, develpmental defects, anemia, liver failur and eye and skin irritiation in laboratory animals.

Now it's being used in foam in furniture and upholstery without any warning whatsoever.

Here's where the coverup (or maybe a sellout to Bush friendly big business,) comes in. Another EPA program, which was established to warn the public about dangerous chemicals, makes no mention of these chlorinated Tris concerns, and it's website lists 16 studies that each conclude the chemical does not harm people.

SHOCK! All the studies were funded by the chemical makers.

WORSE! Manufacturers don't have to reveal if they're using chlorinated Tris because new EPA regulations allow them to keep it a secret to protect their products from competitors. Consumers health (and the factory workers using this stuff) be damned, as long as the business thrives. Read the full Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report HERE.

Impatient for Impatiens

Back around Memorial Day, we made the annual trip to the garden center for annuals, including a flat (24 packs) of Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana.) They get planted on the West side of the LipsYard, which is mostly shade as they like it.

I pull back the bark mulch, push in the shovel and pry open a small hole. I pop a plant out of it's little (recycleable) plastic pot, and push it in the ground.

A little water, rake back the bark, and we're in business.

More than six weeks later I'm a little underwhelmed. I was expecting a lush blanket of flowers, not these puny runts. The little spike with the picture and the growing stats say they should be 8" to 10" high. I guess things aren't always what they're advertised to be.

Like this little report that shows our "modern" interogation (torture) techniques (that the Bush Administration doesn't consider torture) are actually retreads of the Communist Chinese methods of the 50's that we did consider torture.

China Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo

WASHINGTON — The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December
2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners. The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Some methods were used against a small number of prisoners at Guantánamo before 2005, when Congress banned the use of coercion by the military. The C.I.A. is still authorized by President Bush to use a number of secret “alternative” interrogation methods.

Several Guantánamo documents, including the chart outlining coercive methods, were made public at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing June 17 that examined how such tactics came to be employed.

But committee investigators were not aware of the chart’s source in the half-century-old journal article, a connection pointed out to The New York Times by an independent expert on interrogation who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The 1957 article from which the chart was copied was entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War” and written by Albert D. Biderman, a sociologist then working for the Air Force, who died in 2003. Mr. Biderman had interviewed American prisoners returning from North Korea, some of whom had been filmed by their Chinese interrogators confessing to germ warfare and other atrocities.

Those orchestrated confessions led to allegations that the American prisoners had been “brainwashed,” and provoked the military to revamp its training to give some military personnel a taste of the enemies’ harsh methods to inoculate them against quick capitulation if captured.

In 2002, the training program, known as SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape, became a source of interrogation methods both for the C.I.A. and the military. In what critics describe as a remarkable case of historical amnesia, officials
who drew on the SERE program appear to have been unaware that it had been
created as a result of concern about false confessions by American prisoners.

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said after reviewing the 1957 article that “every American would be shocked” by the origin of the training document.

“What makes this document doubly stunning is that these were techniques to get false confessions,” Mr. Levin said. “People say we need intelligence, and we do. But we don’t need false intelligence.”

A Defense Department spokesman, Lt. Col Patrick Ryder, said he could not comment on the Guantánamo training chart. “I can’t speculate on previous decisions that may have been made prior to current D.O.D. policy on interrogations,” Colonel Ryder said. “I can tell you that current D.O.D. policy is clear — we treat all detainees humanely.”

Mr. Biderman’s 1957 article described “one form of torture” used by the Chinese as forcing American prisoners to stand “for exceedingly long periods,” sometimes in conditions of “extreme cold.” Such passive methods, he wrote, were more common than outright physical violence. Prolonged standing and exposure to cold have both been used by American military and C.I.A. interrogators against terrorist suspects.

The chart also listed other techniques used by the Chinese, including “Semi-Starvation,” “Exploitation of Wounds,” and “Filthy, Infested Surroundings,” and with their effects: “Makes Victim Dependent on Interrogator,” “Weakens Mental and Physical Ability to Resist,” and “Reduces Prisoner to ‘Animal Level’ Concerns.”

The only change made in the chart presented at Guantánamo was to drop its original title: “Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.”The documents released last month include an e-mail message from two SERE trainers reporting on a trip to Guantánamo from Dec. 29, 2002, to Jan. 4, 2003. Their purpose, the message said, was to present to interrogators “the theory and application of the physical pressures utilized during our training.”

The sessions included “an in-depth class on Biderman’s Principles,” the message said, referring to the chart from Mr. Biderman’s 1957 article. Versions of the same chart, often identified as “Biderman’s Chart of Coercion,” have circulated on anti-cult sites on the Web, where the methods are used to describe how cults control their members.

Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, a psychiatrist who also studied the returning prisoners of war and wrote an accompanying article in the same 1957 issue of The Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, said in an interview that he was disturbed to learn that the Chinese methods had been recycled and taught at Guantánamo.

“It saddens me,” said Dr. Lifton, who wrote a 1961 book on what the Chinese called “thought reform” and became known in popular American parlance as brainwashing. He called the use of the Chinese techniques by American interrogators at Guantánamo a “180-degree turn.”

The harshest known interrogation at Guantánamo was that of Mohammed al-Qahtani, a member of Al Qaeda suspected of being the intended 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Qahtani’s interrogation involved sleep deprivation, stress positions, exposure to cold and other methods also used by the Chinese.

Terror charges against Mr. Qahtani were dropped unexpectedly in May. Officials said the charges could be reinstated later and declined to say whether the decision was influenced by concern about Mr. Qahtani’s treatment.

Mr. Bush has defended the use the interrogation methods, saying they helped provide critical intelligence and prevented new terrorist attacks. But the issue continues to complicate the long-delayed prosecutions now proceeding at Guantánamo.
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Qaeda member accused of playing a major role in the bombing of the American destroyer Cole in Yemen in 2000, was charged with
murder and other crimes on Monday. In previous hearings, Mr. Nashiri, who was
subjected to waterboarding, has said he confessed to participating in the bombing falsely only because he was tortured.

Green Thursday: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sits on it's hands

Here's a Guest Editorial from the Dallas Morning News

EPA delays the inevitable on greenhouse gases
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Americans apparently will have to wait for the next president to see any responsible action on regulating greenhouse gases. The Bush administration seems to be crossing its arms, closing its eyes and holding its breath until the bitter end to avoid doing the right thing on climate change. More than a year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court told the Environmental Protection Agency that greenhouse gases were a pollutant and ruled that the agency had a duty to regulate them unless it could come up with valid scientific reasons why it shouldn't.

Last week, EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson effectively told the high court to blow that ruling out its collective tailpipe. In a foreword to the EPA's own court-ordered scientific study, he said the agency has no intention of restricting greenhouse-gas emissions – this, despite the report's conclusion that those emissions pose a significant risk to public health.

In a troubling related development, Jason Burnett, former EPA deputy associate administrator, alleged last week that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had ordered six pages of congressional testimony slashed before delivery. Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was to tell Congress that the CDC viewed climate change as a "serious public health concern."

The EPA's Mr. Johnson concluded last week that the cost of regulating greenhouse gases would be too burdensome for the economy. An earlier draft of the study found that cutting emissions could save $2 trillion over 30 years – a number cut by more than half in the final draft, based on $2-a-gallon gas.

Sooner or later, greenhouse gases will be regulated. Delay will only make doing the inevitable harder and more expensive.

It is sad that when it comes to protecting the environment from global warming, which he admits is a problem, President Bush seems content to leave a legacy of all hat and no cattle.

Every Green Thursday we post items vital to the survival of the planet

Coreopsis Crescendo

Tickseed is the common name for Coreopsis, although we've never heard it called that. It's native to North, Central, and SouthAmerica. The name is derived from the Greek word koris, meaning Bedbug. Ick!

Once it gets going, Coreopsis just won't stop blooming, and is a pleasant oasis of yellow in the LipsYard perennial bed.

Living in very Republican Waukesha County, WI, is part of what fuels this blog's rants on the right. At times it can feel like a lonely position in it's own oasis, but with the publication of today's Mukwonago Chief, we now know that we're not alone!

Last weeks editorial page featured a "Best of the Blogs" column, featuring this little gem:

We are a nation of idiots because...
By Amy L. Geiger-Hemmer
Wednesday,
Jul 2 2008, 09:25 AM
- what other civilized, modern country would sit on it's own vast reserves of oil during an energy crisis? Gas is at $4 plus per gallon. Everyone is complaining, of course. Yet every solution to the problem is shot down. No drilling, no new oil refineries, no wind turbines, no nuclear power plants. And then the usual suspects blame Bush. This is not President Bush's fault. The American people are to blame - for electing a group of politicians - mainly liberals - who continue to block and dismiss any energy solution that may help alleviate this major problem.
- we allow more and more government intrusion in our lives without standing up and declaring "no"!!! Now we have our government telling us what kind of light bulbs we will be required to buy in the future. What kind of gas we must use. That people who own their own tavern or bar business must keep their establishment smoke-free? Government has gotten out of hand and we are going along like sheep.
- because we cannot pray to God, cannot trust in God and cannot post the Commandments in government buildings, but the government and it's employees are allowed to participate in Easter and Christmas holidays???
- we give illegal aliens as much in social security as those who work as legal citizens? Thank you Senators Kohl and Feingold...
- because we bend over backwards to make prisons comfortable for terrorists and we allow terrorists as many rights as we have?
- some believe that President Bush and Vice President Cheney are personally responsible for every natural disaster that has occurred on our planet.
- the state of Wisconsin continues to ignore the rights of it's citizens to carry concealed weapons.
- the state of Wisconsin continues to support cheating at election time by failing to put into law Voter ID requirements.
- we use corn for gas and are now finding food shortages as well as higher prices on most goods due to the foolish ethanol mandate. Politicians need to admit when they are wrong.
- an extreme liberal like Barack Obama, with little to no experience in government matters could be our next President. Obama's socialist agenda should scare everyone and in a sane world he would have been out of the race months ago if the mainstream media had actually done their jobs....
- and finally, we are a nation of idiots because some of us don't appreciate what a great country the United States of America is. Where else would anyone want to live?

This week's Chief "Your Letters" column featured a very un-Waukesha County reply:

Best of Blogs - Really?
by I. Rixmann of Mukwonago

If Amy L. Geiger-Hemmer's blog is considered by the Chief to be "Best of
the Blogs," what, then, would qualify as an "average one?"
Frankly, this blog (including the sophomoric title "We are a nation of
idiots becase...") is one of the least sophisticated partisan hatchet jobs I've
read in a long time. Sure, your publication, generally speaking, caters to a
moderate to conservative readership, but couldn't you find a blogger who is a
little more "fair and balanced?" Or go out on a limb and concurrently publish a
liberal blogger's musings?
...the topics mentioned in the blog (price of oil, climate change, the Iraq
war, illegal immigration, the presidential race, etc.) deserve more brain-based
and less gut-based analysis and commentary. For instance, to my knowledge no
person of intelligence has ever suggested that President Bush or his government
are directly responsible for recent natural disasters; it is fair, though, to
remind the readers that in the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina, one of the
arguably least competent FEMA directors in recent history was patted on the
shoulder by our president and told that he was doing a "heck of a job" in aiding
the suffering and dying storm victims along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Likewise, our
current administration still does not see too alarmed by the fact that the
United States continues to have by far the highest per capita CO2 output in the
world, which puts us in a bad position when trying to convince India and China
to curb their carbon emissions.
And then there is Ms. Geiger-Hemmer's claim that "we cannot pray to God,
cannot trust in God..." Are we talking about the same country? The United States
is among the most God-fearing, church-going nations in the Western Hemisphere.
Does she have any evidence of people here being told not to pray in their homes,
houses of worship, private schools, while jogging?
Finally, Ms. Geiger-Hemmer implies that only idiots would vote for Barack
Obama, who she tags as an "extreme liberal." Given the exploits of the Bush
administration (weak economy, record-low dollar, record high oil and food
prices, damaged reputation around the globe, hugely expensive and inconclusive
military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, healthcare costs spiraling out of
control...) what would it make a person who is considering voting for the
Republican candidate, John McCain this November? A deluded optimist?

It's refreshing to know we're not the only Blue house in a Red county!

Hosta la Vista

Hosta (Hosta) is a lily-like plant native to northeast Asia. The name Hosta is in honor of the Austrian botanist Nicholas Thomas Host(1761-1834.) He was an Austrian who was not only a botanist, but also physician to the Emperor Frances II.

With that pedigree, you'd think they would be called HOE-stas (which is Webster's official pronounciation,) but I've always heard them called HA-stas.

We have a couple of different varieties in the LipsYard.

They're almost indestructible no matter where you plant them, but they do best in shade. Growing up, we used to 'pop' the pods before they blossomed, causing the neighbor lady to have a fit.

Not holding up so well is the Bush Administration's Economic policy. The one where we cut taxes for millionaires and let free market fundamentalism take the wheel. Now we're bailing out market sector after market sector where de-regulated champions of business have lied and cheated the little guy. This, by the way, is the same economic policy that's being championed by John McCain, who wants more of the same. For you similarly -thinking righties, mayhaps I should remind you that our most recent economic boom during the 1990s came immediately after President Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy.

Astilbe my heart

Nestled between the Lilies (Lilium 'Casa Blanca') and the Coral Bells (Heuchera micrantha,) the Astilbe (Astilbe) is in bloom.

Astilbes are long-blooming plume-like flowers in shades of white, pink and red, held above airy foliage, and they're one of the easiest perennial flowers to grow. Virtually pest free, they can light up the shade garden.

If you squint, after having 3 or more adult beverages, Astilbe looks a little bit like off-shore drilling platforms.

Today, in a bold stroke of initiative, showing a deep understanding of the energy crisis currently going on, President George W. Bush lifted the the executive order put in place by his father, that would lift the restrictions on off-shore drilling, letting new rigs sprout up like our little perennials, except with much graver environmental consequences. (Not to mention that more drilling will do nothing about the high price of oil.)

The question should also be asked, "If this is such a great thing for America, why wasn't it part of this administrations Energy Policy crafted nearly 8 years ago by Vice President Dick Cheney?

Because they had an entirely different "Energy Policy" in mind.

Luckily, Congress has the final say on renewed off-shore drilling, and more sensible heads will prevail.

I can see my garden from here

I was washing some windows accessible only from the roof, and when I turned around, there was the LipsYard Garden in all it's glory. Cool! So I had Charmaine hand up the camera and I got these shots. This is the main portion of the garden, with the perennials in front, the veggies in the middle, and the raspberries in back.
This is the view to the East. The stone walk connects our yard with our neighbors, Dick and Judy, and Penny.

This is the view to the West, with our corner of Arbor Vitaes.

We take great pride in our garden and yard. Too bad Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker doesn't share our passion for the outdoors. Milwaukee County’s parks system for decades was considered a jewel residents quickly pointed to with pride, but its status has taken a blow with a new national study that ranks it near the bottom of comparable metropolitan systems.

The parks department spends $49 per resident a year on the parks system, compared with the national average of $91. That amount puts Milwaukee in 63rd place out of the 75 largest cities.

The study puts Milwaukee County near the cellar in many park statistics, including the number of playgrounds, swimming pools and recreation centers. Milwaukee County ranked in the bottom 10 out of 75 cities in those categories.

We have done nothing but cut funding for parks for the last seven years. That's the tenure of County Executive Scott Walker. His insistence on budgets that freeze the tax levy are the reason the parks have deteriorated. He wants to outsource park work out, using part time seasonal workers. Only two park agencies in the United States employ fewer regular, full-time workers per capita than Milwaukee County. We employ less than half the national average.

John Lunz, president of Preserve Our Parks, an advocacy group that fights for more funding for Milwaukee parks, said seasonal workers won't provide vital winter maintenance. "Temporary workers can at best put toilet paper in the bathrooms and mow the lawn. If you contract everything out, people won't take ownership."

I'm afraid that's what's happening in a lot of American businesses. Where we used to offer careers, we now just offer jobs. Scott Walker tells us we can't afford to spend more. I would argue we can't afford to spend less.

Nick Halter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes about the parks problem, read his full story HERE.

Green Thursday: A Better Way To Fly

Green Thursday takes a look to Europe today, in honor of Bastille Days in Milwaukee. Let's focus in on the high speed train, "Eurostar."

Eurostar is a train service in Western Europe primarily connecting London and Kent in the United Kingdom, with Paris and Lille in France, and Brussels in Belgium. Trains cross under the English Channel through the Channel Tunnel.

The service is operated by a fleet of specially designed eighteen-carriage trains which travel at up to 186 mph on a network of high-speed railway lines.

Here's the green part of Eurostar. They believe that global warming is real and that travelling is a contributing factor in climate change. But they also know that staying at home isn’t an appealing solution and that travel by Eurostar helps to make sure that you have a much smaller impact on the planet than flying to our destinations.

How much smaller? Their Tread Lightly initiative plans to reduce our impact on the environment and further increase their energy efficiency. They made a commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 25% per traveller journey by 2012 and since 14 November 2007, all Eurostar journeys are now carbon neutral at no extra cost to travellers.

Eurostar releases 10 times less CO2 than flying.

Meanwhile, here in our part of the world, we can't agree on global warming, not to mention light rail or other mass transit.

Every Green Thursday we post items vital to the survival of the planet.