LipsYard

Yes We Can

2008-11-05T07:37:00.001-06:00

YES

WE

CAN!

It All Comes Down To This

2008-11-04T07:47:00.002-06:00

The Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) has been a deep, dark, green for most of the spring and summer, and now in a final burst, has turned a brilliant combo of lime and yellow.

Similarly, all the campaigning, for so long, has finally come to the flourish of election day. Charmaine and I both avoided long waits by voting early (though we both will sort of miss standing in line today.)

For over a year I've posted the Bush administration countdown clock to your left, with its impossibly large number of days left in office slowly ticking away. Today, I feel a real turning point is being made, as we get ready to take back America, the one respected at home and around the world, the America that plays by the rules of common decency, the country that respects its citizens and their rights, the America that I am proud to call my home.

Now go vote!

Ready, Set, VOTE!

2008-11-03T09:56:00.004-06:00

Over the weekend we spent a lot of time in the LipsYard getting things ready for winter, including sucking up leaves from the landscaping around the house, and tilling them into the LipsYard Garden. Extra leaves were mixed into the compost bins.

You should be getting ready to vote (if you haven't early voted) so heres some tips:

HOW TO AVOID YOUR OWN ELECTION DAY DISASTER
There are a lot of little hurdles that could get in your way tomorrow, so here are some tips on how to make your voting experience as smooth and easy as possible:
BEFORE YOU VOTE...
1. Check your registration
In most states, if you aren't already registered, you can't vote. Even if you are registered, sometimes you may not be on the voter rolls because of a typographical error. Double check to make sure they have your name. If they don't, you may have to jump through some ID hurdles when you get to the polling place.
*If you live in one of the following states, you're in luck because you have same-day registration: Maine, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire and Wyoming.
2. Double check your polling place. Know when it's open.
You don't want to show up at the wrong one, wait in line for an hour, then get told you have to go somewhere else.
3. Plan plenty of time to wait
Try to head to your polling place at an off-peak hour if you can (mid-morning, early afternoon) and plan to be there for an hour or two.

WHEN YOU GO TO VOTE...
1. Bring your government-issued ID
Every state law is different and IT MAY HAVE CHANGED since you last voted. Just because all you needed was a signature last time, that doesn't mean you don't need your driver's license this year.
2. Beware of what you wear
- Dress comfy! If you're standing in line for a bit, you'll want comfy shoes and a coat if it's cold.
- Keep the campaign paraphernalia in the car.
In some states, there are laws that restrict anyone from getting within 150 feet of a polling location with campaign gear on. So it's best to leave the buttons, signs and t-shirts in the car or at home.
3. Beware of dirty tricks
If you see a sign that says, "Only republicans vote on Tuesday, democrats vote on Wednesday," ignore it. If it's raining and someone tells you the vote is postponed until clear weather, ignore them. Notify local officials of anyone trying to stop you from voting.
4. If something goes wrong, know your rights. Ask for help.
- If your name is not listed, request a provisional ballot. A provisional ballot allows you to vote and have your registration verified after you cast your ballot.
- If you can't read the ballot and you are already in the booth, wave down a poll worker from the booth and ask for help. If you'd rather read the ballot in a language other than English, request one.

It's a Scary Halloween

2008-10-31T08:33:00.003-05:00

Here's the scary Halloween Pumpkin you'll find on the LipsYard front porch. Boo!

Here's the scariest thing ever for America! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

Green Thursday: Ten Tips for a Green Halloween

2008-10-30T11:46:00.004-05:00

Consumers are expected to spend $3.12 billion on candy, costumes and other Halloween goodies this year. That's a big pile of candy corn. It's also a lot of crumpled candy wrappers, paper party props and plastic political masks in the trash the very next day. So this Halloween, why not think green?

Here are Ten Tips to get you started:

1. E-mail party invites rather than snail-mail them. Free e-mail greetings abound online.

2. Serve healthy and seasonal foods. The options are endless. Remember pumpkins are not just decorative items. The tender meat of the seasonal gourd can be pureed for soups, mashed for pies or spiced up for a main entrée, such as an Indian curry. Apples also are at their best this time of year. So make use of the crunchy fruit.

3. Buy pumpkins, apples and other seasonal items from a farmer's market. Produce bought at farmers' market will not only taste better but saves energy. Most foods in the United States travel an average of 1,300 miles before reaching us, burning large amounts of fossil fuels.

4. Make use of all pumpkin parts. After carving a pumpkin, make sure to save the seeds. Bake them and serve them to party guests or feed them to our fine feathered friends, the birds. If possible, bury or compost the carcass.

5. Use re-usable plates, cups, utensils, napkins and tablecloths. Paper party goods can be expensive and just add more clutter to our nation's landfills.

6. Make your own costume or buy one at a second-hand shop. An old sheet still makes a great ghost. Many boomers also have some hippie clothes stashed somewhere, or hit up your nearby Goodwill.

7. Give out healthy treats like individual microwave popcorn packs. Newman's Own Organic has three varieties. How about honey sticks or fruit leather?

8. Instead of using paper or plastic disposable bags to collect treats, use or buy a recyclable bag. Old straw baskets or an old metal pot with a handle will work, too.

9. Teach your children well. Teach them not to litter. Tell them pumpkin jokes.

What's the ratio of a pumpkin's circumference to its diameter? Pumpkin Pi

How do you mend a broken Jack-O-Lantern? With a pumpkin patch

What is a pumpkin's favorite sport? Squash.

10. Experience nature. Visit a pumpkin farm. Pick fresh apples. Talk a long walk outside. Look up at the sky. Notice the moon. Remember, it's Halloween.

I Voted, Have You?

2008-10-29T11:13:00.004-05:00

Mukwonago Village Hall, scene of my early vote. I was going to wait until next Tuesday, but was spurred on by the theft of my Obama sign from the front yard. Take that you crafty thieves!

In Wisconsin, early voting is conducted through the absentee ballot. It was an easy process. I walked in, said "I want to vote."

The clerk checked the voter roles to make sure I was on it. (If you aren't, you can register AND vote in the same visit.) Next, she had me fill out a form, then fill out information on the envelope that will hold my ballot until next Tuesday.

I then received my ballot, and the clerk gave me a quick primer on how to select my choices by filling in the arrows with a black marker.

Off I went to my private polling station where I made my choices. I double checked it, then folded it in half and placed it in my envelope. When I returned it to the clerk, she glued it shut and put it in the vault for safe keeping.

Total time = 8 minutes! No long wait on Tuesday.

You can vote in the offices of municipal clerks until 5 p.m. Nov. 3, the day before the election. Some communities offering extended hours are Madison (8 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday to Thursday; 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Friday; 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday) and Milwaukee (8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays; 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday).

Any eligible voter can vote by absentee ballot. You no longer have to state a reason, such as being out of town on election day.

Click HERE for your Wisconsin early voting location

Click HERE to see the ballot before you vote

Bring Back My Sign

2008-10-28T10:50:00.004-05:00

Less than 48 hours after I put up our Obama yard sign, it was stolen. This is where it was until someone took the campaign into their own hands. Last night I noticed that ALL the Obama signs in our town were gone (when the place you live is so RED, you know where all the Obama signs are.)

Luckily, I bought two (yes, you have to pay for signs,) so the spare is now INSIDE the front window.

2008-10-27T10:27:00.003-05:00

It's the Great Penguin, Charlie Brown! Trick or Treaters at the LipsYard House were met by a giant Emperor, me. Most enjoyed the costume, except those who cried in terror. Bwaha ha ha!

Even Scarier for Sarah Palin and the McCain campaign, was the The Anchorage Daily News, Alaska's largest newspaper, endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama after declaring Gov. Sarah Palin "too risky" to be one step away from the Oval Office.

The newspaper said Obama "brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand."

The Daily News said since the economic crisis has emerged, McCain has "stumbled and fumbled badly" in dealing with it.

"Of the two candidates, Sen. Obama better understands the mortgage meltdown's root causes and has the judgment and intelligence to shape a solution, as well as the leadership to rally the country behind it."

In a final blow, bound to trigger revenge from the hockey mom, the paper said few would argue that Palin is truly ready to step into the job of being president.

Read the entire endorsement HERE.

Burning Bush and Other Hot Items

2008-10-24T11:33:00.004-05:00

The Burning Bush (euonymous ) outside the kitchen window is gorgeous again this year. All summer long it has patiently waited, staying all green and such, until now, when its leaves turn a vibrant red.

Also turning red and heating up is John McCain's. He's finally had to comment on his campaign's $150,000 spent on coutour clothes, hair-styling, and accessories for Sarah Palin. We're not talking diapers at Walmart, either. The Alaskan princess' new wardrobe is made up of pricey items from Neiman-Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. I don't think "Joe the Plumber" shops there very much.

$2,500 Valentino jacket

McCain wasn't happy when he was asked several questions about the shopping spree on his campaign bus between Florida rallies, and he answered each one more or less the same way: "She needed clothes at the time. They'll be donated at end of this campaign. They'll be donated to charity."

Asked for details by reporters on how they'll be donated, McCain said, "It works by her getting some clothes when she was made the nominee of the party and it will be donated back to charity."

Asked if he was surprised at the amount spent, McCain said, "It works that the clothes will be donated to charity. Nothing surprises me."

McCain offered no further comment, except to say that the Republican National Committee doesn't buy his clothes.

Also on Thursday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a private watchdog group in Washington, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Palin, the Republican National Committee and several political operatives alleging that the purchase of clothing for Palin and her family violates the Federal Election Campaign Act. The law prohibits a candidate for federal office from converting campaign funds to personal use. CREW notes that FEC regulations make clear the prohibition applies to clothing but also provides that donations by candidates to charity are not for personal use. CREW argued this exception might apply to Palin's clothes but doesn't appear to apply to clothes for her family. Yes, they all got in on the shopping spree!

The Palin Clan post makeover at the RNC

Asked who had paid for the suit he was wearing, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said: "I pay for my suits. I pay for all of my own clothing."

Green Thursday: Half of Us are Doomed!

2008-10-23T13:44:00.003-05:00

Not to worry you on a nice fall day, but, scientists say that our planet is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals, with nearly 50 percent of all species disappearing.

The current extinction event is due to human activity, like paving the planet and creating pollution. Duh!

Biologists at the University of California-Santa Barbara are working to determine which species need to be saved. Hopefully, we'll make the cut.

The last mass extinction happened about 65 million years ago when a meteor struck the Earth.

The complete report is at Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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

Summer Green Becomes Fall Color

2008-10-22T06:46:00.006-05:00

As we head through autumn, the back of the LipsYard house is starting to show some color. (l-r) The Burning bush (euonymous) has started to go bright red, the Lilies (lilium) have gone brown, the Witch Hazel (hamamelis) is yellowing, the tall Vibernum has a hint of orange and red, and the Clethra has gone from lime to lemon.

We're also seeing the Republican party losing it's summer green, having already passed through fall color and now near the death of winter.

Richard Cohen of the Washington Post details;

How the GOP went so sadly astray.

A column, like a good movie, should have an arc -- start here, end there and somehow connect the two points. So this column will begin with the speech Condi Rice made to the Republican National Convention in 2000 in praise of George W. Bush and end with Colin Powell's appearance Sunday on "Meet the Press" in praise of Barack Obama. Between the first and the second lie the ruins of the GOP, a party gone very, very wrong.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Bush and now John McCain have constructed a mean, grumpy, exclusive, narrow-minded and altogether retrograde Republican Party. It has the sharp scent of the old Barry Goldwater GOP -- the angry one of 1964 and not the one perfumed by nostalgia -- that is home, by design or mere dumb luck, to those who think that Obama is "The Madrassian Candidate." Karl Rove, take a bow.

It is worth remembering that both Rice and Powell spoke at that Philadelphia convention. And it is worth recalling, too, that Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative" and had compiled a record as Texas governor to warrant the hope, if not the belief, that he was indeed a different sort of Republican. When he ran for reelection as governor in 1998, he went from 15 percent of the black vote to 27 percent, and from 28 percent of the Hispanic vote to an astounding 49 percent. Here was a coalition-builder of considerable achievement.

Now, all this is rubble. It is not merely that Barack Obama was always going to garner the vast majority of the black vote. It is also that the GOP, under Rove and his disciples in the McCain campaign, has not only driven out ethnic and racial minorities but a vast bloc of voters who, quite bluntly, want nothing to do with Sarah Palin. For moderates everywhere, she remains the single best reason to vote against McCain.

But the GOP's tropism toward its furiously angry base, its tolerance and currying of anti-immigrant sentiment, its flattering of the ignorant on matters of undisputed scientific consensus -- evolution, for instance -- and, from the mouth of Palin, its celebration of drab provincialism, have sharpened the division between red and blue. Red is the color of yesterday.

Ah, I know, the blues are not all virtuous. They are supine before self-serving unions, particularly in education, and they are knee-jerk opponents of offshore drilling, mostly, it seems, because they don't like Big Oil. They cannot face the challenge of the Third World within us -- the ghetto with its appalling social and cultural ills -- lest realism be called racism. Sometimes, too, they seem to criticize American foreign policy simply because it is American.

Still, a Democrat can remain a Democrat -- or at least vote as one -- without compromising basic intellectual or cultural values. That, though, is not what Colin Powell was saying Sunday about his own party. "I have some concerns about the direction that the party has taken in recent years," Powell said. "It has moved more to the right than I would like." He cited McCain's harping on that "washed-out terrorist" Bill Ayers as an effort to exploit fears that Obama is a Muslim (so what if he were? Powell rightly asked) and mentioned how Palin's presence on the ticket raised grave questions about McCain's judgment. In effect -- and at least for the time being -- Powell was out of the GOP. S'long, guys.

Those of us who traveled with Bush in the 2000 campaign could tell that when he spoke of education, of the "soft bigotry of low expectations," he meant it. Education, along with racial and ethnic reconciliation, was going to be his legacy. Then came Sept. 11, Afghanistan and finally the misbegotten war in Iraq. After that, nothing else really mattered. But just as Bush could not manage the wars, he could not manage his own party. His legacy is not merely in tatters. It does not even exist.

In the end, Powell was determined not to be one of the GOP's useful idiots. Those moderates willing to overlook the choice of Palin, those capable of staying in a party where, soon enough, she could be an important or dominant force, retain the intellectual nimbleness that enabled them to persist in championing a war fought for duplicitous reasons and extol cultural values they do not for a minute share. Powell walked away from that, and others will follow -- the second time that a senator from Arizona has led the GOP into the political wilderness.

Digging Up Dirt

2008-10-21T10:24:00.004-05:00

Another annual fall task is to turn over the LipsYard Garden. As always, we added the compost we had made of last years yard and garden waste.

Oops! While the McCain campaign was busy trying to dig up dirt on Barack Obama's contributors, they were asking the Russian envoy for money!

In the letter, signed by McCain, the Republican Presidential candidate urged Russia's U.N. Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, to contribute anywhere from $35 to $5,000 to help ensure McCain's victory over Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama, currently ahead in voter preference polls.

"If I have the honour of continuing to serve you, I make you this promise: We will always put America -- her strength, her ideals, her future -- before every other consideration," McCain assured Churkin.

Moscow's mission to the United Nations issued a terse statement on the Republican presidential candidate's letter, saying that the Russian government and its officials "do not finance political activity in foreign countries." (Perhaps a personal visit by Sarah Palin to her "backyard neighbors" would have yeilded a contribution?)

A spokesman for McCain, a long-time critic of Russia, pointed the finger of blame at an error in their mailing list. Wonder how many other "mistakes" got sent to U.N. headquarters?

Earlier this month, both McCain and Obama harshly criticized Russia for invading Georgia two months ago, but neither was willing to say yes when asked if Russia under Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was the "evil empire."

It is illegal for U.S. presidential candidates to accept funds from foreign sources. The McCain campaign accused Obama earlier this month of not doing enough to screen for illegal contributors and asked U.S. election officials to investigate.

Fall's (True) Colors

2008-10-20T12:14:00.002-05:00

It's autumn in the LipsYard, and this week I'll have some nice fall color shots from around the house. This is the Northeast corner, featuring (l-r) the multicolored Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea,) the burgundy Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius,) and still green Vibernum.

Gen. Colin Powell showed on Meet the Press not only endorsed Barack Obama for President, but exposed the true colors of the McCain campaign for the underhanded tactics they're using.

Oh Oh! Better Call Joe the Plumber.

2008-10-17T07:47:00.005-05:00

We woke up this morning to a frozen birdbath! Better call Joe the Plumber.

He's the guy that Barack Obama ran into in Ohio the other day that quizzed the candidate on his tax policy. Joe wanted to buy the plumbing company he worked for, and feared that he would be taxed to death if he made more than $250,000. The Republicans quickly pounced on Joe, and used him in the debate against Obama. His name came up 26 times! Now the evil mainstream media has done their job and uncovered some stuff about Joe:

Turns out he's not a licensed plumber.
Joe isn't his real name, it's Samuel. Joe is his middle name.
He only made $40,000 last year, and just like Sarah Palin, doesn't think paying taxes is patriotic, so he's got a lien against his house for not paying $1,200 in property taxes.
He's only voted one time, that was last May, and his name on the roles is mis-spelled. Did ACORN sign him up wrong to mess with the vote?

Like all the other slings and arrows thrown around in this campaign, Joe the Plumber is just another half truth.

Margaret Carlson of Bloomberg news has some thoughts on Joe the Plumber, too:

"The most dispiriting thing to come out of the debate was the morning after. I woke to see Joe (the plumber) Wurzelbacher's street in Holland, Ohio, lit up like Times Square with network and cable satellite trucks clogging the place.

I thought the press was beyond 23 mentions of Joe the Plumber by one candidate and three by the other, while Asian markets were dropping 10 percent and the Dow has been diving. Unless he starts making courtesy calls to fix the running toilets of the journalists making him famous, let's relegate Joe the Plumber back to the playroom with Bob the Builder or the 15-minute hall of fame with Harry and Louise and Ross Perot's crazy aunt in the attic.

Here's the reason for Joe: McCain has no argument left except that no one should have to pay taxes, and that Obama isn't one of us."

Read Margaret's full column HERE.

Green Thursday: Green Living Leaves Smaller Footprints

2008-10-16T06:44:00.000-05:00

EATING GREEN HELPS PLANET AND WAISTLINES
Researchers say that for those wanting to reduce their carbon footprint, eating green may be as important as driving green, not to mention the health benefit.

Nutrition experts said eating green can benefit the waistline as well as the environment.

To eat green, the experts recommend:

Buy local and seasonal. Farmers markets remain the best bet, but many grocery stores have started offering a greater selection of locally grown foods.

Limit reliance on processed and packaged foods. Fresh foods have fewer fats and refined flours than many pre-packaged foods.

Doggy bag leftovers. Only buy and prepare what you intend to eat. If you go out or make too much at home, repurpose the leftovers for another meal later in the week such as pizzas, salads, soups, tacos or pasta dishes.

Occasionally replacing beef with chicken or eggs can help reduce your carbon footprint and reduce fat intake.

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

Herb Week: Mint, How Sweet It Is!

2008-10-15T11:51:00.003-05:00

We wrap up Herb Week(s) with my favorite: Mint (Mentha piperita.) We grow it in a separate pot because it spreads very quickly, and would saoon take over the LipsYard Garden.

The potent taste of the leaves - very strong menthol - takes your breath away. Very cool and clean indeed. Mint is used commercially in liqueurs, toothpastes, soaps, and mouthwashes because of its strong, pure qualities. In medicines, it is used not only as a pleasant flavoring, but
also because it contains healing properties as well. In my opinion, everything's better with a little sprig of mint!

Now for something else that's sweet:

Sarah Palin (Harris) playing the flute in the 1984 Miss Alaska contest.

Herb Week: Steeping Basil

2008-10-14T11:37:00.004-05:00

In the back of the LipsYard Garden grows Basil (Ocimum basilicum.) There's this small leaf variety...

...and the more recognizable large leaf plant.

Basil leaves are used in soups, stews, pasta sauce, poultry and meat dishes; flavors for vinegar, and teas.

Much has been made of Republican Sarah Palin's participation in the Vice Presidential debate with Joe Biden, but NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman picked up on a particularly "taxing" point that had been steeping in his teapot for a few days.

Palin's Kind of Patriotism
Thomas L. Friedman

Criticizing Sarah Palin is truly shooting fish in a barrel. But given the huge attention she is getting, you can’t just ignore what she has to say. And there was one thing she said in the debate with Joe Biden that really sticks in my craw. It was when she turned to Biden and declared: “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”

What an awful statement. Palin defended the government’s $700 billion rescue plan. She defended the surge in Iraq, where her own son is now serving. She defended sending more troops to Afghanistan. And yet, at the same time, she declared that Americans who pay their fair share of taxes to support all those government-led endeavors should not be considered patriotic.

I only wish she had been asked: “Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?” That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.

Read the rest of Friedman's piece HERE

Herb Week: Thyme For Change

2008-10-13T09:28:00.003-05:00

Who knew we had so many herbs? (Today marks the start of Herb Week #3) This is Thyme (Thymus vulgaris.) Ancient Egyptians used thyme in embalming. The ancient Greeks used it in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples, believing that thyme was a source of courage. It was thought that the spread of thyme throughout Europe was thanks to the Romans, as they used it to purify their rooms and to "give an aromatic flavour to cheese and liqueurs."

In the European Middle Ages, the herb was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares. In this period, women would also often give knights and warriors gifts that included thyme leaves as it was believed to bring courage to the bearer. Thyme was also used as incense and placed on coffins during funerals as it was supposed to assure passage into the next life.

Thyme is a good source of iron and is used widely in cooking. Thyme is a basic ingredient in French, Greek, Italian, Lebanese, Persian, Spanish, Syrian, and Turkish cuisines, and in those derived from them. It is also widely used in Arab and Caribbean cuisines.

Thyme is often used to flavour meats, soups and stews. It has a particular affinity to and is often used as a primary flavour with lamb, tomatoes and eggs.

It's really a shame that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel decided to take Doonesbury off the editorial page, eliminating it from the paper altogether. This is Sunday's strip, where frame by frame, creator Gary Trudeau takes aim at Sarah Palin's past and the Republican party's attempts to deal with it. (click on the cartoon to take you to a larger, more readable version.)

Thyme for Change? You bet!

Herb Week: Rosemary, is that you?

2008-10-09T09:24:00.003-05:00

Next stop on the herb walk: Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis.) The origin of this herb’s name is woven into folklore. It is said that the Virgin Mary had draped her cloak over this bush and placed a white flower on top of her cloak. In the morning the flower turned blue and thereafter the plant was called Rose of Mary.

Rosemary has many uses: teas; flavoring for vinegar, jam, bread, butters, stuffing, vegetables, stew, and meat dishes. The most creative use we've seen lately was as a skewer for shrimp. Yum!

Will you be sporting a politcal costume this Halloween? Who's mask will you be hiding behind? National Halloween costume retailer, Spirit Halloween, has picked the winner in the past three presidential elections days before the general election results were in.

The Spirit Halloween Presidential Index measures sales of the masks, and in 2004, sales were 65 percent to 35 percent for George W. Bush over John Kerry.

In 2000, more folks purchased Bush masks, with Bush sales at 57 percent to 43 percent for Al Gore.

In 1996, Bill Clinton masks were snapped up 71 percent to Bob Dole's 29 percent.

What's the forecast this year? So far, the mask factor is looking good for Sen. Barack Obama. After the first month of Halloween sales this year (Aug. 30 to Oct. 3), Obama was leading 67 percent to Sen. John McCain's 33 percent.

Trick or Treat?

Green Thursday: One Quarter Of All Mammals Face Extinction

2008-10-09T08:41:00.004-05:00

The Caspian Seal (Pusa caspica) is the smallest of the world's seals and lives only in the inland Caspian Sea in Asia. The Caspian Seal population, devastated in recent decades by wolves and by distemper virus, is further shrinking due to pollution and the loss of its habitat

At least one-quarter of the world's mammals in the wild are threatened with extinction, according to a new international survey that blames the loss of wildlife habitat, hunting and poaching for the steep declines.

A cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) rests at the animal orphanage in Nairobi's National Park. The world's fastest land animal also faces habitat loss.

The survey, assembled over five years by 1,700 researchers in 130 countries, is the most comprehensive yet to assess the status and future of mammals on every continent and in every ocean.

The "baiji," or Chinese river dolphin, faces extinction and already might have joined the species that have vanished from Earth. Others are not far behind, such as the "vaquita," a small porpoise that is drowning in fishing nets in the northern Gulf of California; the North Atlantic right whale, and various monkeys and other primates hunted by poachers in Africa.

Scientists have determined that about one-quarter of the world's 5,487 species of mammals are threatened with extinction. The proportion of marine mammals in trouble appears to be higher, with an estimated one-third facing a serious threat of being wiped out. Many are killed when they are struck by ships or entangled in fishing gear.

The Tasmanian devil (Sacropilus harrasii), a fierce, small, dog-like marsupial, is found only on the Australian island of Tasmania. Its population has declined by more than 60 percent over the past 10 years due to a fatal infectious cancer.

About one-half of the world's remaining apes, monkeys and other primates face threats from hunting or destruction of forests to make way for farming. Chimp and gorilla meat fetches a higher price in many markets in Central African cities than beef or chicken because it's considered a luxury item.

Scientists find mammal extinction worrisome because a diversity of species stabilizes the planet. Each extinction disrupts this balance and ripples through the food chain, making it difficult for other species, including humans, to survive.

The bleak assessment was released in Barcelona at the World Conservation Congress, a meeting of 8,000 scientists, conservationists, business leaders and representatives from governmental environmental ministries. It was part of a larger update to the Red List of all threatened species maintained by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which hosts this gathering every four years.

The Red List has several categories, including: extinct; extinct in the wild; and threatened with extinction, including critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable.

Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programs for the Zoological Society of London, said that a sampling shows that 24 percent of all vertebrates -- those animals with a backbone — appear to face extinction. To track the health and abundance of all species is too massive a job, Baillie said, but he suggested that such sampling might be tantamount to creating a Dow Jones industrial average index for the planet's biodiversity. In this case though, he said, "there's no 700-billion-dollar bailout on the horizon."

The Red List once was published as a book, but the endangered list has grown so long -- now 44,838 species — that it is now an online catalog at www.iucn.org/redlist.

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

Herb Week: Oregano, isn't that on the West Coast?

2008-10-07T21:08:00.005-05:00

As we walk the path of herbs in the LipsYard Garden, our next stop is Oregano (Origanum vulgare.)
Oregano is best known for flavoring tomato dishes, meat, poultry, and pork stuffings; vegetables, sauces, etc.

With the election just a few weeks away, here's a nice picture of the race that carries a little spice of its own. Enjoy!

Herb Week: Flying Lavender People Eater

2008-10-07T06:55:00.005-05:00

Down the walk of herbs we go, today pausing at Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia.)

Unlike other colors, we've come to associate a scent with the color lavender. Run a blossom through our fingers, and it's "scratch and sniff" time in the LipsYard Garden. It's a rather "girlie" scent, and it's uses include: Potpourris; herb pillows (there's one hanging in our closet;) crafts, vinegars, jellies.

Here's a piece about how to watch, scratch, and sniff tonight's second debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. With both sides ratcheting up the personal attacks, (as always happens in the final days of a campaign,) two gentlemen (not the candidates) who know a thing or two weigh in on the fine art of debate.

Questions to ask as you watch the debates
By SEAN PATRICK O’ROURKE and RON MANUTO

After the first presidential debate, many of us might be tempted to ignore the other two, to assume that we have heard too much already or to believe that debates between candidates mean nothing.

Don't do it. We are in crisis. Our national debt is at a record high, $11.3 trillion. Unemployment, homelessness and home foreclosures are up, the markets are unstable, energy prices are at record highs and public distrust of political leadership is unprecedented. Terrorism continues to rise, and tribal feuds and insurgencies continue to hurt our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So don't let the cynics mislead you. The debates do matter. Debates require the candidates to develop substantive arguments. While debate purists might complain about the "joint press conference" formats, debates nonetheless reveal differences. They enable us to see where the candidates agree, where and to what extent they disagree and how those disagreements matter. And they do so far better than a bumper sticker, endorsement or TV commercial ever could.

The candidates know this. They know that when they face each other before the American people, all the rehearsal, all the spin of the advance men, can disappear in an instant. Assertions are questioned and accusations answered. Distortions are challenged. Misrepresentations are corrected. If we are lucky, falsehoods are exposed. Real issues emerge, and the candidates cannot help but reveal themselves.

For this reason, the debates require us to set aside the myths and illusions of the campaign's drama, to face the real requirements of citizenship. That's why, instead of letting the media tell us who "won," we can and should judge the debates ourselves.

Here's how:

Set aside prior opinions and focus first on the issues. Weigh the evidence and assess the arguments as a juror would in a criminal trial. Some questions to keep in mind are:

• What issues matter to each candidate? Why? Are they the issues that matter to you?

• Where do the candidates clash? Are there significant differences? Do you find yourself agreeing more with one candidate than the other? Why? On what grounds?

• On matters of policy, debaters carry certain burdens. An advocate of change must identify clearly what is wrong with the current system, how we are harmed by it, what the costs are and how the policy he proposes will solve the problem. Those who defend existing policies must show that the system is working and must supply evidence of that success. And remember, slogans are not evidence.

• On questions of value, candidates also carry certain burdens. So, for instance, when candidates champion the value of change, we should ask, how do they define the term? What do they think it means? Change from what? To what? Do they tolerate those with dissenting views? Most important, do they (or their agents) act in accord with the values they promote?

• In all of this, we must be attentive to what evidence or proof the candidates offer. Do they make assertions without evidence? When they use evidence, is it from sources with a heavy bias or vested interest? Are examples representative? Overall, do they offer good reasons for the positions they take?

Issues alone, however, are only part of a presidential debate. Perhaps just as important are what we might call "character questions" - not who smiles or is "just plain folk" but who is fit for the job. Debates offer an excellent opportunity to see candidates under fire, to assess their ability to respond to tough questions in difficult circumstances:

• Are the candidates poised under pressure? Do they continue to speak clearly and think cogently? Are they easily rattled? Angered? Flustered? Repetitive?

• Are the candidates competent? Do they have their facts straight? Are they aware of complexities or do they oversimplify by repeating campaign clichés?

• Are the candidates people of integrity? Do they pretend to be someone they are not? Are they principled? Do they stand their ground when they should and admit error where appropriate? Have they acted in ways consistent with the values expressed?

• Do the candidates speak out of self-interest? Do they represent the interests of a special few? Or is the well-being of the nation as a whole their primary concern?

These and other questions should provide us with the ability to judge the debates, to exercise our civic duty responsibly and to participate fully in the election process.

Sean Patrick O'Rourke was an award-winning debate coach at Humboldt State University and the University of Oregon. He now teaches argumentation and debate at Furman University in Greenville, S.C. Ron Manuto coached debate and taught argumentation at Oregon State University. He now lives in California, where he writes full time.

Herb Week: Parsley a day goes bye

2008-10-06T12:11:00.004-05:00

Next in line along the path of herbs in the LipsYard Garden is Parsley (Petroselinum crispum.)

Uses for parsley include: Garnish; flavoring for salads, stews, soups, sauces, and salad dressings. If you munch a little after dinner, you'll get clean, fresh breath.

Now that the polls are going towards Barack Obama, hardly a day will go bye without a new, nasty, attack from the Republicans, especially the pitbull (in lipstick.)

We'll we're not sitting on our hands. In the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, John McCain wants to change the subject from the central question of this election.
Perhaps that's because the policies McCain supported these past eight years are pretty hard to defend.

The Obama campaign put together a documentary about why John McCain's failed philosophy and poor judgment are a recipe for deepening the crisis.

Watch the documentary now and share it with others:

Herb Week: Lovage a many splendored thing, also

2008-10-03T09:18:00.003-05:00

Herb Week rolls on (and don't be surprised if next week is Herb Week 2,) with Lovage (Levisticum officinale.)

Lovage leaves are used to flavor food, especially in South European cuisine. It has a very distinctive taste, something similar to celery. It is also used to make a liquor of the same name. Haven't tasted it, but it was referenced in a Broadway play "Lettice and Lovage."

Did you watch the debate last night? I tried to listen in the car on the way home from church choir, but I couldn't get past her voice. Pretty shallow of me. All I could think of was Tina Fey on "Saturday Night Live" doing Palin, then back on the radio, I couldn't decide if it really was Sarah or Tina. I turned it off and practiced with my Midwest Vocal Express CD.

True to form, all the right talkers felt she "won" and all the left bloggers felt Sen. Biden ("Can I call you Joe?") "won."

I found the response from conservative pundit, Kathleen Parker, entertaining.

The VP Debate: She Won Fersure, Also

Well, darnit all, if that dadgum girl (wink, wink) didn't beat the tarnation out of Joe Biden. Maverick Sarah Palin fersure surpassed expectations and said everything under the sun, also. And Biden smiled and smiled.

Palin is a populist pro. She hit all the notes that resonate with non-elite Americans: family (Hi Mom and Dad!), "Can I call ya Joe?" personal responsibility, Wall Street greed, children with special needs. Her most effective technique was speaking directly to the American people and letting Joe know that's what she was gonna do, doggonit.

Stylistically, she used the language of the people to great effect. And, you know what? If you want to know what the American people care about, you can go to a kid's soccer game on Saturday and ask parents how they feel, and "I'll betcha you're going to hear some fear."

I'll have to go to the transcript to figure out what Palin actually said and try to figure out whose facts were right. But there's no question: She won the debate on popularity. She did her homework, studied hard, and delivered with spunk. Still, I had the uneasy feeling throughout that I was witnessing a data dump from a very appealing droid. Even the winks and jaw juts seemed slightly programmed.

And the question remains: Is she ready to be president should the need arise?

Green Thursday: Hockey goes green

2008-10-02T08:43:00.004-05:00

While a certain Hockey mom from Alaska is cramming for her big debate tonight, we're encouraged by a local hockey story:

WAUKESHA COUNTY CONSIDERS USING ICE TO HEAT ICE ARENAS
Study points to alternative powered ice rinks

Waukesha, WIS. – Exploring more sustainable energy management opportunities at Eble and Naga-Waukee Ice Arenas is the top recommendation identified in Waukesha County’s Ice Arena Study.

County Executive Dan Vrakas says, “I would like to thank study group participants for their willingness to provide the County with their recommendations on how to better ice arena operations. I am pleased that the number one study outcome points to more sustainable energy usage. After replacing existing metal halide lights with linear florescent lights at each facility last year, the County anticipates saving taxpayers $10,000 per calendar with a payback in less than 3.8 years.

With support from the study group and my administration, I look forward to analyzing and proposing other ice rink efficiencies that conserve energy and save real, ongoing dollars to allow for continued affordable fee based recreational opportunities in the future.”As part of the County’s Sustainability Initiative and in response to study results, the Department of Parks and Land Use is researching tested and sustainable ice arena energy management options, and has determined that the most promising renewable energy systems are geothermal and solar thermal heat exchange at this type of facility.

Geothermal systems use near constant natural soil temperature of approximately 54 degrees and heat pumps to transfer heat from the ground to the building in winter and from the building to the ground in summer. In addition, waste energy from the ice making process could be used to heat spectator seating areas, locker rooms and other parts of each complex. A comparable sustainability project at an ice arena in Rochester, Minnesota is projected to realize annual energy savings of 40% and a near elimination of natural gas use.

The goal of the Ice Arena Study was to identify operational efficiencies, maximize profitability and examine different ownership opportunities. Study group members, which consisted of ice arena management experts, youth hockey advocates, local business leaders and County budget staff, determined that the County should maintain its ownership of the two rinks and concluded that staff should focus on energy reduction efforts and maximizing profitability to achieve greater efficiencies.

Study group member Margie Krauski says, “We researched and analyzed options including sale, leasing and continued County ownership of the ice arenas. Given the ice arenas ability to cover their annual operating costs, concern over the loss of trust from the donors who contributed over $1.5 million to construct the arenas, and the viability of lease arrangements, continued County ownership was the best business decision.”

In addition to ownership options and energy reduction improvements, the study group evaluated if additional value could be added to the ice arenas by better maximizing profitability. “Our recommendations include expanding learn-to-skate programming beyond the current partnerships to include area YMCA’s; evaluating opportunities for dry floor events; continuing to work with area school districts to promote open skating or special events; and targeting organizations and facilities that serve senior citizens, disabled individuals, home school families, day camps, and day care operators to fill midday, limited availability ice times,” announces study group member Stan Riffle.

County staff is currently working with its existing municipal, school district and non-profit partners to provide additional and/or extended programming at its ice arenas. They are also exploring potential non-profit agency summer camps.

The two Waukesha County-owned ice arenas are operated by the Department of Parks and Land Use. Eble Ice Arena is located in Brookfield and Naga-Waukee Ice Arena is located in Delafield. Both facilities offer a variety of skating programs, which include public skate, senior skate, youth hockey, adult hockey, figure skating, learn-to-skate sessions, and public and private party facility and equipment rentals.

For more information about Waukesha County’s ice arenas, go to www.waukeshacountyparks.com.

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

Herb Week: Chive Me To The Moon

2008-10-01T11:18:00.001-05:00

As we walk down the stone path in the LipsYard Garden, our next featured plant in Herb Week is: Chives (Allium schoenoprasum.)

We use the chive leaves for flavoring, eggs, soups, salads, butter, cheese, dips, spreads, etc. They are especially nice mixed with sour cream on a baked potato.

Chives are part of the Onion family, and as you peel away each thin layer on Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, you find that there's just another thin layer. John McCain’s campaign is putting pressure on the organizers of the vice-presidential debate tomorrow night to go easy on Sarah amid growing alarm that faltering performances in recent days have made her an object of public ridicule (not to mention a great ratings asset for Saturday Night Live!)

For the last three days she's been at Mr. McCain’s ranch in Arizona (house number??) with some of his most senior advisers (Bush campaign thugs,) undergoing an intensive program of preparation (memorizing policy slogans) for the televised clash with her Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

Nancy Pfotenhauer, a senior campaign strategist for McCain, has asked for fewer questions than might be expected on foreign policy in the debate ("Will this be on the test?) Pointing out that Mr. Biden – chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations – would have an advantage on such issues, she said that the clash should at least be evenly balanced with domestic concerns.

“The moderators will have some questions to answer themselves if they do go so heavy on foreign policy.”

Perhaps there should be a lightning round on "The End Times" and "The Rapture?"

Privately, strategists said that at least expectations have been lowered for the debate. Mrs. Palin breezily insisted that she looked forward to going into battle with Mr. Biden, who seemed “pretty doggone confident – like he’s sure he’s going to win.” She emphasised how long he had been a Washington insider, saying: “I’ve been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in, like, second grade.”

Good luck, Sarah.

Herb Week: Sage Advice

2008-09-30T11:37:00.003-05:00

For most of the summer I've been featuring showy flowers from the LipsYard Garden. Over on the right side, next to the stone path to our neighbors, is the herb garden, making everything taste (and sometimes smell) better. This brings us to the start of Herb Week, where we'll honor these hardworking plants.

First up is Sage (Salvia officinalis.)

Perfect for seasoning meat, vegetable and egg dishes, and stuffings.

Sage also refers to a type of good, seasoned advice. We've been pointing out the failings and foibles of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and now, even the conservative pundits have begun to turn on her. Today, it's Kathleen Parker, a strong female voice from the right.

WASHINGTON -- If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream -- away from Sarah Palin.

To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president -- and possibly president -- is to risk being labeled anti-woman.

Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.

Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick -- what a difference a financial crisis makes -- and a more complicated picture has emerged.

As we've seen and heard more from John McCain's running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn't know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan's president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)

And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she's had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).

Finally, Palin's narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain's running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood -- a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Palin didn't make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I've been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I've also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there's not much content there. Here's but one example of many from her interview with Hannity:"Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we're talking about today. And that's something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this."

When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama's numbers, Palin blustered wordily: "I'm not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who's more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who's actually done it?"

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we'd all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she's a woman -- and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket -- we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

What to do?

McCain can't repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP's unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

Brewers Rally

2008-09-29T15:07:00.010-05:00

The Brewers are in Postseason play for the first time in 26 years! (Back when I started at WKTI) Today we're partying at the Summerfest grounds at the Miller Lite Oasis.

The Rally will run until 8pm (I bet it goes longer) and include live music from Reckless Kelly, appearances by past and present Brewer players, and Fireworks.

Here's Debbie and I ready for the Live Broadcast.

Here's the crowd waiting for the gates to open at 4pm.

Here's Andrea and Haley from the Brewers with the free Rally towels for the first 10,000 fans.

Mathew Blades, AJ and Erin pose before jumping into the crowd.

The crowd goes wild for the Racing (dancing) Sausages.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who has bet a case of Usinger Brats against the Mayor of Philadelphia's case of Cheese Steaks, gets the crowd pumped up.

Fans wave their Brewer Rally towels at the team.

Fragrant Iris Wafting Through the Air

2008-09-26T11:57:00.004-05:00

Another flower in the LipsYard Garden making a go of it this fall is the Fragrant Iris (Iris.)

Not as showy as the "bearded" iris that blooms earlier in the season, these make up for the lesser 'looks' with a beautiful sweet scent.

The scent of Sarah Palin's success may be wafting away in the political breeze, too.

Pundit Sam Harris writes:

"Let me confess that I was genuinely unnerved by Sarah Palin's performance at the Republican convention. Given her audience and the needs of the moment, I believe Governor Palin's speech was the most effective political communication I have ever witnessed. Here, finally, was a performer who—being maternal, wounded, righteous and sexy—could stride past the frontal cortex of every American and plant a three-inch heel directly on that limbic circuit that ceaselessly intones "God and country." If anyone could make Christian theocracy smell like apple pie, Sarah Palin could.

Then came Palin's first television interview with Charles Gibson. I was relieved to discover, as many were, that Palin's luster can be much diminished by the absence of a teleprompter. Still, the problem she poses to our political process is now much bigger than she is. Her fans seem inclined to forgive her any indiscretion short of cannibalism. However badly she may stumble during the remaining weeks of this campaign, her supporters will focus their outrage upon the journalist who caused her to break stride, upon the camera operator who happened to capture her fall, upon the television network that broadcast the good lady's misfortune—and, above all, upon the "liberal elites" with their highfalutin assumption that, in the 21st century, only a reasonably well-educated person should be given command of our nuclear arsenal.

The point to be lamented is not that Sarah Palin comes from outside Washington, or that she has glimpsed so little of the earth's surface (she didn't have a passport until last year), or that she's never met a foreign head of state. The point is that she comes to us, seeking the second most important job in the world, without any intellectual training relevant to the challenges and responsibilities that await her...

...Palin may be a perfectly wonderful person, a loving mother and a great American success story—but she is a beauty queen/sports reporter who stumbled into small-town politics, and who is now on the verge of stumbling into, or upon, world history.

The problem, as far as our political process is concerned, is that half the electorate revels in Palin's lack of intellectual qualifications. When it comes to politics, there is a mad love of mediocrity in this country. "They think they're better than you!" is the refrain that (highly competent and cynical) Republican strategists have set loose among the crowd, and the crowd has grown drunk on it once again. "Sarah Palin is an ordinary person!" Yes, all too ordinary.
We have all now witnessed apparently sentient human beings, once provoked by a reporter's microphone, saying things like, "I'm voting for Sarah because she's a mom. She knows what it's like to be a mom." Such sentiments suggest an uncanny (and, one fears, especially American) detachment from the real problems of today. The next administration must immediately confront issues like nuclear proliferation, ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and covert wars elsewhere), global climate change, a convulsing economy, Russian belligerence, the rise of China, emerging epidemics, Islamism on a hundred fronts, a defunct United Nations, the deterioration of American schools, failures of energy, infrastructure and Internet security … the list is long, and Sarah Palin does not seem competent even to rank these items in order of importance, much less address any one of them...

...how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated."

Read the entire piece by Sam Harris, including shocking revelations about Sarah Palin's church and their beliefs, HERE.

Green Thursday: A Driving Decision

2008-09-25T06:09:00.000-05:00

First it was his seven houses. Now, Sen. John McCain has to explain his fleet of 13 cars.
Newsweek published the report stating McCain and his wife, Cindy, own more than a dozen cars, including three electric bubble-shaped cars, called GEM's that are popular in retirement communities. Good so far on the Green Front.

But the ones getting him into trouble are the foreign-made cars. The McCains own a Honda sedan and a Volkswagen convertible, despite the candidate's claims to always buy American-made cars. (I have nothing against foreign cars, we own two, it's not telling the truth I'm against.)

McCain bragged that "I've bought American literally all my life and I'm proud." Bad lie on the Campaign Front.

That was after explaining that his daughter, Meghan, bought her own Toyota Prius. Good on the Green Front.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger blasted McCain for not being truthful with voters. "When he's in the midwest, he tells voters he supports the industry. That's really a nice campaign line. But it turns out that John McCain wasn't being straight with the people of Detroit."

Gettelfinger cast McCain as an enemy of auto workers for supporting trade deals that he said would ship jobs overseas. "We need a president who's committed to rebuilding the auto industry in America, not a president who buys foreign cars and then falsifies the truth when he thinks auto workers aren't watching." Ouch!

The magazine reported that the only car in McCain's name is a Cadillac. The others are in Cindy McCain's name. Another Japanese car -- a Lexus that Cindy McCain drives with the plates 'Ms BUD' -- is registered to the beer distribution company that she heads.

The Obamas own a single car -a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. Campaign and Green Good.

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

A Sweet Smell Around The World

2008-09-23T17:52:00.006-05:00

Yet another late bloomer in the LipsYard Garden, the Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa.) The tuberose is a night-blooming plant thought to be native to Mexico. It smells very sweet, and is often used in perfumes. The Aztecs called it Omixochitl, or bone flower. Its a prominent plant in Indian culture and mythology. The flowers are used in wedding ceremonies, garlands, decoration and various traditional rituals. It's Hindi name is Rajnigandha. In Singapore it is called Xinxiao, which means "that on which the moth rests." In Indonesia it is called Bunga sedap malam, meaning fragrant night flower. In Tamil Nadu it is called Sambangi, and traditionally used in all type of garlanding especially in south Indian marriages. In Cuba it is called Azucena. If you've traveled to Hawaii, the Lei they put around your neck at the airport is made from Tuberoses. It's a flower known 'round the world.

Not so well known 'round the world is Sarah Palin, the woman who could potentially become second-in-command of the United States of America and who received her passport only last year. She's getting a crash course in global affairs.

The Governor of Alaska is meeting with seven world leaders and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in New York City this week, while the U.N. General Assembly convenes.

Her whilrwind schedule includes a day of separate meetings with Kissinger, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. On the second day she has a joint playdate with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko, and then it's off to one-on-ones with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

She has even penciled in a meeting with Bono from U2, who will probably prove the most accessible to the Alaska senator. Who better to teach of world affairs than a rock star?

Hockey mom Sarah is going to be in for an eye-opener, as icky subjects are sure to come up, including but certainly not limited to: violence and political unrest in Pakistan (Throw in some shaky relations with Italy for good measure!), war between Georgia and Russia over a contested province, the struggle against persistent Taliban forces in Afghanistan, and a little bit of US troops still stuck fighting in Iran to top it all off.

Is she in over her head? Duh! For her sake I hope there's not a quiz at the end of the week.

The McCain campaign was very reluctant to allow reporters to cover Palin's meetings with foreign dignitaries this week.

The lipstick wearing pitbull has yet to hold a press conference, and the McCain camp barred the press from all these meetings, until the TV shows threatened not to show any footage, so they were allowed in to get a glimpse (40 seconds. Really!) before being ushered back outside.

2008-09-23T08:07:00.004-05:00

There's a new player in the LipsYard Garden; The blue cornflower (Centaurea cyanus.)

You may also know it as Bachelor's button, Basket flower, Bluebottle, Boutonniere flower, or (my favorite) Hurtsickle.

In folklore, cornflowers were worn by young men in love; if the flower faded too quickly, it was taken as a sign that the man's love was unrequited.

(former site of the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska)

Sarah Palin's love of taxpayer money is anything but unrequited. The Republican Vice Presidential candidate may say she stopped the "Bridge to Nowhere," but still took the hundreds of millions in Federal Funding for it. She also took $25 million and had her State Transportation Department build a "Road to Nowhere."

Thats right. Even though she 'stopped' the "Bridge," there's still a 3.2-mile gravel road leading to the site. What's it being used for? 5K and 10K road races, and hunters.

Sarah Palin herself is the real "Bridge to Nowhere."

Mum's The Word

2008-09-22T06:27:00.000-05:00

Another late bloomer in the LipsYard Garden is the mum (Chrysanthemum.)

Chrysanthemums were cultivated in China as a flowering herb as far back as the 15th century BC. An ancient Chinese city was named Ju-Xian, meaning "chrysanthemum city". The flower was introduced into Japan probably in the 8th century AD, and the Emperor adopted the flower as his official seal. There is a "Festival of Happiness" in Japan that celebrates the flower.

In addition to the red mums on the right side of the garden, we also have a yellow mum on the left.

Mum is also the word about the Bush administration, especially if you are a Republican. He got 8 minutes via satelite at the Convention in St. Paul, then not another mention.

A good friend told me about a "Thankyou President Bush" bumper sticker he had seen recently. Who would be foolish enough to put this on their car? Pick a category: Iraq War, Economy, Health Care, Environment, Unemployment, Katrina, Education. Who has anything to thank President George W. Bush about? Do we really need four more years of this with John McCain/Sarah Palin?

Go Ahead, Aster Anything

2008-09-19T09:37:00.007-05:00

This year we received an Aster (Aster novae-angliae) from our neighbor, Penny.

It's finally blooming, and will continue to flower through October.

Asters come in white, purple, lavender, pink or red. Mr. Bee seems fond of purple.

Here's a real group of blooming er, something or others.

We've had to wait all summer for the Aster to bloom. Now I can hardly wait for the vice presidential nominee debate on October 2 at Washington University to burst forth in florets of that confused "What the heck is the Bush Doctrine" look. Should be a real "twist in the wind" event.

Even those on the conservative side of the aisle are starting to wince around Sarah Palin.

Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska became the nation's most prominent Republican officeholder to publicly question whether Palin has the experience to serve as president.

"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said in an interview. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."...

"I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" he said. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."

Green Thursday: Sarah Palin Bad For Whales

2008-09-18T14:56:00.004-05:00

by GARANCE BURKE The Associated Press

Gov. Sarah Palin may eventually have said "no thanks" to a federally funded Bridge to Nowhere.
But a bridge to her hometown of Wasilla, that's a different story.
A $600 million bridge and highway project to link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents is moving full speed ahead, despite concerns the bridge could worsen some commuting and threaten a population of beluga whales.

Local officials already have spent $42 million on plans to route traffic across the Knik Arm inlet, a narrow finger of water extending roughly 25 miles northeast of Anchorage toward Wasilla. The proposal exists thanks to an earmark request by Republican Rep. Don Young, whose son-in-law has a small stake in property near the bridge's proposed western span.

A Democratic council member in Anchorage will try Tuesday to spike the city's sponsorship of the project, which Palin supports with some reservations. "This is basically an incredibly expensive project that doesn't help commuters, doesn't help create jobs and may drive whales to extinction," said Justin Massey, an attorney advising environmentalists opposed to the proposal. "It is also a project that serves the area where the governor is from, which is near and dear to her heart."

The Knik Arm was one of two bridge proposals in Alaska awarded more than $450 million from lawmakers who requested money for special projects in 2005, when Young chaired the House Transportation Committee. At the time, Palin's running mate for the Republican ticket, Arizona Sen. John McCain, derided both projects as wasteful. He called Young's highway bill a "monstrosity" that was "terrifying in its fiscal consequences." "I want no part of this," McCain said in a July 2005 statement. "This legislation is not - I emphasize not - my way of legislating."

The governor initially championed the first so-called Bridge to Nowhere, which would have connected the southeastern Alaska town of Ketchikan to its airport on nearby Gravina Island. She later pulled the plug on the project after it became a national symbol of extravagant federal spending.

Palin's record on the Bridge to Nowhere has emerged as a central point of controversy in the campaign over her recent public claims that she had opposed it, aligning herself with McCain's anti-earmarks philosophy. Palin still supports the second bridge, officially named Don Young's Way in honor of the congressman.

Dianne Keller, who succeeded Palin as mayor in Wasilla, has said the new $600 million crossing could lower traffic congestion in the fast-growing community. A Federal Highway Administration study shows the project would cut down some area commutes, but could add to others as more people move to the suburbs.

The bridge is popular with property developers - including a group comprising Young's son-in-law, the former legislative director for indicted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens and three others - who own land across from Anchorage on the inlet's western side.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is evaluating whether the isolated beluga whales that breed and feed in the waterway's strong tides should be listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. Palin has publicly urged the government not to list Cook Inlet beluga whales as endangered.

She clearly hasn't said 'no thanks' to this particular bridge.

Every Green Thusday we post issues vital to the survival of the planet.

An Apple A Day

2008-09-17T06:08:00.006-05:00

Today we turn the LipsYard camera to the East, to our neighbor's mini Apple (Malus domestica) orchard.

The tree originated from Central Asia, where its wild ancestor is still found today. There are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples resulting in range of desired characteristics. Cultivars vary in their yield and the ultimate size of the tree, even when grown on the same rootstock.

They've got a big crop this year, despite fears that there wouldn't be enough bees to pollinate the fruit.

In a case of Rotten Apples...

Evangelicals and social conservatives have embraced McCain's vice presidential pick for what they call her "pro-family," "pro-woman" values. But in Alaska, critics say Gov. Sarah Palin has not addressed the rampant sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence and murder that make her state one of the most dangerous places in the country for women and children. FBI statistics show Alaska leads the nation in these crimes with a rate two and a half times the national average, a ranking it has held for many years. Gov. Palin even agreed it is an "epidemic."

But all was not lost in Alaska. There were dedicated public servants who made the reduction and prevention of violence against women a priority. Officials in the Department of Public Safety were devising an ambitious, multi-million-dollar initiative to seriously tackle sex crimes in the state...but Palin's office put the plan on hold in July.

Days later, Palin fired its chief proponent, Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, after he declined to dismiss a state trooper Palin accused of threatening her own family members. Palin has said she fired Monegan because she wanted to move his department in a "new direction," and he was not being "a team player on budgeting issues." The dismissal is now at the center of a hotly-contested investigation by the state legislature. Now, under the umbrella of John McCain, Palin is refusing to cooperate, claiming the investigation is tainted by the Obama campaign.

Wait a minute, this has been going on in Alaska long before anyone ever even thought of her being Vice-President, plus there was a 12-0 vote to launch the investigation, and a majority vote in a Republican-led committee to authorize subpoenas.

Let's just toss this on the lie pile.

In the meantime, the victims of Alaska's absolutely scandalous rate of violence against women and children -- not to mention the one guy who actually cared -- are paying the price for a governor who puts her obsession with using the trappings of high office to settle personal scores ahead of protecting public safety.

A Growing Problem

2008-09-16T06:00:00.001-05:00

Now that the torrential rains have ended, it's time to set the mower all the way up and attack the lawn. All the moisture (2 1/2" in the LipsYard raingauge over the weekend) has more than just the grass growing. There's these little orange guys.

They magically sprung up overnight.

The orange is a nice complement to the green.

Over the weekend, more trouble popped up on Wall Street. Lehman Brothers went belly up, Merrill Lynch got bought up by Bank of American. Insurance giant AIG is waiting in the wings to fail. The Dow's 500+ point drop yesterday was the biggest since September 11, 2001. John McCain advisor Donald Luskin is frustrated, not at Wall Street or the Bush administration, but at us middle class whiners and exaggerators. And he's not gonna take it any more!

"Things today just aren't that bad. Sure, there are trouble spots in the economy, as the government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and jitters about Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers, amply demonstrate. And unemployment figures are up a bit, too. None of this, however, is cause for depression -- or exaggerated Depression comparisons."

That's what Bushonomics are reduced to? After eight years of being told the next tax cut for billionaires would unleash the long promised economic Mecca, after two straight Presidential terms where critics of Bush's trickle-down mythology were soundly ridiculed as ignorant socialists, after being told We the People don't understand complicated money stuff and we should just shut up, work harder, shop our brains out, and trust conservative economic philosophy, the best case scenario our millionaire conservative cheerleaders can make in the end is 'it's not as bad' as the Great Depression?

"Vote Republican and it won't be as bad as the Great Depression!"

There was a time when our nation was at peace, its economy driven by technical innovation and stable markets allowing the accumulation of investment capital. Interest rates and unemployment were near historical lows, wages and productivity rose almost as steeply the stock market. Talk of investment banks going broke or market meltdowns was rare to non existent. And no one had to write columns begging people not to compare the economy to the Great Depression. It was called the Clinton Years.

A Pair of Pears

2008-09-15T05:27:00.000-05:00

Our friend Jim brought us some Bartlett Pears (Pyrus communis) and boy, are they delicious!

While the cultivation of pears has been traced back in western Asia for three thousand years, there is also some speculation that its history goes back even further and that this marvelous fruit was discovered by people in the Stone Age. Whatever their origins, pears have been revered throughout time.

Called the "gift of the gods" by Homer in his epic, The Odyssey, pears were also a luxurious item in the court of Louis XIV. The early colonists brought pears to America, and while the first pear tree was planted in 1620, much of their pear supply was still imported from France. Like many other fruit trees, pears were introduced into California and Mexico by missionaries who planted them in their mission gardens.

Interestingly, with all of the respect that pears commanded, until the 18th century they did not have the soft juicy flesh that we now know them to possess. It was during this time that a lot of attention was given to the cultivation and breeding of pears, and many varieties were developed that featured pears' distinctive buttery texture and sweet taste. Today, much of the world's pear supply is grown in China, Italy and the United States.

Then there's another pair. John McCain and Sarah Palin, the Republican ticket for the White House.

Frank Rich from the New York Times weighs in on America's cutest couple:

"WITH all due deference to lipstick, let’s advance the story. A week ago the question was: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? The question today: What kind of president would Sarah Palin be?

It’s an urgent matter, because if we’ve learned anything from the G.O.P. convention and its aftermath, it’s that the 2008 edition of John McCain is too weak to serve as America’s chief executive. This unmentionable truth, more than race, is now the real elephant in the room of this election.

No longer able to remember his principles any better than he can distinguish between Sunnis and Shia, McCain stands revealed as a guy who can be easily rolled by anyone who sells him a plan for “victory,” whether in Iraq or in Michigan. A McCain victory on Election Day will usher in a Palin presidency, with McCain serving as a transitional front man, an even weaker Bush to her Cheney.

The ambitious Palin and the ruthless forces she represents know it, too. You can almost see them smacking their lips in anticipation, whether they’re wearing lipstick or not.

...Since St. Paul, Democrats have been feasting on the hypocrisy of the Palin partisans, understandably enough. The same Republicans who attack Democrats for being too P.C. about race now howl about sexism with such abandon you half-expect Phyllis Schlafly and Carly Fiorina to stage a bra-burning. The same gang that once fueled Internet rumors and media feeding frenzies over the Clintons’ private lives now express pious outrage when the same fate befalls the Palins.

But the ultimate hypocrisy is that these woebegone, frightened opponents of change, sworn enemies of race-based college-admission initiatives, are now demanding their own affirmative action program for white folks applying to the electoral college. They want the bar for admission to the White House to be placed so low that legitimate scrutiny and criticism of Palin’s qualifications, record and family values can all be placed off limits. Byron York of National Review, a rare conservative who acknowledges the double standard, captured it best: “If the Obamas had a 17-year-old daughter who was unmarried and pregnant by a tough-talking black kid, my guess is if they all appeared onstage at a Democratic convention and the delegates were cheering wildly, a number of conservatives might be discussing the issue of dysfunctional black families.”

The cunning of the Palin choice as a political strategy is that a candidate who embodies fear of change can be sold as a “maverick” simply because she looks the part. Her marketers have a lot to work with. Palin is not only the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket, but she is young, vibrant and a Washington outsider with no explicit connection to Bush or the war in Iraq. That package looks like change even if what’s inside is anything but."

Crabby Appleton

2008-09-12T08:58:00.004-05:00

Another sure sign that Fall is just around the corner, the Crabapples (Malus) are turning red.

Looking like cherries, you want to just reach up, grab a handfull, and enjoy the goodness.

But unlike cherries, only the birds (and a few bees) would like the flavor. All crabapple fruits are technically edible, though most are bitter tasting. Perhaps Henry David Thoreau's essay "Wild Apples" described the flavor best: "sour enough to set a squirrel's teeth on edge and make a jay scream."

Just like the Crabapples, Sarah Palin isn't as sweet as she looks. NY Times Columnist Maureen Dowd has a few questions for the Vice Presidential Candidate, that she doubt's Charlie Gibson will get to:

What kind of budget-cutter makes a show of getting rid of the state plane, then turns around and bills taxpayers for the travel of her husband and kids between Juneau and Wasilla and sticks the state with a per-diem tab to stay in her own home?

Why was Sarah for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against the Bridge to Nowhere, and why was she for earmarks before she was against them? And doesn’t all this make her just as big a flip-flopper as John Kerry?

What kind of fiscal conservative raises taxes and increases budgets in both her jobs — as mayor and as governor?

When the phone rings at 3 a.m., will she call the Wasilla Assembly of God congregation and ask them to pray on a response, as she asked them to pray for a natural gas pipeline?

Does she really think Adam, Eve, Satan and the dinosaurs mingled on the earth 5,000 years ago?

Why put out a press release about her teenage daughter’s pregnancy and then spend the next few days attacking the press for covering that press release?

As Troopergate unfolds here — an inquiry into whether Palin inappropriately fired the commissioner of public safety for refusing to fire her ex-brother-in-law — it raises this question: Who else is on her enemies list and what might she do with the F.B.I.?

Does she want a federal ban on trans fat in restaurants and a ban on abortion and Harry Potter? And which books exactly would have landed on the literature bonfire if she had had her way with that Wasilla librarian?

Just how is it that Fannie and Freddie have cost taxpayers money (since they haven’t yet)?

Does she talk in tongues or just eat caribou tongues?

What does she have against polar bears?

Read the whole incredible column HERE

Green Thursday: The Power of Poop

2008-09-11T06:44:00.000-05:00

With this being an election year, there's lots of "stuff" being flung by the candidates (and the media.) Wouldn't it be great if something could really be "done" with all of it?

The city of San Antonio announced a deal that will make it the first U.S. city to harvest methane gas from human waste on a commercial scale and turn it into clean-burning fuel. San Antonio residents produce about 140,000 tons a year of a substance gently referred to as "biosolids,"

(that's poop, to you and me).

Methane gas, which is a byproduct of human and organic waste, is a principal component of the natural gas used to fuel furnaces, power plants, and other combustion-based generators.

A private vendor will come onto the facility, construct some gas cleaning systems, remove the moisture, remove the carbon dioxide content, and then sell that gas on the open market.

Some communities are using methane gas harvested from solid waste to power smaller facilities like sewage treatment plants, but San Antonio is the first to see large-scale conversion of methane gas from sewage into fuel for power generation, he said.

Following the agreement, more than 90 percent of materials flushed down the toilets and sinks of San Antonio will be recycled. Liquid is now used for irrigation, many of the solids are made into compost, and now the methane gas will be recycled for power generation.

Think how much Rush, Sean, Mark, Charlie and all the rest could help the greening of the planet with their "methane" contributions!

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

Sedum and Weep

2008-09-10T07:47:00.005-05:00

All week we're featuring the planting bed on the East side of the LipsYard driveway. Today it's the Border Stonecrop (Sedum.) These have thick stems, fleshy leaves and tight flower heads that start out looking like heads of broccoli.
Flowers run in shades of pink to mauve, that start out pale and deepen as they mature.

These will continue to provide color and character all the way through their dried stage into winter.

Sarah Palin is a flower that keeps on giving, too. Mostly lies and deception. Today let's look at that expensive Jet owned by the State of Alaska that she saw as an extravagance, and put on e-Bay.

When "Hockey Mom" Sarah Palin sought to illustrate her frugality and flair to delegates at the GOP convention, she described how she disposed of a corporate jet acquired by her unpopular predecessor.

"That luxury jet was over the top," Palin said to loud cheers. "I put it on eBay."

What she failed to say was that the plane didn't sell on eBay. Instead, the 23-year-old 10-seat Westwind II was sold in August 2007 for $2.1 million to a Valdez, Alaska, entrepreneur; that's about $300,000 less than a broker's asking price.

Also, while Palin characterized the plane as an extravagance of former Gov. Frank Murkowski, who arranged for its purchase in November 2005, the plane saw heavy use transporting Alaskan convicts.

Alaska does not have adequate prison capacity and contracts for space with a private facility near Phoenix, Arizona. (Isn't that John McCain's home state?)

When Alaska first began using the plane in November 2005, prisoner transport accounted for 58 percent of the jet's use, and Murkowski's office used it 23 percent of the time.

Not to be left off the "Truthiness" express, McCain introduced Palin at their Cedarburg, WI appearance like this. "She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay -- and made a profit!"

I'm sure the media will ask Sarah Palin about this, and lots of other things, once the McCain machine decides it's OK to talk to her at all.

Cotoneaster on the Down Low

2008-09-09T10:34:00.004-05:00

Laying low in the bed to the East of the LipsYard driveway, is the Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster apiculata.)
It's a slow growing shrub that hugs the ground.

The red berries really make it stand out.

Just like Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin is standing out these days. She sure is perky, and has brought a lot of energy to the McCain campaign. Too bad she's also bringing along a sack of lies.

A new ad from McCain's presidential campaign contends running mate, Palin, "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere." In fact, she was for the infamous bridge before she was against it.

THE SPIN: Called "Original Mavericks," the ad asserts the Republican senator has fought pork-barrel spending, the drug industry and fellow Republicans, reforming Washington in the process, and credits Palin with similarly changing Alaska by taking on the oil industry, challenging her own party and ditching the bridge project that became a national symbol of wasteful spending.

THE FACTS: Palin did abandon plans to build the nearly $400 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport. But she made her decision after the project had become an embarrassment to the state, after federal dollars for the project were pulled back and diverted to other uses in Alaska, and after she had appeared to support the bridge during her campaign for governor.
McCain and Palin together have told a broader story about the bridge that is misleading. She is portrayed as a crusader for the thrifty use of tax dollars who turned down an offer from Washington to build an expensive bridge of little value to the state.

"I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere," she said in her convention speech last week.

That's not what she told Alaskans when she announced a year ago that she was ordering state transportation officials to ditch the project. Her explanation then was that it would be fruitless to try to persuade Congress to come up with more money.

Palin indicated during her 2006 campaign for governor that she supported the bridge, but was wishy-washy about it. She told local officials that money appropriated for the bridge "should remain available for a link, an access process as we continue to evaluate the scope and just how best to just get this done."

She vowed to defend Southeast Alaska "when proposals are on the table like the bridge and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative" — something that John McCain was busy doing at the time, as a fierce critic of the bridge.

Palin's reputation for standing up to entrenched interests in Alaska is genuine. Her self-description as a leader who "championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress" is harder to square with the facts.

The governor has cut back on pork-barrel project requests, but in her two years in office, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. And as mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million.

Begin the Begonia

2008-09-08T08:56:00.003-05:00

On the front corner of the garage live our Wax-leaf Begonias (Begonia semperflorens.)

The Begonia was named in honor of Michel Bégon (1638-1710,) a French amateur botanist who collected begonias while he was stationed in Santo Domingo with the French navy.

They are hearty little plants, always putting forth their pink splash of color. They've been blooming all summer. Unfortunately, when taller, showier plants bloom, our attention is pulled away from the Begonias. No matter, they just keep on blooming.

Similarly, the campaign has drawn our eye away from some of the foibles of the Bush Administration. No matter, the wheels of justice continue to turn. Below is the latest status of Lawmakers, lobbyists, Bush administration officials, congressional staffers and businessmen caught up in the Jack Abramoff public corruption probe. Why do we even care about this? Because as news of the Abramoff scandal broke, it was John McCain who led the Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee’s investigation of Jack Abramoff. Cover-up would have been a better term.

From the start, McCain worked overtime to keep a lid on the most damaging aspects of the Abramoff scandal and slow-walk the investigation. He shaped the narrative. Abramoff became a rogue lobbyist who took advantage of his GOP pals to rip off some casinos. McCain converted the scandal into Hollywood "heist/caper" film, knowing that American prejudices against Native Americans and tribal casinos would help hide the damning details of the Abramoff scandal:
* Jack’s role as a 25-year bagman for the GOP: hidden.
* Jack’s close working relationship with the Bush White House: hidden.
* Jack’s close working relationship with the Republican Congressional Leadership: hidden.
* Jack’s role in dirty tricks and off-the-books money for the GOP: hidden.
* Jack’s role in Medicare reform: hidden.
* Jack’s role energy policy: hidden.

McCain actively controlled the story and put the investigation into slow motion. He ensured that it was a not a factor in the 2004 election. Then he ensured that voters would not know about how closely Abramoff, Rove and Bush worked together. The work of McCain limited the damage the Abramoff scandal had on the GOP in the 2006 election. He also has suppressed a literal mountain of evidence—over 750,000 pages of documents related to Jack Abramoff, his work and his connections in and out of government.

Only about 8,000 pages of these documents have been released.

Now back to that list:
--Abramoff was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison on charges of mail fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion. Since pleading guilty in 2006, the once-powerful lobbyist has cooperated with the federal investigation of influence-peddling in Washington. He is nearly two years into a six-year prison sentence in a criminal case out of Florida, where he pleaded guilty in January 2006 to charges of conspiracy, honest services fraud and tax evasion in the purchase of gambling cruise boats.
--John Albaugh, a one-time top aide to former Oklahoma Rep. Ernest Istook pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the House as part of the scandal. Albaugh admitted in federal court in Washington that he accepted meals and sports and concert tickets, along with other perks, from lobbyists in exchange for official favors. He is cooperating with investigators.
--Robert E. Coughlin II, a Justice Department official, pleaded guilty to conflict of interest. He admitted in federal court in Washington that he accepted meals, concert tickets and luxury seats at Redskins and Wizards games from a former Abramoff associate, lobbyist Kevin Ring, while helping the lobbyist and his clients. Coughlin is cooperating with investigators.
-- Italia Federici, co-founder of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, was sentenced to two months in a halfway house, four years on probation and a $74,000 fine after agreeing to help federal investigators. She pleaded guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of a Senate investigation into Abramoff's relationship with officials at the Department of Interior.
--Former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, acknowledged taking bribes from Abramoff. Ney was in the traveling party on an Abramoff-sponsored golfing trip to Scotland at the heart of the case against former White House official David Safavian. Ney was released in August -- a year early -- after completing treatment for alcohol problems.
--Former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles, the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the scandal, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for obstructing justice. He admitted lying to a Senate committee about his relationship with Abramoff, who repeatedly sought Griles' intervention at Interior on behalf of Indian tribal clients.
--Tony Rudy, lobbyist and one-time aide to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, pleaded guilty in March 2006 to conspiring with Abramoff. He is cooperating with investigators.
--David Safavian, the Bush administration's former top procurement official, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in October 2006. Safavian, the only scandal defendant to take his case to court, was found guilty of covering up his dealings with Abramoff. In July, a federal appeals court overturned his conviction. The Justice Department plans to retry him.
--Michael Scanlon, a former Abramoff business partner and DeLay aide, pleaded guilty in November 2005 to conspiring to bribe public officials in connection with his lobbying work on behalf of Indian tribes and casino issues. He is cooperating with investigators.
--William Heaton, former chief of staff for Ney, pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge involving a golf trip to Scotland, expensive meals, and tickets to sporting events between 2002 and 2004 as payoffs for helping Abramoff's clients. He cooperated with investigators and was sentenced to two years probation and a $5,000 fine.
--Neil Volz, a former chief of staff to Ney who left government to work for Abramoff, was sentenced to two years of probation, 100 hours of community service and a $2,000 fine after pleading guilty to conspiring to corrupt Ney and others with trips and other aid.
--Mark Zachares, former aide to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He acknowledged accepting tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and a golf trip to Scotland from Abramoff's team in exchange for official acts on the lobbyist's behalf.
--Roger Stillwell, a former Interior Department official, was sentenced to two years on probation in January after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge for not reporting hundreds of dollars worth of sports and concert tickets he received from Abramoff.
--Former Abramoff business partner Adam Kidan, sentenced in Florida in March 2006 to nearly six years in prison for conspiracy and fraud in the 2000 purchase of the Fort Lauderdale-based SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet.

Tomatoes all around

2008-09-05T06:54:00.009-05:00

It's Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) season.

The 4 plants in the LipsYard Garden are on their last legs, having given their all to the red and juicy fruit.

We like them cut up in a salad with Basil and Mozarella cheese.

Charmaine also "puts up" or "cans" cooked Tomatoes and Tomato juice for the Winter months.

You'll notice above that I called the tomato a "fruit." That's because, botanically, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant: therefore it is a fruit or, more precisely, a berry. However, the tomato is not as sweet as those foodstuffs usually called fruits and, from a culinary standpoint, it is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, as are vegetables, rather than at dessert in the case of most fruits. Truth be known, the term "vegetable" has no botanical meaning and is purely a culinary term.

This argument has had legal implications in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled the controversy in 1893 by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert.

As long as we're on "truth," let's address the latest phenom of politics, Sarah Palin.

37 million viewers tuned in to Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech on Wednesday night, just shy of the audience that Democrat Barak Obama drew last week. Palin was taking no prisoners with her jabs and one liners. Too bad she didn't run her speech through a "Lie Detector" first, because she would have flunked that test.

Let's outline the many ways the lipstick wearing pit bull exaggerated and lied, thanks to our friends at The Associated Press.

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending … and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."
THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.
He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

The AP report also shows how Palin's champions have exaggerated the Alaskan governor's 'acheivements':

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply … She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. … She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."
THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

Speeches are nice and all, but if the facts don't stand up, it's just more partisan lies.

Green Thursday: The McCain Energy Plan for America

2008-09-04T06:42:00.004-05:00

Last Green Thursday we brought you the Energy Plan for America put forth by Barack Obama. Today it's John McCain's turn.
Expanding Domestic Oil And Natural Gas Exploration And Production. The current federal moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf stands in the way of energy exploration and production.

Break Our Dependency On Foreign Oil By Reforming Our Transportation Sector including a Clean Car Challenge to the automakers of America, in the form of a single and substantial tax credit for the consumer based on the reduction of carbon emissions. Construct 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 with the ultimate goal of eventually constructing 100 new plants.

Investing In Clean, Alternative Sources Of Energy. Commit $2 Billion Annually To Advancing Clean Coal Technologies.

Protecting Our Environment And Addressing Climate Change: A Sound Energy Strategy Must Include A Solid Environmental Foundation. Install a climate cap-and-trade mechanism that would set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and allow entities to buy and sell rights to emit.

Promoting Energy Efficiency. Applying a higher efficiency standard to new government buildings leased or purchased or retrofitting existing buildings.

Addressing Speculative Pricing Of Oil. Reform the laws and regulations governing the oil futures market, so that they are just as clear and effective as the rules applied to stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments.

Read the whole McCain Energy Policy HERE.

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

Pretty Petunias

2008-09-03T07:50:00.007-05:00

The Petunias (Petunia hybrida) are doing a great job of providing color to the front edge of the LipsYard Garden.

Charmaine has planted three colors this year; Purple

Pink
and White. A lot of the other flowers have bloomed and died already, but not the hearty Petunia.

Like the Petunia, providing cover and color in a garden that has a lot of past-blooming plants, the Sarah Palin VP selection by John McCain selection has served to take the spotlight off the Obama campaign-for now.

But here’s the thing. Obama ended the Democratic Convention on a high. He got a nice “convention bounce” from it.

The Republican’s main campaign tactic has been to attack Obama. The negative campaigning has been overshadowed by Palin and now, Gustav. That’s a plus for Obama.

Meanwhile, the “novelty” of a woman candidate is minmal. She’s no Hillary Clinton, and didn't we chose Geraldine Ferraro for Democratic VP over 20 years ago?

The media is not going to fawn over Palin because she’s a woman. Indeed, just the opposite may happen. As a new face on the national scene, the media will go full bore to see who and what she is as a person and a politician. Every gaffe and stumble will be magnified under the glare of the media spotlight, and it appears that she has plenty to feed the media monster's appetite for quite some time.

Republican's are going to need to devote a lot of resources to defend her image and McCain for choosing her. That's money that could have been spent on Obama attack ads.

All we need to do is play "nice," sit back, and enjoy the show.

Raspberries!

2008-09-02T08:59:00.004-05:00

Raspberries (Rubus strigosus) are ripe and ready to pick in the LipsYard Garden.

Best way to do that is to use a small bucket, lined with wax paper, and a lanyard to hang it around your neck to free up both hands for picking.

We're easily getting 1 or 2 pints a day. They make a nice snack everytime you walk by the fridge.

My favorite preparation is mixed with sliced peaches (Prunus persica.)

President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney got a raspberry (the Bronx cheer version) from John McCain courtesy of Hurricane Gustav. The Republicans were in such a hurry to get to New Orleans and prove they wouldn't screw up relief efforts like they did last time, that they cancelled most of the speeches on Day 1 of the Republican convention in St. Paul. This included removing W and Dick from the line-up. Happiest about that was John McCain, who's trying to distance himself from the failed policies of the last 8 years, and the fact that most of his agenda for America is just 4 more years of the same.

Never fear, here's a short list of the foibles of the Bush-Cheney administration:

1. The central mistake of President George W. Bush was to abdicate the function of governing to "steamroller" Vice President Dick Cheney, who then used his vast experience in government to create a parallel government. The trouble all started thanks to a one vote majority of the U.S. Supreme Court that put them in power, after having lost the popular vote.

2. The totalitarian "Bush Doctrine" foreign policy of preemptive wars, international unilateralism, and of American assertive military supremacy around the world. This beauty was driven by his "Neo-con" buddies, who even now are arguing for keeping US troops in Iraq for 50 years, and taking our "War on Terror" to Iran.

3. The Bush-Cheney administration has betrayed democracy because it has relied on lies, deceit, propaganda and manipulation in a way that would have been worthy of a totalitarian regime: Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman, the run-up to the war in Iraq.

4. Destroying the more than two century-old American tradition of separation of church and state. By channeling billions of dollars of public money to religious organizations through the new Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives ($2.15 billion in 2005 alone,) Bush-Cheney insured the support and votes of their own particular group of believers in their own particular religion. George W. Bush stands alone among all American presidents for having done so.

5. George W. Bush has violated his oath of office, which requires him "to protect and defend the constitution." After launching their trumped-up invasion of Iraq, the administration reinterpreted international and domestic law to permit the torture of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and at other secret locations around the world. Nothing in the U.S. Constitution, least of all the commander-in-chief clause, allows the president to commit felonies. Nevertheless, within days after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush signed a secret executive order authorizing the new policy of "extraordinary rendition," in which the CIA is allowed to kidnap terrorist suspects anywhere on Earth and transfer them to prisons in countries such as Egypt, Syria, or Uzbekistan, where torture is a normal practice, or to secret CIA prisons outside the United States where Agency operatives themselves do the torturing.
Within the USA, the Bush-Cheney administration undertook extensive spying on American citizens without obtaining the necessary judicial warrants and without reporting to Congress on these activities.

6. Because the Bush-Cheney administration chose to make appointment decisions based on loyalty first and expertise a far second, it has been plagued with an unheard-of display of incompetence at all levels. They have appointed unqualified loyalists to key positions, such as Gonzales at Justice, Feith at the Pentagon, Brown at FEMA, Bolton at the U.N., Bremer in Iraq, Wolfowitz at the World Bank, etc., all disaster-prone individuals who dutifully extended the incompetence at the top.

7. The Bush-Cheney administration has militarily conquered and thoroughly destroyed the country of Iraq, and refused to leave when asked by the Iraqi parliament, all the while pretending they were occupying this country for the sake of "democracy." In fact, the Bush-Cheney administration has dutifully worked to take over Iraq's oil resources, first, by pressuring the regime under occupation in Iraq to pass a law called "The Hydrocarbon Act," and second, by threatening to block dearly needed reconstruction funds of more than a billion dollars earmarked for the ravaged country if the proposed privatization of Iraqi oil did not go forward. By its ill-advised military invasion of Iraq, the Bush-Cheney administration has triggered a civil war in Iraq that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. In fact, our military invasion of Iraq is responsible for having deteriorated the relations between all religious communities in Iraq and succeeded in unleashing a sectarian religious war between Iraqis in many regions of the country.

8. The Bush-Cheney administration has shown contempt for international treaties and for international law, demonstrating an abysmal lack of judgment in world affairs, while withdrawing from already signed international treaties, including: The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty with Russia, the 1997 Kyoto treaty on global warming, the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, the 1997 Land Mine Treaty, the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the Geneva conventions of Aug. 12, 1949, the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the 2001 UN Agreement to Curb the International Flow of Illicit Small Arms, the 1998 International Criminal Court (ICC) Treaty, the 1996 Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty, the 2001 International Plan for Cleaner Energy, the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the 1945 Nuremberg Tribunal Charter against wars of aggression, etc. It has even violated the spirit of the 1967 “Outer Space Treaty” (OST)by indicating its intention to assert American military control of Outer Space.

9. By its actions around world and by its attitudes, the Bush-Cheney team has also fed the flames of Islamist terrorism and has even succeeded in rekindling the flames of the Cold War with Russia, with their ill-advised and provocative plan to station anti-missile bases in eastern Europe at Russia's doorstep.

10. Economically, the Bush-Cheney administration will be remembered for two things: massive budgetary deficits and big increases in oil prices.

It is hard not to conclude that George W. Bush and his far right administration have been a disaster for America and for the world, and the consequences will linger on for years to come. They have been agents of uncontrolled greed, of uncontrolled militarism, of massive incompetence and of illegal policies. By any account, this is a most dismal record. We really don't need 4 more years of this.

Green Thursday: Obama's New Energy for America Plan

2008-08-28T07:48:00.003-05:00

Barack Obama’s comprehensive New Energy for America plan:

Provide short-term relief to American families facing pain at the pump with a windfall profits tax to give American families an emergency $1,000 rebate.

Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.

Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined.

Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars -- cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon -- on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America.

Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.

Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Read the full plan HERE

Next week we'll post John McCain's strategy.

Every Green Thursday we provide information critical to the survival of the planet.

Nasturtium Noshing

2008-08-27T09:20:00.006-05:00

The LipsYard Garden is producing lots of edible goodness: Tomatoes, Potatoes, Peppers, Carrots, Beans, Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Raspberries, and these edible flowers, Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus!)

All parts of the plant are edible. The flower is most often consumed, making for an especially ornamental salad ingredient; it has a slightly peppery taste reminiscent of watercress. Because of that flavor, Nasturtiums receive their name from the scientific name for Watercress (Nasturtium officinale.)

They have showy, often intensely bright flowers, with color so intense that sometimes taking a sharp, in focus photo can be quite difficult.

Making things difficult for John McCain and his supporters, is the One-Two punch of Hillary and Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

The Senator from New York said it best, "No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our President."

Isn't it interesting that all the conservatives can do is throw stones at Obama, without having anything to say about John McCain. That's because they don't like him either!

I can't wait for President Clinton to lower the boom tonight, and bring an end to the Bush era once and for all.

Caladium

2008-08-26T11:19:00.006-05:00

Here's a new plant in the LipsYard, Caladium (Caladium.)

It's an annual that also goes by the name Angel Wings," "Heart of Jesus," and "elephant ear."

We've put it in a shady spot in one of the raised beds.

Speaking of shady, with the Republican attack machine set on "HIGH" they forgot to turn on the "TRUTH DETECTOR."

For example: A rapidly spreading email is tricking thousands—if not millions—of Americans with outrageous lies and misrepresentations about Barack Obama's tax policies, claiming that he wants to tax your home, IRA, & even your water.

The truth is: The independent group, Factcheck.org, concludes that the smear email about Barack Obama and taxes is “a pack of lies.”

There are also smear e-mails making the rounds that claim Barack Obama can't produce his birth certificate to prove he's an American, that he's secretly a Muslim, and that he won't say the Pledge of Allegiance.

More lies.

So who's behind all this negative campaigning? The same folks who brought us Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, the Willie Horton ads, and numerous personal attacks on the Clintons. Thanks, John McCain, for running a nice clean, straight-talk campaign.

If you get one of these smear-mails, the best thing to do is 'Reply All' and send them to:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome

A Sweet Smell from the West

2008-08-25T10:32:00.004-05:00

With a fragrance very similar to a Lily (Lilium longiflorum) the Clethra (Clethra alnifolia) is in bloom.

This shade loving shrub on the west side of the LipsYard is now alive with the light pink blooms that resemble little bottle brushes.

Along with its nice smell, Clethra attracts many butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.

That other smell coming out of the West is the bad aftershave of Vice President Dick Cheney, envoy of President George W. Bush, being sent to the troubled former Soviet state of Georgia to try and figure out that mess.

A little waterboarding should do the trick, don't you think?

Is there a Haliburton division that can fix this?

Any chance he'll take the Russians hunting?

Blackeyed Susans Staring at You

2008-08-22T07:20:00.004-05:00

The Blackeyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) bring a splash of yellow and brown to the LipsYard Garden. Are they staring at you?

They are a garden favorite because of their long flowering time.

The scientific name was given by Carolus Linneaus in honor of his teacher at Uppsala University, Professor Olof Rudbeck the Younger (1660-1740), and his father, Professor Olof Rudbeck the Elder (1630-1702), both of whom were botanists.

From Rudbeckia we go to just plain Rude: A Bush Administration proposal will allow individual government agencies, rather than scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to decide whether vulnerable wildlife would be harmed by new construction projects. This move horribly undermines the Endangered Species Act.

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI and member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee) said; "This is a blatant and unjustifiable attempt to gut a landmark environmental law that has protected our treasured American wildlife for more than three decades...Once again, the Bush Administration is putting its political interests first, leaving scientific decisions in non-scientific hands and corroding proud institutions of government to further its own ends."

Since the passage of the Endangered Species Act 35 years ago, all federal construction projects have been subjected to review by independent scientific panels to assess their potential to harm local plants and animals. Under the Administration's plan, however, federal agencies building dams, highways, or other major public works projects could determine for themselves whether that construction would adversely impact threatened or endangered species despite lacking the scientific expertise to make these determinations. If the proposal succeeds, it would be the most sweeping change to the ESA in decades.

No need to let those pesky scientists with all their facts get in the way of business buddies of the conservatives.

Green Thursday: Homes on Parade

2008-08-21T09:04:00.000-05:00

The 63rd annual Metropolitan Builders Association Parade of Homes is on through September 7th. This is the first year ever that all 8 homes are each Green Built Home™ and ENERGY STAR® certified.

The Parade of Homes is not only for those interested in building new. The Parade offers the perfect environment for those looking to improve their home as well. It is much easier to envision the kinds of products you would like included in your project once you have seen them up close and personal in a Parade home.

This open space development in Muskego, WU is just 7 minutes south of I-43 offering easy access to shopping, restaurants, and outdoor recreation. Take Moorland Road south to the intersection of Janesville Road, continuing south on Durham Drive (Moorland Rd.) past Woods Rd to the entrance of Belle Chasse subdivision on Durham Drive.

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

In the Cosmos

2008-08-20T08:27:00.005-05:00

Poking their orange heads up throughout the LipsYard Garden are the Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus.)
These happy, tall annuals add a dash of color when the other plants start to fade in the heat of summer.Cosmos add an airy balance to the LipsYard Garden.

Not adding balance (or fairness) to the daily news landscape are Rush Limbaugh and his national and local compatriots. They've created an alternate universe where right is wrong, up is down and "callers" (mega dittos, baby) to their staged shows always agree with the host (or get shouted down if they don't.)

When Bill Clinton was president for eight years, they ran a constant campaign of lies against him on radio shows across the country. For the last eight years of George W. Bush, they have conducted an incredibly unified and tightly scripted defense for the worst administration in American history. Now they've turned their Rove-Cheney directed sights on Barack Obama.

To defend themselves from critics, they call their programs "entertainment," when in fact, it's the only news source for regular listeners, who have been lulled into submission by their daily drumbeat of a "biased mainstream media."

There has never been this kind of one-sided, from the talking points, political advocacy in the history of the electronic media, and it has poisoned the political athmosphere like never before.

Russian Sage

2008-08-19T11:15:00.002-05:00

Down in the corner of the LipsYard, the Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) is alive with color.

The grayish green leaves of the Russian Sage are pungently scented, apparent when they are crushed or brushed against. The tall, clear blue flower spikes lend a cool, airy look to the garden.

John McCain thinks he's a "Russian Sage" and has the solution to the conflict between Georgia and Russia.

Guest commentator, Stephen Crockett, doesn't think so:

Developments in the ongoing conflict between the nations of Georgia and Russia grew very hot this past week. The conflict has very long historical roots and has been potentially ready to explode since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The comments of John McCain on the current outbreak of war has demonstrated the close connection between “sounding strong” for domestic political considerations and “being stupid” in the execution of American foreign policy.

McCain has a tendency to talk tough and to threaten military consequences far too often for the comfort of many foreign policy experts and American citizens. McCain seems to have the first response impulse to use force and to send in the troops. This sometimes is appropriate but often is not the wise or intelligent course of action. McCain seems to discount the limits of military force in achieving foreign policy objectives and the negative blowback or other unintended consequences of getting involved in military conflicts without carefully studying the facts first.

Basically, McCain’s well-known bad temper marks him as a seemingly dangerously hot-head when it comes to foreign policy. McCain is very opinionated when it comes to many aspects of foreign policy.

When conflict first erupted this week, McCain quickly made harsh comments criticizing Russia. McCain clearly appears to be threatening Russia with economic, diplomatic and, maybe military actions without considering the consequences for the United States.

His comments were not very helpful in persuading Russia to halt military actions. The Russians never respond well to direct public threats or orders from the United States. Intelligent diplomacy requires the very careful use of both carrot and stick measures to achieve the desired results. When you start “being stupid” in your public rhetoric by “talking tough” before thinking through the situation, you almost always fail to achieve your foreign policy goals.

Our foreign goals in the current Georgia-Russia conflict should be (1) halt the exchange of hostilities, (2) get Russia to withdraw their soldiers from occupied Georgian territory, (3) obtain a solid diplomatic front with our European allies especially NATO members regarding this conflict, (4) guarantee the international border integrity of Georgia, (5) protect the international oil pipelines running through Georgian territory, (6) guarantee the safety of American citizens in the war zones, (7) preserve both democracy in Georgia and a measure of ethnic self-rule in the breakaway provinces within Georgia, (8) avoid outright American military conflict with Russia and (9) avoid a new Cold War between Russia and the United States.

“Talking tough” to “sound strong” in order to win points with the American electorate is a poor way to achieve any of these desired foreign policy goals. McCain was reckless and self-serving in his highly charged rhetoric.

Military action is all but impossible for the American government when it comes to responding to Russian actions in Georgia. The foreign wars launched by Bush (with the enthusiastic support of McCain) in Iraq and Afghanistan have drained away our military response ability when it comes to real threats to world peace and international emergencies. McCain, like Bush, seems to be recklessly saber-rattling regarding Iran without having the necessary military forces required to back the threats being made. We need not to make the same mistake in Georgia.

How are we going to pay for more wars? McCain and Bush have not explained how we are going to pay for the current military conflicts or rebuilding our nearly exhausted military forces, much less launch even more foreign military misadventures. Economic mismanagement and disastrous trade policies have crippled our national finances and undermined our industrial capacity to fight wars.

Even economic conflict with Russia will have a very negative effect on the American nation. The world needs Russian oil. Disruptions in the oil supply from Russia will create severe hardships on American consumers. Only the oil companies financing much of McCain’s Presidential campaign would profit from such a situation. McCain’s “tough talk” might already be keeping oil prices higher than they would have been if McCain had not made those comments.

The fact that McCain has had a chief foreign policy advisor that was directly employed by the nation of Georgia while working on the McCain campaign demonstrates very poor judgment by Senator McCain. His chief foreign policy expert on Georgia was half of a two-man lobbying firm which received around $800,000 from the Georgian government while he was advising McCain. No advisor to any Presidential candidate should be a paid agent of any foreign government. It is no wonder that McCain does not have a balanced, well-informed approach to this subject.

McCain has dangerously injected himself into this touchy foreign policy/military crisis in a very public way. McCain should remember that he is not the President. Hopefully, for the sake of the American nation, he never will be.

A Ray of Sunshine

2008-08-15T10:04:00.006-05:00

The LipsYard Garden is alive with Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus.) The taller ones are the "Cherry Rose Hybrid,"

and these beautiful bright yellow ones are called "Baby Bear."

Did you know that sunflowers are one of the leading cash crops in the country?You can learn a whole lot about sunflowers HERE.

Also popping up like sunflowers, but without the happy feeling, are more attack ads from John McCain.

One ad features newspaper headlines criticizing Obama's tax proposals, which call for cuts for the middle class but for letting the Bush administration tax cuts lapse for those making more than $250,000 a year, and images of families.

"The press warns the 'taxman cometh,' the announcer says. "Obama's taxes mean 'higher prices at the pump.' Obama's taxes a 'recipe for economic disaster.' Higher taxes. Higher gas prices. Economic disaster. That's the real Obama."

Too bad this ad is just more of the same old false and discredited attacks that Senator McCain knows aren’t true. Senator McCain will say or do anything to hide the truth: while Obama will cut taxes for the middle class, McCain will give a billion dollars in new tax breaks to America’s eight largest corporations, while his plan provides no direct relief for more than 100 million American families.

What happened to the "Maverick?" He's been corrupted by the same team that got President George W. Bush elected.

McCain is so desperate to raise money so he can launch more negative attacks on Obama that he is getting help from a strategist with ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whom McCain once helped investigate.

Ralph Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition and now on team McCain, is soliciting donors to attend a Monday fund-raiser in Atlanta for McCain and the Republican National Committee. In 2006, a House investigative committee concluded that Reed interceded with the Bush White House to help some of Abramoff's clients. Abramoff was sent to prison on conspiracy, mail fraud, and tax evasion charges.

Despite all of his rhetoric about reform, the truth is John McCain simply cannot be trusted to bring change to Washington politics.

Green Thursday: It's all happening at the Zoo

2008-08-14T13:50:00.006-05:00

The Zoological Society's Karen Peck Katz Conservation Education Center at the Milwaukee County Zoo is no ordinary education building. It's a conservation education building, where all the workshops are concentrated on science-based curriculum and environmental awareness. So, it only makes sense that the very materials the building was constructed with fit within the same earth-friendly guidelines that the programs do.

WKTI hangin' out at Zoo ala Carte

A major part of the building's environmental success is its incorporation of Wisconsin's Focus on Energy program. The classrooms are filled with natural light from several windows with direct western exposure. Classrooms also have special lighting features, such as strategic switching of daylight controls. Each room has both an occupancy sensor and an "auto off" switch that control light fixtures near the windows. When a room is not occupied, the sensor turns the lights and the "auto off" switch off. When the room is in use, the lights at the windows must then be manually turned on. The extra effort helps to ensure that these lights are used only when absolutely necessary.

Other energy efficiency tactics include the use of metal halide lamps, which incorporate what's known as "pulse-start technology." Simply speaking, this new technology offers a more reliable, and significantly longer, lamp life by revamping the ballast (the part that sends currents to the lamp and makes the light turn on). Another bonus is the lamp's enhanced ability to maintain consistent color temperature and performance, which results in vibrant displays and signs that won't appear washed out under bright lights.

The building also was designed with classrooms on only one side of each hallway (called a single-loaded corridor). This allows for direct natural light on each classroom's west side, and borrowed light from the day-lit corridor on the east side. This differs from typical schools with double-loaded corridors, or classrooms on both sides, resulting in dark, windowless hallways and a wider building. The building's narrower structure allows more natural ventilation, thanks to lots of screened windows. In most commercial buildings, the windows are fixed; so heating and cooling systems are almost always necessary. On nice days, opening a few windows is a natural and energy-efficient way to ventilate.

Not all the improvements are inside. Up on the roof, you won't find the usual barren black sea of tar or gravel. Instead, the space is covered with growing plants, an innovative method to reduce storm-water runoff to benefit the environment. The Zoo's horticulturists maintain the roof's plants, which are mostly sedums, low-growing succulents that don't require a lot of work. During heavy rainfall, these plants act as a gigantic sponge in the midst of a densely cemented area. By soaking up excess runoff, the foliage protects sewers from getting clogged, which can lead to untreated sewage discharging into the watershed.

Relatively cost-effective, these appropriately named "green roofs" are becoming a trend across the country, particularly in urban areas. Other "green roofs" in the area are the MMSD headquarters near downtown Milwaukee, and the Urban Ecology Center next to Riverside High School on Milwaukee's East Side. Garden roofs covered with numerous potted plants, such as the one atop Deborah Kern's Garden Room garden shop in Shorewood, accomplish some of the same environmental benefits.

Green roofs are also in the business of cooling things off. It's no secret that shiny, metal surfaces heat up fast under the sun. The "heat island effect" is what scientists call the generally higher temperatures in urban areas with many reflective buildings. Replace a reflective surface with lush greenery and heat will be absorbed when water from the plants evaporates, and surrounding temperatures decline.

Click HERE to find out about getting your own "green roof."

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

Sweet Lily Aroma

2008-08-08T10:25:00.001-05:00

The Lilies (Lilium 'Casa Blanca') are in stunning bloom.

They are right out side the 4 season room, and just off the patio where we have as many meals outdoors as possible.

Thier sweet aroma wafts through the air, adding another "sense-sation" to this beautiful time of year.

Commentator and economist James Galbraith laments an aroma of another kind, this one not so sweet, coming from Wall Street these days.

"Years ago, I realized that the free-market, supply-side crowd, true conservatives who'd ridden high with Reagan, dislike Bush as much as I do. I speak of the hard money, low-tax, Wall Street Journal, deregulate-and-privatize team, the nemeses of my youth, people like Bruce Bartlett, Paul Craig Roberts, the late Jude Wanniski. Suddenly, we were on the same side. Had I gone crazy or had they gone sane?

Whether it was right or wrong, "Reaganomics" had a logic. Each policy would aim at one problem. Tight money would cure inflation. Low taxes would stimulate saving and work effort. Small government would "crowd in" investment. Free trade would make us efficient. Smart people believed this and they had the authority of respected economists like Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek to back them up.

But now those ideas are dead, buried, abandoned. Deregulation brought us miseries in finance, transport, energy and the climate. Free trade agreements dole out favors to big farmers and big pharma. The financial crisis finished off what was left of monetarism, the idea that the Fed should only worry about inflation. And everyone has given up on waiting for low taxes to unleash the creativity of the ultra rich.

Under Bush, oil and gas, drug companies and defense contractors, insurers and usurers control the government of the United States and it does what they want. This is the predator state. The wisdom of free markets? The President gave his own verdict in Houston the other day: "Wall Street got drunk." True enough, but where were the grownups when the party went wild?
For many years, liberals have lived in fear and thrall of the market mantra. It's time to get over it, for if true conservatives realize that our problem is a predator state, shouldn't liberals be out there doing something about it?

Suddenly planning, standards, regulation and progressive taxes don't seem so bad."

Do we really need a third Bush term with John McCain?

Dairy Daze at the Fair

2008-08-07T15:31:00.005-05:00

Tiara greetings from the Wisconsin State Fair. Here are all the Wisconsin County Fairest of the Fairs. Front row (L to R) is this year's State Fairest, Claire Carrol, me, and Debbie Lazaga, our traffic reporter.

Dairy Day at the fair is our favorite day. We continued the cow-milk-off tradition. This year, Josephene the Jersey was our victim. Handler, Evan, did a great job keeping her calm as we all took our 30 seconds at her under-region.

Debbie Lazaga took first pull. (I chose this photo because it looks like she's stuck her head into the cow's side.)

Fairest of the Fair was next.

Last year's champion milker was the Honey Queen, this year's bee royalty, Michelle, took her turn.

Alice in Dairyland takes us all to school with her 30 seconds. We couldn't believe she got the milk out so fast, there was a head on it!

My turn, and as usual, the city kid barely wets the bottom of the cup. Better luck next year!

Here's to a warm glass of Wisconsin Milk! (remember our rule, milk all you want, drink all you milk.)

SteveYard up North

2008-08-06T05:57:00.001-05:00

Landscaping and plantings run in the family. Today we head to my brother (and wife Mary's) SteveYard in suburban Minneapolis. They have a water feature and plantings adjacent to the driveway. The pink flowers are Astilbe (Astilbe.) The unique tree in the back is a Weeping Norway Spruce (Picea abies 'Pendula'.)

This beautiful bed of Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) welcomes you to the front entrance. That handsome yellow bloom is a Leopard Plant (Ligularia.)

They have a very shady side and back yard, where these Hostas (Hosta) do very well. If you get very close to your screen and inhale, you can smell Zest soap. Those shavings keep the hungry deer away.

Returning to the front yard, this Russian Sage is bordered by Day Lilies (Hemerocallis.)

These Day Lilies are in beautiful bloom.

Normally, at this point in the blog, I would tear into a rant on the right, but since my brother and I have differing approaches to the political system, I'll take the high road, like John McCain has been doing in the Presidential race against Barak Obama and vice versa.

Planting Deception

2008-08-05T07:54:00.003-05:00

Charmaine has planted a short row of Zinnias (Zinnia) behind the compost bins to act as a cover-up for the view from neighbor Dick and Judy's house.

The name of the genus derives from the German botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn.

Zinnias are known to attract butterflies, always a welcome visitor to the LipsYard.

In a recent interview with Katie Couric, Republican presidential contender John McCain blasted Barack Obama for opposing the surge in Iraq. McCain claimed the deployment of more U.S. troops gave rise to the “Anbar Awakening” in which Sunni Muslims turned against al-Qaeda terrorists. But the Anbar Awakening began Sept. 26, 2006. That was more than three months before President Bush even announced the surge on Jan. 10, 2007. What makes this McCain blunder so troubling is that CBS decided to remove it from the interview.

The cover-up was exposed by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who accused McCain on the air of either lying or being ignorant of the facts. Ironically, John McCain is now saying the media are too soft on Barack Obama. But if Obama showed himself to be as uninformed on his top issue, as McCain did on Iraq, the media would have a field day. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the media’s efforts to hide McCain’s misstatements, flip-flops, and extreme positions.

McCain recently called Social Security a “disgrace” and lied in denying his support for privatizing it. Six times McCain has spoken of his policies toward “Czechoslovakia,” a nation that ceased to exist 15 years ago. He speaks of the “Iraq-Pakistan” border even though they do not share a border. He mixes up Somalia and Sudan. Four times he accused Iran of helping al-Qaeda with absolutely no evidence to back it up. Just like the pre-war lies told about Iraq.

A Dash of Marigold

2008-08-04T05:34:00.001-05:00

The LipsYard Garden is in full bloom. Today's featured flower is found along the front edge in several places.

Marigold (Tagetes) is found throughout North and South America. The foliage has a musky/pungent scent that repels some common insect pests.

The common name, "marigold", is derived from "Mary's Gold", and the plant is associated with the Virgin Mary in Christian stories. The marigold was regarded as the flower of the dead in pre-Hispanic Mexico, parallel to the lily in Europe, and is still widely used in the Day of the Dead celebrations.

Speaking of dead, President George W. Bush told reporters that he will be long gone before anyone makes a full assessment of his legacy. "I'll be dead when they finally figure it out. There's no such thing as short-term history, so I am very confident in telling you that I'll be long gone before somebody finally figures out the true merit and meaning of the Bush administration.''

Jane Mayer, a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of a new book -- The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals -- believes she already has sorted it out. "Seven years after al-Qaeda's attacks on America, as the Bush administration slips into history, it is clear that what began on September 11, 2001, as a battle for America's security became, and continues to be, a battle for the country's soul,''

"In looking back,'' Mayer writes, "one of the most remarkable features of this struggle is that almost from the start, and at almost every turn along the way, the Bush administration was warned that whatever the short-term benefits of its extralegal approach to fighting terrorism, it would have tragically destructive long-term consequences both for the rule of law and America's interests in the world.''

"The Bush administration invoked the fear flowing from the attacks on September 11 to institute a policy of deliberate cruelty that would have been unthinkable on September 10. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and a small handful of trusted advisers sought and obtained dubious legal opinions enabling them to circumvent American laws and traditions. In the name of protecting national security, the executive branch sanctioned coerced confessions, extrajudicial detention, and other violations of individuals' liberties that had been prohibited since the country's founding...

...When warned that these policies were unlawful and counterproductive, they ignored the experts and made decisions outside of ordinary bureaucratic channels, and often outside of the public's view. Rather than risking the possibility of congressional opposition, they classified vital interpretations of law as top secret.''

Mayer quotes Philip Zelikow, executive director of the 9/11 Commission that examined the attacks, and found another withering assessment. "The Bush administration's descent into torture will be seen as akin to Roosevelt's internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. It happened in much the same way, for many of the same reasons. Fear and anxiety were exploited by zealots and fools."

Oh Snap! (dragon)

2008-08-01T08:55:00.004-05:00

The Snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus) are blooming in the LipsYard garden.

They love the sun on the front edge of the perennial bed and will bloom well into fall.

Along with our four colors, Snapdragons also come in lavender and orange.

Some varieties actually have flowers that "snap" open, thus the name.

"Oh Snap!" is what we say to the continual drumbeat of "Drill Now!" as an answer to high gas prices. This would be the energy policy of the Bush administration, and their agent for another term of "more of the same," John McCain.

Guest letter-writer Kimberly Johnson of Milwaukee says:

"Enough talk of drilling already

I am sick to death of reading the same shortsighted garbage about how we need to lift the tax on gasoline and drill the coast into invironmental catastrophe to knock a few cents off of gas prices.

Tax gas more, and use the revenue to fund new infrastructure for alternate plans. How dumb is this populace that when confronted with the end of oil, the only concern is if gas can be cheaper for six months rather than making a switch? That would be a lot cheaper than running the country into the ground when oil prices inevitably skyrocket as the oil wells run dry.

When you have 2 billion people in India and China (to whom, incidentally, we owe trillions of dollars for our national debt) who are using oil at an exponentially incrasing rate, it's not going to be too many years. Many people say 12 - about long enough to fix this mess if lawmakers decide not to be abysmally stupid.

Drive less, and you'll get the same savings as dropping the tax and avert a massive econimic and environmental crisis. Oh, that's right; you don't want to pay an extra 25 cents to drive to the mall to buy Chinese imports.

Please stop this moronic 'drill, drill, drill, drop the tax,' conservative tripe."

Amen sister!

Green Thursday: How to Go Green

2008-07-31T09:41:00.004-05:00

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

2008-07-28T10:45:00.005-05:00

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

2008-07-25T05:22:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-24T07:52:00.004-05:00

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

2008-07-23T05:19:00.002-05:00

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

2008-07-22T05:00:00.001-05:00

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

2008-07-21T05:55:00.002-05:00

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

2008-07-18T08:07:00.000-05:00

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

2008-07-17T09:33:00.005-05:00

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

2008-07-16T08:33:00.004-05:00

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

2008-07-15T10:04:00.005-05:00

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

2008-07-14T10:20:00.009-05:00

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

2008-07-11T09:30:00.001-05:00

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

2008-07-10T08:48:00.005-05:00

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.

Daylily uprising

2008-07-09T11:26:00.009-05:00

As you come around the East side of the LipsYard house, you spot the garage wall of Daylilies (Hemerocallis.) The word Hemerocallis is derived from two Greek words meaning "beauty" and "day," referring to the fact that each flower lasts only one day. To make up for this, there are many flower buds on each daylily flower stalk, and many stalks in each clump of plants, so, the flowering period of a clump is usually several weeks long. And, many cultivars have more than one flowering period.

There are five varieties here, three that are in bloom right now (Little Winecup, Stellad'oro, Happy Returns,) and two more (Pardon Me, Minnie Pearl,) about to pop.

This is a closeup of the Little Winecup.

Along with the five Daylilis uprising, there's also an uprising over the detention of prisoners at Gitmo and who's responsible for the treatment they've been given.

Investigations, led by Sen. Carl Levin, into the harsh treatment (torture) of these detainees has discovered that the framework under which they were imprisoned for years without charges at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in many cases abused in Afghanistan wasn't the product of U.S. military policy or the fault of a few rogue soldiers.

It was largely the work of five White House, Pentagon and Justice Department lawyers who, following the orders of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, reinterpreted or tossed out U.S. and international laws that govern treatment of prisoners in wartime, according to former U.S. defense and Bush administration officials.

The Supreme Court has struck down many of those legal interpretations, ruling last week that preventing detainees from challenging their detention in federal courts was unconstitutional.

The five lawyers, who called themselves the "War Council," drafted legal opinions that circumvented the military's code of justice, the federal court system and international treaties to prevent anyone — from soldiers on the ground to the president — from being held accountable for activities that at other times have been considered war crimes.

Only one of the five War Council lawyers remains in office: David Addington, the longtime legal adviser and now chief of staff to Cheney. Addington's primary motive, according to several former administration and defense officials, was to push for an expansion of presidential power that Congress or the courts couldn't check.

Alberto Gonzales, first the White House counsel and then the attorney general, resigned last August amid allegations of perjury related to congressional hearings about the firings of U.S. attorneys.

The Defense Department in February abruptly announced the resignation of William Haynes, the former Pentagon general counsel, amid public criticism by military lawyers that he failed to ensure a just system of detainee trials at Guantánamo.

Even some conservatives have condemned former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo for what many called sloppy legal work in drafting key memorandums about detention policy. He is now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

The last and least-known member of the group, Timothy Flanigan, a former deputy to Gonzales, withdrew his nomination to be deputy attorney general in 2005 amid mounting questions in the Senate about his role in drafting the administration's legal definition of torture and other issues.

This is just the beginning of the unraveling of a giant ball of lies from this administration.

Blooming Grasses

2008-07-08T08:01:00.006-05:00

Like sentries with the big, furry hats guarding the gate, our Karl Foerster grasses (Calamagrostis) stand tall on either side of the driveway near the garage. (Who was Karl Foerster? Click HERE for way too much information.)

They are in full bloom now. As the summer wears on, the blooms will turn an amber color. By fall, they'll be light brown, and we leave them up all winter, as they make a nice contrast against the snow.

As the grasses blow in the wind, I'm reminded of Flip-flopping. The right wing pundits are all over Barack Obama for his change in position on various issues, claiming he's just trying to win votes (isn't that the point of an election, to win votes?)

They did the same thing to John Kerry. I never saw it as pandering to votes, or public opinion, but more of an educated response to gaining more information on an issue. Who among us hasn't changed their position, once more was known about it (other than President Bush?)

To do anything else is simply pig-headed and stupid.

Hal Brown, of the Capitol Hill Blue blog writes along a similar vein:

"The accusation that one's opponent is a flip-flopper has become a campaign staple. Obama's soaring rhetoric of change has opened him to such charges from his more liberal supporters as well as from McCain and his operatives. Measure for measure McCain has a comparable number of flip-flops. Obama has a way to advance his standing by taking all but the most egregious flip-flops out of the campaign conversation.

Barak Obama should think of himself as McCain's defense attorney. At an opportune time in a short but compelling speech, one that will likely make the television news in its entirety, make a case for McCain being found "not guilty" of the charge of flip flopping.

Simply put, he should defend McCain's changes as signs of his having an open mind and his being able to change his opinions based on his willingness to learn from past errors of judgment or new information.

Damning with faint praise, you say?
A transparent effort to take the focus off your own flip-flops?
Or perhaps after seven years of the dogmatic Bush and his damn the torpedoes of truth full speed ahead into disaster administration, a call to reset the bar for flexible thinking?"

Back from Nashville

2008-07-07T11:12:00.003-05:00

I had a lot of fun with Midwest Vocal Express men's chorus, taking our "Penguin Songs" to Nashville to compete in the Barbershop Harmony Society's International Contest.

It was tougher than ever, and when the day was done, we were 12th out of 28 competitors. Not bad for a bunch of amateurs from Greendale!

Here's a link to a blog I wrote for the contest

Here's a link to see all the photos of Midwest Vocal Express on the stage

Look out Nashville!

2008-07-01T06:20:00.002-05:00

For the rest of the week, I'll be in Nashville, TN, for the annual International convention of the Barbershop Harmony Society. For the last 10 years, Midwest Vocal Express, the men's a cappella (un-accompanied)chorus that I sing with, has been priviledged to compete against the best in the world. This year is no different, as we take a brand new set of songs, costumes, and choreography, to the contest stage.

We've always finished in the Top Ten, and 3 times we've even gotten into the medals (top five!)

Here's my guys, all decked out for our "Champions" show on June 14, 2008 at South Milwaukee PAC. You can follow all the action as I assume the title of "One of the guys" blogging from Nashville. Find that blog HERE or by going to http://www.mve.org/

this is the dawning of the age of Gaillardia

2008-06-30T06:21:00.001-05:00

The perennial bed is going full force, and leading the charge is the Gaillardia (Gaillardia grandiflora.)
Gaillardias, or blanket flowers, are daisies with serrated tips on the ray petals. These plants are very tough and cheerful. Downy green leaves grow in low rosettes and have a hairy texture. The plants thrive in sunny gardens and even on sand dunes. Most types grow two feet tall with daisies about three inches wide. It's a no brainer for the LipsYard because it blooms continuously throughout summer and fall without deadheading.

Is this the dawning of another incursion into the Middle East?

The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh thinks the United States is conducting clandestine operations within Iran, and reports in this week's issue that Congress agreed to a request from President Bush last year to fund a major escalation of covert activity against Iran -- aimed at destabilizing the country's regime by backing minority groups like the Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi.

The story was knocked down quickly by the administration and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker. Hersh dismissed the denial, arguing that "when you run secret operations ... sometimes it's better not to have the ambassador know."

Hersh believes that President Bush and Vice President Cheney "do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program.... They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of offices next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program."

If this story is indeed true, then we are clearly encroaching on the sovereignty of a nation. Moreover, what if US soldiers are captured by the Iranians? Then either we will get embarrassed by the Iranians or worse, things will escalate to an all out war involving Iran, Syria, Hizbuallah, Hamas, and Israel.

Not to mention that this kind of information drives the commodities market speculators crazy, driving up the price of oil even further.

A carpet of Geraniums

2008-06-27T06:36:00.008-05:00

The Geraniums (Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’) are in bloom in both the front and back LipsYard. They are a very hardy perennial that grow 6-8” in height and spread with white blooms tinged with pink. The overall effect is a beautiful loose carpet of foliage. This is a naturally occurring hybrid that was discovered in the Biokovo Mountains in Croatia.

Wild geraniums were used by North American Indians and early settlers as an herbal remedy, being both safe and effective. The Chippewas used the rhizome, or underground stem, for sores inside the mouth, and other Indian peoples steeped the plant in water to use as an eyewash. Indians also ate the young green leaves as food. To this day herbalists recommend the plant, also known as Cranesbill, for many of the same medicinal purposes, with the fluid extract and powdered rhizome both widely available in herbal stores.

Not unlike our Geraniums, (or the Borg of Star Trek,) a loose carpet of pain, caused by rising oil prices is spreading across the globe. Michael T. Klare writes in The Nation:

"As the pain induced by higher oil prices spreads to an ever growing share of the American (and world) population, pundits and politicians have been quick to blame assorted villains — greedy oil companies, heartless commodity speculators and OPEC. It's true that each of these parties has contributed to and benefited from the steep run-up. But the sharp growth in petroleum costs is due far more to a combination of soaring international demand and slackening supply — compounded by the ruinous policies of the Bush Administration — than to the behavior of those other actors.
Most, if not all, of the damage was avoidable. Shortly after taking office, George W. Bush undertook a sweeping review of U.S. energy policy aimed at expanding the nation's supply of vital fuels. The "reality is the nation has got a real problem when it comes to energy," he declared on March 14, 2001. "We need more sources of energy." At that time many of the problems evident today were already visible.
...many energy experts urged the White House to minimize future reliance on oil, emphasize conservation and rapidly develop climate-friendly alternatives, especially renewables like wind, solar, geothermal and biofuels. But Dick Cheney, who was overseeing the energy review, would have none of this. "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue," the Vice President famously declared in April 2001, "but it is not a sufficient basis...for sound, comprehensive energy policy." After three months of huddling in secret with top executives of leading US energy companies, he released a plan on May 17 that, in effect, called for preserving the existing energy system, with its heavy reliance on oil, coal and natural gas.
Because continued reliance on oil would mean increased reliance on imported petroleum, especially from the Middle East, Bush sought to deflect public concern by calling for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other protected areas. As a result, most public discourse on the Bush/Cheney plan focused on drilling in ANWR, and no attention was paid to the implications of increased dependence on imported oil — even though oil from ANWR, in the most optimistic scenario, would reduce US need for imports (now about 60 percent) by just 4 percent. But this produced another dilemma for Bush: increased reliance on imports meant increased vulnerability to disruptions in delivery due to wars and political upheavals.
To address this danger, the Administration began planning for stepped-up military involvement in major overseas oil zones, especially the Persian Gulf. This was evident, for example, when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gave early priority to enhancement of American "power projection" to areas of instability in the developing world. Then came 9/11 and the "war on terror" — giving the White House a perfect opportunity to accelerate the military expansion and to pursue other key objectives. High on the list was the elimination of Saddam Hussein, long considered the most potent challenger to U.S. domination of the Gulf and its critical energy supplies. But the invasion of Iraq — intended to ensure U.S. control of the Gulf and a stable environment for the expanded production and export of its oil — has had exactly the opposite effect. Despite the many billions spent on oil infrastructure protection and the thousands of lives lost, production in Iraq is no higher today than it was before the invasion.
...But the Administration's greatest contribution to the rising oil prices is its steady stream of threats to attack Iran if it does not back down on the nuclear issue. The Iranians have made it plain that they would retaliate by attempting to block the flow of Gulf oil and otherwise cause turmoil in the energy market. Most analysts assume, therefore, that an encounter will produce a global oil shortage and prices well over $200 per barrel. It is not surprising, then, that every threat by Bush/Cheney has triggered a sharp rise in prices.
This is where speculators enter the picture. Believing that a U.S.-Iranian clash is at least 50 percent likely, some investors are buying futures in oil at $140, $150 or more per barrel, thinking they'll make a killing if there's an attack and prices zoom over $200. It follows, then, that while the hike in prices is due largely to ever increasing demand chasing insufficiently expanding supply, the Bush Administration's energy policies have greatly intensified the problem. By seeking to preserve our oil-based energy system at any cost, and by adding to the "fear factor" in international speculation through its bungled invasion of Iraq and bellicose statements on Iran, it has made a bad problem much worse.
What can be done to reverse this predicament? There is no realistic hope of substantially increasing the supply of oil — drilling in offshore US waters, as favored by President Bush and Senator John McCain, will not reverse the long-term decline in U.S. production — so it is only by reducing demand that fundamental market forces can be addressed. This is best done through a comprehensive program of energy conservation, expanding public transit and accelerating development of energy alternatives.
It will take time for some of these efforts to have an impact on prices; others, like reducing speed limits and adding bus routes, would have a more rapid effect. And if this Administration truly wanted to spare Americans further pain at the pump, there is one thing it could do that would have an immediate effect: declare that military force is not an acceptable option in the struggle with Iran. Such a declaration would take the wind out of the sails of speculators and set the course for a drop in prices."

Green Thursday: The Big (Green) Gig

2008-06-26T06:34:00.001-05:00

It's opening day at Summerfest, the World's Greatest Music Festival along Lake Michigan. They're actively trying to do their part in being environmentally conscious. Steps are being taken each day to raise awareness and to encourage “green behavior” among their patrons, plus a committment to "Practice what we preach."

Some of the initiatives already taken at the Big Gig include:
A new energy-efficient North Gate LED sign

Occupancy sensors in the restrooms of the Administration Building

Showerheads and sink aerators in the Marcus Amphitheater showers, and new water heaters in the Marcus Amphitheater

As reported by the City of Milwaukee, they recycled five times the amount of plastic in 2007 than in 2006. Please dispose of plastic bottles and cups in the recycle bins located throughout the grounds.

Eco-Crete™ misting tent sample project - Eco-Crete™ pervious concrete, a 100% permeable surface, allows 4" of rain through per minute!

MMSD/Milorganite Summerfest Planting Day 2008 was Thursday, May 22, from 8:30 am to 1:00 pm. This annual event brought together dedicated volunteers and local students to plant over 60,000 annual flowers in 65 different varieties on the Summerfest Grounds in just four hours.

10,000 family fun bags used on Children’s Fest Day are made of low density 2.5 mil fold-over die cut containing up to 40% post-consumer and post-industrial recycled content and up to 20% non-petroleum based calcium filler. This reduces the use of petroleum based resins by as much as 60%.

As part of the newly-renovated Harley-Davidson Roadhouse project, several recycled materials will be used from demolition including concrete, steel, asphalt and copper. Other environmentally-friendly features will include reclaimed landscaping pavers and waterless urinals. Over 82% of the structural steel used in the renovation is recycled content, and Hunzinger through Waste Management and City Wide Recycling has recycled over 17 tons of general construction and material waste. Over 400 tons of recycled asphalt has been made. To date, over 1,100 tons of the materials used for the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse have been recycled, totaling 83% of the project recycled by weight.

Some of Summerfest’s “Green Partners” include:

Johnson Controls

Sunday, June 29 is Johnson Controls Goes Green at Summerfest Day

The first 1,500 patrons presenting a receipt along with identifiable product packaging of a multi-pack Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb (CFL) will be granted one (1) FREE admission ticket.

Anyone driving a Hybrid vehicle to Summerfest Thursday, June 26 through Sunday, June 29 can park for FREE in the Johnson Controls downtown parking lot, located at 630 E. Buffalo Street on a first-come, first-served basis. 25 parking spots will be available.

Focus on Energy – Children’s Fest Day - June 30, 2008

Visit The Energy Experience, sponsored by Focus on Energy. With an information booth, hand crank displays with Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs, solar car races and other activities and giveaways, this will be a great place for kids to learn the importance of greening efforts. Located in the Children’s Theater and PlayZone.

Discovery World

Go Green with Discovery World! Stop by and learn new ways to be friends with the world. Located in the Target Kids Activity Tent in the Children’s Theater and PlayZone.

Kohler Co.

With the help of Kohler Co., we have been testing waterless urinals in several bathrooms throughout the grounds. Kohler cartridge-free waterless urinals can conserve 40,000 gallons of water per year.

Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District

New in 2008, MMSD partnered with Summerfest as the sponsor of Planting Day. In addition to being the sponsor of Planting Day, an in-kind donation of Milorganite product will be used in the festival grounds planter beds.

Parking in the Summerfest bicycle park at the Mid-Gate is free at all times. Patrons are required to secure their bicycles at all times.

Click HERE for bike routes to Summerfest

Click HERE to download the PDF of the Focus On Energy Brochure that will be distributed on Children's Fest Day, Monday June 30.

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

Poppy: In Memoriam

2008-06-25T09:41:00.004-05:00

The Poppy (Papaver somniferum) is in bloom, and it's a spectacular flower.

Poppies have long been used as a symbol of both sleep and death: sleep because of the opium extracted from them (think "Poppies!" from "The Wizard of Oz,") and death because of their commonly blood-red color.

The poppy of wartime remembrance is the red corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas.) This poppy is a common weed in Europe and was one of the only plants that grew on the battlefield. It thrives in disturbed soil, which was abundant on the battlefield due to intensive shelling. During the few weeks the plant blossomed, the battlefield was coloured blood red, not just from the red flower that grew in great numbers but also from the actual blood of the dead soldiers that lay scattered and untended to on the otherwise barren battlegrounds. They were an inspiration to the poem, "In Flanders Fields"

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

This is why Veteran's groups sell paper poppies on November 11. It is truly a fitting remembrance.

A group in San Francisco is hoping to find a fitting memorial and legacy for our current leader:

"As we near the end of George W Bush’s presidency, we think it is important to select a fitting monument to this president’s work. On matters ranging from foreign relations to fiscal and environmental stewardship, no other president in American history has accomplished so much in such a short time.

To honor George W Bush for his eight years of honorable public service, the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is sponsoring a ballot initiative this November.
It reads…

Should The City And County of San Francsico Rename The Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W Bush Sewage Plant?

We believe this is an appropriate honor for a truly unique president. If you think so too, join this grassroots movement to rename this important and iconic landmark in his honor."

Could we rename the deep tunnel after "W?"

Reigning in the Raspberries

2008-06-24T10:59:00.000-05:00

It's time for the annual chore of raising the support fencing 'round the raspberries (Rubus strigosus.)

Job 1 is placing six 5' stakes around the perimeter of the patch, then placing two 7' stakes in the center of the patch.

Vinyl clothesline is strung round the outside at two levels to contain the long canes which will bear fruit later in the summer. The tall stakes will eventually act as tentpoles for cotton sheets to protect the fruit and plants from frost in the fall.

Here's a "fast forward to the past" shot of what we can expect in a few weeks.

Yum!

Raspberries of the Bronx Cheer variety to the Bush Administration.

Last Wednesday, President George W. Bush made an announcement about energy and called upon Congress to pass legislation lifting a ban on offshore oil drilling.

"With gasoline now over $4 a gallon, Congress needs to pass legislation lifting the congressional ban on safe, environmentally friendly offshore oil drilling."

Differences over energy policy has led to a political spat between Republicans and Democrats and emerged as a key issue in the presidential campaigns ahead of the November election.
Republicans have called for ending a ban on offshore drilling that has been in place since 1981, but Democrats have repeatedly rebuffed such attempts on environmental concerns.

In the race for the White House, Republican candidate John McCain supports ending the ban on offshore oil exploration and Democratic candidate Barack Obama opposes it.

What all the pundits on the Conservative Right fail to reveal about the "Drill Here, Drill Now" plan, is that we wouldn't see any new oil for 10, and possibly up to 20 years. Furthermore, it wouldn't reduce the price of oil, or gasolene. Why would the oil companies sell us the stuff any cheaper than the going price on the world market? Because they "love America?" Ha Ha Ha Ha!

What we need to do is get our energy sector to put all it's efforts into alternative fuels and get the oil monkey off our back. That doesn't sit too well with "W's" oil barron cronies, so don't hold your breath.