Annie Leonard guest spoke and showed "The Story of Stuff" at Foothill College

Annie Leonard is an expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues, with more than 20 years of experience investigating factories and dumps around the world. She spoke at Foothill College and showed her movie, the Story of Stuff, which shows how stuff is created and at what cost to the environment.

She also recommended some books and web sites:

"Exposed": Deregulating Chemicals by Mark Shapiro. Here is a link that talks about the book

Our Stolen Future written by three authors, Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers which chronicles the development of the endocrine disruptor hypothesis by Theo Colborn. Go here to visit their web site which continues to monitor and report on research related to endocrine disruptor.

Rules for Radicals written by Saul Alinsky. Go here to see a list of the rules.

Steady State Economy is a web site. The President, Brian Czech, of the site wrote an article on this.

Did you know all California state employees are required to sign a loyalty oath?

This outdated loyalty oath dates back to 1952 which was added at the height of anti-Communist hysteria. It requires that all California state employees sign it before they can be hired. Not signing it means you will not be hired. What does a loyalty oath promising to uphold and defend the Constitution have to do with working for the state in a non-military capacity?

Here is the text of the loyalty oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend
the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of
the State of California against all enemies, foreign and
domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the
Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the
State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without
any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will
well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about
to enter.

Visit this web site to see what happened to a teacher who was fired for refusing
to sign it.

Visit this web site to see what a UC Berkeley graduate student did to bring this
issue to light and to encourage resistance to signing it.

Global Financial Crisis Discussed by Paul Keating

Here is an interview with the Paul Keating, ex-Prime Minister of Australia, talking about the global financial crisis. Well worth the watch!

View the interview

What Happened to the EV1 Battery?

In this exerpt from 'Who Killed the Electric Car?" they explain what happened to the battery technology that was developed for the EV1.

View the video.

Can the Power Grid Handle the Influx of Renewable Energy Sources?

With solar and wind turbines coming online the existing power grid is too old and inadequate to manage it. Read the article that discusses the problems that need to be solved that will move us into clean energy production and management.

Read the article: Lifeline for Renewable Power by David Talbot

United Ponzi States of America

This is a very interesting article by Robert Morley, a columnist for theTrumpet.com, that shows how social security, the housing bubble, medicare, and medical are just Ponzi schemes. Read this and consider what you should do with your money if you are worried that it may end up becoming worthless.

Read the article.

Barack Obama's Inauguration Speech

Watch Barack Obama take the oath of office and hear his inaugural speech.

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"Hope over fear"

Artist Shepard Fairey

Congratulations and best wishes for a successful presidency. The problems and issues are so great that a bottomless pit can't describe how deep they are. We the people are behind you and are ready to support you. We shall overcome...

I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King

Watch the video of Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech.

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Chinese Savings Helped Inflate American Bubble

"In the past decade, China has invested upward of $1 trillion, mostly earnings from manufacturing exports, into American government bonds and government-backed mortgage debt. That has lowered interest rates and helped fuel a historic consumption binge and housing bubble in the United States."

Read the New York Times article by David Barboza and Keith Bradsher.

The new job of politicians: Selling fear and nightmares

Well worth the watch. Each segment is an hour long. Very enlightening.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Two Comedians Saw Financial Meltdown in 2007!

How did these comedians see it coming when financial reporters did not?

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The Far Side of Sarah Palin

Here are some links to the Tina Fey impersonation of Sarah Palin as well as the real interview with Katie Couric.

Tina Fey SNL first skit

The real Katie Couric interview with Palin

Katie Couric interview SNL version

CNN clip showing both the real Couric interview and the SNL version

Biden/Palin debate SNL version

How Does Alan Greenspan Fit into the Credit Crisis?

Read this article in the New York Times that talks about how Alan Greenspan blocked attempts at regulation which eventually led to the current credit crisis.

Meltdown: A Global Warming Travelogue

For a long time -- the first 15 years that we knew about global warming and did nothing -- there were no pictures. That was one of the reasons for inaction. But now the pictures have started to come, and they will not cease.

Read the article by Bill McKibben and view the photographs by Gary Braasch.

Pass the Bailout Package - Warren Buffett Tells Why

Listen to this great interview with Warren Buffett by Charlie Rose to hear why we should all urge our representatives to pass the bailout package. It goes beyond Wall Street to the state of our economy. Without passage millions more jobs will be lost and more businesses will have to close.

Charlie Rose interview with Warren Buffett

What caused the Credit Crisis?

Listen to this special program on This American Life about the housing crisis that was produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

Go to This American Life, Chicago Public Radio web site, to listen to the show.

Register to Vote

Click on this site to register to vote. Pass this link along to your friends just in case they haven't yet registered to vote.

Register to vote now!

The Truth about Sarah Palin

It is time to look past Sarah Palins' attractiveness and to look at the facts about Sarah Palin and why her beliefs and leadership style do not qualify her to be vice president of the United States.

Her hiring and firing shows a pattern of an abuse of power which we are all too familiar within the Bush administration. "Heck of a job, Brownie" Bush said to the head of FEMA while the Katrina debacle was unfolding. As it turned out Brownie had no experience running anything close to what FEMA required. The parallel with Palin is that she hired a high school classmate to run the State Division of Agriculture. Her only qualifications were that she was a former real estate agent who professed a childhood love of cows. Go to the link to read the entire article about this: Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends, Lashed Foes.

When Palin asked the local librarian what the procedure was to get certain books banned from the library the librarian let her know that she was 'aghast' at the thought and would never do that. After that Palin fired her but had to reinstate her because it caused such an uproar. Anne Kilkenny was a vocal critic of this attempted firing. She has known Sarah Palin since 1992 and had attended many city council meetings during the time when Palin was mayor. Recently, she felt impelled to write a letter describing how the Palin mayoral administration functioned because she believes that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Read the letter that has been circulating the internet about Sarah Palin.

Not only is she anti-abortion, pro-creationism, and does not believe people have affected climate change, she is uninformed about the Bush doctrine and she believes that Iraq and Saddam Hussein were connected to the 911 terrorist attacks. She alluded to this in her speech at her sons' deployment to Iraq ceremony. Recently, even Bush, admitted that there was no connection.

Considering the debt, the financial crisis, the "war", and the poor standing that our country now has with the rest of the world, this presidency will be faced with enormous problems that only extraordinary people will be able to solve. Based on this information it is obvious that McCain and Palin will not be up to the job because they just represent more of the same. We have had eight years to get into this mess and four more will only be catastrophic. These times require global experience and diplomacy which is something very different from what has been the status quo.

Read the op-ed article by Bob Herbert where he summarizes why Palin is just not ready to serve in the position of vice president which, by the way, is just a heartbeat away from the presidency. Read the article here.

Below are links to opinions about Sarah Palin:

Gloria Steinem wrote a great article called Palin: Wrong Woman, Wrong Message.

To read blog entries by women who are not sympathetic to Palin go to the blog,
Women Against Sarah Palin. If you are against Palin it is a great place to express your thoughts.

Here is a video made by a woman who is expressing how she feels about Palin:
A View of Palin...

View the SNL skit where Tina Fey is Sarah Palin:

The Debt Trap

Great article from The New York Times about Americans digging deeper into debt. They are not the only ones at fault. Read how the credit card companies and mortgage lenders reap profits from the fees they charge. It doesn't matter whether people can pay the loans off because the companies bundle up the loans and sell them as securities. NIMBY attitude and we are paying for it now with the credit crisis.

View the Article

Al Gore's Speech to End Carbon-Based Dependence

Listen to Al Gore's speech about global warming, the oil crisis, and his plan to move from oil to alternative sources of energy.

View the Video