NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST September 18, 2007

FLORIDA RED AND BLUE!!!!

Many of you haven't responded.....

Florida Red And Blue!!!!

Do your part to fight the right-wing state-wide anti-gay initiativeto amend the Florida constitution.

Friday, September 28, at the GLCC, Ft. Lauderdale - 11:45am to 1:30pm.

Michael and I promised to get a minimum of 10 people to attend thislow dollar boxed lunch - only $25 - to learn about Florida Red And Blue andthe multiple efforts to overcome this hateful amendment. Florida Red andBlue has already raised over $1 million, but our work is only beginning.

Will you support us with this? Every GLBT person in Florida needs to be apart of this effort.

Boxed Lunch Series
$25
Friday, September 28
Noon - 1:30pm
Networking 11:45am
GLCC - Ft. Lauderdale

Send us an e-mail and let us know if you'll join us on the 28th.

And...... If you can't attend, we'll be glad to accept your check made outto "Florida Red and Blue."

Ray and Michael
rays.list@comcast.net



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/62665

How Vermont May Force the Auto Industry and Congress to Address ClimateChange

By Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor
Posted on September 14, 2007, Printed on September 18, 2007

When historians finally take stock, Vermont may look like the mouse thatroared -- the tiny state that brought the nation's mighty auto industry toheel by requiring cars that emit fewer greenhouse gases.

This is one scenario that could unfold following a federal judge's rulingWednesday, which upheld a Vermont law patterned after California's mandatethat the carbon-dioxide emissions of cars sold in the state must be slashed30 percent by 2016.

The judge's finding -- that federal fuel-economy laws are not in conflictwith state emissions laws -- is particularly significant, coming on theheels of a US Supreme Court decision in April. That ruling found that theEnvironmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse-gasemissions, legal experts say.

On the one hand, Wednesday's decision strengthens the hand of states thatwant to take action against global warming. But in the longer term, theimpact from the ruling could lead to one nationwide standard, which isalready expected by many.

In addition to the 12 states with California-style laws on the books,another six are close to acting. The ruling this week could start dominoesfalling by:

more . . . . .



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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-dowd15septnbsep18,0,1465288,print.story

Get ready for the New York rumble, redux
September 18, 2007

It's on. Or, rather, it's back on.

Rudy versus Hillary, a New York steel-cage match pitting two eye-gouging,hair-pulling brawlers.

For months, Hillary's comely Democratic rivals have tiptoed around her,letting their wives take shots at the front-runner.

Barack Obama looks wary, but Michelle stepped up: "Some women feel it's awoman's turn, you know? They just feel like it's Hillary's turn. That, Ireject, because democracy isn't supposed to be about whose turn it is."

That followed Elizabeth Edwards' takedown of Hillary: "She's just not asvocal a women's advocate as I want to see. John is."

more . . . . .



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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flbdebate0918nbsep18,0,7493286,print.story

GOP presidential debate in Fort Lauderdale focuses on conservative values
By Anthony Man and Juan Ortega
September 18, 2007

FORT LAUDERDALE

Little more than asterisks in the public opinion polls, the lesser-knowncandidates for president tried Monday to appeal to the most conservativeelements of the Republican Party in an attempt to break into top-tierstatus.

Hot-button social issues, especially related to abortion and homosexuality,were the most frequent questions posed to seven candidates for their party'spresidential nomination at the Values Voter debate at the Broward Center forthe Performing Arts.

The candidates weren't constrained by political niceties and often wereunusually pointed - for politicians - in their rhetoric.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, for example, said many Americans don'tunderstand the threat from Islamic militants.

"It's a theological war. It's not politically correct to say that. It's justthe truth," he said. "We're fighting a people who will not be satisfieduntil every last one of us is dead."

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/62325

How Canada Went from 21st to 2nd in World's Oil Reserves

By Dan Woynillowicz, World Watch
Posted on September 17, 2007, Printed on September 18, 2007

It's well-known that the United States consumes more oil per capita than anyother country in the world, absorbing two-thirds of global oil production.This heavy dependence has often, and aptly, been described as an addiction;even U.S. President George W. Bush trotted out the metaphor in his 2006State of the Union address ("America is addicted to oil").

Most of us regard addictions (to anything) as inherently unhealthy andadmission of the problem as the first step toward getting clean. In thiscase, however, U.S. policy has simply been to seek increased oil importsfrom more reliable sources closer to home, in effect, to replace distant andunstable dealers with one from the neighborhood -- specifically, Canada,already the kingpin dealer of oil to the United States. In 2005 Canadaexported almost 1.5 million barrels per day to the United States, about 7percent of U.S. daily consumption. Canada exports 66 percent of its domesticcrude oil production, and since 1995 the United States has received 99percent of these exports. At first glance, it would seem that Canadawouldn't be able to boost oil production to fill the gap; production ofconventional light and heavy oil in Canada was predicted to peak in 2006 andthen rapidly decline. But that's where Canada's "unconventional" tar sandscome in.

Production

The vast bulk of Canada's tar sands is found in the province of Alberta, thecountry's most prolific producer of fossil fuels. The tar sands depositsunderlie more than 140,000 square kilometers of relatively pristine borealforest, an area larger than the state of Florida. It's estimated that thetar sands hold approximately 1.7 trillion barrels of crude bitumen (thetechnical term for the fossil fuel extracted from the tar sands). But mostof this bitumen will never be recovered and only a fraction, 174 billionbarrels, is estimated to be recoverable with today's technology and undercurrent and anticipated economic conditions.

more . . . . .



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Inside Higher Education

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/18/oecd

World Gets a Little Flatter

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is releasing anannual report today that - in presenting the broadest and most up-to-datearray of data about global education - reinforces the sense that Americanhigher education is in a competitive downward spiral.

"Education at a Glance 2007," which will be available this morning on theorganization's Web site, in general finds a worldwide higher educationnetwork that is expanding, educating ever-more students and improving theireconomic standing. The report provides a set of findings on the overallsituation in the 30 OECD countries - which include much of Europe, theUnited States, Canada and Mexico, plus Australia, Japan, Korea and NewZealand - and a look at the United States' status in that larger picture.

Internationally, the report finds that:

a.. Enrollments are rising generally, though growth has been strongest -more than doubling - in countries such as Korea, Ireland and Spain that havepurposefully driven that growth through changes in policy.
b.. Graduation rates vary widely, with Austria, Germany and Turkeyhovering around 20 percent and countries such as Australia, Denmark,Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Poland at over 40 percent.
c.. Even as enrollments have expanded, there has been no significantchange in the generally high pay or the generally low unemployment ratesthat the college educated enjoy compared to other groups, indicating that"the benefits of higher education have not deteriorated as higher educationas expanded."
d.. In countries where higher education has expanded the most, employmentprospects for less-educated citizens had deteriorated, despite predictionsto the contrary.
e.. In most countries, the number of science graduates is growing fasterthan the overall number of graduates.
f.. Between 1995 and 2004, growth in spending on education fell behindgrowth in national income.

more....



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Forwarded from MoveOn.Org

This weekend, Rudy Giuliani launched a series of attacks on us for exposing
the White House spin on the "surge."

Giuliani is hoping to scare war critics into staying silent. But that isn'tgoing to happen. We've put together a rapid-response ad which demonstratesthat Giuliani doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to leadership onIraq: He was booted from the Iraq Study Group after missing meeting aftermeeting so he could make millions of dollars giving speeches.

We want voters to know that Giuliani can't be trusted on Iraq. Can you helpwith $25 to get this ad on the air in Iowa? Click here to see the ad andcontribute:

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/giuliani.html?id=11257-5533006-hlf2R6&t=3

The facts are very clear: When it really mattered, Giuliani chose to makebig money from speeches rather than helping figure out a strategy for Iraq.

The Iraq Study group (ISG) was a bipartisan panel appointed by Congress inMarch of 2006 to evaluate the situation in Iraq and make policyrecommendations on the war. Sometimes it's referred to as the Baker-Hamiltoncommission.

Giuliani originally said that he looked forward to participating in thegroup,1 but then he never showed up to any of the meetings.

Newsday reported earlier this year that, "Rudolph Giuliani's membership onan elite Iraq study panel came to an abrupt end last spring after he failedto show up for a single official meeting of the group, causing the panel'stop Republican to give him a stark choice: either attend the meetings orquit, several sources said."2

Giuliani later said that he couldn't participate in the group because of"time constraints." A close look at his financial records shows that thosetime constraints actually consisted of a series of speeches that he mademillions of dollars on.3

In April of last year. Giuliani skipped a meeting and made $200,000 giving akeynote speech at an economic conference in South Korea.4

The next month he skipped another meeting to give a $100,000 speech on"leadership" in Atlanta. Later that day, he attended a $100-a-ticketpolitical fundraiser for conservative activist Ralph Reed.5

more....



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AlterNet

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/62728/

Iraq Death Toll Rivals Rwanda Genocide, Cambodian Killing Fields

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted September 17, 2007.

According to a new study, 1.2 million Iraqis have met violent deaths sincethe 2003 invasion, the highest estimate of war-related fatalities yet. Thestudy was done by the British polling firm ORB, which conducted face-to-faceinterviews with a sample of over 1,700 Iraqi adults in 15 of Iraq's 18provinces. Two provinces -- al-Anbar and Karbala -- were too dangerous tocanvas, and officials in a third, Irbil, didn't give the researchers apermit to do their work. The study's margin of error was plus-minus 2.4percent.

more...


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