ENVIRONMENT — REP. MARKEY SAYS GREENLAND ICEBERG HAS MADE ROOM ‘FOR GLOBAL WARMING DENIERS TO START THEIR OWN COUNTRY’: Last week, NASA satellite data showed that a giant ice shelf four times the size of Manhattan broke off from a glacier in northwest Greenland. “The new ice island has an area of at least 100 square miles,” noted University of Delaware climate researcher Andreas Muenchow, “and a thickness up to half the height of the Empire State Building.” Over the weekend, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), who has been leading the legislative effort to confront climate change, blasted his obstructionist colleagues in a statement about the news. “An iceberg four times the size of Manhattan has broken off Greenland, creating plenty of room for global warming deniers to start their own country,” Markey said. “So far, 2010 has been the hottest year on record, and scientists agree arctic ice is a canary in a coal mine that provides clear warnings on climate.” He added that it was “unclear how many giant blocks of ice it will take to break the block of Republican climate deniers in the US Senate who continue hold this critical clean energy and climate legislation hostage.” His urgency is warranted: a paper published in Science magazine last year found evidence “that the most recent 10-year interval (1999–2008) was the warmest of the past 200 decades” for the Arctic. And a recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report found that 2010 Arctic sea ice extent was the lowest on record for the month of June. The startling decline in Arctic sea ice has been shown by numerous climate studies based on expert analysis to be a direct result of human activity.
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Update: Tell Google: Don’t be evil
The FCC can’t wait any longer to protect consumers
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Google and Verizon just jointly announced a proposed policy framework for net neutrality, and it’s worse than we expected.
The Google-Verizon plan would end the Internet as we know it. Right now there is only one Internet that treats everybody and all content equally. But the proposal would change all of that. And insidiously, it would effectively dismantle net neutrality while claiming to protect it.
Still, the fact of the matter is that it’s not Google’s place to write regulations — that’s the job of the FCC, which has failed to act quickly to protect American consumers.
Our friends at MoveOn described the Google-Verizon proposal well when they said it would “create two separate, unequal sections of the Internet — one for big business that would be high-speed and exclusive, and then the inferior, slow ‘public Internet’ that would be available to you and me.”
While it was unexpected that Google, formerly an advocate of net neutrality, would associate itself with such a bad policy, it’s not surprising that the proposal shortchanges the interests of consumers and the public at large. This proposal is just the latest example of giant corporations trying to write the very regulations that govern their behavior.
Frankly, it’s just another indication that the FCC has waited too long to put appropriate protections in place for Internet consumers.
Earlier this year, the FCC looked like it was on track to ensure we could all enjoy strong net neutrality provisions. But a federal lawsuit forced the FCC to change its plans.
The FCC can still enforce net neutrality, but it first must revisit a Bush-era decision to deregulate broadband. By revisiting this decision and reclassifying broadband, the FCC can do everything it needs to do to protect American consumers. And in fact, the Chair of the FCC, Julius Genachowski, announced his intentions to do this.
But he has backed away from this plan under intense pressure from telecommunications industry.
Our federal regulators need to stop caving to big business and take a stand for us. The FCC has all the tools it needs to protect our interests and ensure the Internet remains a vital engine of information exchange and innovation, but it seems to lack the political will to live up to its mandate.
CREDO is working with our allies at MoveOn, PCCC, Free Press and ColorOfChange.org to put pressure on Google, the White House and the FCC. This is a crucial moment for our campaign. And your actions will be part of a broader effort to stop the FCC, Congress and the White House from standing by idly while we let corporations destroy the Internet.
We should not let BP decide the legislative framework for offshore drilling. We cannot let Goldman Sachs decide who chairs the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. And we must not let Google or Verizon decide how we can use the Internet.
Speak up and sign our petition to the FCC today. Just click here to automatically add your name. Thank you for working for a better world.
Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
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Today’s Best of the Web …livecheap.com
- How to Tame College Costs
- Social Security in the Red
- Dealing With Deflation
- 7 Great Coupon Resources
Social Security Now in the Red
It was just a matter of time. Social Security
will pay out more this year than it takes in. As we mentioned before, the consequence of this, is that Social Security, the #1 investor in U.S. treasuries is now a net seller.
While tuition is getting out of hand at many colleges, the non-tuition costs can pile up too. This article looks at 5 non-tuition expenses and how to reduce them. Let us shortcut this one for you, get a lot of roomates in a 4 bedroom place that won’t impress the parents and make sure one of them knows how to cook. It has worked for decades.
What to do with your money in a deflationary environment> The dreaded “D” word is making its rounds and here are what investors are doing.
A good list from GenXFinance. There are many other sources, but a some new good ones on this list.
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From Gallup.Com: Americans’ Confidence in the Medical System on the Rebound …
Forty percent of Americans now express “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the U.S. medical system, the third consecutive year confidence has increased since the all-time low of 31% in 2007. Americans’ confidence in HMOs is higher than in recent years but still low, at 19%. Read more at GALLUP.com.
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Congress in the House …8/9/10
LEGISLATIVE DAY OF AUGUST 9, 2010
111TH CONGRESS – SECOND SESSION
- 7:10 P.M. –
- The House adjourned. The next meeting is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on August 10, 2010. On motion to adjourn Agreed to by voice vote.
Mr. McGovern moved that the House do now adjourn.
Mr. McGovern asked unanimous consent That the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) may be recognized on the legislative day of Tuesday, August 10, 2010, to offer the resolution that he noticed on Thursday, July 29, 2010, without further notice under clause 2(a)(1) of rule 9. Agreed to without objection.
Mr. McGovern filed a report from the Committee on Rules on H. Res. 1606.
The House received a communication from Sarah Gerber, Chamber Support Staff. Pursuant to Rule VIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, Ms. Gerber notified the House that she had been served with a subpoena for testimony issued by the Superior Court for the District of Columbia in connection with a criminal case now pending before that court and that after consultation with the Office of the General Counsel, she determined that compliance with the subpoena is consistent with the precedents and privileges of the House.
- 7:09 P.M. –
- The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received a message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 6, 2010 at 2:45 p.m. stating that that body had passed S. 3729 and S. 3304.
- 7:07 P.M. –
- The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received a message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 6, 2010 at 10:36 a.m. stating that that body had passed H.R. 511, H.R. 4275, H.R. 5552, S. 2781, S. 3656, S. 3354, and S. 1674; the message also stated that H.R. 3562, H.R. 3978, H.R. 1517, and H.R. 3509 were each passed with an amendment. Finally, the message stated that that body had agreed to H. Con. Res. 226 and H. Con. Res. 307.
- 7:06 P.M. –
- The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received a message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 6, 2010 at 9:15 a.m. stating that that body concurred in the House amendment to the Senate amendment with an amendment to H.R. 1586, passed S. 3611 and S. 3307, and passed H.R. 5875 with an amendment. The message also announced appointments to the Senate National Security Working Group. The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received a message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 5, 2010 at 10:58 a.m. stating that that body had passed H.R. 5981, H.R. 5872, and H.R. 5283. The message also announced an appointment to the Board of Trustees of the John C. Stennis Center for Public Service Training and Development.
- 7:05 P.M. –
- The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received a message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 4, 2010 at 10:54 a.m. stating that that body had passed S. 3397. The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received a message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 3, 2010 at 9:23 a.m. stating that that body had passed H.R. 2097, S. 1055, and S. 3689.
- 7:04 P.M. –
- PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – The Chair designated Mr. Dreier to lead the Members in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
- 7:02 P.M. –
- Today’s prayer was offered by Reverend Clete Kiley, Washington, DC.
- 7:01 P.M. –
- NOTIFICATION OF REASSEMBLY – The Chair laid before the House the text of the formal notification sent to Members on Wednesday, August 4, 2010, of the reassembly of the House. The Speaker designated the Honorable Chellie Pingree to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.
- 7:00 P.M. –
- The House convened, starting a new legislative day.
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