Geek Habitat

Here’s the inspiration for my soon-to-be launched project of putting some raised beds in our backyard rather than tilling and resodding/reseeding the lawn that inexplicably died out this past season (launch the video below; ignore the mucked up still photo/thumbnail you see here; the vid’s worth it, I swear) –

This Lawn is Your Lawn from roger doiron on Vimeo.

What could be wiser and more fitting that converting part of the expansive White House lawn into an organic, sustainable, edible food producing garden. A victory garden (for those old enough to remember those) of sorts. Please register on change.org & vote for this idea. It’s currently 33rd out of over 1,100 ideas being submitted to the Obama administration. Food would be used in the White House kitchen and/or donated to D.C. area food pantries, and set an example for the NATION so that other cities and states followed suit. May we all be the change we wish to see in the world!

Between the commitment to participate in a group/charity bike ride (no, still haven’t picked one. I plan to devote some serious time to that this week and have a decision by the weekend) and our plans to put our presently dead and useless (except to “look pretty”) small backyard to productive, life-sustaining use, I have to say I’m floating on pretty high spirits… and I’m generally in good spirits anyway, even if it’s not always evident in my tweets/blogs/etc.

Wishing everyone who reads this similar blessings and positive experiences in 2009. Cheesy but true, WE *CAN* DO IT!

Video showing what’s washed into the rivers near the spill site
-> Tennessee Valley Authority coal fly ash slurry spill — Emory River
(There’s an annoying click in video — sorry; maybe they’ll edit that out at some point.)

This is the largest-ever spill of coal fly ash slurry in the USA and has polluted land and waterways and destroyed homes as well as rendered others unusable until cleanup efforts occur.
It’s 50 times larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill in terms of volume of pollutant spilled.

More Info:
* Tennessee coal sludge spill – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
* TVA Coal is Killing Tennessee (includes more videos & high-res aerial fly-over photos)

USAA, a major local employer (headquartered here in San Antonio, Texas) — one I used to work for and Justin still does work for — is taking a leadership role in supporting wind power. Awesome! So proud of them for taking this step!

Read more at USAA signs up for CPS Energy’s Windtricity program.

You can learn more about City Public Service’s Windtricity program on their website.

But it sure felt good to vote for Obama/Biden and the dream of a stronger, more positive and more united United States of America again.

Realize not everyone has the same agendas as I do but thought I’d share these since they’re among some of the resources available to see where candidates stand on various issues.

• League of Conservation Voters - grades serving politicians by how they vote regarding environmental issues/energy issues/etc:
  http://www.lcv.org/scorecard/
  (Search by state; not surprisingly, most everyone running in Texas has a very LOW environmental score, but some are good)
• Wikipedia section on Future election candidates – will have to search page for names from our ballot but useful for high level overview of each candidate
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Future_election_candidates
• League of Women Voters – grades serving politicians on a BROAD range of issues (not just women’s health issues, equal pay, etc. ALL issues incl. immigration, energy, etc.)
  http://www.lwv.org/Election2008/index.html
• Sportsmen & Animal Owner’s Voting Alliance (SAOVA) – Their site design sucks so you will have to scroll to below their left nav to see any of their content. Anyway, I look at who these people support not to see who I will vote for but who these folks are just in love with. The organization feels it necessary to oppose animal rights issues across the board, calling it the “AR Threat” and lumping the ASPCA and Humane Society of the USA with PETA (whom I loathe, just in case this isn’t clear) as the same type of “animal rightist group”.
  Not surprisingly, they endorse McCain/Palin (surprise — her type of hunting includes “hunting” wolves by helicopter. Not my type of sportsmanlike behavior. Shiver in a blind like a real hunter, or learn to track animals.)
  http://saova.org/2008endorse.html — you can see where TX elections fall as well. Remember, to them, “animal rightist” means you even support the ASPCA and Humane Society.
• NRA traditionally always supports Republican candidates and this year’s no different. It’s Texas. We all love our guns. Seriously don’t think we’ve EVER had a candidate in U.S. Presidency that wants to ban all guns. We should figure out what’s up with all the school shootings, though, no? Or do teenagers have gun rights, too?
  http://www.nraila.org/
• T. Boone Pickens?
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Boone_Pickens
  He was a huge supporter of G.W. Bush & the Republican party so I pay special attention when he talks because if he’s swung away from Bush & Co. I find that notable. Unfortunately, he’s opted out of endorsing anyone this election cycle and is instead calling on WHOMEVER wins to get their a** in gear regarding U.S. energy dependence/usage/supply. I wish he at least had a PAC that endorsed candidates as it would be telling, given he’s actually putting his money where their mouths are — “We need to harness ALL types of energy, not just oil, and do so now.” It’s what even the staunchest Republicans are saying (hence, “drill, baby, drill” in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, etc.) but I suspect he’d disagree with many. For one thing, he thinks as I do, that we cannot “drill our way out” of our dependence on foreign oil.

One last thing — depending on your position on the $700 billion bailout/rescue bill (remember, they went through two rounds on it so there were 2 votes) — you might also want to do a Google search to see who voted for and against the bill(s). I haven’t gotten around to that yet and I’m on the fence on what that would really tell me. We should have left the voting on that up to the astronauts & cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station because it seems like one needs *that* high level of a view of our economy to really determine what good, or ill, that bill will actually have. Obviously, short-term, it seems better than worse but it’s a hell of a lot of money at a time when a lot of other things (our infrastructure, healthcare, Social Security, the military and, not the least of which, the American people) need a hell of a lot of money, too.

I urge everyone to watch at least a couple of the U.S. Presidential (and the only Vice Presidential) debates leading up to the election. CSPAN’s Debate Hub and CSPAN’s YouTube channel are terrific sources.

CSPAN’s Debate Hub is especially handy, providing videos broken out by question and full information on the dates and locations of each debate as well as carrying the debates LIVE as they occur. The next and final U.S. Presidential Debate for this election is at 9 PM ET on October 15, 2008, in Hempstead, New York, and you can watch it live on CSPAN’s Debate Hub at this URL (bookmark it for viewing on debate night): http://debatehub.c-span.org/index.php/debate-4/