Battery Stroll

God Bless Anthony Weiner

Mayoral election do-over!  How could we have not elected previous candidate, current Congressman Anthony Weiner?!  At least there's someone with some degree of sincere passion in the House.  Check out his editorial in today's Times.



Seriously.  I am so frustrated with the Republicans who are blocking every piece of legislation just to be difficult, under the paper-thin excuse of a given health care, energy, finance bill not being perfect/sufficient/etc.  I don't see any of them trying to do anything to solve the real problems the vast majority of Americans face, only securing their big-corporation campaign contributions, creating Fox News soundbites, and making sure the rich stay rich.  No, it really is that simple.  We have to start somewhere, and the GOP and their brilliant subsidiary tea party is the epitome of every reason things aren't getting better.  Or as Weiner puts it:

Instead of engaging in a real debate about how to address the challenges we face, Republicans have turned to obstruction, no matter the issue, and then cry foul after the fact. They claim to want an open legislative process with more consultation and debate, but the truth is they simply don’t want to pass anything.  Meanwhile, conservative television and talk radio programs are full of false anger, intended to scare Americans. I think some genuine frustration at this misleading tactic is overdue.

Can You Feel It?

WHAT.  An earthquake in Canada felt in NYC?!  Nature never ceases to amaze, especially this year.

Check out this awesome form - fill it out if you felt the quake, or even if you didn't:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010xwa7/us/form.en.enabled.html

Boycott BP

I don't have a car so I don't think about this stuff as much, but I really hope those of you who do are boycotting BP and all the BP brands.

BP brands to boycott include Castrol, Arco, Aral, am/pm, Amoco, Wild Bean Cafe, and Safeway gas.

I'm proud to say that I drove around on an empty tank two weeks ago to avoid the Arco station.

In Which the Mayoress Reveals Her Platform

I woke up at 6:30am today, a Sunday, and found myself mentally summarizing my stance on every issue.  I know, what?

So, in the tradition of Sunday morning punditry, Meet the Pressler:

Drill Obama Drill

You guys are going to be surprised on this one, but I support the Obama decision to open up drilling off our coast. Why is it okay to rape other countries but not our own? If we need oil so badly, we have to be willing to step up and self-supply.

On a very related topic, I heard on the radio today that the US Armed Forces are the most fossil fuel-dependent body. Which essentially means the most vulnerable. Go US...A.

You Too Can Create a More Boombastic Environment

Lo and behold, The Mayoress is all busy posting about the environment when right to her inbox flies this gem. (Thanks Adam.) See? Even if your opinion is about hybrid aesthetics or the "greenery" (ahem) of the Caribbean, you can make your voice heard.

In related news, I hear Shaggy has a kickass website in the works created by Brooklyn's newest, hottest marketing firm. Just sayin'.

The Hypocrisy Continues

Remember how much I used to hate Bloomberg? I still do! Continuing today's theme of environmental personal responsibility, check out this report from the Times:

The average New Yorker uses one-half to one-third the electricity of other Americans. Our carbon footprints are just 29 percent of people who live outside the five boroughs, and City Hall has practical plans to reduce even that amount by nearly a third over the next two decades. No wonder that this month, in a talk at the New York Academy of Science, Rohit Aggarwalat, the mayor’s chief adviser on sustainability, said the city was “the most environmentally efficient society in the United States.”

So it makes perfect sense that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is going to Copenhagen on Monday and Tuesday to address the international conference on climate change: his administration is working to head off problems that will not emerge until long after he is gone. A strong case can be made that when it comes to energy and climate issues, Mr. Bloomberg is the most visionary public official in the country.

And a strong argument can also be made that on a personal level, he ranks among the worst individual polluters ever to hold public office.

Mr. Bloomberg owns a helicopter and two jets, both Falcon 900s. He flies everywhere on private jets, by far the least efficient form of transportation on or above the earth. He takes his jet to Bermuda many weekends. He has flown around the globe on it. He uses it to go to Washington. He is planning to get to Copenhagen for the climate conference by private jet, too.

Seriously, you have to see the full article.

Man, I can't stand that guy. If I ever see him in person again I don't even know what I'd do! It's not like he's have to listen to anything I said, because unlike every other single government official in our entire city and state, we don't pay him. So he doesn't work for us. Perhaps he works for the producers of the movie 2012, ensuring all that catastrophe will indeed come to pass by personally destroying the environment. Just sayin'.

But the article is actually about the moral relativism that comes with money. It's easier, the article posits, for me to sit here and point a finger because I can't afford a private jet. I don't know. I'd like to think most of my standards of social responsibility will stay in place as I become more established. Time will tell.

Talk vs Action

Big shout out to all the protesters who took to the streets in Copenhagen to encourage world leaders to act aggressively on climate change.

It's great to have opinions and even convictions, but so much better to DO something. No, you don't have to fly to Copenhagen, but you do have to do something about the issues you care about; I feel very strongly about this. Your something can be big or small, but doing something isn't hard, it feels good, and has the power to affect change.

Environment is the easiest place to make a difference on your own. It's easy and can save you money to:

• Walk or ride a bike or take mass transit instead of driving
  
• Recycle
• Compost
• Use those pretentious reusable bags when you grocery shop
• Buy local
• Buy local organic (not Walmart organic, which still leaves a big carbon footprint)
• Shut off water while you're brushing your teeth
• Are you seriously still buying bottled water? What is this, 1997?
  
• Use energy saving light bulbs (this is a big money saver)
• Unplug stuff when you're not using it (energy is still sucked out even if that appliance isn't in use)
  
• Make sure your next car gets excellent gas mileage (see beyond the marketing - a hybrid SUV is still worse for the environment than a lot of sedans)
• Eat vegetarian once a week
• Flush your toilet less (unless I'm coming over)

Here are a few easy things that take less than 5 minutes and can apply to almost any issue:

• Email an elected official when an issue affects you
• Donate to a nonprofit you believe in
• Put an article link on your Facebook page
  
• Give change to a homeless person on the street
• Sign up to volunteer in your community
• Call someone out when they say something sexist/racist/otherwise setting us back decades
  
• Email your friends/family about your thoughts around an issue
• Read/listen to/watch a reliable news source to get informed about what's going on
• Bookmark Meet the Pressler and read often
  

From environment to health care to human rights, you can make a difference.

Environment Report

So! Today I decided to take my inaugural ride on Jacqueline Mireille, aka my new awesome bike, all the way to work, suckaz. And when I hit the bridge I saw posters everywhere: Ride Your Bike To Work Day, May 15! Wha! I am so on trend without even meaning it.

The Haunting

While all of us were busy counting down the days till the Inaug' and hailing each new cabinet appointee like the announcement of a new HBO series, here's what Bush was doing in his final days (and the Times editorialists' recommendations).

(Next up: we learn all of our '08 taxes will be direct deposited into accounts held by Cheney.)

Health care: One particularly objectionable rule took effect the day President Bush left town. It gives an increased number of medical institutions and a broad range of health care workers the right to refuse to provide abortion referrals, unbiased counseling or emergency contraception, even to rape victims — further restricting women’s rights to health care. The administration should suspend enforcement and craft a new rule.

Gun control: A new rule would end a 25-year ban on carrying loaded weapons in national parks, which are among the safest places in this country. Before that changes, the administration should overturn this rule.

Workers’ rights: Revisions to the federal guest worker program would weaken wage protections and housing standards for temporary agricultural workers, who already have far too few protections.

The environment: The Bush administration worked overtime in its waning days to weaken protections for the air, water and endangered species. Representative Nick Rahall, a Democrat from West Virginia, plans to invoke the Congressional Review Act to overturn an Interior Department ruling that carved out significant exceptions to required scientific reviews of federal projects that could harm threatened or endangered species.

Interior’s last-minute rules also eased restrictions on mining companies that dump waste into rivers and streams; opened two million acres of Western lands to potentially harmful oil shale development; and revoked Congress’s authority to withdraw land from commercial development in emergencies. The Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, relaxed restrictions on water and air pollution from factory farms.