Tuesday, July 25, 2006

15 School Districts Try Out New Hybrid Buses

Districts in New York, California, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Iowa and Washington will be the first states in the nation to receive hybrid school buses as part of the Plug-In Hybrid ElectricSchool Bus Project.

AISD (Austin Independent School District) and Killeen Independent School District will each receive 1 bus as part of an on-going program to improve fuel effeciency and protect the environment.

From the Enova Systems press release:
After issuing nationwide Request for Proposals (RFPs) for hybrid school buses in June 2006, Advanced Energy announced today at the 13th Annual School Transportation News Expo that IC Corporation, the nation's largest school bus manufacturer, won the bid and will provide up to 19 hybrid school buses to those 11 states.

"This project provides operational benefits to school districts,while also providing the reduced emissions desired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a valuable return on investment to school boards," said Ewan Pritchard, P.E., Advanced Energy's hybrid program manager. "This bid award is the result of several years of collaborative effort among manufacturers, school districts and government agencies to change the school bus market."

Advanced Energy is a Raleigh-based non-profit corporation that enables utility customers to improve returns on their energy investments. The corporation also strives to create environmental, economic and societal benefits through innovative and market-based approaches to energy. The Hybrid Electric School Bus Project represents a collaborative effort among many parties to improve the nation's air quality. The project has demonstrated that industry, government and non-profits can successfully work together to improvethe environment and encourage the economy.



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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

How welfare reform changed America

A decade since welfare reform, the worst fears of those who opposed it haven't materialized. Thousands of poor children did not wind up "sleeping on grates," as senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted. Nearly 70% of all single women are working and incomes have risen. Child poverty rates have dropped and teen pregnancies are down.

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Sunday, July 16, 2006

Hate Thy Neighbor

Understanding the new and lethal logic of violence in the Middle East--and what the world can do to find peace

By Lisa Meyer for TIME Magazine - Jerusalem

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Stop Fighting and Start Talking

I'm really upset by the violence in the world today. It is bad enough to be constantly bombarded by stories of American soldiers dying in Iraq every day in an unjustified and poorly planned invasion. The current conflict in Lebanon and Israel is pushing me over the edge. What I will never be able to understand is how anyone thinks violence is the solution to any problem, including the three stooges (Bush, Rummy, and Condi).

Imagine if Dubya smacked Laura around when she disagreed with him. Would he be hailed as a strong leader demonstrating the power of his convictions or a cowardly spouse abuser resorting to violence? What's the difference in smacking your wife around and bombing and sending in military troops instead of negotiating diplomatically?

I know it's a popular position to side with Israel, but I can't get past the fact that more innocent civilians on both sides are adversely affected than the supposed terrorists who are targeted. I have friends who are Jewish and Arab and the inherent hatred on the basis of heritage and/or religion is not only ignorant, it's repulsive. It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend from Lebanon who met a beautiful girl. They talked for a long time and he really liked her, then instantly lost interest when he found out she was from Israel. It makes no sense.

I equate this current conflict with the problem we have here in the United States with gang violence. Some gang members and former gang members acheive mainstream success and status, give back to the community and are applauded for their efforts in the same way as Hizbollah and Hamas. Imagine if the city of Los Angeles decided to eliminate the gangs and the city, county, and/or state response was to begin a bombing campaign to isolate and bring down the gang leaders. Would we stand idly by and allow our president to say they are free to defend themselves by whatever means necessary?

If the citizens of this world continue to allow hatred, prejudice, and discrimination on the basis of color, heritage, religion, or country of origin to prevail as an accepted premise we are destined to destroy ourselves. While I recognize there will always be ignorant elements in every society, those of us who strive for understanding and acceptance of cultural differences need to become more vocal. We need to drown out the voices among us whose goal is division and come together to celebrate our differences and recognize the common bonds of humanity. Without acceptance, there will never be peace.

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Playing for water

PlayPump is a children's merry-go-round/roundabout attached to a water pump and water storage tank, that provides clean drinking water to children and families in rural Africa.

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Convert or Buy New E85

U.S. based Farm Industry News comparison of the benefits of buying a new flex-fuel vehicle or converting your existing one.

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Saturday, July 15, 2006

Small Pennsylvania city bans illegal immigrants

The City Council of Hazelton approved a law Thursday night designed to make this small city in northeastern Pennsylvania among the most hostile places in the U.S. for illegal immigrants to live or work.

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Thursday, July 13, 2006

Loyalty Trumps Incompetence, Incompetence Trumps ... Anyone?

The war. 9-11. The only things they have in common are the incompetent responses by Bush and his neo-con advisors. Condoleezza Rice said no one could have anticipated planes flying into buildings and Donald Rumsfeld said no one could have anticipated the insurgency in Iraq.

Really? Maybe Condi didn't read the Presidential Daily Briefing she gave on August 6, 2001 ...1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.


I'm sure they missed this, too, from The Indian Express October 19, 1999 Osama bin Laden's reported announcement of jihad against the US and India and his concomitant call to all the Kashmir militant groups to fight together against these countries has provoked fears concerning his ability to execute terrorist acts in Kashmir. The pertinent issue would be to assess the links that Bin Laden has with the militant groups operating in Kashmir.

And maybe they missed this also from August 23, 2001 on CNN Pakistan has been wracked by years of bitter fighting between militant Sunni and Shiite Muslims belonging to several organizations.

I could keep researching until I fill the entire page with documentation, but it's pretty clear they were following their own agenda instead of identifying potential threats. I also realize I have the benefit of hind-sight to search for stories, but didn't anyone in the White House see a pattern emerging? Isn't that someone's job?

Even worse, what is being overlooked right now? This administration can keep spinning the reason for starting this war, but how could they be so blatantly arrogant to believe there is any way to defeat someone who thinks dying for jihad is the ultimate reward? I have a hard time understanding how anyone with any knowledge of middle eastern customs and religions could advocate our involvement in this fiasco. It's also hard to understand how anyone can claim to feel more secure with the three stooges - Bush, Rumsfeld, and Rice - in charge.

I'm truly baffled when I see people urging Condoleezza Rice to run for president. Don't they recognize her incompetence as national security advisor is what caused 9-11? Bush, in his infinite wisdom, chose not to fire her, but promoted her instead. We know now how rewarding loyalty at the expense of competency turned out. Now that she's out of the country most of the time I do feel more secure. I just hope Americans will take off their blinders and objectively look at what's going on. We can't keep following this course.

I've heard the analogy "you don't switch horses mid-race", but if your horse is going in the wrong direction, you probably want to do something to turn it around. If that means getting off, then so be it, but you don't keep going when you know you're about to crash. It's common sense.

Sources:
The Indian Express October 19, 1999
Presidential Daily Briefing August 6, 2001
CNN August 23, 2001

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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Karl Rove Heckled During Speech

Karl Rove drew scattered boos when he highlighted Bush ’s recent approval of $1.9 billion in funding for more border security, including deployment of National Guard troops, and was disrupted twice by hecklers who unfurled antiwar and anti-Bush banners.

Karl may be starting to realize that some Americans are getting wise to his tricks. Energizing the base ain't as easy as it used to be. He can't just toss up gay marraige and flag burning and expect them to turn out.

Today he must have realized that "Latinos" aren't stupid either and they're on to him. It's one thing to talk about things you believe in and are passionate about, but apparantly no one was interested in or related to his Norwegian roots. His flagrant grasp to find anything in common with his audience was blatantly obvious.

I also heard Dennis Hastert on MSNBC saying he believes the Republicans will actually pick up a few seats on November because the war is going so well. What is this guy smoking? I need some, because although I'm occasionally a little ditzy, I'm never THAT delusional.

You guys "under the Republican tent" need to realize the rest of us are looking for change. We want something to get accomplished with our tax dollars. We want the partisan bickering to stop and have you start voting the way your constituents want you to, not just blindly tow the party line. We're tired of it and if you are an incubent with an expiring term in November (Democrat or Republican), you may want to start packing.

We don't want Democrats and Republicans, we want representation.

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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Web 2.0 and What it Means to You

I've been working on a website and it made me start thinking about internet "buzzwords". Everyone in the design and coding community is talking about "web 2.0", but the end users of websites don't know what that means and probably don't care. I subscribe to several design related newsletters, each one with slightly different interpretations of what works in terms of design, marketing, page rank and search engine optimization (seo), etc.

I have a background in design, not computer related design, I learned that on my own because it wasn't available when I was in college. I actually studied art and believe design principles (balance, proportion, rhythm, emphasis, unity) apply to any media including the computer screen.

I've read several articles lately about poorly designed websites such as craiglist and myspace that are popular, the implication being that design doesn't matter. I disagree. The underlying application framework on those sites works, therefore the functionality and usability is what makes them popular. I would also disagree that the myspace core pages are ugly, they're basic, but not ugly. Myspace becomes ugly and loses functionality because the users' pages look bad and they don't know how to integrate the applications (video and music players).

Some of the technologies of "web 2.0" sites have been used for years and are suddenly being recognized as an intrensic component of a well built site. (I also say building databases and constructing legislation, so for anyone getting bogged down by semantics, just deal with it.) The explosion of blogs is a good example of 2.0 and has created a new method of marketing for business websites allowing fresh content to be syndicated and embeded into other websites complete with branding from the originating site. This is especially important for business website seo because the link gets counted from each of the syndicating sites, while the summary gets broadcast on all the blogosphere sites (like Technorati and del.icio.us) you have set up to ping.

If this all sounds a little technical and your eyes are starting to cross, have no fear. I'll move on to one of my personal pet peeves about websites, and unfortunately it's one of the things a lot of potential clients say they absolutely "need" on their website: proprietary applications like Flash, Java, or Windows media player. I cringe every time someone says they want a Flash site or at least a Flash intro. Why? It's not that I don't like Flash sites or have anything against Macromedia. It's because when I go to one of those Flash intro sites I immediately look for the "skip intro" button. I know I'm not the only one because that button wasn't put there just in case I visited the site. Most people skip the intro, so why do you want to pay someone to make it for you?

Even more annoying is when I go to a site and get a message that I need to update my Flash player to be able to even see what's there. Sometimes I decide I want to see your site after I've updated the player, sometimes I decide I've already wasted enough time and should get back to work and never go back. As far as Windows media player, well, you may have noticed in the sidebar it says there is no Microsoft software on my computer and that's a decision Microsoft made, not me. You see, I don't use Windows operating system, I use Linux. Microsoft will not make any of it's products compatible with Linux, so when you put any of their proprietary embeds on your website, you are excluding people like me.

Once again, I don't dislike Microsoft per se, what I didn't like when I did use Windows was viruses, crashes, rebooting all the time, security patches, external firewall software, etc. You know, all the things you probably do all the time because you think you have to. The fact is, Microsoft will not make applications available for Linux because a lot of programmers use Linux and they might rewrite the code, improve it (gasp!), and release it as open source. And, my computer hasn't crashed since I started using Linux except when I f'ed with the kernel and had to re-install the original kernel.

I'm sure some people at Microsoft think Linux users are freeloaders because we all use free open source software and that's why they won't make their apps usable for us. The fact is I've bought plenty of software and most of it hasn't done exactly what I needed and I ended up finding something similar in open source and making it do what I needed. The beauty of open source is that there are a lot of smart people willing to tinker around with code and contribute it back to the community. That's why there IS web 2.0.

So basically when you hear the buzzword "web 2.0" you should know it doesn't have anything to do with style, design, or proprietary software. The new internet is based on open source technologies and server-side scripting like php, perl, AJAX, ruby, and python. They are written for use on Linux servers using open source databases like mySQL. And most importantly, they are community driven with some level of user interaction. This could be as simple as a comment box on a blog or the ability to create a page like a wiki or myspace. The "new" internet is something you're already using and you didn't even know it.

Related Articles: What is Web 2.0? Tim O'Reilly 9/30/2005

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What has Dubya Done?

I'm still on my quest to find something Bush accomplished while he was Texas Governor, and I came across another gem written in 1999 by Louis Dubose from the Texas Observer for the Austin Chronicle called "Where Was George?". Apparantly, unbeknownst to those of you who don't live in Texas and don't remember how little we heard or saw of him until he decided to run for president, his lack of planning and/or ability to get something done was a surprise. He started a war, though. No matter how that turns out, his inablilty to properly plan could never have been showcased in a more dangerous way.

I did find a reference to the credit he took for reforming the education system. That reform actually started with Governor Ann Richards and included the introduction of the Texas Lottery to help with funding. After reading several dozen articles written during his first presidential campaign, it seems reporters also had a hard time finding any accomplishments directly attributable to Gov. Bush.

Then press secretary Karen Hughes touted the education angle as well as claiming his record of "setting a positive tone, a constructive tone, that has helped people respect their government. It's in stark contrast to the bitter, partisan divide in Washington, D.C. I think the people of Texas feel their government is responsive, and productive, and I think Governor Bush deserves credit for working with legislators in a spirit of bipartisan cooperation and setting a positive tone."

Okay, so what exactly has he done? Call me crazy, but taking credit for signing a bill constructed, debated and amended by the Legislature isn't really doing anything.

Most of what I've found is a pattern of pandering to corporate interests. Bush's record on the environment is no secret in Texas and it's no surprise to anyone paying attention that the "Clean Skies Initiative" hasn't made the air any cleaner. It does allow corporate interests to continue with business as usual.

That's a pretty good summarization of my current research into Dubya's gubernatorial record: business as usual. Corporations can continue to pollute the environment, hire illegal aliens with no fear of reprisal or penalty, fire Americans in favor of outsourcing to cheap foriegn labor markets AND get a tax credit for doing it.

And, if you're one of the millions of Americans for whom the cost of living has increased while your paycheck hasn't, you must be part of the middle class.

Sources:
Bush's Education Record: Strong Leadership or Just Good Timing? Extra Credit by Kevin Fullerton Austin Chronicle 5-28-99
We Interrupt This Presidential Campaign for the 76th Legislative Session ... Where Was George? by Louis Dubose Austin Chronicle 5-28-99

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Monday, July 10, 2006

Bush's Style Over Substance: A Warning from 1999

Living in Texas and paying a little more attention than the average American to politics, I've been trying to remember anything (just one thing even!) that George Bush accompliched while he was Governor. I found this, published in 1999, from the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics at Saint John's University and the College of Saint Benedict in Collegeville and St. Joseph, Minnesota while searching. The country would have been wise to understand the potential ramifications of a President who is egomaniacal, impulsive, shallow, passes the buck, takes credit for others' accomplishments, and is unable to grasp complex concepts.

Executive Summary: Personality Profile of Texas Governor George W. Bush
INTRODUCTION
The object of the study was to assess the personality of Texas governor George W. Bush and to predict his political performance and leadership effectiveness on the basis of personality traits.

KEY FINDINGS
    Gov. George W. Bush’s personality-based leadership strengths include:
  • the important political skills of charisma and interpersonality, which will enable him to connect with people and retain a following;
  • self-confidence in the face of adversity;
  • an outgoing, gregarious personality that appeals to voters who favor style over substance in an era of prosperity and peace; and
  • an adventurous streak conducive to the cut and thrust of political life.

  • Gov. George W. Bush’s personality-based leadership limitations include:
  • the propensity for a superficial grasp of complex issues;
  • a potential for acting impulsively, without fully appreciating the implications of his decisions or the long-term consequences of his policy initiatives;
  • a risk of failing to keep himself adequately informed; and
  • placing personal connections, friendship, and loyalty over competence in his staffing decisions and appointments.

METHODOLOGY
The Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC) was used to construct the personality profile, based on empirical analysis of biographic materials. The 170 MIDC criteria permit classification of political figures along 12 personality dimensions, or 34 categories. Personality patterns are used to predict presidential performance and leadership style.
Source: Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics Saint John's University and the College of Saint Benedict in Collegeville and St. Joseph, Minnesota


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Saturday, July 01, 2006

My Mad Introspective

I'm still relatively new to blogging and after going back and reading some of my initial posts I realized I sound really mad in most of them. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was really mad when I wrote them. I'm usually pretty laid back, but I have a tendency to analyze (translation: over-analyze) everything, so of course I started trying to figure out why I get so mad at politicians and basically people in general.

I saw something yesterday that helped me sort it out a little, two things actually. The first was a report on CNN about the Supreme Court decision ruling regarding President Bush's attempt to expand his powers to hold detainees in Cuba without regard to the provisions of the Geneva Convention without first going to Congress. The second was a re-broadcast of an April 14, 2003 interview on C-CPAN with former hostage Terry Waite. What do these two seemingly unrelated items have in common? Not much, except that one of the questions after the interview with Mr. Waite specificly addressed the detainees at Guantanamo, to which he expressed his concern about the legality of detainment: "What is the essential difference between the methods deployed by my captors, who were labelled terrorists, and those of the authorities that detain suspects in Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere? They have been detained on suspicion and treated in a way that no civilised nation ought to condone."

More telling was the tone in which he, a British citizen, expressed himself and some comments he made about the international role of religion, the American perspective, and the American perception of religion. I think a lot of Americans seem to have the misplaced belief they are not in charge of themselves or their life, GOD is. The scary thing is that George Bush seems to share that belief. Even scarier is that he seems to think he has some calling to indoctrinate that message not only in this country, but into an area of the world that has been fighting about religion since the beginning of civilization.

After hearing Mr. Waite speak I realized this is strictly an American perspective, not the perspective of religious zealots in general. What struck me most was that even after his confinement, Terry Waite harbors no resentment toward his former captors, rather a grudging respect because he took the time to understand what his status as a hostage meant to them. He didn't take it personally and he didn't give credit to anyone or anything, spiritual or otherwise, except himself and his ability to observe and learn what he could from the situation.

The islamic jihadists will never stop fighting because an "infidel" wants them to. The biggest mistake Bush and his war-profiteering cabinet (Cheney, Rumsfeldt, and Condi) made by starting this war was failing to understand why we were targetted and attacked in the first place. I'm talking about the original war with Afghanistan, the one where some justification may exist for the use of force since without question the Taliban was allowing al Qaeda access and refuge after the Sept. 11 attack, not the other more expensive, more deadly war Bush started because he obviously has a small... Oh! There I go again, judging the man by his actions not his words and obviously with no personal glimpse into his pants. (It's just something a girl can tell, just take a look at Laura: very unsatisfied.)

Back to the point, I have come to the conclusion that my anger is directed at the right wing nut cases who are hijacking the country, the Democrats who can't decide on a cohesive platform, and other Independents (like myself) because everyone is too busy stomping their feet and screaming so no one is being heard. I don't like the "us versus them" attitude of politicians who are fighting with each other on the basis of their political party to the detriment of the American people they are supposed to represent, and I don't like the "us versus them" attitude of Americans who don't take the time to understand other cultures.

I am the first to admit I think most people in America are stupid. I also admit it is mostly due to ignorance because they are uneducated or willing to concede their common sense to the will of god. However, I don't think the lack of a formal education (school, in case you're one of the stupid ones) is a good reason to be uneducated. Public libraries are funded by taxpayers and are freely available for anyone to use. Most universities also allow access to non-students, so the methods for educating yourself are available, limited only by individual desire to learn.

People who don't take the time to educate themselves on the very things on which they are ignorant are the same ones who are complaining about gas prices. President Carter called for conservation of fossil fuels nearly 30 years ago. U.S. automaker and American consumer response? The Hummer - 11 mpg. While every other major consumer economy around the world has focused on conservation, recycling (plastic is made from petroleum), and alternative energy, the U.S. has proceeded as if our economy is somehow immune. Now we are at war, and we dare to complain that our lives have been inconvenienced by high gas prices?

We need to act as if we are at war. We need to conserve natural resources, expand non-fossil fuel sustainable and renewable energy sources, hold elected officials accountable when they react and over react to the news item of the day instead of getting something of substance done, and we need to hold ourselves accountable for our own actions instead of looking for someone else to blame.

That's why I get so mad.

Something to think about:
"I do not believe the world's wrongs will be resolved by warfare or economic dominance by one nation over another. We must grow into a world community where difference can be celebrated rather than seen as divisive. To progress we need people of stature who will be able to demonstrate compassionate wisdom and political acumen that brings hope to those in despair." from Terry Waite's essay in You're History Michelle P. Brown and Richard J. Kelly pub. 2006 Continuum Books

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