This Week’s Greenwash: Nespresso Composts Jeweled Coffee Grounds

A composting video from Nespresso Ecolaboration TM

We could not resist this beautifully produced and incredibly ironic promotional video for Nespresso’s composting coffee and recyling campaign. That said, Nespresso does make a delicious expresso and brings to light the question of our urge for enhanced experiences and the implications they have for our sustainable planet.

Eco-Savvy Storytellers watching the greening of politics.

Franken Defends Progressive Funding Amendment for Healthcare

In this video, it’s good to see the Progressive Senators Frankin, Sanders and Brown fired up on all cylinders.

Republicans, who have driven the conversation regarding just how the healthcare bill will be payed for, have also pushed for rules that would lay the burden of the costs on moderate to middle income earners receiving employer based health care, presumably in an attempt to inspire public fury to help defeat the bill or to insulate the wealthy from a progressive tax, all the while protecting the escalating profit margins of healthcare insurance providers.

Senator Al Frankin (D-MN), along with Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) are sponsoring an amendment that would remove the 40 per cent excise tax on employer based healthcare insurance currently written into the Senate bill and instead instate a progressive tax, aligning it closer to the House bill.

A letter which the three Progressive Senators are circulating in the Halls states, “While we are in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the last thing the American middle class need right now is a tax on their health benefits.” The letter also said: “99.98% of individuals and 99.92% of families would not see their taxes go up by one dime under the Sanders-Brown-Franken Amendment.”

In an attempt to derail the progressive Senators’ agenda, Senator Thune (R-SouthDakota) had declared that Americans would see no benefits until 2016 while taxes would begin immediately, fueling the image of a bureaucracy unable to deliver. Frankin called out Thune, his “friend from across the aisle” for either not reading the healthcare bill or purposefully misrepresenting facts about when the benefits will begin.

“Let’s have an honest debate, for goodness sakes. Let’s not put up charts that contend one thing that are just not true.” said Frankin. “We are entitled to our own opinions.  But we are not entitled to your own facts.”

The Senators claim their amendment would raise $151 billion over ten years — two billion dollars more than the estimated revenue from the excise tax.

Other healthcare bill fights Progressive Lions are leading include:
Sanders prescription drug importation rights
Frankin on Women’s Reproduction Rights

Eco-Savvy Storytellers watching the greening of politics.

Kucinich Calls for Congress to Seize Back War Powers

Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio has begun circulation of 2 privileged resolutions designed to retract powers lent to the Excutive Branch to fund wars in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Kucinich, a consistent anti-war Democrat, announced the drafting of the resolutions after President Hamid Karzai said his country would need US’s military support for another 15 to 20 years, making the 2011 draw down that President Obama recently proposed impossible.

My bills, which would trigger a timeline for a timely withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan, invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and are intended to secure the Constitutional role of Congress, as directly elected representatives of the people, under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, to decide whether or not America enters into war, continues a war, or otherwise introduces armed forces or material into combat zones.

Despite the president’s assertion that previous congressional action gives him the authority to respond to the attacks of September 11, 2001, a careful reading of the Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) makes cleat that the AUMF did not supersede “any requirement of the War Powers Resolution” and therefore did not undermine Congress’ ability to revisit the constitutional question of war powers at a later date.

Kucinich will be speaking at an anti-war rally in Washington D.D. on December 12 sponsored by EndUSWars.org. Other speakers include Senator Mike Gravel, 2008 Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and World Can’t Wait’s Executive Director Debra Sweet.

Privileged Resolutions PDF
War Powers Act of 2001

Eco-Savvy Storytellers watching the greening of politics.

Climate Talks Hike Carbon Footprint in Copenhagen

The UK Telegraph provides a seriously amusing redux of the first day of the Climate Talks and is well worth a read. Private jets, private cars, a carbon footprint that displays no serious effort to contain itself – these are the earmarks of a great party. However both critics from the Left and Right wrangle with the Cap n’ Trade of this junket. Will there be serious negotiations?

The Obama Administration declared yesterday that, yes – greenhouse gasses including carbon dioxide emissions “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people,” thus empowering the agency to regulate a wide range of CO2-emitting industries under provisions of the Clean Air Act. President Obama intends to drop-in on the Climate Talks after receiving his Nobel Prize in Norway, a photo op which is likely to draw all sorts of praise and criticism.

From Americans for Prosperity

The provided video from Americans For Prosperity, critical of the Climate Talks and its impact on American capitalism, displays the mega-use of private cars carrying delegates while public transportation stands unused. Of course, there is the excuse that delegates must be concerned with security, but the irony is nonetheless delicious.

Eco-Savvy Storytellers watching the greening of politics.

The Story of Cap and Trade

The Story of Stuff meteored to international success and has fueled the next chapter in Annie Leonard’s animated series on the environmental impact of our policies and practices, ” The Story of Cap and Trade.” Ironic and amusing, this animation points a finger at the troubles with using a market-based system to control the amount of carbon emissions we create because, as Leonard says, “there are a lot of devils in the details of the cap n’ trade proposals on the table.”

Future chapters include more animated storytelling on the life cycle of Plastic Bottles and electronics. Check it out on The Story of Stuff website.

Eco-Savvy Storytellers watching the greening of politics.

RFK, Jr. and Ralph Nader on the Economy

Eco-Savvy Storytellers watching the greening of politics.

This Turkey Talks Politics

Turkey That Thinks it’s a Dog from Polidoc on Vimeo.

Here’s a turkey, convinced that it’s a dog. He’d much rather be a part of the political discourse then a main course at dinner. Kent Mesplay of the Green Party talks with his self-sufficient green-leaning Libertarian friend in San Diego about some of the similarities between the two minor parties.

Eco-Savvy Storytellers watching the greening of politics.

Politicians Act as Professional Weather Vanes – It’s Up to Us to Blow the Wind in the Right Direction

David Sirota at Cody’s bookstore in Berkeley, CA June 12, 2008

This piece we shot of David Sirota back in the summer of 2008 continues to address the problems we see swarming the halls of government that affect our lives. We are pulling it out of the archives as a reminder of the work ahead of citizens to pull the reins of government so that it will perform for the people and not the special interests.

Eco-Savvy Storytellers watching the greening of politics.

Evangelicals Undertow Drowning Republican Bastion

This video interview of author Frank Schaeffer by Rachel Maddow is worth a listen to if you want some insight into the Evangelical power hold over the Republican Party.

It was aired back in September in the lead up to the November election. In it, the former Evangelical turned critic Schaeffer describes the cultish undertow drawing the Republican Party away from what many of us call reality into “La-La land.” Schaeffer says he knows of no Republican brave enough to bark down the mad dogs for whom anything good is bad because they seek negative feedback to reinforce their belief that America is being punished for its “sinfulness”.

Eco-Savvy Storytellers watching the greening of politics.

Congressman Cao Breaks from Republican Ranks Even Before Election

Polidoc interviewed Representative Cao (R-LA) on the day of his election last December and snatched a quick interview with him in this video. (this is a revised video from one posted earlier today)

Joseph Cao, Congressional Representative from Louisiana has an independent streak and won’t buckle down to Republican Party rhetoric. As seen in this video on the day of his landmark election in December 2008, this lawyer hopes to represent his community even in areas that aren’t considered Republican today.

On November 7, 2009, Cao, a lawyer and the first Vietnamese Representative in the history of the United States, demonstrated his willingness to break from the Republican Party rhetoric by voting for a landmark healthcare reform bill. While progressives suspect the bill will be a boon to the healthcare industry rather than the reform it had hoped, Cao’s break sharpens points of difference between the teabagging Constitutionalist Party leaning Republicans from more moderate voices who might be willing to consider a different definition of conservative.

Cao, who ran as independent in a previous election, was the first Republican to win this district since Reconstruction. As the Representative of a majority black community, Cao had asked to join the Black Caucus but was denied.

Eco-Savvy Storytellers watching the greening of politics.