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Skunks Flunk Arlington

post from TheGreenMiles.net on 11 May 2008 02:21:00 PM. © TheGreenMiles.net

An odd question makes the front page of today's Washington Post. Are there any skunks left in Arlington?

"We're 40 percent paved over, so there's not much nature left," he said, shrugging. With a growing population of 200,000, the 26-square-mile county might be reaching a "critical mass" of dense urban landscape, [Arlington County naturalist Greg Zell] said, where even the hardiest wild survivors, such as skunks, can no longer make it.

[Earl] Hodnett, a wildlife biologist in Fairfax County, which has a healthy skunk population, says he has a hard time believing the animals have disappeared from Arlington. "It would really raise questions about our own quality of life," he said. "If a skunk can't make it here, how are we doing?" [...]

Zell has mapped all the green spaces in the county, the largest of which is Arlington National Cemetery. What shows up looks like the disjointed pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. "Nothing is connected," he said. "The natural open space that's left is all isolated. Like little islands." Maybe that's why there might be no more skunks, he said. The islands are small. And it's dangerous to move between them.

To connect the pieces of the puzzle, the National Wildlife Federation has created the Backyard Wildlife Habitat program, helping people make their properties friendlier to birds and animals. Thanks to the efforts of Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment, Arlington was one of the first places in the country to be certified as a Community Wildlife Habitat.

But while Arlington is home to deer, raccoons, foxes, snakes, hawks and other critters, apparently skunks haven't been able to put down roots here.

How concerned should Arlingtonians be? It's never a good thing when our community is no longer hospitable to a native resident. But is there something Arlington should be doing differently? We already protect open spaces and have a terrific parks system. Issues like lowering our carbon footprint, protecting streams and improving public transportation are still the big environmental priorities.

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http://thegreenmiles.blogspot.com/2008/05/skunks-flunk-arlington.html

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Hunger Pains

post from Lyle Lahey on 11 May 2008 02:21:00 PM. © Lyle Lahey

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http://lylelahey.blogspot.com/2008/05/hunger-pains.html

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Americans Drive A Lot

post from Moue Magazine on 11 May 2008 02:19:47 PM. © Moue Magazine

Via Krugman:Americans only make 11% of our trips outside of an automobile. Much of that may be habit and/or the fact that driving (especially in a quality vehicle) is seen as part of the “American experience”. But the lack of a viable[...]

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http://mouemagazine.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/americans-drive-a-lot/

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Midday Open Thread

post from Daily Kos on 11 May 2008 02:15:46 PM. © Daily Kos

In case you missed it, Jenna Bush was married to Henry Chase Hager yesterday on the Crawford ranch. A lovely Texas ceremony by all accounts, and the NYT notes:

On Saturday afternoon, the Hager family hosted wedding guests at a barbecue in Salado. The wedding, which began at 7:30 p.m., took place on the Bush ranch, before a white limestone altar erected next to a man-made lake. The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston officiated at the ceremony. Mr. Caldwell, a longtime religious adviser to Mr. Bush, has endorsed Senator Barack Obama.

The battle between the IRS and churches may be heating up as churches with a political bent seek to challenge the tax exemption laws.

A conservative legal-advocacy group is enlisting ministers to use their pulpits to preach about election candidates this September, defying a tax law that bars churches from engaging in politics.

Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., nonprofit, is hoping at least one sermon will prompt the Internal Revenue Service to investigate, sparking a court battle that could get the tax provision declared unconstitutional. Alliance lawyers represent churches in disputes with the IRS over alleged partisan activity.

The action marks the latest attempt by a conservative organization to help clergy harness their congregations to sway elections. The protest is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 28, a little more than a month before the general election, in a year when religious concerns and preachers have been a regular part of the political debate.

The US Military has court-martialled an Iraqi-American working as a translator for the US in Iraq.

In 2006, Congress gave the military authority to prosecute crimes allegedly committed by civilians working for the armed forces.

Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, referred the case, the military said in a statement.

"This is the first time a civilian will be tried by court-martial" under the 2006 amendment, it said.

Cokie Roberts was on This Week with George Stephanopolous - as usual - but this week she was saying how unfair the media has been to Hillary, calling for her to drop-out and that it surely must be for sexist reasons. Then she muttered something to the effect of "and I don't even read the blogs, I can't even begin to imagine what they're saying." Link to the video. Oh--- how awful it must be to have to suffer through the voice of actual voters, Cokie. I've got news for you sweetheart -- it can't be any harder than listening to you and George Will bloviate on and on, all the while feeding each other's smug sense of entitlement on an otherwise pleasant Sunday morning.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Kossack mothers and grandmothers. Enjoy the day.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/288161786/981

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Happy Mother’s Day

post from Kmareka.com on 11 May 2008 02:03:00 PM. © Kmareka.com

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http://kmareka.com/?p=1826

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Shadow Elites And Religion--Part 2: Sun Myung
Moon

post from Open Left - Front Page on 11 May 2008 02:01:38 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

Part 1 here.In 1995, Jerry Falwell was on the brink of financial ruin, $73 million in debt, when he[...]

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenLeft-FrontPage/~3/288185111/showDiary.do

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The Bush administration tries to block Mad Cow
testing by Meat packers

post from Crooks and Liars on 11 May 2008 02:00:37 PM. © Crooks and Liars

This is a very interesting battle: The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority. The government seeks to reverse a lower court ruling that allowed Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/11/the-bush-administration-tries-to-block-m
ad-cow-testing-by-meat-packers/

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Chicago Politics as Usual

post from Taylor Marsh on 11 May 2008 02:00:00 PM. © Taylor Marsh

guest post by TexasDarlinBarack Obama, as it turns out, is just another old-school politician in the finest quid-pro-quo Chicago tradition.Although Obama has worked tirelessly to promote the image of himself as a 21st Century leader "dedicated to[...]

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http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=27654

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Harry Reid is planning on holding hearings on the
Military Analyst story

I’ve been posting like crazy about the latest media/military propaganda scam that the NY Times broke a few weeks ago. You know, the one about the paid military generals-turned-analysts that the networks used to deceive the American public with so the Iraq war was such an easy sell. Since then we’ve found out [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/11/harry-reid-is-planning-on-holding-hearin
gs-on-the-military-analyst-story/

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Blunt: McCain ‘Would Be’ A Third Bush
Term On Economy, ‘And I Think That’s A Good Thing’

On CNN’s Late Edition today, former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) claimed that the argument that John McCain would, in effect, be a third Bush term “isn’t going to stick”:

BLITZER: [Obama] says he welcomes a debate with John McCain on the issue of the economy, taxes, spending policy because John McCain would simply be more George W. Bush. … Does John McCain want to continue what Obama called the failed policies of the Bush administration?
ROMNEY: Well I think you’re going to hear that time and again, Wolf, throughout the campaign season. And I just don’t think it’s going to stick.

But earlier on the same program, a leading McCain surrogate — Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) — conceded that McCain is indeed promising a third Bush term on the economy:

BLITZER: So it would be in effect a third Bush term when it came to pro-growth tax policies?
BLUNT: It would be. I think it would be. And I think that’s a good thing.

Watch a compilation:

video details and more

Romney may not have gotten the memo, but it’s nice to see Blunt conceding the point. McCain is promising more of Bush’s economic agenda — unaffordable massive tax cuts for the rich that offer no help for the average family.

The McCain economic agenda includes: $1.7 trillion tax cut for corporations, $300 billion a year in tax cuts that aren’t paid for, and a plan that delivers 58 percent of the benefits to the top 1 percent of taxpayers and only 9 percent to the bottom 80 percent.

All this coming from a man who once said he “cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us.”

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/11/blunt-v-romney-on-3rd-bush-term/

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