This may not seem like much at first blush. The use of energy saving devices in and around the home is commonplace. But governments have been slow to adopt energy and water savings targets as part of new home building standards. A state regulatory agency has now finally acknowledged the need to explicitly require energy efficiency in new homes.

Influential real estate development groups lobby state governments heavily, and California is no exception. However many developers support green building standards in part because it helps boost their credentials as responsible public citizens. Perhaps standards which require fire resistant new homes in heavily forested areas will be the next step in selling this public interest first approach.

Unregulated Market: Tinderbox Homes
Real estate developers looking to make a quick buck in an unregulated market build new homes using the cheapest materials available. Then they market these homes as rustic log cabins in the country. After a firestorm blows through, homeowners are left with broken dreams and piles of smoldering rubble.

Incentive Driven Market: Fire Proof Homes
States should offer tax incentives to builders who use fire resistant materials in roofs and walls of new homes. Maintaining clear defensible space around homes in fire prone areas is still only a recommendation. Allowing unscrupulous builders to prey on unsuspecting customers hurts taxpayers and reputable real estate developers alike. It’s time to expect new homes built in the wilderness to withstand most wildfires.

Commuting daily from an outlying community into downtown will test anyone’s patience. Traffic crawls along at a snail’s pace. Parking is expensive. And with sky high fuel prices, every extra mile behind the wheel pinches the budget a little more. All of these obstacles are making mass transit an attractive option for a growing number of workers.

It makes sense to have parking structures and transit centers along the freeways out in the suburbs. Trains and buses can efficiently transport several people at once. Trains often run on electricity and buses on natural gas, so these vehicles generate less pollution.

Alternative fuel filling stations cost a lot to build right now. But buses make strong candidates for alternative fuels because they follow the same daily route and can refuel at the same pump every night.

GM, Honda and BMW have all begun selling hydrogen powered cars to a few well heeled customers in southern California. Large suburban transit centers would be ideal locations for hydrogen refueling stations. It would allow commuters to drive their hydrogen powered vehicles to the train station every day and fill up on the way home, thereby substantially reducing air pollution from automobile emissions. Welcome the future.

mass transit, trains, buses, hydrogen powered vehicles

Woodrow Wilson – Empire dreams
Like Bush, Wilson never accepted responsibility for the failings of his administration, but instead blamed his political opponents in Congress for hurting the country by blocking his initiatives. Woodrow Wilson had an expansive view of US influence in the world and would have understood the sentiment behind Bush’s plan to create a “beacon of hope” through democracy in Iraq. Wilson’s grandiose plans were never realized. The beacon in Iraq is still a little dim.

Herbert Hoover – Poor get poorer
Bush’s philosophy on government closely resembles President Hoover’s hands off approach to regulating industry. The disparity between rich and poor is greater now than at any time since the Hoover years. Isn’t that what got Louis XVI into trouble?

James Buchanan – Fiddling while Rome burns
The original bubble boy, President Buchanan managed to anger both northern and southern politicians prior to the countries descent into civil war. Rather than aggressively respond to South Carolina’s secession from the United States, Buchanan argued that the Constitution did not allow the federal government to coerce a state into submission.

In the last months of his presidency, Buchanan retreated to his country home and left a broken nation behind for his successor to deal with. Buchanan was followed in office by a lanky lawyer from Illinois.

George W. Bush, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, James Buchanan

When a country selects its political leaders through legitimate elections, other countries must deal with whomever the citizens choose. In the long run this is preferable to totalitarian governments, where power only transfers from one group to another through violence. If all political organizations in a country agree to peaceful exchanges of power based on elections, it indicates that the nation is ready for long term political stability.

Bolivia
President Evo Morales has encountered a bit of headwind in his sail towards political reform in Bolivia. Over half of Bolivia’s regional governors have rejected a vote on whether they should stay in office and instead are calling for early general elections.

Last week Tarija became the fourth province to vote for greater independence from the central government. The war of words seems likely to continue for a while. At least these skirmishes are decided by results from the ballot box.

Kosovo
In a similar rebuke of national solidarity, Kosovo’s minority Serbs have assembled their own parliament in the northern town of Mitrovica, rather than assent to the terms of Kosovo’s new constitution. It may be hard to envision how this separate parliament will govern effectively, but it’s easy to see that plenty of animosity remains in this part of Europe.

Democracy, Bolivia, Evo Morales, Kosovo

Kurdistan, Iran and Turkey
No group has embraced the new reality of Iraq more than the Kurds. Residents living in and around Erbil enjoy a relatively peaceful, modern life in what they call Iraqi Kurdistan. Unfortunately, the behavior of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has alarmed the neighbors.

A top Turkish general recently confirmed that his forces are coordinating their attacks on Kurdish rebels with the Iranians. Saddam Hussein’s iron fist impeded Kurdish ambitions to create an independent state carved out of northern Iraq, southern Turkey and western Iran. The power vacuum left by Hussein’s removal opened the door to new battles over these disputed territories.

Turkey, Syria and Israel
Ongoing fighting with the Kurds hasn’t left Turkey entirely preoccupied. Turkey is also hosting a series of peace talks between Israel and Syria. Syria serves as a conduit for Iranian aid to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. An enforceable peace treaty with Syria therefore would reduce Iranian influence in the region and help stabilize Israel’s northern border.

The Bush administration rejects any diplomatic contact with Syria, which they accuse of supporting terrorists in Iraq. That’s why Israel turned to Turkey, a friendly, majority Muslim country in the region.

Israel, Iran and Lebanon
Israel hopes that a peace agreement with Syria will also bring them closer to a lasting truce with Hezbollah, which now exercises veto power over the government of Lebanon, and Hamas, which runs part of the Palestinian territories. The Bush administration opposes all talks with Hezbollah and Hamas because it considers them terrorist organizations.

Hamas and Hezbollah came to power through elections. Essentially the Bush administration wants to spread democracy throughout the middle east, but voters may only elect politicians friendly to the United States – or else. The president’s point of view is preposterous, and everyone knows it. The US needs a president who can handle reality.

Kurdistan, Turkey Iran, Syria, Israel, Iran

King Henry VIII had the Tower of London. Nikita Khrushchev had the Gulags of Siberia. Guantanamo Bay seems to be George Bush’s barbaric detention center of choice.

During previous conflicts, US troops near the front lines took the lead in processing battlefield detainees. But as with every other military precedent, the Bush team figured they knew a better way. So detainees rounded up in 2002-2003 were shipped off to secret prisons around the world. Many of these men ended up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Bush administration spinmeisters then came up with the term “illegal enemy combatants” to describe fighters captured in Afghanistan, as though these prisoners were completely different from any other soldiers seized by American forces in the past. Here again the president employed misleading rhetoric designed to keep Americans from learning the truth about his legally and ethically questionable decisions.

The Geneva Conventions apply to enemy soldiers captured by US forces on the battlefield. According to this international treaty signed by the United States, prisoners must be humanely treated, and must at all times be protected “against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.”

The Bush administration’s relentless drive to bypass co-equal branches of government has left the Guantanamo detainees in legal limbo for six years. The Supreme Court recently blocked the president’s latest power grab by ruling that the Guantanamo Bay prisoners indeed have the right to challenge the legality of their detention in Federal Court.

Respect is a two way street. George Bush has shown no respect for international law, for the US Constitution or for those who disagree with him. That’s why so many people have lost respect for his presidency.

Guantanamo Bay, George W. Bush, Bush Administration, Prisoners of War, Enemy Combatants, Geneva Conventions

NBA Commissioner David Stern has blithely suggested that Donaghy would say anything to stay out of jail. That’s true. Donaghy would probably even be willing to spill the beans and tell everything he knows about dirty backroom deals in order to avoid prison. Lying under oath about this conspiracy will expose Donaghy to perjury charges. That would result in more jail time, not less. Donaghy is motivated to come clean.

Jose Canseco was intensely criticized for naming names in Juiced, his book about the Major League Baseball steroid scandal of the 1990s. Everyone called Canseco a liar. It turns out that virtually every one of the players he identified has now admitted to using steroids or human growth hormones.

Even if Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals wasn’t fixed, NBA officiating tends to alternate between horrendous and baffling, depending on the game. According to the rules, players must keep one foot planted when they have the basketball and are not dribbling. In the NBA, superstars tuck the ball under one elbow and take three extra steps on the way to the hoop. They pivot with the right foot when they can’t get a good shot off after four pivots with the left foot. And spot up shooters usually take a two foot hop before launching a three pointer. Traveling is now subjective in the NBA, like all the other rules. What ever happened to the game of basketball?

Bored with News and Politics? Have a look at these Celebrity Fashions, or check out these Trashy Celebs.

NBA, David Stern, Tim Donaghy

When did history get to be so melodramatic?

Obama doesn’t have much time
Yes, yes, the democratic nominee has a mere five months to tell Americans about his plans for the country. With only a few hundred million in the bank, he’ll need to spend carefully. And the networks will never cover an improbable story like the first black presidential nominee of a major US political party.

Let’s remember, most households now have fewer than five working televisions, three internet connections, a couple of cellular phones, one blackberry and a boombox out in the garage. So Americans have a limited capacity to acquire information as well.

He’s under pressure to pick Hillary
Senator Obama is under pressure to win. A strong running mate helps, so his staff will assemble a bunch of advisers in a room. He’ll get to see charts, read polls and hear competing opinions. If a certain Senator from New York ends up on the top of his wish list, Hillary will receive a phone call.

It has to be devastating
The 3,000 Continental Airlines workers headed for the unemployment line may be a little late with their sympathy cards to disappointed presidential contenders. Several commander in chief applicants have interviewed well, but there’s only one position available at this time. All of the candidates are free to apply again in four years.

Obama, presidential election

If another country has a nuclear bomb which they intend to detonate inside the United States, then the president should warn the American people about that forthrightly. These words would be appropriate: “the United States government believes that country XYZ has an atomic weapon which they will soon use in an attack against us.”

Americans have no reason to oppose the president’s legitimate attempts to protect the country. But that’s not how things played out during the run up to the war in 2002 and 2003. Instead some pollster came up with a clever turn of words and Mr. Bush used them to toss us in the spin cycle.

October 7, 2002: “Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”

January 28, 2003: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

Insincerity is not appropriate when the elected president of the most powerful nation in the world sets out to identify the most serious threats known to mankind. Effective leaders recognize when candor is absolutely essential. It’s disheartening to realize that our president places partisan politics above all else, including the personal safety of American and Iraqi citizens.

George Bush, mushroom cloud, smoking gun

In his new book, What Happened, Mr. McClellan makes it clear that he now considers the War in Iraq a serious strategic blunder:

“As I have heard Bush say, only a wartime president is likely to achieve greatness, in part because the upheavals of war provide the opportunity for the transformative change that he hoped to achieve. In Iraq, Bush saw his opportunity to create a legacy of greatness.

I do not know how the war will be viewed decades from now. What I do know is that war should be waged only when necessary and the Iraq war was not necessary. Waging an unnecessary war is a grave mistake. But I’ve come to believe that an even more fundamental mistake was made - a decision to turn away from candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed.

In the autumn of 2002 Bush and his White House engaged in a carefully orchestrated campaign to shape and manipulate sources of public approval to our advantage.”

Iraqi Nuclear Threat Vastly Overstated
The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945 killed around 70,000 people, many of them instantaneously. A second nuclear device which the US detonated over Nagasaki, Japan shortly thereafter resulted in similar casualty figures. These events brought an end to World War II and changed the planet forever.

No chemical or biological weapon has ever approached the destructive capacity of an atomic bomb. By lumping nuclear weapons in with chemical and biological weapons, American politicians have purposely misled the public for partisan political reasons.

WMD Propaganda
The phrase “Weapons of Mass Destruction” is a product of the Bush-Cheney propaganda machine. Scott McClellan described it like this: “the administration chose a different path - not employing out-and-out deception but shading the truth; downplaying the reason for going to war; trying to make the weapons of mass destruction threat and the Iraqi connection to terrorism appear just a little more certain than they were; quietly disregarding some of the crucial caveats in the intelligence and minimizing evidence that pointed in the opposite direction.”

“They also encouraged Americans to believe as fact some things that were unclear and possibly false (for example, that Saddam had an active nuclear weapons program) and other things that were overplayed or wrong (for example, that Saddam might have had an operational relationship with Al-Qaeda).”

Iraq had no atomic bomb and no capacity to build one when the United States invaded in 2003. George W. Bush promised to restore honesty and integrity to the office when he became president seven years ago. Instead he led the country into war based on false pretenses. The United States can’t afford such recklessness from its commander in chief.

Scott McClellan, WMD