NORMAN SOLOMON: When the U.S. military began a major offensive in southern Afghanistan over the Presidents’ Day weekend, the killing of children and other civilians was predictable. Lofty rhetoric aside, such deaths come with the territory of war and occupation.
USDA Establishes Strong Organic Standards for Pasture, Livestock
MARK KASTEL: After over 10 years of lobbying, family farmers across the country, who produce organic milk, are celebrating the release of strict new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations that establish distinct benchmarks requiring the grazing and pasturing of dairy cows and other livestock.
Nuclear Industry May Not Give Up on Yucca Mountain
STEVE TETREAULT: The nuclear industry’s trade group is signaling it might not go along with the Obama administration’s plan to withdraw from Yucca Mountain and make it difficult, if not impossible, to revive the proposed nuclear waste repository ever again.
Nuclear Power: Still a Bad Idea
RALPH NADER: A generation of Americans has grown up without a single nuclear power plant being brought on line since before the near meltdown of the Three Mile Island structure in 1979. They have not been exposed to the enormous costs, risks and national security dangers associated with their operations and the large amount of radioactive wastes still without a safe, permanent storage place for tens of thousands of years.
Peacebuilding for Conservatives
WINSLOW MYERS: There is big money in polarization, as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and other media kingpins understand all too well. But one of the many tragic by-products of our polarized political culture is the demonization of conservatives by progressives.
Paying Extra for Green Power and Getting Ads Instead
KATE GALBRAITH: The solicitations have been flooding people’s mailboxes lately: pay a bit more on your electricity bill for 100 percent clean wind power. Or, the fliers say, buy “green power certificates†to offset your global warming emissions.