Action Point with Cynthia Black 05-18-2008: The Reference Shelf

This week's article and item links:

• POLITICS: NATIONAL: CAMPAIGN 2008: What's McCain have against education benefits for veterans? The "Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act" sounds like the kind of rally-round-the-flag plan that John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all could embrace. Instead, it's become one of the starkest dividing lines between McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, and his likely Democratic opponent.

• ENVIRONMENT: Fighting the False Solution of Nuclear Power: If it's a bill it must be flawed: "Although the word 'nuclear' has been carefully omitted from the bill, it is clear that this is a covert attempt to bolster a failing nuclear power industry in the name of addressing climate change," said Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder. "It's time to focus on real global warming solutions like solar, wind and energy efficiency, not to further fatten the moribund nuclear calf."

• NATIONAL SECURITY AND ENVIRONMENT: From one of my favorite resources, The Mainstream Media Project, this bulletin came across my desk:

  While many news stories focus on the potential threat from Iran in developing nuclear weapons... on Monday, The Washington Post reported that 40 or more nations worldwide have informed the UN that they wish to build nuclear power plants. The fear is this may be the first step in enriching plutonium for weapons... In order to back down from the increasing global momentum towards more nuclear weapons, the U.S. must take an active part in pursuing nuclear nonproliferation.

  So what to do? Interview someone exciting of course! With Dr. Arjun Makhijani we'll show how one of those Obama-electing "egghead" types can get the job of carbon cutting with free-market NON-nuclear technologies done! Now, wouldn't that be a nice change?! You can freely download Arjun's real Dr. Egghead book, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for US Energy HERE.
  

• POLITICS: ELECTIONS AND CAMPAIGNS-- NEW WEB SITE: MAPLight.org: Advanced campaign contribution effect database (hat-tip to Joy Marx-Mendoza):
  

  The site is a database of campaign contributions related to congressional voting and combines three data sets: Bill texts and legislative voting records; Supporting and opposing interests for each bill and Campaign contribution data from the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics. Combining this data makes visible key information that could never before be determined easily. For example: Contributions given by interests supporting and opposing each bill; Average donations given to legislators voting Yes and No on each bill and a Timeline of contributions and votes for each bill, graphically identifying when legislators received large donations before or after their vote.

• MUST READ: Toward A New Washington Consensus: From David Sirota:

  You've probably heard that John McCain once said, "I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues." This line is regularly referenced by Democratic television pundits as evidence that McCain is unprepared to lead the country during arecession. The criticism is certainly valid, but it ignores something more troubling. It's not that politicians like McCain "need to be educated" about economics, as he admitted. It's that they do not comprehend how economics impacts international affairs.

November 16, 2007 IRAN Links

Today's IRAN Links and as usual, without comment.

• Iran more transparent, increases atomic drive: Iran has made important strides toward transparency about its nuclear activities but key questions remain unresolved and it has significantly expanded uranium enrichment, a U.N. report said on Thursday.
  

• U.N. agency: Iran withholding facts on current nuclear program: Iran has answered more questions about the history of its nuclear program, but is still restricting access to its current nuclear work and expanding its enrichment of uranium in defiance of the U.N. Security Council, a U.N. watchdog agency reported Thursday. --SNIP --The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran hasn't provided "full transparency" about its current activities and now has nearly 3,000 operating centrifuges — the number required to produce in one year enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.

• A New Sanctions Bill, Surprise, Surprise: On November 13, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) introduced HCR 257, a concurrent resolution expressing concern regarding arms transfers to Iran and Syria by the Russian Federation andentities in the Russian Federation and urging the President of theUnited States to implement sanctions against such entities found to be in violation of United States law prohibiting arms transfers to Iran and Syria. It was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) are all original co-sponsors on the bill. The text of the legislation is not yet available in Thomas, but I'll post when it is.

• Iranians and Americans Take Diplomacy Into Their Own Hands: To facilitate people-to-people diplomacy, Enough Fear designed an action to connect Americans and Iranians who otherwise would never have the opportunity to talk with each other. Yesterday, they launched their first diplomatic hotline in Boston Commons which gave the opportunity to passers-by to speak directly to someone in Iran.

Hat tips: Unfiltered News Network, Iran Nuclear Watch