G.R.E.E.N. Spells Jobs

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

When blue collar unions and green environmentalists discussed how alternative energy is a path to new, high quality jobs, the Blue Green Alliance was born, according to Dave Foster, the Executive Director.


Foster notes that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former Sen. John Warner (R-VA) have sponsored separate Cap-and-Trade bills, and, along with Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (R-ME), still support some form of carbon tax.

Europe and Japan have far lower per capita energy usage, he said, which means “through efficiency, we can pay for an awful lot of of these global warming reductions.”


Still, "I find it a little odd that a certain section of the Republican party has chosen to wave the banner of anti-science,” Foster said.

America is already feeling the economic effects of climate change, Foster said, and gave the example of the loss of 4,000 jobs in the aluminum industry as decreased amounts of snow pack formed in the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest over the past 20 years. Hydroelectric dams depend on snow melt for power. As that diminished, electricity became prohibitively expensive.


“The cost of doing nothing about global warming will far, far exceed the cost of doing something," Foster said, while praising the thousands of steel-working jobs gained in manufacturing clean-energy wind turbines.


Foster said that alternative energy jobs tend to put skilled people back to work in familiar jobs.


“We’re not engaging in massive re-training, we’re engaging in a massive recall to work... On exactly the kinds of projects that they’ve been trained to do before,” he said.

“The Blue Green Alliance is a strategic national partnership between labor unions (the “blue” in “blue-collar”) and environmental organizations (the “green”) “ (http://www.bluegreenalliance.org/site/c.enKIITNpEiG/b.3416603/k.DD10/About_BGA.htm)

New policy for old drugs

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) announced the Promoting Innovation and Access to Life-Saving Medicine Act, to make generic alternatives available as “biologics” go out of parent.

Schumer joked that he couldn't make an acronym out of the initials, then explained biologics are drugs produced from living cells, (such as Premarin from horses, vaccines from killed or weakened microbes, Insulin from bacteria, or the anticipated results of stem cell research).

Collins said the act is needed because currently the FDA has no pathway to evaluate and approve this class of drugs. Many lifesaving biologics are long out of patent, but are still expensive because generics can’t get approved. “The price tag (for insulin) might well drop by as much as 25 percent,” she said.

Brown and Martinez agreed that there was strong bipartisan support for the act.

“We probably have four different opinions here about here on the best way to proceed on healthcare reform, but everyone agrees a prerequisite is to bring costs down," Schumer said.

The summary of the bill contained a clause limiting “exclusivity” (like a patent) to five years for the original molecule and three years for some modifications.

Lawmakers meet with Fire Fighters Union

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Today Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) addressed the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Legislative Conference about the importance of collective bargaining. Pelosi awed at “what a difference an election makes” in addressing workers’ rights as well as their right to organize. Union representatives said that the Obama Administration is much friendlier to unions than the Bush Administration was, and is looking forward to the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Pelosi hammered home her commitment to that bill, and highlighted how the Economic Recovery Package provided billions of dollars to help prevent job loss in the public safety sector.

Also speaking at the event was Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), who showcased his support for the Fire Fighter Fatality Reduction Act. The proposed law would set national requirements at fire stations for staffing, training, and equipment, moves that Lieberman believes will save lives. Additionally, Lieberman said he supports a national credentialing program for fire fighters, to make sure those responding to emergencies are properly trained to meet the national requirements he hopes are created.

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) talked to the crowd about the Federal Firefighter Fairness Act, which would create a “rebuttable presumption” that certain diseases contracted by fire fighters are "job related”, and thus subject to compensation programs. Collins said that this would apply to federal fire fighters, because it was "fundamentally unfair" that federal fire fighters would not be able to receive the same health protection as those on the state and local level.

Both Collins and Lieberman spoke in support the right of workers to bargain collectively.

Vice President Joseph Biden is scheduled to speaker later today at the event.

U.S. takes threat of nuclear terrorism very seriously

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a hearing on “Nuclear Terrorism: Providing Medical Care and Meeting Basic Needs in the Aftermath – The Federal Response.” Chairman of the Committee, Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), said that although preventing a nuclear terrorist attack is the top priority, the is risk is so real that serious preparations must be made for an attack on an American city.

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) said that the majority of medical responders and general practitioners do not know how to handle a nuclear attack. She added that inaction would lead to enormous consequences.

David Paulison, an administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that although there is very little probability that a nuclear attack will occur, the impact would be very high. Preparation for a nuclear terrorist attack is one of FEMA’s greatest concerns. Craig Vanderwagen, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said that his department learned many lessons from events in Tel Aviv, London, and Madrid. Since those attacks, the department made many improvements in their response plans. He said that 87 percent of hospitals now participate in mass care programs to handle the influx of injured people in the case of an attack. James H. Schwartz, Chief of the Arlington Country Fire Department, an example from a local level, said that a mutual aid system between cities is necessary because no city can deal with a nuclear attack alone. He expressed a need for more information sharing, collaboration, and cooperation between cities and also between the local, state and federal levels.

Military training misconstrued at Guantanamo

The origins of aggressive interrogation methods were discussed by the Senate Armed Services Committee. In his opening statement, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said methods used in US military programs that intend to help captured American forces resist violent interrogation through simulation have been twisted by military forces and used to interrogate. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) added that the Bush administration used “bizarre legal theories” to justify interrogation strategies and asserts that its decisions will be considered shortsighted in the future. Graham expressed concern with the Supreme Court’s decision that prisoners in Guantanamo Bay have the right to habeas corpus, saying that Americans will be disturbed to realize that they have the same constitutional rights as terrorists.

Dr. Jerald Ogrisseg, a former Air Force psychologist, said that the Air Force’s (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) SERE program is not intended to teach interrogation but rather to help captured Americans resist forms of interrogation used by states and parties that are not in compliance with the Geneva Convention. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Daniel Baumgartner Jr. said a memo outlining physical pressures put on American prisoners-of-war sent to him by Ogrisseg was requested by the office of the Secretary of Defense. Both Baumgartner and Ogrisseg said they were under the impression that the Department of Defense wanted to determine appropriate interrogation procedures and had that they had no reason to assume the memo would be used to promote improper methods.

Ogrisseg said Navy SEALS subjected to brief waterboarding in training repeatedly stated they would divulge information to captors if faced with the waterboard again. Navy procedures allowed for trainees to be waterboarded for no more than 20 seconds with no more than two pints of water. Baumgartner said what the committee referred to as “SERE techiniques” are used often and have worked against American troops. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) stated that it would have been more logical for the Department of Defense to seek interrogation advice from the FBI instead of using a program not meant to teach interrogation. Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) questioned the effectiveness of aggressive interrogation, pointing out the likelihood that captured terrorists have undergone training similar to that of United States Armed Forces.