Obama DOJ Files Writ of Mandamus Against Judge in Dan Choi Case

--- by Jane Hamsher

In a remarkable turn of events, the Department of Justice has elected to file a writ of mandamus to prevent Judge John Facciola from allowing Dan Choi to offer a “selective prosecution” or “vindictive prosecution” defense. The government elected to pursue federal charges against Choi and 12 others for chaining themselves to the White House fence on November 15, 2010 to protest Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Assistant US Attorney Angela George filed a motion to prevent Choi’s attorneys from offering a selective prosecution defense prior to the start of the trial.  The Judge refused to rule on it, saying that until they offered a selective prosecution defense, it was like “striking from the game a ball that has not been thrown.”

Judge Facciola said that as he listened to Choi’s testimony yesterday, it became clear that the government had treated him differently on November 15 when he chained himself to the White House fence, as opposed to how he was treated in March and April when he had done roughly the same thing.  But the Judge also found that there was a prima facie case for vindictive prosecution on the part of the government, saying that there was evidence it had been done to Choi because he was a member of a minority group and the government wanted to punish him for the message he was giving.  He strongly suggested that the actions of the government had been taken to abridge Choi’s first amendment speech in opposing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

The judge has compared Choi’s case to the Supreme Court civil rights case Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham, in which traffic regulations were arbitrarily enforced in order to suppress the free speech of civil rights protesters.  The judge was insulted by the prosecutor’s decision to bring the writ of mandamus to the Court of Appeals, which is essentially a lawsuit alleging that Judge Facciola abused his discretion  in finding a prima facie showing of  vindictive or selective prosecution.

He asked her what her legal justification was for denying Choi his constitutionally protected right to offer his own defense.  George cited US v. Armstrong and US v. Washington, saying in both instances the court had found that such arguments should be offered in pre-trial rather than at trial.

The Judge countered that both of those trials had been jury trials, and that since this was a bench trial, no Appellate court would prohibit him from hearing evidence and conducting an investigation.  He also sternly warned George against filing a writ of mandamus and then attempting to dismiss the case thereafter in the event the writ was denied.  He suggested it would be further evidence that the government was persecuting Choi.

Earlier in the trial, Park Police witnesses admitted that the Secret Service had warned them in an email the day prior to the November 15 demonstration that Choi and others would chain themselves to the White House fence.  Further, the Department of the Interior submitted an elaborate memo to the Park Police 3 hours before the demonstration began advising them on filing federal charges against the DADT protesters, even though they are traditionally charged with municipal violations that are roughly the equivalent of a parking ticket.

But there had been no public announcement of the demonstration, so the defense filed a motion for the government to produce the Secret Service email and other documents about the government’s scheming to persecute Choi.  George protested vigorously that the information was not relevant to the case.  When Judge Facciola ruled in the defense’s favor, George asked for a delay while she conferred with her superiors at the Justice Department. Two hours later when the trial resumed, there were four Supervising Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the DOJ present when she announced her intention to file the writ of mandamus.

It is clear that there was elaborate coordination between federal agencies in order to single out Dan Choi and punish him. 

George was unable to conceal her complete contempt for Dan Choi, Capt. Jim Petrangelo and others involved in the case. 

The Judge finally had to order her to address both Choi and Petrangelo by their ranks after defense attorney Robert Feldman repeatedly objected when she called them “mister,” yet referred to the Park Police officers by rank.  The Judge asked her if she had an objection to addressing them by rank.  George replied that she did, but refused to say why.  The Judge said that one day he would be a retired judge, and that both he and she addressed retired judges as “judge.” He wanted to know what the difference was?  George answered by asking the Judge if he was ordering her to address them by their rank.  He said he would greatly appreciate if she would.  She addressed them by rank when she was in his presence, but when he was out of the courtroom, conspicuously addressed them as “Mister” again.

There was no better evidence of the government’s hostility toward the DADT protesters than George’s attitude toward Choi and Petrangelo, and her determination to prosecute the November 15 DADT protesters as vigorously as possible.  

Defense Attorney Norman Kent said the decision to persecute Choi and others “may go all the way to the White House.”  It is clear that the government does not want an investigation into who was involved in making decisions that abuse the power of the state to punish and harass the President’s political enemies.

Judge Facciola gave George 10 days to submit her writ of mandamus.  After court adjourned, defense attorney Robert Feldman left court and Judge Facciola had him called back in, saying “I want this on the record.”  After Feldman returned, the Judge stood up, looked at both Feldman and Kent and said it was an “honor” to have presided over this case and hear their arguments.  He congratulated them both on their excellent performance.

Lt. Dan Choi saluted the judge and court was in recess.

[emphases added by Progressive Alaska]

Over 700 Now Arrested Outside of White House - Protesting Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline

Daryl Hanah giving AK blogger Gryph a "V" sign

Where are the other Alaska bloggers on this vitally important issue?  A couple of them are still writing about Palin's last pregnancy, unless you're on the side that it was NOT her last pregnancy.

This is, after all, an issue with implications for the entire planet.  As 350.org's founder, Bill McKibben has stated:

Keystone XL—[is] the new, 1,700-mile-long pipeline we're trying to block that will vastly increase the flow of "dirty" tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico—[has become] a national issue. A few months ago, it was mainly people along the route of the prospective pipeline who were organizing against it. (And with good reason: Tar sands mining has already wrecked huge swaths of native land in Alberta and endangers farms, wild areas, and aquifers all along its prospective route.)

Now, however, people are coming to understand—as we hoped our demonstrations would highlight—that it poses a danger to the whole planet as well. After all, it's the earth's second-largest pool of carbon, and hence the second-largest potential source of global warming gases after the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. We've already plumbed those Saudi deserts. Now the question is: Will we do the same to the boreal forests of Canada? As NASA climatologist James Hansen has made all too clear, if we do so it's "essentially game over for the climate." That message is getting through. Witness the incredibly strong New York Times editorial opposing the building of the pipeline that I was handed on our release from jail.

Meanwhile, today, as the number of arrested environmental activists passes the 700 mark, some are now being organized at Catholic churches.  Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman has written to Obama, requesting the pipeline permit be denied.

Supposedly, the president is being kept in the dark by his staff about the very existence of thousands of activists, most of whom voted for him in 2008, being hustled off in paddy wagons, just beyond his front yard:


It isn't just the other Alaska bloggers that have been ignoring the most important environmental action outside the White House in a generation or more, it is the entire Alaska media. One might think that the fact TransCanada is the major partner in the pipeline project might have gotten some media outlet or blog here to take the hook, eh?

And it isn't just Alaska where this story has largely been ignored.  Apparently one of the few towns featruring a number of stories on this issue has been Calgary, where the project is headquartered.

Does anyone know of any Alaskans who have been participating in these demonstrations?

In the meantime, you can call or write to the President, asking him to not sign the pipeline permit.

Here's how.

Maybe Gryph or AKM will post the link to the letter-writing drive.

Judy's Carrots

Judy picked this big bunch of carrots on Sunday afternoon, to take out to Bethel and the villages she works in near there this week.  She will be able to keep doing that every week for a while, as we've got a huge bumper crop of them this year.

The Assiduity and Professionalism of Mel Green - A Prevo Crime Exposed?

Mel and Me during the Prop 64 Battle

Mel Green, who blogs at Henkimaa and is the current editor of the most important Alaskan LBGT news blog, Bent Alaska, has covered a number of local or statewide events in notable ways.  Her 2009 look into how Sarah Palin's legal bills were most likely apportioned during the long denouement of the quitter's aborted gubernatorial term was an example of the very best in Alaska investigative journalism.  It should have earned Green a major award, particularly, her post, The 2 Million Dollar Meme.  Her coverage of the Proposition 64 battle in the late spring and summer of 2009 was the most thorough and detailed in the state.

Her position as a leading writer in the Anchorage LBGT community has gotten her to understand the importance of covering Alaska's most prominent  homophobe, Dr. Jerry Prevo.  Mel, who is one of Alaska's better poets, even wrote a poem about Prevo during the 2009 Prop 64 battles:

No Questions, Questions

The man, smug in his pulpit,
has no questions.
He never has questions
except the rhetorical
question always followed
by his ready knowing answer read
from the book at his right hand:
the book at the right hand of God,
the book — the right hand of the judge
who judges the quick and the dead
to damn whoever fits
the words of his ready
answers read from that book.


 I have questions…
What makes one so certain?
How does one live inside a closed book
behind closed doors in a windowless room
surrounded by a great great wall
blocking off all the horizons,
everything known, counted, familiar?
How does one live on a flat, flat Earth,
a horizonless planet where nothing new
ever walks, is seen, is encountered?
How does one breathe there?
How does one breathe where there are only
two kinds of people, the damned and the damning? —
and the smug man in his pulpit smiles,
knowing himself as the latter,
casting the former to flames,
smiling to serve such a God
who made things this way.


Somewhere beyond a horizon
on a round Earth set among stars
crafted by illimitable god,
I catch my breath.


Melissa S. Green
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Anchorage, AK

Rev. Prevo recently came to the attention of Anchorage blogger, UAA student activist and Young Democrat leader, John Aronno, with John writing a feature article for the Anchorage Press, Religious Extremism: From Phelps to Prevo:

Here's another quote: "If God doesn't judge America for its sin, he'll have to apologize to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, because we're guilty today of the same sin they were guilty of."

And another: "Now, some bible scholars believe that Babylon of Revelation 18 is referring to the United States of America... I want you to notice the colors of Babylon here. The colors: fine linen, that's white. Bible purple is blue. Scarlet is red. Red, white, and blue. What is the color of our flag? Red, white, and blue."

The Westboro doom-speak is very similar to the two statements in the paragraph above. Both are examples of things that would cause a sane person to develop a tick, if subject to prolonged exposure. They are also not from Phelps, but instead from our neighbor, Pastor Jerry Prevo, of the Anchorage Baptist Temple.

Prevo has warned his followers: "I wonder how many more tornadoes, how many more hurricanes, how many more floods God's going to have to send on America for America to get right with God?"

But the frequency and the pitch of Prevo's public antics largely center on LGBT issues, something the average working stiff (at least the straight ones) don't have an immediate personal stake in. This tends to result in a live and let live and don't talk about it approach: "That's just ol' crazy Jerry. I don't pay attention."

 Monday, Mel Green posted an article at Henkimaa with details of an ongoing divorce settlement between  Prevo's only son, Allen Prevo and Holly Jo Prevo,  Prevo divorce documents raise loosey-goosey questions about Anchorage Baptist Temple house.  Steve Aufrecht, whose series on the Alaska redistricting process might be the best long blog series on public affairs in Alaska history, was quick to recognize the importance of what Green had written:

Mel Green's long piece at Bent on the divorce proceedings between Jerry Prevo's son and daughter-in-law focuses on the status of the house they live in.  It's one of the tax-exempt properties owned by the Anchorage Baptist Temple.  From what Green has found in the court proceedings, it appears that Allen Prevo gets paid a housing allowance which goes to pay for a rent-to-own arrangement.  Is the property tax-exempt house the church's or Allen Prevo's?  This is all coming out because the judge is trying to determine how the value of the house is to be factored into the divorce settlement.  Allen Prevo's attorney, Wayne Anthony Ross, has filed a motion to seal the court documents.

 Later Monday,  Allen Prevo's attorney, Wayne Anthony Ross, managed to get the case sealed.  But by noon on Monday, Shannyn Moore was covering the story on her KOAN radio show, and Alaska Dispatch editor, Amanda Coyne was calling around,  asking questions:

[P]erhaps the most interesting part of the story deals with equity that the son has in the property that is supposedly owned by the Anchorage Baptist Temple. The judge found the arrangement strange. "I'm willing to have you explain a lot more but if there was a tax appraiser or a reporter from the Anchorage Daily News, things would not look good," he said during a hearing.

Alaska Dispatch has a call into the mayor's office about this. Kelly Taylor, the city's tax assessor who would answer such questions, said that she was not allowed to talk to the media.

Frankly, in my opinion, looking at how this tax evasion and cheating scam is structured, we should not be calling the Anchorage tax assessment people, we should be calling the white collar crimes units at the Anchorage Police and the office of special prosecutions at the Alaska Department of Law.   Whoever structured this scam knew it was a scam, and should be indicted and prosecuted.  The ABT should lose their hallowed tax exempt status.

Good job, Mel.

Lets see how many city and state apparatchiks get their heads out of their butts and go after these people I regard as serial criminals.

Out on Neklason Lake Sunday Evening

The Matanuska Peak ridge set is in the background.

Judy's Recent Hiking Photos

 

 Judy and her friends Pam and Barb climbed Matanuska Peak yesterday.  It wasn't nearly as nice a day as today, but it was dry and not too warm.  Above, some of the bright vegetation near the peak.

Below, Judy holds the canister at the top, where the three lady hikers entered their names to the roster.

 

Looking out over the clouds surrounding Mrt. Susitna:

Earlier in the week, Judy took Strider on a less strenuous hike up into the April Bowl area between the Matanuska Valley and Hatcher Pass:

Judy has posted a lot of photos from these hikes at her faceobook page.

Sousa's Washington Post March at the Alaska State Fair Parade This Morning

The Mat-Su Concert Band. I joined them this morning in Palmer, to play during the hour before the parade. My trombone is on a chair off at the far right, behind the section.

Federal Work Suspension of Leading Arctic Scientist Ended as Investigation of His Investigators Deepens

image by Raul de la Nuez

Anchorage-based wildlife scientist, Dr. Charles Monnett, has been ordered to return to work today:

The polar bear scientist who has spent more than a month suspended from his government job has now been told that he should report back to work on Friday — although NPR has learned that his job is changing and he will no longer manage federal contracts.


"Chuck is planning to go to work. He just doesn't know what the work is going to be," says attorney Jeff Ruch of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is providing legal representation for wildlife biologist Charles Monnett.


In 2006, Monnett published a report on his sightings of apparently drowned polar bears in the Arctic. The dead polar bears became a powerful — and controversial — symbol of the danger of melting ice and climate change.


Monnett was put on administrative leave on July 18 by the agency he works for at the Department of the Interior. The move came as Monnett was being investigated by the department's Office of Inspector General.


That investigation is ongoing, and it is not clear what aspects of Monnett's research or management work are still under scrutiny.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which has been representing Dr. Monnett throughout his harassment, issued a press release Thursday afternoon, which they have allowed me to print here in full (emphases added):

Washington, DC — A top federal Arctic scientist is returning to work today after six weeks on administrative leave without any charges being leveled against him, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).   Meanwhile, the agency which suspended the scientist is itself under investigation for mishandling the matter.


On July 18, 2011, the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) suspended Dr. Charles Monnett in connection with an ongoing Interior Department Office of Inspector General (IG) investigation.  The IG was probing both a 2006 paper written by Dr. Monnett and a colleague on drowning polar bears as well as approval of a 2005 joint U.S.-Canadian polar bear study.  During his paid leave, he was forbidden from doing any work, speaking to colleagues or entering any Interior offices.


The leave was ordered by BOEM Director Michael Bromwich who reversed himself after the agency was informed that its top officials, including Bromwich, are now under investigation by Interior’s Scientific Integrity Officer for breaking new departmental scientific integrity rules designed to protect researchers from political interference as alleged in a PEER complaint filed on Dr. Monnett’s behalf.


“This about-face shows Director Bromwich made yet another hasty, ill-considered decision which had to be walked back,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that, on August 1, BOEM similarly had to rescind a stop-work order it issued to Canadian researchers.  “Dr. Monnett is owed an apology.”


Even as its case against Dr. Monnett appears to implode, the IG continues to expand its investigation into BOEM management:

• Fellow BOEM colleagues of Dr. Monnett have come forward to state that his handling of the Canadian study was completely proper and conducted under standard agency procedure;

• As the IG begins to examine other research contracts, the hard drive of a key BOEM manager was found to have been wiped clean after the IG asked to examine his files; and

• The IG inquiry into the peer review publication of a paper by Dr. Monnett and a colleague on sightings of drowned polar bears following a storm is drawing outrage from scientists in both the U.S. and abroad and undermining the Obama administration’s posture on climate change.

“By assigning clueless criminal investigators to paw through the scientific peer review process, the Inspector General is generating heat but shedding no light,” added Ruch, pointing out that after nearly a year-long probe the IG still refuses to specify just what it is investigating and why. “Unfortunately, this fishing expedition appears to be as expertly guided as the boat trip to Gilligan’s Island.”


BOEM has not specified Dr. Monnett’s new environmental duties except to stipulate he will not be working on research contracts.  The agency also issued a caveat that it reserves the right to bring administration action against Dr. Monnett in the future if it ever discovers a basis for doing so.

PEER  was joined early on in its questioning of  the methods and motives of the investigation into Dr. Monnett, by Greenpeace USA, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Chukchi Sea village of Pt. Hope, a group of Australian scientists, and others.  I hadn't published the statement of Caroline Cannon, President of the Native Village of Point Hope, in my earlier articles here about this issue.  Here it is, in part:

With a long history of ignoring local input, science and traditional knowledge, we appreciate BOEMRE's recent efforts to improve communication in our villages and listen to the concerns of the Inupiat people.  However, we still feel that the Alaska office of BOEMRE continues to put industry's interests before the interests of the Inupiat people. Alaska BOEMRE has continued to ignore science and traditional knowledge in its decision making about oil and gas development in the Arctic. In our experience, there are still some people at BOEMRE that are disrespectful of the needs of locals and are still coming down hard on good science - this needs to stop. It is imperative that BOEMRE make decisions based on sound science and traditional knowledge. Our lives are interconnected with the ocean, the marine life, and surrounding lands - without the ocean's bounty, we have nothing.

Here's the letter (pdf) by Australian scientists to President Obama:

Dear Mr President,


We are scientists from Australia and have been following the investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement's inspector general's office, into alleged mis-administration by Dr Charles Monnett, of that Federal agency, and we are very concerned to hear about the manner in which the investigation of Dr Monnett is being undertaken.


Our concerns include:


 Despite claims that this is an administrative investigation, the investigators are placing a lot of weight on the 2006 article in Polar Biology about observed deaths of four polar bears. This is despite the considerable scientific literature on the ecological impacts of climate change on polar bears and other Arctic fauna


 This seems like the type of anti-science action that would have occurred under your predecessor and is similar to actions more expected in the pre-1989 Soviet Union


In short, we view the manner and process of this investigation as both bringing the integrity of the investigating office into disrepute, and adversely reflecting on the ability of the USA to pursue publicly funded science in an honest and transparent manner.


We ask Mr. President, that you intervene to ensure that Dr Monnett’s investigation is put onto a more just and transparent pathway, and is rapidly concluded so as not to drag on and interrupt his professional career. We look to you making it clear that your commitment to removing political interference in the conduct of science, expressed in your 2009 presidential order, is taking effect. We support the call for a full inquiry into Dr Monnett’s suspension


Yours sincerely Dr Peter Tait, MBBS, FRACGP, MClimateChange


Stephan Lewandowsky, Winthrop Professor of Psychology, University of Western Australia Australian Professorial Fellow


Prof. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Director, Global Change Institute, University of Queensland and Queensland Smart State Premiers Fellow (2009-2013)


Prof. Michael Ashley, Professor of Physics at the University of New South Wales

Of note, along the lines of scientists who have been made aware of this case against Dr. Monnett recounting similar experiences of others in the past, is this revelation posted at the science  blog, Only in it for the Gold:.  It part of a memorandum (pdf) sent out from Richard Hannan, Acting Alaska Regional Director to Alaska Region staff, on March 2, 2007:

Please be advised that all foreign travel requests (SF 1175 requests) and any future travel requests involving or potentially involving climate change, sea ice, and/or polar bears will also require a memorandum from the Regional Director to the Director indicating who'll be the official spokesman on the trip and the one responding to questions on these issues, particularly polar bears, including a statement of assurance that these individuals understand the Administration's position on these issues.

That administration being the George W. Bush one.

Climate change skeptics have been after Dr. Monnett since Al Gore used information about his research in the movie, An Inconvenient Truth.  Judging from the attacks launched since the last week of July on his 2005 paper and how environmentalists used that information to heighten awareness of rapid changes in the polar ice cap, the investigation of  the scientist will continue to be misrepresented by the anti-science community, even as he goes back to work.  In that sense, PEER's Executive Director, Jeff Ruch, is right - Dr. Monnett is owed an apology.

Hopefully, it will come soon.

Marcus Bachmann Comes Out, Admits to Secretly Being Gay - Michelle Devastated

Was it the glitter that was showered down upon his clinic reception room by a roving band of gay barbarians last week that helped him turn the corner?

The activist responsible for glittering Newt Gingrich, Nick Espinosa, and several others launched a glitterific attack upon Marcus Bachmann’s clinic where it is reported he practices “ex-gay” therapy.

Bachmann had previously stated that gays were “barbarians who need to be disciplined.”

The activist and a horde of gay barbarians descended upon the clinic last month demanding that Bachmann come out and discipline them for their deviant behaviour.

When Bachmann was nowhere to be found, the barbarians took it upon themselves to glitter the waiting room and reception chanting, “You can’t pray away the gay — baby, I was born this way!”

Here's the youtube they made of the reception room glittering last week:


Today, the invaders came back. Surprisingly, Dr. Bachmann came out, whip in hand, to discipline them. Here's a youtube of his conversion during that hilarious event:

Glad to see he finally came out. It was only a matter of time.

Hat tip to Lisa Derrick

Keith Olbermann Interviews Bill McKibben on the White House Protests

Cenk Hosts Debate on Obama by Prof. Mark Jurgensmeyer and David Sirota

More on the DC Tar Sands Oil Pipeline Protests Outside of Obama's House

I.  More environmentalist activists were arrested outside the White House today, as the protests against the expected approval by the Obama administration of permitting of the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline continued and grew.  Unlike this past weekend's farcical overkill of imprisoning leading activists for days, the DC Park police, undoubtedly on new instructions from the White House, have decided to detain protesters only until they pay a fine or post bail.

On Friday, one could google "Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline" and get almost nothing.  This evening that query gets stories from around the world.  The quantity of coverage is one thing, the quality, refreshingly, is quite another.  Here's the New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert:

Today is Day 4 of a “Stop the Pipeline” sit-in at the White House, and so far two hundred and twenty-two people have been arrested, including, just this morning, the actress Margot Kidder. The sit-in is being billed as “the biggest act of civil disobedience in the history of the climate movement.” In a phone interview from D.C., Bill McKibben, the moving force behind the protests (and a former staff writer for The New Yorker) described it as “very civil” disobedience.

“People are getting arrested for the not-very-profound crime of sitting in what’s called the postcard zone right in front of the White House,” McKibben explained. “People just go out there and sit down; the park policemen give them three warnings, and then start handcuffing them one after another.” McKibben himself was in the first group to be arrested, on Saturday. Apparently hoping to discourage the protest, the D.C. police kept the first group locked up for two nights in the city’s central cell block, an experience that, McKibben said, “is exactly as much fun as it sounds.”

Because the proposed pipeline would cross an international border, it requires approval from the White House. The project has been under review for more than two years now, and what to do about it seems to be a subject of considerable debate within the Administration.

II.  McKibbon thanked firedoglake (disclaimer - I frequently post there) for their support this evening:

I just wanted to offer my thanks to everyone in the FDL community who has been offering their support for these tarsandsaction.org protests in recent days. And I mean really offering their support–Jane was still liveblogging while she was being put in handcuffs, the purest example of journoactivism I’ve about ever witnessed. And scarecrowjohn entertained our cellblock with detailed instructions about how to post–hence this message.


The protests are going remarkably well–they’re being widely covered in the alternative press (lead story at HuffPo right now, Amy Goodman this morning, Keith Olbermann tonight) and edging their way into the already-nervous mainstream media. and we’ve got ten days to go–so, if you can join us, do, and if you can’t please spread the word.


At this point, and for the forseeable future, people aren’t going off to jail–they’re spending a few hours in the cell at the police station and paying a fine. But it’s still a big deal to get arrested.


If you’re looking for a way–and we all should be–to help celebrate the dedication of the new Martin Luther King monument, this is the way. Think of it as living history, a reminder that not all politics is electoral politics, and that it’s okay to go to Barack Obama’s house and tell him you want him doing what he said he would. Since the Congress plays no part in this decision, it’s one of the purest tests he’s ever faced. Our job is to make sure he has to face it head on.

III.  Here's Bill McKibben, being interviewed on Democracy Now this morning, by Amy Goodman.  She would have interviewed him yesterday, but he was still in jail at taping time:

Catching Alaska and Alaska Blogs Up on the White House Protests on the Obama Role in the Keystone XL Pipeline

Bill McKibben

This past weekend, in Washington, DC, a couple hundred environmentalist began a civil disobedience action at the White House gate. Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, was the prime organizer.  Other prominent organizers and civil disobedience participants were fromer U.S. Army Lt. Dan Choi, the nation's leading activist in the battle against Don't Ask - Don't Tell, and Jane Hamsher, founder of firedoglake (where I frequently contribute).

The goal of the demonstrations is to force Obama to keep from licensing the  Keystone XL pipeline.  Indications are that the president will approve the expansion of the existing system.  The House and Senate are not involved at all.  It is an Executive Department decision alone.

Saturday's demonstrations saw over 60 arrests, with some of the people being held by the DC Park Police until mid-Monday, on minor misdemeanor charges.  More were  arrested Sunday and Monday.  The total so far (as of Monday afternoon) is 162.  It is the largest set of intentional civil disobedience environmental protests outside the White House in years.

Sunday Tar Sands Pipeline Protesters

The organizers hope to raise national awareness on this sleeper issue.  To some extent this is working.  Mcibbon seems to think so.  Here's his statement Monday, after release from jail:

Okay! So we just came out of jail, and I’m a little tired and a lot hungry. But more than that, I’m as happy as can be. To find out, as we came out the door, that people have not only been carrying on this protest in the kind of — in the face of intimidation by the Park Service, but that numbers are growing and growing and growing. People are flooding into Washington from all fifty states. That was the best news we possibly could have heard.

Then to pick up the New York Times and see that the message has gotten through on a national level: their editorial page today saying “Mr President, stop this pipeline!” This is what starts to happen when people show what the stakes are. And, we’re a long ways from winning, but we’re a little closer than we were when we went into jail! And that feels real good.

And here's a bit from the New York Times editorial to which McKibben refers:

That rate will mean cutting down some 740,000 acres of boreal forest—a natural carbon reservoir. Extracting oil from tar sands is also much more complicated than pumping conventional crude oil out of the ground. It requires steam-heating the sands to produce a petroleum slurry, then further dilution. One result of this process, the ministry says, is that greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector as a whole will rise by nearly one-third from 2005 to 2020—even as other sectors are reducing emissions.

The organizers plan on keeping the protests up into the fall, which might lead to the arrests of thusands of environmental activists on behalf of the Obama administration.  The crucial period in terms of presidential involvement in the process begins in late August, and lasts as long as 90 days:

The protests come as the U.S. State Department is about to release its final environmental assessment of the pipeline, which initially would have a transport capacity of 700,000 barrels per day of crude oil.

That report is expected before the end of August, and Obama will then have 90 days to decide whether granting the permit is in the U.S. national interest. By law, Congress is not involved, so Obama need not consult the climate change skeptics in the House of Representatives, who have already approved a bill to force a decision by November 1.

During September, the State Department will host public meetings in each of the six states through which the proposed pipeline would pass.

Meetings are planned for the state capitals of Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, with an additional meeting in the Sand Hills region in Nebraska and along the Gulf Coast near Port Arthur, Texas. These will be followed by a final public meeting in Washington, DC. 

At 60 protesters per day, we may see over 5,000 people arrested in these demonstrations, which would make them among the largest sets of consecutive civil disobedience arrests in American history. Here's McKibben giving his release statement Monday:


For more information on this important civil disobedience environmentalism protest, go to Tar Sands Action.

Fukushima Radiation Spreads Worldwide and Into Japanese Ground Water - Canada to Begin Intensive Testing of Salmon & Caribou - When Will Alaska & U.S. Do the Same?

I.  CBC reports:

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency plans to start testing fish off the coast of British Columbia for the presence of radiation stemming from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan earlier this year.

The agency has not yet released any specific details on the testing program, but did say it expects the test results to be well below Health Canada's actionable levels for radiation.

Fisheries activist Alexandra Morton with the Raincoast Research Society says she supports the testing, but calls the announcement a political move. Morton says millions of sockeye have started returning to the Fraser River and the fishing season is already well underway.

Salmon are a particular concern to Morton and others because their wide-ranging migration patterns can take them right across the Pacific Ocean to the coast of Japan.

 British Columbia fisheries activists are concerned that the timing of the announcment is a political ploy to draw attention away from the beginning of hearings into the cause of the Fraser River Sockeye salmon run crash:

"If they were actually concerned about the health of people and the fish, they would have started this actually at the beginning of the commercial openings. But to release this two days before the disease hearings at the Cohen inquiry, to me it's a political statement, it's a political effort to appear responsible," [Morton] said.

The Cohen Commission hearings into the collapse of the 2009 Fraser River sockeye salmon run resumed in Vancouver earlier this week.

Morton also wants the CFIA to test farmed salmon, because she says trace amounts of radiation were detected in seaweed on the B.C. coast.

 The Cohen Inquiry may be of interest to Alaskans. It is investigating more than one hypothesis about why the Fraser River Sockeye run collapsed rapidly, beginning in 1993, through 2009.  Alexandra Morton writes:

The Cohen Inquiry began in October 2010 to investigate why the Fraser sockeye have been in decline for the last 18 years. It invited groups to apply for participation status at the hearings, and each of the 19 accepted coalitions has a team of lawyers. The coalitions include the Government of Canada, the province of B.C., several First Nations groups, commercial fishing organizations, a Conservation Coalition, the B.C. Salmon Farmers, and the Aquaculture Coalition, which I am part of. Justice Bruce Cohen heads the process, and requested that information regarding the Fraser sockeye be entered into a database that only participants have access to.

 Many suspect disease-causing elements have been introduced into these salmon from B.C. salmon farms.  Recently, a prominent scientist, Dr. Kristi Miller, has been ordered to not discuss or write about her findings.  She will testify to the Cohen Inquiry on Wednesday:

Fisheries and Oceans scientist Kristi Miller is slated to testify about her studies suggesting some sort of virus may be killing salmon before they reach the spawning grounds.

Miller's long-awaited testimony is expected to be controversial, following allegations the federal government attempted to prevent her from discussing her work with the media.

The inquiry will also hear about fish farms and their impact on wild salmon, including testimony from outspoken fish farm opponent Alexandra Morton of the Raincoast Research Society.

"As these hearings proceed it will be a detective effort. The best fit answer is going to have to explain an 18-year decline of only the sockeye that migrate along eastern Vancouver Island, while other neighbouring runs were unaffected, even increasing," said Morton in a statement issued on Friday.

 We can be very thankful Alaskans don't have to put up with a powerful salmon farming industry here.  Just as many Alaskans and other environmental activists feel Shell Oil Company may be behind the outrageous ongoing efforts to discredit Dr. Charles Monnett, so it appears the giant B.C. fish farming businesses may have a hand in the harrassment of Dr. Miller.  Today it was reported that her laboratory's funding has been cut:

 Kristi Miller, a geneticist who was silenced by the federal government's Privy Council Office in January, will finally be permitted to speak this week at the inquiry looking into the decline of Fraser River salmon.

She is due to testify at the Cohen Commission on Wednesday about her team's ominous discovery that viral pathogens may be weakening the fish. Federal documents indicate she might also have plenty to say about the health of her lab at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

The lab's current "funding model," which has been paying many technical staff, has been found to be "non-compliant with DFO policy," Ruth Withler, a senior scientist in the lab wrote in a Jan. 13 message to staff in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The document, released under access to information laws, says the decision to change the funding model could be "jeopardizing future involvement of DFO science staff" in the type of "innovative research" done in Miller's lab.

Miller is head of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory, based in Nanaimo, and Withler helped pioneer the genetic tests used there.

Miller and Withler were not allowed to give interviews to discuss the funding problem, and DFO's media office responded to questions with a terse written statement.

The office said a Treasury Board directive from late 2009 indicates that outside funds, or "special purpose money," must not be used to pay the salaries of government employees.

About half the lab's 19 highly technical staff have been paid for years using external funds. DFO's media office says between $600,000 to $800,000 a year of outside money has been used to pay the salaries of eight to 11 of the lab's staff, depending on the year.

Back to the pending testing for signs of radiation:

"The monitoring of fish off the coast of B.C. is part of a series of measures intended to monitor the impact, if any, of the nuclear crisis in Japan," Alice D'Anjou, a spokeswoman for the CFIA, told Postmedia News in an email. The agency does not expect to find harmful levels of radiation in the fish, D'Anjou said.

"If it's sockeye (salmon), then it's a wise precaution," said fisheries oceanographer Tony Pitcher from the University of British Columbia. Sockeye salmon migrate quite far north and west in the Pacific Ocean into waters that are also crossed by currents coming from Japan, Pitcher said, so there is a chance the salmon will come into contact with organisms carrying some radiation.

 Whether the salmon are affected by the radiation depends on what the salmon eat, Pitcher said, and also on the half-life of the particular radioactive isotope that entered the food chain from the reactor.

The Yukon government is also concerned:

Meanwhile, Yukon's Department of Health also plans to test the Porcupine caribou herd for radiation from the reactor meltdown.

"There is no reason to believe any significant contamination from radiation has occurred," said Brendan Hanley, chief medical officer of health for the territory, in a statement released Thursday. "We just want to reaffirm that the caribou are safe to eat."

According to the Porcupine Caribou Management Board, Porcupine caribou are hunted mostly by Gwich'in, Northern Tutchone, Han, Inuvialuit and Inupiat peoples in Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Alaska. The meat is a staple food and the hide is used to make clothing such as mukluks and parkas.

The herd has been monitored on an ongoing basis for 15 years for other contaminants.

As this herd migrates between Alaska and Canada, this appears to be the first extensive Fukushima  radiation testing effort that might have a direct impact upon Alaska.

Thinking about the known muzzling, intentional discrediting and defunding of scientists such as Dr. Charles Monnett, Dr. Kristi Miller or Prof. Rick Steiner, either in the USA or in Canada, it is easy to conclude that such actions, like those against whistleblowers, are accelerating.  Rapidly.

II.  Here's Arne Gundersen's most recent update on the spread of contamination from the Fukushima disaster:

Rick Perry - Mishandles Abstinence Questions - Very Badly

I'll make a "comparable" here: Perry is increasingly looking like a dumbed down version of George W. Bush.

Sunny August Day Garden Pictures - for Paul Prebys

This morning broke out sunny, and got better.  I worked in the greenhouse and garden, before going to the memorial event in Anchorage for Alaska peace activist icon and savvy elder, Paul Prebys.   I was stirred by some of the surprising stories shared about Paul by his family, colleagues and friends. I imagine Paul is already organizing souls at his next destination, hoping to get them to help us out down here.  It was heartening to see the community hall at the Fairview Rec Center so full.

Above - ripening Stupice tomatoes.  60 tomatoes probably turned red or began that coloring today, in the sunshine and warmth of the greenhouse.  We probably have almost 1,000 tomatoes ripening - the best crop ever.

Below, a clump of Black Cherry tomatoes.  The first few I ate didn't seem to be very tasty, but they ripen into something more subtle and delicious.  I might enter some of these in the State Fair, as there are a lot of them, they are uniform in size, and look unique.

Slowly ripening Black from Tula tomatoes.  We will probably end up with about 70 of them.  They are very big, and are the most delicious tomato I've ever grown.  Here are images of fully ripened ones.

Green Zebra tomatoes.  Like Black from Tula, they ripen more slowly than Stupice or Black Cherry.  Green Zebra are supposed to be very tangy.  They were developed in the 1980s by Tom Wagner, a noted Washington state tomato cultivar and grower.  Unless more show up than we've yet seen, I won't be entering any of these at Palmer - we'll want to eat every one.

A huge zucchini, enjoying the sun.  Last year, it was so wet that most of our zucchini molded, at least partially.  This one probably weighs about three pounds.  Two are bigger (they were in shadows).  Alex once won 2nd prize at the State Fair for biggest yellow zucchini.  I think it weighed about 15 pounds.

Corn stalks and cobs, with silks wafting in the sunshine and slight breeze.

I picked these potatoes because their foliage was getting onto the driveway.  This was dug from about 26 inches of row.  This is looking like a bounty year for spuds.

This red cabbage is getting to be almost five feet across the outer leaves.  The head looks to be about seven or eight pounds, and it is growing rapidly.

These might be hard to see.  Two beets, both looking to weigh at least two pounds.  The biggest beets I've ever grown are in this patch.  The beets are Chioggia.

Justin Raimondo's Reaction to Discovering Antiwar.com Has Been Under FBI Surveillance

Justin Raimondo speaking out against war

Got to love this antiwar icon's reaction to the news:

These guys are using us as a resource – so why haven’t they contributed to our fund drive?

Above the Deepwater Horizon Spill Site Today

More here.

More here.

Fukushima Update - Worse Than Twenty Hiroshimas

On the bright side, millions of sunflowers, planted in the vicinity of the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear powerplant complex, are blooming.  Supposedly, the plants "fight the radiation."

Thousands of sunflowers planted at Joenji temple in Fukushima, northern Japan, to help fight the radiation from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, have blossomed.


A volunteer group "Make A Wish Upon Flowers" had planted the sunflowers in the temple’s vicinity and had urged the public to plant sunflowers to prevent spread of radiation through soil as well as help decontaminate soil from radioactive materials.


Though Japanese scientists are carrying out tests to prove their usefulness in fighting radiation, sunflowers were also used near Chernobyl to extract radioactive Cesium (Cs) from contaminated ponds nearby after the 1986 nuclear accident, Reuters reported.

That's the bright side. 

On the other side of the coin,  Dahr Jamail's latest Al Jazeera report indicates that Japanese medical professionals and others are far more concerned about the lingering - or growing - effects of radiation from the ongoing radiation leaks from the powerplants, which appear to continue to deteriorate below ground:

Scientists and doctors are calling for a new national policy in Japan that mandates the testing of food, soil, water, and the air for radioactivity still being emitted from Fukushima's heavily damaged Daiichi nuclear power plant.

"How much radioactive materials have been released from the plant?" asked Dr Tatsuhiko Kodama, a professor at the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology and Director of the University of Tokyo's Radioisotope Centre, in a July 27 speech to the Committee of Health, Labour and Welfare at Japan's House of Representatives.

"The government and TEPCO have not reported the total amount of the released radioactivity yet," said Kodama, who believes things are far worse than even the recent detection of extremely high radiation levels at the plant.

There is widespread concern in Japan about a general lack of government monitoring for radiation, which has caused people to begin their own independent monitoring, which are also finding disturbingly high levels of radiation.

Kodama's centre, using 27 facilities to measure radiation across the country, has been closely monitoring the situation at Fukushima - and their findings are alarming.

According to Dr Kodama, the total amount of radiation released over a period of more than five months from the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster is the equivalent to more than 29 "Hiroshima-type atomic bombs" and the amount of uranium released "is equivalent to 20" Hiroshima bombs. [emphasis added]

Kodama, along with other scientists, is concerned about the ongoing crisis resulting from the Fukushima situation, as well as what he believes to be inadequate government reaction, and believes the government needs to begin a large-scale response in order to begin decontaminating affected areas.

Distrust of the Japanese government's response to the nuclear disaster is now common among people living in the effected prefectures, and people are concerned about their health.

Recent readings taken at the plant are alarming.

 Jamail's report contains some rather troubling vignettes of signs that radiation sickness, especially among children, continues to spread:

Doctors in Japan are already treating patients suffering health effects they attribute to radiation from the ongoing nuclear disaster.

"We have begun to see increased nosebleeds, stubborn cases of diarrhoea, and flu-like symptoms in children," Dr Yuko Yanagisawa, a physician at Funabashi Futawa Hospital in Chiba Prefecture, told Al Jazeera.  [emphasis added]

She attributes the symptoms to radiation exposure, and added: "We are encountering new situations we cannot explain with the body of knowledge we have relied upon up until now."

Yanagisawa isn't getting these radiation sickness symptoms near the reactors.  They are from medical facilities 200 KM from the disaster's point of origin:

From her perspective, the only thing the government has done is to, on April 25, raise the acceptable radiation exposure limit for children from 1 mSv/year to 20 mSv/year.


"This has caused controversy, from the medical point of view," Yanagisawa told Al Jazeera. "This is certainly an issue that involves both personal internal exposures as well as low-dose exposures."


Junichi Sato, Greenpeace Japan Executive Director, said: "It is utterly outrageous to raise the exposure levels for children to twenty times the maximum limit for adults." "The Japanese government cannot simply increase safety limits for the sake of political convenience or to give the impression of normality."


Authoritative current estimates of the health effects of low-dose ionizing radiation are published in the Biological Effects of Ionising Radiation VII (BEIR VII) report from the US National Academy of Sciences.


The report reflects the substantial weight of scientific evidence proving there is no exposure to ionizing radiation that is risk-free.

Perhaps most troubling of the interviews conducted by Jamail for the article was with Dr.  Helen Caldicott from  Physicians for Social Responsibility.  She is concerned with generational effects of the radiation spread:

Radioactive elements get into the testicles and ovaries, and these cause genetic disease like diabetes, cystic fibrosis, and mental retardation.  There are 2,600 of these diseases that get into our genes and are passed from generation to generation, forever.

Humans are not yet capable of accurately measuring the low dose exposure or internal exposure. Arguing 'it is safe because it is not yet scientifically proven [to be unsafe]' would be wrong. That fact is that we are not yet collecting enough information to prove the situations scientifically. If that is the case, we can never say it is safe just by increasing the annual 1mSv level twenty fold.

 Caldicott concludes:

Millions of people need to be evacuated from those high radiation zones, especially the children.

Here's RT TV's Thom Hartmann on Fukushima on Thursday:

Local Mushroom Season Peaks

Last year was one of the best southcentral Alaska mushroom seasons in a long time.  This year, it is starting a bit late, as it is fairly warm yet at night.  Above, the dreaded and worshipped Amanita Muscaria. I don't harvest them, but they make for great photos.

Below, nestled under Dwarf dogwood, is a fungus I've never seen before.  Can anyone identify it?

These little spiked puffball-type mushrooms are fairly common.

A big Birch boletus.  They are edible, but they turn a purplish black when cut or cooked, which is a bother.

The goal - Boletus edulis.  I found three in good condition.  There will be more this coming week.  The three became part of an omelette this morning.

Another fungus I have never seen.  The picture's detail came out well, so - once again - anyone know what it is?

I like this picture.

Remembering Paul Prebys

Our friend Paul Prebys passed late last month.  A remembrence of Paul will be held Sunday.  This is from his family:

There will be an open memorial service to celebrate his life and to remember him on August 21, 2011 at 1:30 pm at Fairview Community Center in the multipurpose room located at 1121 E. 10th Avenue in Anchorage. 

We will be encouraging those who would like to speak to do so, please email aprebys@gmail.com if you would like to be added to the program.

In lieu of flowers or donations, the family asks for anyone who knew Paul to share a story or a memory about him, no matter how short or how long. We loved him very much and we know he touched many lives and we would greatly appreciate hearing them. You can post any pictures or thoughts at http://paulprebys.wikispaces.com/.

Our hearts are broken knowing how much pain he endured and we wish him peace. He is loved and will be missed greatly.

 I first met Paul on April 8th, 2004, in Room 124 of the Fine Arts Building at UAA.  He was one of about 80 people who had come to hear me explain the context of what was then my newest musical work, The Skies are Weeping.  Talking to Paul after what had been a disturbingly contentious public meeting, his voice and demeanor soothed me down from the infuriation I felt, from having to withdraw the upcoming performance of the work, because I felt fear for the safety of the students who wanted to perform it.

Paul told me that he was a member of Alaskans for Peace and Justice.  He wanted me to meet members at their next meeting.  Perhaps they could help get the work performed in Anchorage.

I went to the meeting and several others over the next few years.  Paul was the heart and soul of this group of courageously contentious individuals.  And, as before, his presence, voice and words themselves could calm people down in a remarkable way.

Since even before the onset of the ongoing series of wars, Paul was at every Anchorage area peace demonstration he could attend, no matter what the weather.

Here he is, manning a booth he set up for AK4P&J and several other activist groups at a demonstration  at the Veterans Memorial on the Downtown Park Strip, in September 2005.  That was the demonstration at which Diane Benson spoke out strongly against the U.S. Army "Stop Loss" policy that had just forced her son Latseen to return to Iraq after his active duty service as a paratrooper was over:

Here he is in the midst of a group of people, at a demonstration at the junction of Lake Otis and 36th, on January 28th, 2008.  Paul needed a walker to get there, and sat down on a folding chair, as he stayed through the entire event, talking to bypassers in that soothing voice of his:

And here was Paul, at an event in the UAA library on May 1, 2004.  As almost always, Paul sought out a strategic corner from which he could engage people about peace and human rights, particularly Palestinian rights.  And - as usual - he had a lot of material ready to hand out:

After the premiere of the Skies are Weeping in November 2005, Paul was one of the first people to whom I gave a recording of the performance. In early 2005, I dedicated my next large protest musical work, Two Rivers, to Paul Prebys, and to his longtime friend and colleague, Ruth Sheridan.

Sometimes, after I had written an article here at Progressive Alaska, or somewhere else, that Paul liked, he would call and thank me.  For years, Paul would call in to Anchorage talk radio programs, both conservative and liberal ones, to raise a point, to try to educate somebody on an issue they didn't understand or had misrepresented. 

Along with his family, close friends, and people he had worked with in over 30 years as an educator and specialist in education, Paul will be missed by the Alaskan peace and human rights communities.

Rick Perry to NH Kid: "We teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools...."

".... because I figure you’re smart enough to figure out which one is right.”

That's part of the answer the Texas governor gave to a kid, prompted by his mom, to related questions having to do with science.  Here's a description of the discussion in the Washington Monthly:

“How old do you think the Earth is?” the kid said. Given Perry’s larger worldview, it seems like a reasonable question. The Texas governor replied, “I don’t have any idea; I know it’s pretty old. So, it goes back a long, long way.”


We can hope Perry doesn’t think 6,000 years is “pretty old.”


At this point, the boy’s mother pushed him to ask Perry about evolution. The candidate explained:


“Your mom is asking about evolution. You know, that’s a theory that’s out there; it’s got some gaps in it. In Texas, we teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools — because I figure you’re smart enough to figure out which one is right.”

They don't teach evolution and creationism in Texas schools, at least not in science classes. Perry gives away a lot in this short talk:


There's no excuse for what Perry said to the kid. Was he merely ignorant of what Texas schools do in the science classroom, or did he just say what he said to deflect cognitive dissonance that might come from making this subject one on the table at upcoming GOP candidate debates, in the dumbfest leading up to the 2012 primaries?

Hopefully, this will come up in the GOP debates, as Jon Huntsman has already challenged Perry's statement:

To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy

Michelle Bachman is on record with:

I support intelligent design.  What I support is putting all science on the table and then letting students decide. I don't think it's a good idea for government to come down on one side of scientific issue or another, when there is reasonable doubt on both sides.


I would prefer that students have the ability to learn all aspects of an issue.

At a 2007 debate, when a bunch of GOP candidates were asked to raise their hand if they believed in evolution, Mitt Romney kept his down.  When asked later by David Brody from Christian Broadcasting News, Romney's campaign replied, "Governor Romney believes both science and faith can help inform us about the origins of life in this world."

Rick Santorum was such an ardent advocate of intelligent design when he was in the U.S Senate, he proposed an amendment to No Child Left Behind, mandating the inclusion of intelligent design into science curriculum, that became known as the Santorum Amendment.  That was in 2001.  Fortunately, it didn't make it into NCLB, which is bad enough without dumbing down our kids on science more than they already are.

Also, fortunately again, in 2005, the most important court decision on evolution since the 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Edwards v. Aguillard, came about: the Pennsylvania case, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.  Edwards had nailed the door shut on teaching "creationism" as science in schools.  Kitzmiller nailed it shut on trying to the same with "intelligent design."  Both were definitive.  Perry should know that, as should the entire field of GOP 2012 hopefuls.

And so should your average newsperson or debate moderator.  To me, this is an important subject, and has been for some time.  Science education is vital to our future as a nation, as a planet.  Whenever I read, watch or listen to a media person bringing up creationism, intelligent design or evolution as if there might be a scientific component to more than one of those three ideas, I just shake my head.