Welcome to the first day of fall - it is cool and breezy and even rainy - a stark change from yesterday in San Antonio.

Yet there is no stark change in our Nuclear Mayor.

Last night Nuclear Mayor Castro declared that he had made up his mind on the nuclear option for CPS Energy’s and San Antonio’s future.  He proceeded to outline the reasons why.

He sounded like a mouthpiece for CPS Energy and the Nuclear Industry, continuing the rhetoric and attempting to pass it off as “a decision based on merit.”

The Nuclear Mayor and I are only a year apart in age, yet it is obvious we are a world apart in logic.  He had and still has the opportunity to be a statesman and leader for our community on this issue, which will define a generation in this country. Others look to the youth to make better choices than our forefathers, yet this youth, our Nuclear Mayor Castro, is falling lock step with those forefathers in remaining in the box of close-minded, rhetorical politicians who care more about their accent to power and prominence in the short term and even less about the long term results of their decisions on the world community.

Why do I make these claims?

• San Antonio is first on the list for getting a permit to build the first nuclear reactor in the U.S. in 30 years.
• Wall Street won’t finance the building of nuclear reactors,
• the federal government is only providing loan guarantees of $18.5 billion for all the nuclear reactors to be built (divided equally at this point, we’re looking at about $4.6 billion for us if there are only four),
• we have no cost guarantees and the cost estimate has gone up from $5.4 billion to $13 billion in the last two years,
• we have no way to deal with the waste generated by the existing nuclear reactors the world over let alone new ones,
• we’re talking about spending $500 million on PAPERWORK for these new nuclear reactors - an amount of money that could bolster existing renewable energy plans and give us a return on our $
• we have a plan - Mission Verde - nuclear is not sustainable and therefore does not fit into the plan
• a nationally renowned nuclear fusion engineer, Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and author of Carbon Free Nuclear Fre: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy, offered his services free of charge to the City of San Antonio if our mayor would become El Alcalde Verde and LEAD SA into a sustainable future, it only takes political will.
• independent analysis and research has shown CPS Energy is misrepresenting, obfuscating, and omitting pertinent information - see energiamia.org and nukefreetexas.org for studies and more
• Drought conditions have prevailed, but CPS wants to use another 23,170 gallons of water per minute to generate power, most of which, ~2/3rds, will be lost to evaporation
• From Moody’s Global…New Nuclear Generation: Ratings Pressure Increasing
  ..from a credit perspective, the risks of building a new nuclear generation are hard to ignore, entailing significantly higher business and operating risk profiles, with construction risk, huge capital costs, and continual shifts in national energy policy… Moody’s has said repeatedly that they will downgrade any utility who builds new nuclear - this in turn will effect our bond interest rates for all City bonds in existence and in the future resulting in higher taxes to pay the difference!
• this deal involves getting into bed with a company, NRG, that is rated speculative or “junk” grade - Ba3 (questionable credit quality) -Read more here
• On August 27th the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) Panel found that the nuclear applicant, South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company (STPNOC), had failed to adequately analyze issues raised by concerned citizens in their Petition to Intervene in the proposed expansion at STP.

What of the above makes the decision to go new nuclear a good idea for residents of San Antonio?

What are these “merits” that Nuclear Mayor Castro keeps referring to?

Will we ever find out?

Not likely! - yet i can be proven wrong…

Hi all,

I had a wonderful webdesigner set me up with a great new website so i’ve been posting there instead of here. so if you are on my blogroll - you might want to change to the new one to keep up with current posts.  http://voteswift.org.

On another issue - I need to raise at least $1k in the next few days to pay for convention costs of getting some delegates there, paying for hotel rooms (i went cheap and am not staying at the downtown hotels), transit costs for me and delegates, a table at the convention for literature, etc. and other miscellaneous expenditures.  Please consider sparing a few bucks to help out with this effort:

Thanks for all your support!!!!

kat

Hola all, just got the below job posting.  I’d apply if i could get out of my job fast enough!  this is an important position and needs someone who will work hard and fast for a short while…. read more…..

in order to siphon funds into private contractors hands based on the fear factor of ‘terrorists’ coming into the US from Mexíco, they’re building a new wall of apartheid in the US - disrupting the natural flow of animal species, running through tribal lands, right through a college campus, and more.

keep up with the latest at http://www.notexasborderwall.blogspot.com/

http://www.borderambassadors.com/ also has more

How often do you hear about this in the media?

from ceci wheeler:

queridos democraciahora/dear democracynow:

increible que la gente pobre no se le permita comer gratuitamente en
lugares publicos que estuvieron abandonados hasta recientemente pero que
los residentes locales pagaron por su subsistencia.  ahora estas personas
seran votadas de estos mismos parques publicos donde se reunen en nuestras
ciudades que es su derecho en primer lugar, esta es una desgracia mas para
esta ciudad (pgh) en la que todo lo ridiculo pasa a ser parte de la
covertura de la pagina.

it’s incredible that poor people are not allowed to eat for free in public
locations that were abandoned until recently but that locals paid for its
survival.  these people are now forced to leave those same public parks
where they hang in our cities which is their right to begin with, that’s
one more disgraceful thing in this city (pgh) where all that is ridiculous
get to be in front page.
-forwarding:
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FYI:

PLEASE POST FAR AND WIDE…

Food Not Bombs in going to need some help this next Sunday June 8th. Food
Not Bombs has served free healthy vegetarian food to hungry
people at Market Square for the last 15 years, but this past Sunday we got
kicked out by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. We found out that the
Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership has secured permits to use Market Square
almost every day until December, and they do not want us there. This past
Sunday they called in police to force us out of the area. Their rational
is that they are trying to “economically
revitalize” Market Square and that hungry people scare off the rich
people. They also stated that the homeless people do not contribute to a
safe and comfortable atmosphere for the new demographic they are trying to
attract.

We at FNB believe that we should have the right to serve free healthy
meals to hungry people in centrally located public spaces. We will not
accept the attempts by the PDP to hide and ignore the basic needs of the
least fortunate Pittsburghers.

 and my 35th birthday.  i’ll be official - for the third time in my life i’ll have breached an age barrier that seems utterly pointless.

Due to my reinjured foot, i’ll not be travelling this weekend as much as i’d rather be either in MN or NM.  plus my o’ma is in town and that rarely happens!

NM convention in Santa Fe on Saturday June 7th.

Alt Media conference is in Minneapolis, MN on June 5-7 i think.

My birthday is 6/6.

send a birthday gift in the form of a donation to my campaign to help delegates get to Chicago and Ballot Access in various states.  every dollar counts!  tell your friends too!

http://voteswift.org -  click on donate for your options - checks and money orders allow more of your donation to go to the above rather than paypal fees, but do what is easiest for you!

Article:

http://thirdpartywatch.com/2008/05/30/green-partys-wonder-woman/

go to the UN, say our previous government implemented imperialistic, fascist policies that funded a mess of the Middle Eastern countries. We apologize and have voted to elect a president who is willing to say this and discuss an as close to consensus policy that can be made to rectify the situation. We must also do this world wide as we’ve repeated this type of behavior internationally and the world has needlessly suffered.

So, United Nations of the world, who is willing to work with us to restore local people’s land and resources to their control?

We also will cease to assist Israel in violating UN resolutions passed by the general assembly and using veto power in the Security Council to accomplish such.

We the world’s help, will also form a strategic plan to withdraw all US military from around the world, cleaning up the bases as we leave so no contamination is left behind, establishing transition centers for military, especially combat, personnel to heal from the trauma of the inhumanity we required of them to perform their ‘duties’ in enable them to reintegrate back into society and live healthy lives.

In addition, i would like the world to release all prisoners of war (pow) to be returned to their families, and the truth of MIA/POWs made to all families in all countries.  (mia=missing in action)  This includes hostages in Columbia and back to Vietnam war and maybe even before.

anyone have time to research if the statements of rangevoting.org on IRV are accurate?

and what do you think of this ballot initiative they have:

getting it in states like texas where we have no initiative or referendum would be difficult but might be easier than ballot access petitioning!

Possible Language for a Ballot Initiative for “Democracy Improvement” read more…..

living in an ‘ist’ society of such crimes as identity theft, unwarranted surveillance, etc. vs. something completely different…donate your ideas in comments.

‘ist’s: capitalist, racist, communist, sexist, socialist, ageist, classist….add to this list in comments. read more…..