I was inspired by a fantastic article published by the Sietch Blog called Bending Swords Into Wind Turbines, so I decided to bring together some data to share on the opportunity costs associated with the ongoing war in Iraq.

Just to be clear, I’m not espousing any political position. I’m only interested in coming to an understanding of what alternatives we are forgoing by spending money, effort and lives in Iraq as opposed to spending them on something else. We’re talking about a whole boatload of money here, so it’s nice to know what else we could be getting for our dollar.
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I wish this article was some sort of political commentary, but unfortunatly I’m just reporting the news, not referring to President Bush as a dictator or anything like that.

In addition to the illegal wiretapping and other abuses of freedom the Bush administration has undertaken, a political watchdog group called the Center for Research on Globalization has pointed out that the White House released a directive called the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive on May 9th, 2007 in which George W. Bush declares that in the event of a “Catastrophic Emergency”,

“The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government. “

The language would create a Presidential dictatorship in the case of such an emergency by placing the executive branch in control of the coordination of the legislative and judicial branches - branches which constitutionally are equally empowered to the President.
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The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger! Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!).

This issue needs immediate support or the future of free radio is in jeopardy. According to Pandora founder Tim Westergren:

The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio doesn’t pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

At this point there are only a few weeks left to protect the future of Internet based radio stations. Even if you don’t listen to them currently you should be very, very concerned because these stations are how you’ll listen in the future - and that is exactly what the media giants are trying to prevent! Read on and I’ll explain…
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If you’re interested in contributing to the effort to fight Global Warming, now is the time to actually do something.

On March 21st Al Gore will be testifying before congress about the topic and he has almost 300,000 digital signatures he’s taking with him. You can add your name to the list in about 30 seconds and help give the message all that much more impact.

And while you’re at it, please spread this message to at least a few other people so that everyone can participate. After all, it’s everyone’s Earth.