Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) wrote to me today to let me know that she intends to do something about global warming. Me and tens of thousands of her closest friends, probably. Still, I was glad to hear from her. She’s been bringing up the subject of climate change often since the election–and before, though now she has a chance to be heard.

An Earth Day Network poll conducted in October showed that

Americans are worried about global warming - 58 percent say it will have a “great to extreme” impact on their children’s future and two out of three agree it will adversely impact the U.S. economy over the next ten years.

My worry is surely strong enough to count double in any nationwide poll. And what are the other 42% thinking? They’re probably still believing the Inhofe vacuity (R-OK). A few years ago in a speech on the Senate floor, he perpetuated conservatives’ war on science. He wrote of his speech,

I called the threat of catastrophic global warming the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” a statement that, to put it mildly, was not viewed kindly by environmental extremists and their elitist organizations.

I wonder if he has changed his mind, whether he thinks Al Gore made it all up, or what. I know. He’s still calling it a hoax. Get that man out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and get Boxer in! What a relief.

Now that climate change is going to be a serious issue, it will help to understand the what and how of it. There are so many important stories on climate change that I don’t know where to start.

• Truth Out has a long list of climate change stories.

• John Mohawk on Prophecy and Survival has several years of climate change news excerpts with an emphasis on what peoples have learned in the past that might help us to navigate the future.

• Of course, you could see An Inconvenient Truth. I’ve heard of frequent community showings and house parties presenting the movie in Salt Lake City lately.

• The recent review of 866 scientific studies on climate change makes compelling reading.

• If you doubt that warmer temperatures are causing harm, look at the images from Tuvalu, an island nation in the Pacific (several small islands and atolls). The highest point is 16ft above sea level. Actually, it may not be that high any longer. The people will need to be evacuated soon (those not yet gone) because the sea level is rising. Warmer temperatures = melting ice = rising seas.

• For general coverage and an overview of climate change, should you need it, I find the BBC more helpful than US news sites. The British have acknowledged the problem, being an island nation themselves, and they are addressing it more directly.

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The Iraq Study Group Report. It has dominated the news today. Who says what? What are the comments? How was the book published? What does the report itself say?

It says Iraq is in the midst of a grave and deteriorating crisis. It says Bush policies have failed. According to polls, Americans agree. (All but the red blogging Americans, apparently.) Gore assures Bush the people’s opinions are not about him. Peter Hart of FAIR encourages the media to broaden the debate during the inevitable week of prime time coverage. I haven’t read the report yet, so I don’t know if the report considers the real costs of the war.

The report is downloadable on NPR or for sale in book format on Amazon. There are even reviews on Amazon. The readers bought, received, and read the report already? It was only printed Saturday night and delivered to stores on Monday morning.

Of course, the content of the report blends perfectly with the hearings and Senate vote on the nomination of Robert Gates to be the new Secretary of Defense. I listened to the Armed Services Committee hearings yesterday. As many noted, the committee embraced Gates (even though the Democratic Underground didn’t). I think I heard Hillary Clinton blow him a kiss.

All of the Senators were certainly senatorially polite. Several of them thanked him for his candor. I’m sure that does create a completely shocking new tone to be able to even dream that a Republican nominee would admit that Iraq is a violent mess and staying the course is not a viable option, while all other options remain on the table.

As I listened to him, I wondered if George Bush, a famously stubbon president, would listen to Gates if he made the same observations to Bush. As I listened to coverage of the Iraq Study Group Report, I wondered whether he would actually and personally read it. And, if he does read it, will he genuinely consider the recommendations of his close allies? Given the responses and the insistence that the administration hasn’t used the phrase “stay the course” for three weeks nows (wow, three whole weeks), it seems possible.

Nevertheless, call me skeptical.

Tomorrow the Armed Services Committee will hear testimony on the Iraq Study Group. Hugs and kisses all around.

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I wasn’t surprised to read that recent documentary films rattle the business world. Movies like Supersize Me and Fahrenheit 9/11 drew crowds at commercial theatres. I saw both of these films in theaters when they were first released. Black Gold, a film about the international coffee industry and the idea of fair trade, is currently being shown at festivals and art houses across the U.S. Iraq for Sale made the rounds earlier this Fall. One of the interesting ways Robert Greenwald’s Iraq for Sale was publicized was through personal and political networks arranging showings at house parties and community centers. The movie is still in the news with war profiteers attempting to intimidate Greenwald.

It has been my experience that people have a good time watching these films. This isn’t a painful dose of political medicine. I remember reading an interview with Michael Moore about Roger and Me in which he said he makes the films he would like to see on a Saturday night. I can buy that. I have–several times. Laugh and learn at the same time. Sometimes the average dumb movie is a mind-numbing relief, but laughing at Morgan Spurlock puking out the window of his car as he chokes down a Big Mac has its own appeal in the average-dumb-movie category.

I have Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price from the library. That’s my entertainment for the week. Part of the fun is knowing how much it angers global corporate executives that they don’t have complete control over their public images.

What are you watching?

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I’m just too blissed out on fish oil to raise the blood pressure today. So, rather than talk about the indictment of George Bush or discuss why George Bush can’t say the words “civil war” (even if Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart can), I’ll just give you Mark Fiore’s animated Still Deciding at Mother Jones. I can’t even get too bothered out how insubstantial the video is, but I am wondering why Pat Bagley hasn’t created an animated Clueless George series.

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With apologies to the great UU choir directors I have known, I have to tell you a joke—because it is just so completely apt.

Why do Unitarians sing so badly?
Because they are always reading ahead to see if they agree with the words.

It’s not even all that funny. If you know Unitarians, just nod in acknowledgment.

Earlier I mentioned that one of my favorite political songs is Steve Earle’s “The Revolution Starts Now.” I might have mentioned it a couple of times, and I might mention it a couple more. One fine commentor suggested other music if I like Steve Earle. It’s not about the sound and the style, and it’s not so much that I like Steve Earle, though I’m sure he’s great. It’s about the story he tells.

I was walkin’ down the street
In the town where I was born
I was movin’ to a beat
That I’d never felt before
So I opened up my eyes
And I took a look around
I saw it written ‘cross the sky
The revolution starts now
Yeah, the revolution starts now

The revolution starts now
When you rise above your fear
And tear the walls around you down
The revolution starts here
Where you work and where you play
Where you lay your money down
What you do and what you say
The revolution starts now
Yeah the revolution starts now

Yeah the revolution starts now
In your own backyard
In your own hometown
So what you doin’ standin’ around?
Just follow your heart
The revolution starts now

Last night I had a dream
That the world had turned around
And all our hopes had come to be
And the people gathered ‘round
They all brought what they could bring
And nobody went without
And I learned a song to sing
The revolution starts now

Sarangel Music (ASCAP)

What this song tells me is that revolution is work. It isn’t domination. It is cooperation and community. That’s a story I can believe. I read ahead, and that’s a song I can sing.

Apparently I’m not the only one. Actually, I’m sure I’m way behind the curve on this one. Listen to Steve Earle’s show The Revolution Starts Now on Air America late Sundays or by podcast. I listened to last week’s show with Dick Cavett. It was like a trip back to my musical infancy watching music on his show.

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