2013 - %3, March

Watch: The IRS's "Star Trek" Training Video

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| Wed Mar. 27, 2013 12:16 PM PDT

Last week, CBS News got its hands on a copy of a Star Trek-themed training video the IRS made for its employees in 2010. The video and a Gilligan's Island-themed one also shot in the tax agency's in-house studio reportedly cost $60,000 to make. William Shatner is not amused:

Predictably, congressional belt-tighteners have set their phasers to outrage. "There is nothing more infuriating to a taxpayer than to find out the government is using their hard-earned dollars in a way that is frivolous," fumed Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.). (Meanwhile Congress is acting highly illogically by spending $380 million on photon torpedoes that don't work and no one wants.) Cowed by its critics, the IRS has apologized for "the space parody video."

At least none of your tax money was spent on acting lessons:

And so far, no one is freaking out about these Star Trek-themed spots produced by the Social Security Administration. Probably because they feature George "Sulu" Takei, who is awesome.

And let's not forget the time NASA decided to name a spaceship after the USS Enterprise.

Star Trek crew with space shuttle
NASA

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Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Winter Max and It's Dismally Low

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| Wed Mar. 27, 2013 11:06 AM PDT
Arctic sea iceArctic sea ice: NASA | Kathryn Hansen at Flickr

The Arctic Ocean reached the most frozen it's going to get this year on 13 March. Now the melt season begins, predicts the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The seasonal stats were gloomy. The max sea ice area of 2013 was was 5.84 million square miles (15.13 million square kilometers). That's the sixth lowest extent on record and a whopping 283,000 square miles (733,000 square kilometers) below the 1979 to 2000 average maximum. 

Interestingly this year's max fell five days later than the 1979 to 2000 average date of March 10. NSIDC says the date's highly variable, with the earliest max in the satellite record falling on 24 February 1996 and the latest on 2 April 2010.

Arctic sea ice extent as of March 24, 2013, along with daily ice extent data for the previous five years. The 1979 to 2000 average is in dark gray
Arctic sea ice extent on March 24, 2013, along with daily ice extent data for the previous five years. The 1979 to 2000 average is in dark gray: National Snow and Ice Data Center

Keep in mind that the Arctic Ocean froze a bigger extent of water than ever before this past autumn—a record 4.53 million square miles (11.72 million square kilometers). But that's only because it had to make up for the insane lack of sea ice that beset the Arctic (and all its ice-dependent flora and fauna) last summer. I wrote about that during my October cruise through the Arctic Ocean aboard the US Coast Guard icebreaker Healy (Arctic Ocean Diaries). 

So what the past 12 months add up to is a wild pendulum: the lowest ever summer ice followed by the biggest ever winter freeze-over, which still only managed a dismally low winter cover, composed of thin one-year-old ice destined to melt super fast this summer. Everything has become more extreme. 

So even though this year was *only* the sixth lowest winter max, the Arctic is likely on course for another epically low summer ice-scape, because almost all its frozen ocean is now newborn baby ice. 

Congress Saves Busted $380 Million Missile Program the Pentagon Won't Buy

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| Wed Mar. 27, 2013 9:37 AM PDT

Conservatives are throwing a hissy fit about a few hundred thousand dollars spent on a scientific study about duck sex, but over at the Pentagon, Congress is spending $380 million on a missile program that has no funding authorization, doesn't work, and the Department of Defense doesn't plan on buying. So why are we still paying for it? Because Germany and Italy are making the US feel awkward, and when you back out of a defense contract, you have to sell your first-born child. Also, jobs. 

The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), contracted to Lockheed Martin, is a joint project with Italy and Germany intended to produce a weapon that will intercept ballistic missiles. If you read Lockheed Martin's website, MEADS sounds really cool. This "hit-to-kill" missile will "defeat tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft, [and provide] full 360-degree engagement." Woah! (Shhh, forget about the fact that Lockheed Martin's program is basically a duplicate of the "Patriot" missile program that the US is already paying for. This one sounds cooler, okay?) 

Unfortunately, according to the Office of Secretary of Defense, MEADS has had serious technical, management, schedule, and cost problems since it was introduced in the mid-1990's" and has been unable to "meet schedule and cost targets." The Department of Defense decided in 2011 it didn't want the system because it couldn't afford to pay for two missile programs, and it was not helping US national security. For once, Congress actually agrees: Last week, an amendment proposed by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) that stripped funding from this "missile to nowhere" passed 94-5 with blinding bipartisan support. 

That didn't last long: Congress then passed a "stop-gap spending measure" that said that the $380 million needed to be used to complete the project, not pay termination fees. (According to Politico Pro, Sen. Ayotte has placed a hold on a top Pentagon acquisitions nominee until the Pentagon explains why it isn't scrapping the program.) 

As Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, argued on March 19, "The cost to finish the development of this program is almost exactly the same as the cost to unilaterally terminate it." According to DoD Buzz, last year, those fees were at least $800 million, although no official number has been released. Sean Kennedy of Citizens Against Government Waste argues that the best way to get out of this sticky scenario is for the "US to negotiate an agreement with its allies to collectively withdraw from the MEADS contract."

But Germany and Italy seem dead-set on the program, and have been guilt-tripping the US big-time, sending letters that say things like: "A final decision by the US Government to prohibit further funding for MEADS at this advanced stage would lead to a significant loss of technology for which we have commonly worked so hard. It would also be perceived as a serious setback for transatlantic cooperation in general." 

But even if Europe wasn't a factor, as Michael Hoffman of DoD Buzz notes, the program was probably saved because it provides jobs in Sen. Chuck Schumer's district in New York. Schumer lobbied Senate Appropriations Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to keep funding the program.​

Lockheed Martin certainly isn't upset about the US paying to complete the program. According to Reuters, "Lockheed and the MEADS consortium [are planning] a fourth quarter 2013 flight test to prove the MEADS missile defense system can intercept a ballistic missile."

Ben Freeman, Ph.D, an investigator for the Project On Government Oversight, where I used to work, tells Mother Jones that "my understanding is that we'll save money by terminating now... The program has had years to do "proof of concept," and nothing has been proven. It's time to cut our losses." 

First Dead Pigs. Now Dead Ducks. China, What's Next?

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| Wed Mar. 27, 2013 8:49 AM PDT
RIP, Ping of the Yangtze.

At least 1000 dead ducks were found floating in a river in Sichuan, China, Chinese media reported Monday.

Like the 16,000 pigs that were recently found in a different river in Sichuan, how the ducks died and why they were in the river is a mystery. They were fished out of the Nanhe river "then buried in plastic bags three meters underground," according to Agence Free Press. The Chinese government says that the ducks have been disinfected, and water in the area is safe to drink.

As The Guardian noted earlier this week, the hogs may be a consequence of the Chinese government attempting to better manage its livestock practices in its large-and-fast growing meat industry. Until recently, illegal butcher shops would buy dead pigs from farmers on the cheap, but after the government cracked down on the practice farmers began dumping deceased pigs in the river. Water contamination from livestock manure is also a major issue:

"The dead pigs weren't a big problem in the past, it was pollution from the farming," said Wang Yubing, deputy at the Pinghu Environmental Protection Bureau. Pinghu borders the Shanghai district of Jinshan and is upriver of the city, and pollution from pig farms further upriver in Nanhu and Haiyan damage water quality.

"The biggest pollution problem for Shaoxing is poultry and livestock farming," said Xu Luzhong, an inspector with the Zhejiang environmental authorities, when he visited the city. Pig excrement, slurry and the corpses dumped all over mean that the beautiful water town is giving off a bit of a stink.

"There are 130,000 farmers raising over 7 million pigs. Each pig excretes as much as 6 or 7 adult humans," said Yu Hongwei, deputy of the city's environmental bureau.

Yet when it comes to pollution from large-and-growing factory farms, the US and China aren't so different. We can scoff at the horror of thousands of pigs and ducks washing up in a river, Tom Philipott recently broke down the pollution running off of Iowa waterways and that isn't so pretty either: There are 18 million hogs in Iowa, and the 1 million hogs in Sioux City alone give off as much untreated manure as the Los Angeles and Atlanta metro areas combined.

Rick Perry Needs a Refresher on How Texas Feels About Marriage

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| Wed Mar. 27, 2013 8:29 AM PDT
Rick Perry

Marriage equality is ascendant, you may have heard. But Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas), for one, believes the question of who can and cannot marry is a settled issue in his state. "In Texas, it is fairly clear about where this state stands on that issue," Perry told the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday. "As recently as a constitutional amendment that passed—I believe, with 76 percent of the vote. The people of the state of Texas, myself included, believe marriage is between one man and one woman."

But Perry is, like many opponents of same-sex marriage, relying on some fairly dusty data sets. The constitutional amendment he's referring to passed in 2005 (it's 2013 now) and it banned same-sex civil unions in addition to same-sex marriages. Texans were really opposed to marriage equality then. James Henson and Joshua Blank of the Texas Politics Project have been paying a bit more attention to the numbers recently, though, and noticed a trend:

When we went back to examine the trend lines in the polls that included the gay marriage item, it became evident that overall opposition to same sex-marriage has been on a slow and steady decline, with some internal patterns of change among particular age, gender and partisan subgroups, including young people and suburbanites.

Perry would do well to consult this handy chart, from the TPP:

Texas Politics Project

Gay marriage is trending up, opposition to any legal recognition has trended down. Texas probably isn't going to go the way of Maryland and Washington anytime soon, but legal recognition of same-sex unions—which is prohibited under the 2005 constitutional amendment—is now the preference of six in ten Texans. And a majority of young Republicans now support full marriage equality, suggesting that this trend is only going to continue, even if Texas doesn't start turning purple. Oops.

Housekeeping Note

—By

| Wed Mar. 27, 2013 8:24 AM PDT

I'm a little under the weather this morning. Sorry. Back later.

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Obama's Organizing for Action Chases Big Money While Fighting Big Money in New York

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| Wed Mar. 27, 2013 8:10 AM PDT
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Ron Sachs/DPA/ZUMAPRESS.com

Organizing for Action (OFA), the pro-Obama nonprofit spun off from the president's reelection campaign, announced Tuesday it will join the "fair elections" fight in New York State, pushing for a statewide system of publicly financed campaigns. This is big news: OFA commands a massive grassroots network and some of the most advanced technology in politics, and for the reformers, New York State's "fair elections" effort is the front line in the fight against big-money politics. The timing of OFA's announcement, though, wasn't great: On the same day, news leaked that OFA is aggressively seeking six- and seven-figure donations as it tries to meet its $50 million fundraising target.

In an email to supporters in New York, OFA director Jon Carson wrote that "in New York elections, the voice of the public is being drowned out. Contributions from special interests, lobbyists, and corporations are far too influential, disclosure is inadequate, and enforcement of the laws currently on the books is too lax." Carson added, "That's not how democracy should work. So right now, OFA supporters are joining the fight to reduce the influence of special interests in state elections, and put the power back into the hands of New Yorkers."

OFA joins a deep bench of reformers lobbying Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York state politicians to pass a public financing bill for all statewide elections, a move cheered by at least of OFA's erstwhile critics. The idea for this kind of legislation was inspired by New York City's public financing program, which matches each dollar a city resident donates, up to $175, with six dollars in public funds. The hope is that candidates will opt to raise lots of small donations from many donors, instead of asking for big-dollar checks from a wealthy few.

Cuomo says he favors a statewide public financing bill, telling activists earlier this month that "fair elections" legislation is "one of the most important issues to complete" in this year's legislative session. But it's unclear if he is willing to expend serious political capital to push a public financing bill through the tangled, noxious mess that is the New York State legislature.

Meanwhile, OFA is aggressively hunting for as many big donations as it can find. The New York Times reported that OFA will give people who raise a million or more for two years in a row a spot on the group's board of directors. Ten slots on OFA's 30-person board, according to an internal memo, will be filled by "leaders in industry." And there could also be an OFA task force on policy; its leaders will be asked to raise $250,000 or more.

This arrangement gives more ammunition to OFA's critics, who accuse the group of selling access to President Obama and administration officials in exchange for raising or donating $500,000. OFA chairman Jim Messina fired back by saying "Whether you're a volunteer or a donor, we can't and we won't guarantee access to any government officials." Reformers have also criticized OFA for choosing to operate as a nonprofit, which can raise and spend unlimited funds and isn't required to disclose its donors. (OFA has said it will disclose donors who give more than $250.)

By joining the New York State fight, OFA is buying into a bigger, somewhat controversial strategy: That it takes big money to get big money out of politics. Jonathan Soros' Friends of Democracy super-PAC, for instance, spent $2.7 million during the 2012 election cycle to help elect seven pro-reform US House candidates and one New York State senator, Cecilia Tkaczyk, a proponent of public financing. Time will tell whether OFA's money and manpower gives New York reformers the boost they need.

We're Still at War: Photo of the Day for March 27, 2013

Wed Mar. 27, 2013 7:31 AM PDT

U.S. Army Spc. Jake Ballinger with Iron Troop, 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, occupies a security position atop a small hill during a training exercise March 16, 2013, at Hohenfels, Germany. A regiment is conducting an exercise to prepare troops for an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Joshua Edwards.

 

Not Just the Bees: Bayer's Pesticide May Harm Birds, Too

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| Wed Mar. 27, 2013 3:00 AM PDT
Geese in a corn field

Once again this spring, farmers will begin planting at least 140 million acres—a land mass roughly equal to the combined footprints of California and Washington state—with seeds (mainly corn and soy) treated with a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. Commercial landscapers and home gardeners will get into the act, too—neonics are common in lawn and garden products. If you're a regular reader of my blog, you know all of that is probably bad news for honeybees and other pollinators, as a growing body of research shows—including three studies released just ahead of last year's planting season.

But bees aren't the only iconic springtime creature threatened by the ubiquitous pesticide, whose biggest makers are the European giants Bayer and Syngenta. It turns out that birds are too, according to an alarming analysis co-authored by Pierre Mineau, a retired senior research scientist at Environment Canada (Canada's EPA), published by the American Bird Conservancy. And not just birds themselves, but also the water-borne insect species that serve as a major food source for birds, fish, and amphibians.

[Read more]

Tom's Kitchen: Raw Root-Veggie Slaw

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| Wed Mar. 27, 2013 3:00 AM PDT

In most areas of the country, late March is one of those awkward times to shop at the farmers market. Glamorous spring vegetables like asparagus and artichokes aren't in yet; winter staples like beets, carrots, and radishes are still coming out, but you're starting to get bored of them. That's the exact situation now playing out in Central Texas, with the added annoyance that my favorite veggies of all, leafy greens, are already on the way out, laid low by the fast-warming weather.

Even so, I was able to coax a fresh, fun dish out of what was abundant at the farmers market: beets, kohlrabi (a bulbous relative of broccoli, cabbage, and the rest of the brassica family), carrots, and spring onions. What inspired me was a gadget that has been stuck on a low shelf of my kitchen, unused, for years: a mandoline. I had always thought of mandolines as fancy devices that I would never be able to afford. When my mom gave me this inexpensive, plastic Japanese-brand model as a gift a few years ago, I never got around to trying it out. As an experiment, I decided to subject my market bounty to its razor-sharp blades, and came away impressed: a zippy, crunchy salad that tasted like spring on a salad plate, not winter warmed over.

You can make a very similar, slightly less attractive salad by simply grating the veggies, or slicing them as thinly as possible. Use any combo of winter veggies—except, of course, for ones that really need to be cooked to be enjoyed, like potatoes. The combo I used brought together sweet (carrots), earthiness (beets), and spice (kohlrabi), as well as a great clash of colors. A radish or two would also have been nice. It's also important to brighten the dish with plenty of herbs—parsley and mint work great—as well as a tart dressing.

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