Living Liberally Blog

Parliamentary Trick...or Political Treat?

Justin Krebs — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:18:18 -0500

The Republicans scream that reconciliation --
a process by which a majority gets things done --
is a "parliamentary trick"...while a small minority
holds the Senate hostage with the filibuster threat.

They shout & stamp & wheeze & wince
that Democrats are undemocratic to consider it
...while they refuse democratic up-or-down votes
on critical appointees with no real opposition.

One Senator can obstruct extended unemployment benefits
& another can put holds on hundreds of measures,
wasting our time, money & chance to improve our country.

If reconciliations is a "parliamentary trick"
at least it makes progress -- a political treat.
And it's time Dems go Trick-or-Treating.

Let's wreck their silly notions with reconciliation
& show that Washington actually can work.

I'd toast to that.

Join your friendly neighborhood liberal drinkers
to talk polls & pols, elections & distractions
at your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

Living Liberally Oscar Trivia Quiz

Living Liberally — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:54:25 -0500

Created by Bec Zajac

Yes folks, it's time for the biggest political event of the season.... More controversial than the presidential elections, a damn sight sexier than the Democratic National Convention, wackier than the Conservative Political Action Conference, and more talked about than the National Tea Party Convention... It's the 82nd Annual Academy Awards!!! And this year, to spice it up a little for all you lefties out there, we've put together a “Who Am I?” about all your favorite pinko Oscar nominees. So turn those TVs up and put those thinking caps on for this year's …. "Living Liberally Oscar Trivia Quiz"

1) I drive a Toyota Prius? Who am I?

A – Meryl Streep
B – Maggie Gyllenhaal
C – Penelope Cruz
D – Sandra Bullock

2) A former Canadian Prime Minister is my great grandfather. Who am I?

A – Anna Kendrick
B – Christopher Plummer
C – Jeremy Renner
D – Stanley Tucci

3) Despite dropping out of high school, I have an IQ of 160. Who am I?

A – Quentin Tarantino
B – Lee Daniels
C – Vera Farmiga
D – Ethan Coen

4) I said, “"There is a need, especially right now in America, to be a bit provocative."

A – Kathryn Bigelow
B – Jason Reitman
C – T Bone Burnett
D – Maggie Gyllenhaal

5) Concerned about the lack of Hispanic-oriented sitcoms on American television, I approached George Lopez about producing a sitcom with him as the star.

A – Penelope Cruz
B – James Cameron
C – Sandra Bullock
D – Jason Reitman

6) I once criticized Sarah Palin, by comparing her candidacy to "a bad Disney movie." Who am I?

A – Randy Newman
B – Mo’Nique
C – Matt Damon
D – Meryl Streep

7) I won top honors at the Rome Film festival for my role in a movie about a gay love affair between two members of a neo-Nazi group.

A – Penelope Cruz
B – Helen Mirren
C – Carey Mulligan
D – Colin Firth

8) I was involved in an anti-coal reality campaign, which aimed to debunk "clean coal" industry propaganda.

A – Anna Kendrick
B – Ethan Coen
C – Jason Reitman
D – Woody Harrelson

9) I have been spotted marching in pro-abortion demonstrations held in Washington, D.C.

A – Meryl Streep
B – Stanley Tucci
C – Matt Damon
D – Maggie Gyllenhaal

10) I founded a non-government organization, which has set up a home, a school and a clinic for homeless girls and people suffering from tuberculosis in Calcutta.

A – George Clooney
B – Penelope Cruz
C – Stanley Tucci
D – Gabourey Sidibe

11) I once said, in describing the Bush administration, “The US and the world just didn't deserve these people. They're a good deal worse. They don't even know the rules.”

A –Peter Jackson
B – Christopher Plummer
C – Morgan Freeman
D – Randy Newman

12) I once took a bicycle tour down the west coast, escorted by the “Mothership,” a Chicago city transit bus fuelled by hemp oil and powered by solar panels.

A – Lee Daniels
B – Jeff Bridges
C – Maggie Gyllenhaal
D – Woody Harrelson

13) I said, “I always want to make films. I think of it as a great opportunity to comment on the world in which we live. …. There will always be issues I care about.”

A – Morgan Freeman
B – Matt Damon
C – Lee Daniels
D – Kathryn Bigelow

14) I am such a big "South Park" fan, I got a hold of Trey Parker, the creator of the series, and asked for a part in an episode. I was given the role of "Sparky," the gay dog.

A – Quentin Tarantino
B – George Clooney
C – Matt Damon
D – Peter Jackson

15) On moving to LA, before getting involved with the film industry, I worked for a nursing agency, and then, by the age of 21, had started my own. Who am I?

A – Jeremy Renner
B – Vera Farmiga
C – Lee Daniels
D – Sandra Bullock

16) I was passionate about dancing and toured with a Ukrainian folk-dancing company in my teens.

A – Vera Farmiga
B – Anna Kendrick
C – Christoph Waltz
D – Helen Mirren

17) I founded the End Hunger Network an organization aimed at encouraging and supporting action to end childhood hunger.

A – Helen Mirren
B – Colin Firth
C – Jeff Bridges
D –Mo’Nique

18) I said, "Then the September 11th attacks happened and the idea of a domestic comedy adventure film about an anti-terrorism unit just didn't seem all that funny to me anymore."

A – Quentin Tarantino
B – Kathryn Bigelow
C – James Cameron
D – Ethan Coen

19) I am the only actress to date to have a film, which was marketed with my name solely above the title, top the $200 million domestic box office mark. Who am I?

A – Meryl Streep
B – Helen Mirren
C – Penelope Cruz
D – Sandra Bullock

20) I have been referred to as having played Obama’s favorite “movie president.”

A – Morgan Freeman
B – Christopher Plummer
C – Jeff Bridges
D – George Clooney

21) I said, “I am not loving Obama - he made this statement when they were talking about what they were trying to accomplish with the new legislation on global warming and he said, ‘Let's not let great be the enemy of good.’ That just stayed with me and haunted me.”

A – Woody Harrelson
B – Gabourey Sidibe
C – Matt Damon
D – George Clooney

22) I once said, “I feel quite strongly about anti-Americanism. I share people's grievances about the current Administration ….”

A – Nick Hornby
B – Peter Jackson
C – Helen Mirren
D – Colin Firth

23) Before entering the movie industry, I was a truck driver. Who am I?

A – Jeremy Renner
B – Peter Jackson
C – James Cameron
D – T Bone Burnett

24) I proudly support the American Civil Liberties Union, participated in anti-war demonstrations, wore a peace sign pin in support of the organization ‘Artists United to Win Without War,’ and achieved some notoriety for being quoted as saying America was "responsible in some way" for the 9/11 attacks.

A – George Clooney
B – Maggie Gyllenhaal
C – Jeff Bridges
D – Quentin Tarantino

25) I was inducted into New Orleans’ Warren Easton High School “Hall of Fame” for my help rebuilding the school after Hurricane Katrina.

A – Kathryn Bigelow
B – Joel Coen
C – Morgan Freeman
D – Sandra Bullock

26) I said, “If celebrity is a credit card, I'm using my credit. My job is to try and find ways of talking about issues that move us forward. I don't make policy, but I can shine a light on faulty or good policy.” Who am I?

A – James Cameron
B – George Clooney
C – Ethan Coen
D – Meryl Streep

27) I made a documentary about the common factors that bring women into the penal system
A – Jason Reitman
B – Mo’Nique
C – Joel Coen
D – Helen Mirren

28) When I was 11, I got a suit and a briefcase, went to the Minneapolis International Airport with a Super 8 camera and made a movie about shuttle diplomacy called "Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go"

A – Quentin Tarantino
B – George Clooney
C – Jason Reitman
D – Joel Coen

29)I said, “The myth of the liberal media is one of the great jokes played on us. The media are owned lock, stock, and barrel by the right wing.”

A – Morgan Freeman
B – T Bone Burnett
C – Jeff Bridges
D – Ethan Coen

30) In a profile of me for the NY Times Magazine I notoriously mentioned that I am in an “open marriage.”

A – Maggie Gyllenhaal
B – Woody Harrelson
C – Mo’Nique
D – Peter Jackson

31) I once climbed the Golden Gate Bridge and put up a sign that read, "Hurwitz. Aren't ancient redwoods more precious than gold?" in protest of Pacific Lumber CEO Charles Hurwitz.

A – Sandra Bullock
B – Woody Harrelson
C – Jeff Bridges
D – Randy Newman

ANSWERS:
1) A 2) B 3) A 4) D 5) C 6) C 7) B 8) B 9) B 10) B 11) D 12) D13) D 14) B 15) B 16) A 17) C 18) C 19) D 20) C 21) A 22) D 23) C 24) B 25) D 26) B 27) B 28) D 29) B 30) C 31) B

Our Toxic Waterways: Flushing Away Our Future?

KAT — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:00:35 -0500

Big River Trailer from Wicked Delicate Films on Vimeo.

Frustrated swimming pool owners in thousands of backyards across this country have posted a sign that pleads "We don't swim in your toilet, so please don't pee in our pool!"

The message is crude but clear. Nobody wants to wallow in somebody else's waste--or our own, for that matter. So why do we treat our seas like sewers? Why do we contaminate our streams, rivers, lakes and oceans with a horrible hodgepodge of chemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, plastic debris and waste?

Evidently, the world's waterways are a giant toilet into which we can dump anything and everything, and then simply flush it all "away." As if river currents and rolling waves will pull our pollution into some giant cosmic garbage disposal.

Industrial agriculture's synthetic fertilizers have given us lush green lawns and amber waves of grain. But the run-off from all those yards and farms seeps into our water table and feeds the "red tides", those toxic algae blooms that cause massive die-offs of aquatic plants and animals.

Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, the filmmakers who fondly documented their brief stint as Iowa corn farmers in King Corn, explore agribiz's downstream downside in Big River. In this thirty-minute sequel, Cheney and Ellis revisit their Iowa acre and trace its toxic trail all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

The film will make its Manhattan debut on March 15th at the Brecht Forum, followed by a panel discussion with Cheney, Ellis, King Corn director Aaron Woolf, Hudson Valley farmer and MacArthur genius Cheryl Rogowski, and Steve Rosenberg of Scenic Hudson.

The screening is a benefit for the Food Systems Network NYC, a non-profit organization whose members (myself included) are dedicated to bringing fresh, wholesome foods to all New Yorkers and supporting our region's farmers, both urban and rural.

Cheney and Ellis have chosen to go the grassroots route with the release of Big River, organizing screenings across the country in churches, schools, community centers, libraries, boardrooms and so forth. So if you're not in New York, check out their website to find a screening near you.

Environmentalist Bill McKibben calls the film " a sharp and clever reminder that nothing ever really goes away, certainly not the soup of chemicals we're pouring on our fields." And Big River is more timely than ever in the wake of a flood of stories this past week about our nation's troubled waterways.

When Cheney and Ellis revisit Iowa, they discover that Atrazine, the herbicide they relied on to grow their corn, has tainted the local creek. Just this week, scientists reported that this widely used weed-killer, which has contaminated the tap water of millions of Americans, is "chemically castrating"--and even feminizing--male frogs. Their gender is literally reversed to the extent that they can bear eggs.

Atrazine is a known endocrine disrupter and suspected carcinogen. The European Union banned it back in 2004. Researchers in the US have called for a ban here, too, citing studies that have linked it to "human birth defects, low birth weight, prematurity and low sperm count."

Nonetheless, we apply about 80 million pounds of Atrazine annually, and the Environmental Protection Agency has long insisted that it poses no risk. In October of last year, however, the EPA announced that it would "reassess atrazine's safety, including its cancer risk."

But there's only so much the EPA can do to defend our waterways, because, as the New York Times reported last week in the latest installment of its superb Toxic Water series, the Clean Water Act doesn't give the EPA the authority to pursue some of the biggest offenders:

Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law.

The result?:

Some businesses are declaring that the law no longer applies to them. And pollution rates are rising.

Companies that have spilled oil, carcinogens and dangerous bacteria into lakes, rivers and other waters are not being prosecuted, according to Environmental Protection Agency regulators working on those cases, who estimate that more than 1,500 major pollution investigations have been discontinued or shelved in the last four years.

Some members of Congress are trying to remedy this egregious state of affairs through a piece of legislation called the Clean Water Restoration Act, but as the Times reported:

...a broad coalition of industries has often successfully lobbied to prevent the full Congress from voting on such proposals by telling farmers and small-business owners that the new legislation would permit the government to regulate rain puddles and small ponds and layer new regulations on how they dispose of waste.

Glenn Beck is warning that passage of the Clean Water Restoration Act will result in the government regulating virtually every body of water larger than your birdbath. This could conceivably include the puddles of crocodile tears that Beck routinely weeps, and maybe even the pools of drool that accompanied his ick-inducing interview with Sarah Palin.

Allowing the EPA to prevent industries from polluting our waterways is just bad for business, according to Beck. Never mind that letting manufacturers dump toxins into our waters is bad for us. For wingnut pundits whose populist veneer is thinner than the chocolate shell on an M & M, the concerns of common citizens must never be allowed to trump the needs of commerce.

It's a view evidentally shared by mega developers the Toll Brothers, who withdrew from a proposed project along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn last Tuesday after the EPA finally declared the famously fouled Gowanus a Superfund site.

Thanks to "years of discharges, storm water runoff, sewer outflows and industrial pollutants, the Gowanus Canal has become one of the nation's most extensively contaminated water bodies," the EPA declared.

The Toll Brothers had grand plans to build 450 housing units and 2,000 square feet of retail space there. "We're extremely disappointed in the EPA's decision," David Von Spreckelsen, a Toll senior vice president, told the Wall Street Journal. "It's going to have a big impact on the properties along the canal...It's unlikely you are going to see development there for many, many, many, many years."

Admittedly, this news is a colossal disappointment for all those would-be home buyers who longed to live by a canal whose signature stench betrays its industrial past: a heady blend of "cement, oil, mercury, lead, PCBs, coal tar, and other contaminants."

But as the New York Times reported last year, "Studies have shown that property values decline after a Superfund listing but rebound after the cleanup, sometimes to far higher levels."

Given the choice, most folks prefer their creeks and canals to be contaminant-free. Sadly, too many communities haven't got a choice. They're up a rancid river without a paddle, while Glenn Beck piddles on the truth and peddles his twaddle about puddles.

Obama: We Know You Can Run, Now Prove You Can Pass

Justin Krebs — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:34:15 -0500

After running on healthcare in '08,
& working on it for most of '09,
Senate Dems & the White House seem to realize
it only counts if they actually pass reform
...even if it's "only" with a majority vote.

Reacting to the Tea Party & Scott Brown win,
Dems need to see they can't run as "populist"
unless they pass real regulations on the banks
that still profit while Americans are out of work.

And after running time and again for gay rights,
Dems are finally working on Don't Ask, Don't Tell
which makes the GOP runs the other direction.

We know Obama's got a great running game
...now it's time he proves he can pass.

And since the GOP is running away & taking a pass
Obama just needs his own majority to get in line.

Join us for a run of good conversation
as we pass around a pitcher of liberal libations
at your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

A Snowball's Chance in DC

Justin Krebs — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:00:38 -0500

A Republican winning Kennedy's seat
had odds of one-in-a-million.
Then Scott Brown won.

Getting any GOP support in the Senate
would happen once in a blue moon.
Then the jobs bill passed.

So watch out if you say that healthcare
has a snowball's chance in hell...
you might end up with a face full of slush.

A full-day bipartisan healthcare meeting
seemed less likely than Snowpacolypse 3
yet maybe the President't 6 hours on C-SPAN
will pull a masterful snow job after all.

He may not need a snowball's chance in hell
...just a snowball's chance in DC.

Come out to toast a liberal libation
to the fact that healthcare is still alive
& that the Senate passed something this week
with your like-minded left-leaners
at your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

In "By" vs. "Buy," Bayh Took a Bye, so We Say Bye Bye

Justin Krebs — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:41:14 -0500

A handful of Senate Dems finally call for reconciliation
to let the majority that was elected pass a public option
but the healthcare industry will spend whatever it takes
to buy our democracy & make whatever they can.

Regulations to rein in the rampant recklessness
of a financial industry that imploded our economy
gets watered down as Senators of both parties angle
for cash from the Wall Street banks they would regulate.

And as Congress meanders toward moderate measures
to remedy the Supreme Court's decision on corporate money,
those corporations will spend what they can now
to ensure their ability to spend even more.

While a Party of No & hapless majority paralyze the Senate,
centrist Senators like Evan Bayh play to the middle,
don't show leadership, hedge, hem & haw,
preventing progress & letting corporate interests win.

So it's not so sad saying "Bye, bye, Bayh" --
in the battle whether it's government "by" the people
or whether corporations "buy" the government --
you gotta take sides...you can't take a bye.

Toast bye to Bayh as you buy a drink
& let the evening pass by as you share a think
with like-minded lefties and liberal libations
at your progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY

War and Peas: Why Childhood Obesity is a Matter of National Security

KAT — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:38:48 -0500

It's a good thing Michelle Obama's arms are so fabulously fit, because she's just signed on to do some serious heavy lifting. At Tuesday's White House launch of the Let's Move campaign, the First Lady declared her ambition to end childhood obesity within a generation:

I don't want our kids to live diminished lives because we failed to step up today. I don't want them looking back decades from now and asking us, why didn't you help us when you had a chance? Why didn't you put us first when it mattered most?

So much of what we all want for our kids isn't within our control. We want them to succeed in everything they do. We want to protect them from every hardship and spare them from every mistake. But we know we can't do all of that. What we can do...what is fully within our control...is to give them the very best start in their journeys. What we can do is give them advantages early in life that will stay with them long after we're gone. As President Franklin Roosevelt once put it: "We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future."

That is our obligation, not just as parents who love our kids, but as citizens who love this country.

I applaud the First Lady's attempt to rally the nation by casting this crisis as a problem that ought to concern any self-proclaimed patriot. But I'm really glad she didn't name the campaign the War on Waistlines, because we're already overextended in the metaphorical war department, what with the War on Drugs and the War on Poverty. Not to mention the actual wars we're waging in the Middle East.

Or maybe we should mention them, because, as Michelle Obama noted on Tuesday, "Military leaders report that obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service."

Mission: Readiness, a nonprofit, bi-partisan organization of senior retired military leaders who believe that "the most effective long-term investment we can make for a strong military is in the health and education of the American people," flatly declares that being overweight is "the Number 1 reason why potential recruits are unable to enlist in the armed services," adding this shocking statistic:

75% of young Americans are ineligible to serve their country because they have either failed to graduate high school, engaged in criminal activity, or are physically or mentally unfit.

This is no laughing matter, despite George Saunder's painfully funny Heavy Artillery piece in last month's New Yorker, a fictitious dispatch from an out-of-shape, soda-swilling soldier too preoccupied by snack attacks to fend off enemy fire.

Whether you're a hawk or a dove, surely we can all agree that we've done our children a terrible disservice by allowing poor nutrition and physical inactivity to become the norm. If three quarters of our kids aren't fit to serve in the military, you've got to wonder how well equipped are they to succeed in civilian life?

Decent jobs may be in short supply now, but supposing we could even get our economy back on track and create rewarding employment opportunities, what are we doing to prepare our youth for those good jobs?

And what good do the billions of dollars we devote to military preparedness do us if our kids are in such lousy shape that only one quarter of our youth are fit to serve? As Michelle Obama pointed out:

If kids aren't getting adequate nutrition, even the best textbooks and teachers in the world won't help them learn. If they don't have safe places to run and play, and they wind up with obesity-related conditions, then those health care costs will just keep rising...

...we know that solving our obesity challenge won't be easy - and it certainly won't be quick. But make no mistake about it, this problem can be solved.

This isn't like a disease where we're still waiting for the cure to be discovered - we know the cure for this. This isn't like putting a man on the moon or inventing the Internet - it doesn't take some stroke of genius or feat of technology. We have everything we need, right now, to help our kids lead healthy lives. Rarely in the history of this country have we encountered a problem of such magnitude and consequence that is so eminently solvable.

We could start by allocating more money to provide healthy school lunches, as Slow Food USA, The Healthy Schools Campaign, The LunchBox, and dozens of other organizations have been calling on the USDA to do.

Imagine if, instead of subsidizing the commodity crops that form the cornerstone of our disease-inducing food chain, we channeled that money into the production of wholesome foods that would provide our kids with the nutrients they need?

And if we provided kids with appealing outdoor activities and regular recess, we might be able to whittle down the number of hours they spend watching TV and being bombarded with junk food advertising, which has been shown to encourage more unhealthy eating habits.

These may be common sense solutions, but to implement them we'll need to address a number of significant obstacles: insufficient access to affordable fresh produce; our addiction to convenience foods and a too-busy culture that doesn't leave time for real meals; a lack of basic cooking skills; and agricultural policies that favor processed foods.

Nutrition professor Marion Nestle found much to commend in the Let's Move campaign, which has the potential to put these issues on the front burner.

The campaign's success will depend on whether Michelle Obama and the many other participants in Let's Move can motivate parents and children to alter deeply ingrained habits.

But it can be done--there is a precedent. As the Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote in the Washington Post:

...it is a challenging goal, indeed, but the percentage of American smokers dropped from 42 percent in 1964, when Surgeon General Luther Terry revealed the dangers of cigarette smoking to the American public, to less than 20 percent in 2007...Americans have shown a willingness to become healthier; on the issue of childhood obesity, we can do it again.

So, if you really want to serve our country, you can start by serving real food. The Let's Move campaign is a serious call to arms, toned or not. Let's hope the nation heeds it.

Originally published on The Green Fork

Senate Protocol: More Crippling Than An Act Of God

Justin Krebs — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:45:22 -0500

Threat of a filibuster by a 41-seat minority
has prevented any Senate work on legislation
for jobs creation, financial reform or campaign finance
...well before Snowmageddon sent our reps home.

An unprecedented move by a bitter Senator
holds up 70 appointments to help run the government
freezing any progress in Washington
...& that was before Snowpocalypse hit.

Despite bipartisan hand-holding by the President,
the idea the GOP'd have a hand in healthcare
had a snowball's chance in Hell
...even before snowballs flew through DC.

Snowstorms may bring our lives to a halt
but Snow Jobs bring DC to a freeze every day.

Senate protocol's even more crippling than an Act of God.

They might find excuses not to do their jobs,
but we'll do ours: braving the cold & warming the night
with political pals, liberal libations & cozy conversation
at your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

Blogging and Eating for Haiti Relief

KAT — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:15:31 -0500

Guest Blogger Gisele Perez, aka the LA2LAChef, is an expatriate New Orleanian and professional chef now living in Los Angeles. She blogs at painperdu, is the owner of small pleasures catering in Los Angeles, and co-host of the Drinking Liberally chapter there.)

It started as a simple idea- food bloggers love food, and that fact creates a bond among us. Haiti is desperately in need of being fed-something we can align with passionately. Watching those news accounts out of Haiti after the January earthquake made us all want to do something to help. Hence the birth of Stir It 28 -a grass roots event of local food bloggers to help Haiti.

Food bloggers will come together bringing and serving delicious treats they've prepared. 100% of all funds raised during the month will go to Share Our Strength and Yéle Haiti.

Your LA2LA Chef is thrilled to be taking part in this event in
Los Angeles (events are also happening in Chicago, New York and
Atlanta -the list of cities is growing so check the site links). The
plan originated with bloggers Chrystal Baker of Duo Dishes, Bren Herrera of Flanboyant Eats , and Courtney Nzeribe of Coco Cooks.

For more information and to purchase advance tickets please go to at Flanboyant Eats or Coco Cooks. If you're in L.A. I look forward to seeing you on February 21st.

A High School For Green Teens

KAT — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:39:25 -0500

With unemployment in the dismal double digits, there's a lot of chanting and ranting about jobs right now. China's cleaning our clock when it comes to clean tech, even as its growth continues to rely on dirty ol' coal. And so does ours, for that matter. The difference is that China's forging ahead with alternative energy while we bury our heads in the tar sands.

Our national unemployment rate seems stuck at 10 percent, and in some urban areas, it's risen above 15 percent, according to CNN. Creating more jobs is clearly job number one. But what color will those jobs be? A generation or so ago, jobs came in just two basic colors: blue collar and white. Now, we've got one black-collared Jobs, trotting out another supposedly game-changing gadget in his trademark mock turtleneck (color Pee Wee Herman among the unimpressed ).

The real game changer, though, is the thousands of green jobs we could be creating, if only we'd reallocate our deficit-depleted resources. And the Steve showing us how to do this is named Ritz, not Jobs.

Steve Ritz is a trail-blazing teacher with an impressive track record of achievement working with students in one of the most challenging environments in New York City, the South Bronx--that eternally dumped-on borough whose name is synonymous with urban blight.

Ritz has figured out how to grow good food, good jobs and good citizens by tapping into one of our greatest wasted resources--urban youth. And he's doing it in Hunts Point, a quintessential "food desert" that, ironically, just happens to also be one of the world's largest food distribution centers; 2.7 billion pounds of fresh produce from 49 states and 55 foreign countries passes through Hunts Point's New York City Terminal Market annually on its way to more affluent neighborhoods.

Sadly, those endless truckloads of fresh fruits and vegetables don't do the locals much good. In fact, all the fumes from that commerce contribute to the South Bronx's extraordinarily high rate of respiratory illness, with a death rate from asthma that's about three times the national average.

Hunts Point is also part of the poorest congressional district in the country, with over half the population living below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is at a whopping 28 percent. And the neighborhood's 41st police precinct consistently records the highest violent crime rate per capita in New York City.

Undaunted by these grim statistics, Ritz took classes with a 40 percent attendance rate and brought them up to 93 percent. More remarkably still, his students have consistently achieved 100% passing grades on the state Regents exams in math and science.

Ritz's current goal is to establish the Hunts Point High School for Sustainable Community Initiatives, an open enrollment NYC public school that would train the local youth in emerging fields such as green roofing, urban agriculture, natural resource management, brown field remediation--in short, all the 21st century post-petroleum vocations in which our labor force needs to be skilled.

At his current position teaching at the Discovery High School in the Bronx, Ritz just oversaw the installation of a living, edible green wall in partnership with a for-profit enterprise called Green Living Technologies, a pioneering developer of cutting edge urban agricultural systems.

Green Living Technologies is sponsoring a team of Ritz's students, bringing them to Boston later this month "to be the first high students in America to be trained and certified as green wall and green roof installers," Ritz told me, adding that this is "proof that we are poised, ready, willing and able to export our talent and diversity nationally as we transform the landscape and mindset of the South Bronx."

Ritz believes that kids "shouldn't have to leave their neighborhood to live, learn and earn in a better one." His Hunts Point High School for Sustainable Community Initiatives proposal "addresses those facts in earnest; providing the skill set and wherewithal to turn Hunts Point into a preeminent educational and vocational destination that can be replicated nationally."

Sounds awesome, right? Tell it to the Department of Education, which rejected the proposal in its original incarnation back in 2008 when it was conceived as the Majora Carter Achievement Academy, named for the founder of the environmental justice non-profit Sustainable South Bronx.

Undeterred, Ritz renamed the proposed school and retooled it to be a "career and technical education” school with an emphasis on training in green technologies. He resubmitted it, only to have the Department of Education reject it again last November.

This past Monday, President Obama participated in a YouTube forum in which he took questions submitted by citizens in a kind of virtual, interactive fireside chat. One questioner asked:

President Obama, record numbers of young people elected you in support of a clean energy future. If money is tight, why do you propose wasting billions in expensive nuclear, dirty coal, and offshore drilling? We need to ramp up efficiency, wind and solar, that are all economically sustainable and create clean and safe jobs for our generation.

The President responded that he believes green jobs will be "the driver of our economy over the long term."

And yet, his support for 'clean coal,' offshore drilling, and other environmentally damaging sources of energy only creates more of what you might call "brown jobs." I'm not trying to coin a cute euphemism for disagreeable chores like emptying bedpans, cleaning toilets, diaper-changing or dog-walking. By "brown," I mean jobs that won't sustain our economy in the long run, because they're based on outdated notions about what our nation needs now.

Steve Ritz has demonstrated the potential of green jobs to revitalize a community and give young people a viable, rewarding career path. The Hunts Point Express published an editorial recently calling on the Department of Education to give the green light to Ritz's proposal, lauding it as a "visionary yet practical way to meet critical neighborhood needs."

And Bronx Community Board 2 just voted unanimously, thirty to zero, to pass Ritz's proposal.

If you'd like to help build momentum for Ritz's innovative initiative, please consider taking the time to post a comment in response to the Hunts Point Express editorial, or contactNYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. to express your support. And if you'd like to learn more about the HPHS proposal, contact Ritz directly at sritz@schools.nyc.gov.

Part of his strategy with the HPHA is to "turn garbage and waste into money." Wouldn't that be more cost effective, in the long run, than throwing good money after bad by clinging to outdated technologies?

Originally published on The Green Fork