Other Stuff

Solar for Soldiers is run through a clean energy technology company called Tipping Point Renewable Energy and was spearheaded by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. The program seeks to recruit returning veterans and retrain them in the installation of clean energy tech, like solar panels, for commercial and residential use. A no-brainer, giving veterans jobs in a market that has had notoriously high unemployment, furthering sustainable energy development, and saving commercial and non-profits in energy costs.

[…]

“Continued federal and state investment is key to this growth.” In fact, Senator Brown has introduced legislation to this effect at the federal level, both to improve unemployment opportunities for returning veterans and to provide further tax incentives for private businesses to make clean energy or efficient energy changes in their businesses and infrastructure.

(Source: sarahlee310)

sarahlee310:

technipol:

In Iowa last night, newly anointed GOP primary heavyweight Rick Perry offered a novel reason he is running for president (in addition to God calling him to do so):

Rick Perry strayed from a tribute to military service to tell an audience in Waterloo, Iowa, that he’s running in part to restore the respect of the military to its civilian leaders.

“One of the reasons that I’m running for president is I want to make sure that every young man and woman who puts on the uniform of the United States respects highly the president of the United States,” he said.

What is Perry talking about here? For one thing, this is not the type of sentence a candidate delivers off the cuff. It seems pretty clearly to be a deliberate, premeditated shot at President Obama as somehow lacking or illegitimate in his role as commander in  chief of the military.

[more at Salon]

Given how Perry is treating veterans, I am not sure why he thinks the military would care about his opinion.

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director of the Secretary of State’s elections division, said last week at a seminar in Austin that photo ID cards issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are not acceptable forms of military ID to vote, according to a recording provided by the Texas Democratic Party.

…

Not allowing holders of the VA card to vote would largely affect veterans who are young, homeless and traumatized by war, said Charlie Jones, head of Texas Democratic Veterans.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Vet-ID-holders-cannot-vote-1924290.php#ixzz1W7MfDIsK

sarahlee310:

Incredibly sad. 

Ann McGeehan, director of the Secretary of State’s elections division, said last week at a seminar in Austin that photo ID cards issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are not acceptable forms of military ID to vote, according to a recording provided by the Texas Democratic Party.

Jordy Keith, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state, backpedaled Friday on that determination.

“It was an informal Q&A, and (McGeehan) was answering based on what was expressly called out in Senate Bill 14,” Keith said. “Right now our office has not issued a final determination on that.”

Passed after Gov. Rick Perry declared voter ID an emergency issue in the last session, the strict bill is touted by Republicans as a way to reduce voter fraud but decried by Democrats as an effort to lower voter turnout among minorities and the elderly, disabled and poor.