North Side Green Party

A cartoon by John Kinhart explains the relationship between peak oil, oil price surges, and economic busts. Gail-the-Actuary has it posted on the Oil Drum.

The War Resister's League was founded 86 years ago on Friday, October 19, 1923. The core of its initial membership was made up of men and women who had opposed US entry into World War I.

ComEd's latest Environmental Disclosure Statement reveals that the utility still relies on an electrical generation mix that is tilted overwhelmingly (62%) to nuclear power. ComEd increased its reliance on nuclear power over the previous six months. Coal and natural gas account for another 36%, making ComEd a major source of green-house emissions. Biomass and hydro-electric make up only 2% of ComEd's portfolio. Wind and solar power totalled 0%.

Eleven years ago two petroleum geologists, Colin J. Campbell and Jean H. Laherrére, published an article in Scientific American which warned of an impending crises in oil supply. That article started today's Peak Oil movement, which advocates taking steps now to mitigate diminishing oil production.

PBS Frontline has presented a very good documentary on the war in Afghanistan. There is little speculation on the reasons for war, and no conclusions are reached as to US goals in Afghanistan. The documentary, "Obama's War," does provide a very clear analysis of the difficulties of ever winning in the conflict.

The Chicago Tribune published a story about the CTA on Tuesday, October 13. In the story CTA President Richard Rodriguez was quoted as claiming that it cost the CTA $7.00 each time a passenger boarded. This seemed a remarkably high number to the North Side Greens. We tried to do some rough analysis based on the numbers we could find.

On this date, in 1967, a mass draft card burning took place in Boston. The event, sponsored by the New England Resistance, took place at the Arlington Street Church in Boston. It was a demonstration against the Vietnam War, involving 281 men burning their draft cards.

The latest CPI chart posted on John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics suggests that 2008 inflation as reflected in the Cost Price index (CPI), a key government statistic will be well in excess of 5%. The government has been reporting that they expect the 2008 CPI to finish the year well into negative territory, i.e., deflation.

A meeting to discuss the Illinois Put-Back Amendment takes place tonight at the Edgebrook Public Library, 531 West Devon. The meeting starts at 7:00 pm.

A Labor Notes sponsored panel discussion to be held Saturday, October 31 will focus on the impact of the budget crises on employees of State and local government. The event will be open to all, but will be of especial interest to active and retired employees of State and local government as well as the teaching & university retirement systems. The event takes place at the main meeting hall of United Electrical Workers, 37 South Ashland.

Ten years ago, on this date, the United States Senate rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) signed by then President Clinton.

The US has signed the document. However, in large part due to continued US Senate refusal to ratify, the Treaty has still not gone into effect.

According to Bev Harris, of Black Box Voting, the not-for-profit has filed a complaint with the US Department of Justice about against a proposed Diehbold merger.

The merger would create a voting machine monopoly, according to Black Box, and would constitute a danger to US security.

A link between the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama and a decision to dump the dollar has been suggested by Dmitry Orlav.

Orlav is the celebrated author of Reinventing Collapse. Orlav's thesis is that Obama was awarded the Peace Prize for the same reason it was awarded to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Secretary, the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of Soviet Union:

A story appeared this morning in The Independent reporting an agreement among a group comprising several of the world's principle oil producers and some other creditors of the US. The deal involves dropping the US dollar as the world's reserve currency. If the report is true it may mean collapse of the US dollar is in the cards.

With little or no coverage by the mainstream media, demonstrators from Greenpeace have been targeting the Alberta oilsands. They are trying to force the global economy to move away from its "addiction to dirty oil."

Global Research reviews the latest volume in the Project Censored series.

Fox News Chicago's Tony Sowers seemed to be casting doubt on the theory of global warming last Saturday.He has made the similar charges in his blog.

He points out that there are many sources of variability in climate data. We find his arguments unconvincing. We don't wish to get technical. There are mathematical means of determining what the trend of a data set is. They have been applied. That's why the researcher community supports global warming.

An undetermined number of parking meter pay boxes in the Jefferson Park neighborhood were vandalized last week. The attacks appear to have been the work of citizens out to make a political point.

There has been growing public anger in Chicago over the City's no-bid contract to privatize parking on Chicago streets. A civic group, IVI-IPO has filed a lawsuit to invalidate the City's contract with Chicago Parking Meters, LLC.

Mayor Daley's bid to host the 2016 Olympics was rejected Friday. Public opposition may have been a factor in the decision to exclude Chicago.

The opposition, represented by No Games Chicago, was well organized and worked very hard to defeat the proposal, going so far as to present objections to the Olympic Committee.

A report in Indybay has the US working round the clock to be ready for a December attack on Iran. Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP), 15 ton non-nuclear bunker busters will be a featured element of the administration's plan, according to the report.