Book Thrown At President Obama

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During his "Moving America Forward" rally, President Obama narrowly dodged what could have been a very serious presidential security incident.

While President Obama was closing his speech, an attending author threw his paperback book at the back of the president, who just missed the projectile.

There is no doubt that this was a publicity move. When the secret service spoke to the man, he told them that he was a "staunch Obama supporter", and only "wanted the president to have a copy of his book".

The man was released without any of the publicity he had tried to attain. Neither his name nor the name of his book has been released by the secret service.

This story wasn't picked up by any of the major US media outlets, although the UK was quick to pick up on the flying book.

You can see the book sail past President Obama's head in the video below:



Between President Obama's ability to catch a fly out of thin air, dodge bullets, and the recent spotting of him using a light saber, I think it's safe to say that he's a jedi...

Now if only he could use the Jedi mind trick on the Republicans in Congress...

White House To Install Solar Panels

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From 350.org

Dear Friends,

Just in time to give this weekend's 350.org Global Work Party a White House-sized boost, the Obama administration announced this morning that they are going to put solar panels on the First Family's living quarters, returning to a tradition begun by president Jimmy Carter and abandoned by Ronald Reagan.

It's a great win for our efforts over the last months--everyone who wrote letters, signed petitions for 350's "Put Solar On It" campaign, and turned out for the Solar Road Trip as 350.org rolled down the east coast from Unity College towing one of the original Carter panels. They were disappointed that day that the White House wasn't prepared to go solar, but are now very happy and honored that the White House took their suggestion to look into the matter seriously.

Solar panels on one house, even this house, won't save the climate, of course. But they're a powerful symbol to the whole nation about where the future lies. And President Obama will wake up every morning and make his toast by the power of the sun (do presidents make toast?), which will be a constant reminder to be pushing the U.S. Congress for the kind of comprehensive reform we need.

And remember, President Obama's not alone: tomorrow, Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed and a crew from Sungevity will be putting solar panels on the Muliaa'ge, the "White House of the Maldives". It's a trend!

Of course, both of these initiatives are perfectly timed to lead into this weekend's Global Work Party, when 6127 carbon-cutting events (and rising) will take place in 187 countries. If you haven't already gotten involved, now is most definitely the time to join an event near you--or register your own. See this post for more info on the Global Work Party and how to join an event.

The first account of the news from the White House, from Associated Press reporter Dina Cappiello, noted the efforts of 350.org to make this happen

This victory reminds us of why, when the day is done, we'll be putting down our hammers and our shovels and picking up our cellphones to call our leaders.

You never know what will happen when you ask for change.

Onwards!

10/10/10 Global Work Party

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As you may recall, 350.org hosted the "International Day Of Climate Action" last year on the 24th of October. It boasted a total of 5,248 events in over 180 countries, and was garnered as a huge success. CNN called it the "most widespread day of political action in the planet's history." View the montage of countries in this video released by 350.

350 is hosting another international event this year, the Global Work Party. It'll be on 10/10/10, and is open to anyone who wants to participate.

Experts are saying that after the failed talks in Copenhagen, people are losing hope for this years event.

It would, however, seem as if the "experts" were wrong. The movement is even more energized than it was last year, with more than 5,500 events taking place in all but 12 countries on Earth. Yeah, that's almost EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY ON EARTH, and there's still time left for missing countries to register.

When we see our leaders failing, we want to show them how it's done. We want to get to work.

From the 350 website:

"It’s been a tough year: in North America, oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico; in Asia some of the highest temperatures ever recorded; in the Arctic, the fastest melting of sea ice ever seen; in Latin America, record rainfalls washing away whole mountainsides.

So we’re having a party.

We’re calling it a Global Work Party, with emphasis on both 'work' and 'party'. In Auckland, New Zealand, they’re having a giant bike fix-up day, to get every bicycle in the city back on the road. In the Maldives, they’re putting up solar panels on the President’s office. In Kampala, Uganda, they're going to plant thousands of trees, and in Bolivia they’re installing solar stoves for a massive carbon neutral picnic.

Since we've already worked hard to call, email, petition, and protest to get politicians to move, and they haven't moved fast enough,  now it's time to show that we really do have the tools we need to get serious about the climate crisis.

On 10/10/10 we'll show that we the people can do this--but we need bold energy policies from our political leaders to do it on a scale that truly matters. The goal of the day is not to solve the climate crisis one project at a time, but to send a pointed political message: if we can get to work, you can get to work too--on the legislation and the treaties that will make all our work easier in the long run."

With nine days left, there is still time to register an event.

Click Here to register a new event.

Click Here to view events near you. The left hand side of this page will show a map centered on Middletown, NY. The orange dots on the map indicate events. To the right of the screen is a list of these events. Above the list is a search box for you to type your own location, if it differs from Middletown or the surrounding area.