Is Iran next?

We've all heard the beat of the war drum against Iran. Does the resignation of Admiral William Fallon, the US military commander for the Middle East, a staunch opponent of war in Iran (did you get that? He's a military commander and he's against war in Iran), mean Bush is one step closer to getting what he wants?

This is an interesting article on Al Jazeera with a couple of perspectives on why he retired. Be sure to read the interview in the sidebar from September 2007.

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Nuclear Power and Obama

I read a very interesting article in this month's GQ magazine on nuclear power, titled Meltdown, by Wil S. Hylton (GQ March 2008, p 306, and online here). I found it so interesting and enlightening that I immediately logged on to www.barackobama.com to see what Obama's position was on the issue. It was mostly encouraging but buried deep (I had to download a PDF of his energy plan to find the information I wanted), so I interpret that to mean it's not high enough priority to put on his Energy & Environment page.

I encourage you to read the article, and read his position on it in the PDF (just search for nuclear). And if you feel strongly about it, write him a letter. I did.

NUCLEAR POWER

I recently read a very interesting article on Nuclear Power and its state in our country in the March 2008 issue of GQ: Meltdown, by Wil S. Hylton, p304. If Senator Obama has not yet read the article himself, I strongly encourage him to do so.

I will preface this letter by saying that virtually the entirety of my "knowledge" of nuclear power comes from this one article, but it was a compelling enough article to get me to write.

This article discusses the fear around nuclear power, but compares it to the reality of its safety, including the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl incidents. It compares the cleanliness of nuclear power (zero carbon footprint) to coal and oil. It compares our general mistrust of nuclear power, along with that of most other nations, to those who continue to use (and profit greatly) from it, such as France and the United Kingdom (France profits $4B per year from sold nuclear energy). It goes on to discuss storage of waste, and what it deems "waste", or spent uranium which can be easily converted (extracted) into plutonium and put back to work as additional fuel - but is inexplicably illegal in this country (even though the UK actually cleans spent uranium from other countries and profits from it). And of course it discusses Yucca Mountain, the heavily disputed but most viable solution for long-term nuclear waste storage.

After reading this article I immediately logged onto barackobama.com to see what Obama's stand on this issue was. I had to dig into the Energy Plan to find what I was looking for, but I was encouraged to read that he is a supporter of nuclear power and believes that it has a great future, albeit with some important issues to address. Unfortunately I also read that "Barack Obama believes that Yucca Mountain is not an option". From what I've read in this article, there seems to be NO other option even close to the viability of Yucca Mountain, and it seems that before nuclear energy can be put back on the table for voters to support and get behind, a solution to the storage needs to be solved quickly. And Yucca Mountain appears to be that solution.

Between changing the law so that plutonium can be extracted from spent uranium, virtually turning all of our waste into fuel, and only then storing the true waste in Yucca Mountain, we have the solution to power staring us in the face.

We can radically reduce our dependency on foreign oil, reduce our carbon emissions massively, and lower energy costs. When Obama is president, he could well be the man to get our nation behind nuclear energy again and make up for nearly 30 years of lost time.

Sincerely,

a supporter and donator,
-Joseph Linaschke

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Obama v Clinton v Clinton v Obama

I just read this article on CNN.com about tonights debate in South Carolina between the Dem's. I'll say, first off, that while I know far, far less about the candidates, the election, and politics as a whole than I care to admit, I also know that I'm more aware and involved than a massively disproportionate percentage of our population. Frankly it's pure shite how little we as Americans know. And that's the problem isn't it… the politicians know that. They know that the American public bases their voting decisions off 30-second sound-bites from the Great Big TV in their Living Room. So all they really have to do to win over said public is throw enough mud at their opponent to stick to the minds of the viewers. Mission accomplished (*ahem*). "He smoked pot! + I didn't inhale"… "He voted for the war! + I was lied to!". And on and on and on.

I support Obama. Not because he's black. Not because he's male. But because he's the first politician in a long time that isn't feeding me sound-bites. And he says things that are realistic, not just what I want to hear. You know who I keep hearing him referred to? Kennedy. A bit before my time, but from what I know, I liked that man. I'd like to support Hilary. I have no problem with the idea of a woman for president. What I have a problem (well OK I have many) with her is that she's trying to act like a man. But more importantly, that she's slinging mud. Lots of mud. Stupid mud. Bad mud. Hell it's not even mud. It's dirty water.

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Barack Obama in San Francisco

Barack Obama spoke at the Billy Graham Civic Auditorium last night on November 14, 2007. After nearly three hours in line outside, I got in and pushed my way near the front on the floor. People tend to get out the way of a big lens.

I was able to move around a bit, but not without some resistance. Oh well, all in the name of getting an image.

These are all shot on the Canon 5D, 70-200 f/4.0 lens. It was fun to shoot the president. Wait that came out wrong… it was fun to photograph the next president! (I actually was talking to a photographer who does follow the current president and photographs him regularly, and asked him how the secret service thinks of that term, because of course photographers always "shoot" things. He chuckled and said they get used to it).

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Nangpa La Pass International Day of Action

Yesterday I volunteered to photograph the International Day of Action at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco for various organizations as they protested the killing and detaining of Tibetans following the Nanpa La pass incident. I have posted a selects gallery and a complete gallery for the organizations to use. I've also posted my favorites on www.josephlinaschke.com For more information on the incident, please visit http://www.sftyc.org/nangpa

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