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1,252 people were arrested at a climate protest in front of the White House.

The largest environmental civil disobedience in decades concluded at the White House this morning with organizers pledging to escalate a nationwide campaign to push President Obama to deny the permit for a new tar sands oil pipeline.

“Given yesterday’s baffling cave on ozone standards, the need for a fighting environmental movement has never been more clear,” said Bill McKibben, who spearheaded the protest. “That movement is being born right here in front of the White House and reverberating around the country.”

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline has become the most important environmental decision facing President Obama before the 2012 election and sparked nationwide opposition, from Nebraska ranchers to former Obama campaigners. A petition with 617,428 names [including mine] opposing the pipeline will be delivered to the White House today.

Over the course of the two-week sit-in 1,252 people were arrested, including top climate scientists, landowners from Texas and Nebraska, former Obama for America staffers, First Nations leaders from Canada, and notable individuals including Bill McKibben, former White House official Gus Speth, NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen, actor Daryl Hannah, filmmaker Josh Fox, and author Naomi Klein.

via A Climate Movement Is Born: Ozone Decision Spikes Total Arrests to 1,252 at White House Pipeline Protest | ThinkProgress.

Liz and Jay continue to kick out the jams: their latest project–actually one that they’ve been involved in for many years, but that is now seeing the light of the digital day–is a collaboration with Willie Nelson.

Yeah, *that* Willie Nelson: he of the tao and the beater guitar and all.

“The Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute believes in the Promise of Peace on Earth in Our Lifetime as the Birthright of Our Global Human Family.” Amen to that, brothers and sisters. I’m saying, check it out now–while you still can. The site is full of great ideas that ought to get your compassion flowing.

Here’s a verse from a lyric by Willie and Amy Nelson:

There is a peaceful solution. It’s called a peace revolution.
Now let’s take back America.
There’s a war and we’re in it, but I know we can win it.
So let’s take back America.

Now check out Willie singing the whole thing a cappella.

Geroge Bush said the “A” word! Our alcoholic (word is he’s drinking again since his slump in popularity), cokehead president said, last night in his State of the Union address, that the U.S. is “addicted to oil.” Nevermind that Bush had no substantial contribution to make in terms of weaning Americans off the black stuff; it’s shocking that he recognizes that Americans have a disease. Instead, the president wants us to build more nuclear power plants. I think that’s a great idea: while we’re shutting down Iran for building nuke plants (or whatever the hell they’re doing), we’ll build more so that terrorists will have a broader array of targets and so that more enriched uranium can “go missing” to be sold on the black market. Terrorists blowing up nuke plants will save us the trouble of solving a serious problem with nuclear energy: what to do with the waste. Read the rest of this entry »