By Kerry TruemanDonald Trump, the uber-developer and author, most recently, of Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life, just got his ass kicked by a crew of conservationists and a fisherman who’ve blocked his plans to build “the world’s greatest golf course” on a stretch of Scottish sand dunes that are “rare and vulnerable,” according to the Guardian.Trump’s over-the-top proposal called for a resort, “two championship golf courses, a five-star hotel, a golf academy, nearly 1,000 holiday homes and 500 private houses,” to be built around “a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) containing sensitive sand dunes.”The deal had been expected to go through despite environmental concerns, but at the last minute, the Aberdeen council found itself deadlocked and the council’s chairman cast the deciding vote to kill the project.Trump, as crass in defeat as he is in victory, heaped scorn on the Scottish locals, saying “The members of the council’s infrastructure committee have chosen to protect a pile of sand.”Mickey Foote, a member of Sustainable Aberdeenshire, defended the council’s decision: “The council has been involved in a very lengthy and contentious debate over the economic benefits versus national heritage”¦they have chosen not to indulge an over-ambitious property developer.”And Michael Forbes, a salmon fisherman who became a local hero for refusing to sell his 23 acres despite astronomical offers from Trump, told the Guardian: “Hopefully, Trump has now got the message that we’re not a bunch of cabbages up here. We’ve managed fine without him up to now and we’ll get on just as well without him.”

By Kerry TruemanPeter Garrett, best known here in America as the shiny-domed singer for Midnight Oil, has morphed from pop star to politician in recent years; he’s been in Australia’s Parliament since 2004 as a member of the Labor party.Now, Australia’s Prime Minister-elect, Kevin Rudd, has appointed Garrett to be the nation’s Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Arts. Will Garrett bring the same intensity to battling our burning planet that he did to his biggest hit, “Beds Are Burning?” Oddly enough, despite his title as Environment Minister, he won’t really have the chance, because Rudd has appointed another politician, Senator Penny Wong, to be Minister of Climate Change and Water. Were they afraid oil and water wouldn’t mix?

The numbers are up, the numbers are down, so goes the financial future of the US, but today the White House predicted a rise in unemployment over the next year. Originally they thought that unemployment would be around 4.7% but now they are forecasting 4.9%. Despite serious talk of a recession, the Bush administration is hopeful that things will improve.About a month ago, Russell Simmons decided to start educating young folks about the financial world in hopes they wouldn’t find themselves in the position many younger people find themselves when it comes to money and credit. His Hip-Hop Summit : Get Your Money Right took place in Detroit - check it out: On the flipside though, I can’t help but think of Gordon Gekko of Oliver Stone’s Wall Sreet and his take on all that is financial in our country : 

Gordon Gekko: The richest one percent of this country owns half our country’s wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It’s bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you’re not naive enough to think we’re living in a democracy, are you buddy? It’s the free market. And you’re a part of it. You’ve got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I’ve still got a lot to teach you.

Michael Douglas created quite a craze with Gekko - check out the video below to see how folks reacted to his “rule-making”

By Katie HalperAs if unions didn’t already totally overact to silly things like inhuman conditions, unlivable wages, and union-busting, now it’s getting its made in America panties all up in a bunch over the environment. Global Labor Strategies reports that December 4, trade unionists from around the world are attending negotiations in Bali to establish a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 1212, to limit greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. workers will be represented by delegates from unions including the Electrical Workers (IUE), Mine Workers, Service Employees, Boilermakers, Steelworkers, Communication Workers, Transport Workers (TWU), and UNITE HERE garment and textile workers.Labor, what is the deal? You’re supposed to be short-sited and hostile to protecting the environment, remember? You’re not supposed to make the connection between the environment and workers. Hard hat-wearing workers hate Patchouli- wearing environmentalists. And drum circle playing environmental activists are out of touch with country and western/ hard rock playing unionists. Their green hybrids and blue collar gas guzzlers are supposed to collide and crash, not ride side by side or, heaven forbid, carpool, towards a common destination.So what’s up with the labor-environment mixed-genre cooperation? Why are a bunch of workers sticking their noses into global warming? What’s going on with the mixed-genre Blue Green Alliance, a coalition between the the Sierra Club United Steel Workers, also sending representatives to Bali. And why is the International Trade Union Confederation saying

As trade unionists, we are confident that Bali will mark the beginning of a new and more ambitious process of social change, where our collective hearts and minds must aspire to save our planet, on the basis of solidarity and mutual respect. Such solidarity first of all means countering global warming and its effects on the most vulnerable. Trade unions consider the best way for developed countries to exercise solidarity with developing countries is by cutting their own emissions in order to limit further suffering and irreversible changes, and by creating the means for other countries to participate in reduction efforts.

So workers of the world unite. You have nothing to save but your planet.

 By Kerry TruemanBrits are not amused by this laughable billboard promoting American cotton as “soft, sensual and sustainable.” Setting aside the absurdity of the National Cotton Council’s cotton-pickin’ poster girl–a blue-eyed, blonde babe with a bushel of freshly picked cotton bolls””there’s the slogan. As British blogger Jack Thurston sputtered:

Sustainable??!…Try telling that to the millions of impoverished cotton farmers in West Africa whose livelihoods are decimated by the flood of heavily subsidised US cotton on the world market, driving down prices and stealing markets. Try telling that to US taxpayers who foot the bill for more than $2 billion a year in handouts to US cotton farmers. Much of the US cotton industry is a creature of government subsidy, including some $264 million in illegal export subsidies in 2004. Try telling that to the people who live in cotton producing areas and see their water courses sucked dry by thirsty cotton plantations and face dangerous levels of pesticide runoff in their water supplies.

But Thurston didn’t stop there. He’s filed a complaint against the US Cotton Council International, on the grounds that this misleading ad violates the UK’s Code of Advertising. Thurston’s complaint makes the compelling case that American cotton production is neither environmentally nor economically sustainable. You can second his indignation by e-mailing Stephanie Thiers, European Representative of the Cotton Council International, at sthiers@cotton.org. Ask the Cotton Council to come clean and cut out the green washing.

A new Hindu school in the UK is causing a ruckus with the announcement that vegetarian students will be given admissions priority over kids that eat meat. The policy is a way for school officials to ensure that all students are strict followers of their faith. However, some involved are upset since not all Hindus follow the Hare Krishna tradition and feel that those students shouldn’t be discriminated against during the admissions process.

Here in the US it is hard to imagine a school where only vegetarian fare was served - although some kids seem to be trying over at youth noise (a youth organizing site).

For those interested in Hare Krishna or just eating more veggies, New York City’s 26 Second Ave serves as a space for any and everyone to go and learn more about the Hare Krishna tradition through events and programs (that often feature free vegetarian feasts!)

By Kerry Trueman

The leafy suburbs of New York’s Westchester County are not so green when it comes to recycling, apparently. Sanitation workers have been singling out homeowners who fail to sort out their milk jugs, tin cans and glass bottles from the rest of their garbage and slapping stickers that say “OOPS!” on the offending bags.

But more drastic measures are set to kick in next February 1, when homeowners will be required to use see-through plastic garbage bags to dispose of their household waste. Any residents who attempt to thwart this new level of transparency by ignoring the requirement will see their garbage become a waste management wallflower, destined to languish on the curb. Degrading? If only it could.

By Kerry TruemanMitt Romney was famously reluctant to participate in a YouTube-sponsored debate out of fear that he might get grilled on global warming by “Billiam the Snowman”, as the Democrats were””a prospect that Romney characterized as “undignified.”But Billiam didn’t make the cut, this time, and neither did climate change. In fact, if you were an alien””I mean the extra-terrestial kind””and you watched last night’s GOP debate, you would come away from it thinking that the single greatest threat facing our nation today is the influx of foreigners sneaking into our country to scrub our toilets and mow our lawns.Global warming, on the other hand, didn’t even register on the Republicans’ radar, as it clearly ranks well below such hot-button issues as illegal aliens, gays in the military, and gun control. Bill Maher summed it up nicely on Real Time a few weeks back:

As a species, we are failing at survival trick number one: prioritize the threats. Environmental catastrophe is going to visit all of us in the coming decades in one way or another, and when it does, I hope people like - oh, I don’t know, Lou Dobbs - says to himself, “Huh, maybe if I was going to spend my whole career obsessing about one issue, it should have been global warming. My skin just fell off my face, and it turns out that really wasn’t the fault of a Mexican.”

By Katie Halper

Watching the debates, I couldn’t help but notice that Grover Norquist is TOTALLY rocking a Hitler mustache?

By Katie Halper

Today, the President formally known as General, Perves Musharraf, stepped down as leader of Pakistan’s armed forces, and was sworn in as a civilian leader. An emotional, demilitarized Musharraf said, “I am bidding farewell to the army after having been in uniform for 46 years…This army is my life, my passion. I love this army, and this relationship will continue, although I will not be in uniform.” It seems like Musharraf is most concerned about not being able to wear his uniform. And I think I know why.

Look at him!

In a suit, the President looks looks like an avuncular bureaucrat, a friend of the West, a supporter of democracy. But in a military uniform, General Pervez “Pervie” Musharraf is transformed into the sexy beast he really is: the naughty bad boy/ stern task master who will launch a coup on you from behind, crush your opposition, bump and grind and oust your elected leaders, suspend your constitution, and declare his martial law all over you until you’re begging for reform. With his nuclear virulence and proliferation, Musharraf could literally rock your world and blow your mind.

This is why “The Mush” isn’t the only one obsessing about the wardrobe change. I’m freaking out! Who is going to fulfill my democracy-touting, oppressive dictator-in-army-uniform fantasy, now that Pervez is back in plainclothes?