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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Scientists warn Congress of climate change impacts...while Republicans still insist it ain't happening!; Conflict in Canada over tar sands oil pipeline; Justice for survivors of Camp Le Jeune's toxic water; PLUS: Beef industry's beef with the USDA ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): What the Olympics can teach about going green; IRS exempts tar sands crude oil from spill tax; BP Gulf Oil Spill: Dispersants may have hurt food chain; EPA can't regulate CAFOs it can't find; Global wind energy to grow 40% by 2017; NREL: Solar has most potential in US; How much excess CO2 can the planet absorb?; Melting Greenland eyed for mineral riches; Frackers in your backyard ... PLUS: Nano Breakthrough Paves Way for Super Cheap Solar Panels ... and much, MUCH more! ...

Guest Blogged by Ernest A. Canning

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." - Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 2001.

"I want to state up front, unequivocally and without doubt, I do not believe that any ethnic, racial, or gender group has an advantage in sound judging. I do believe that every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge regardless of their background or life experiences." - Judge Sonia Sotomayor, July 14, 2009.

A fair reading of the full context of Judge Sotomayor's 2001 University of California remarks reveals that the above two statements are not inconsistent. In the first, Sotomayor was merely giving recognition to what cognitive science has long recognized --- that differences in culture, background, and experience create frames through which our minds process data, or as George Lakoff observes in Don't Think of an Elephant and in greater depth in Moral Politics: "Concepts are not things that can be changed by people telling us a fact. Frames are needed to make sense of the facts."

Sotomayor's personal history suggests a progressive world view, or what Lakoff refers to as the Nurturant Parent Model, which emphasizes concepts like empathy, fairness in opportunity and relativity.

Such concepts were put into stark contrast with those of her lead inquisitor in this week's Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearings, where Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) --- whose "checkered past" includes allegations of racism, a nearly-unprecedented rejection by a Republican-led Judiciary Committee for his appointment to the federal bench and a long track record of obsession with non-existent minority "voter fraud" --- led the ironic attack on her record...