Personal Information

Website

http://politicalclimate.wordpress.com/

Biography

Grew up in Chicago, went to college at Duke, now living in DC.

Favorite Quotes

Reality has a well-known liberal bias. -Stephen Colbert

Superpowers

Sarcasm

History

Member for

2 years 40 weeks

Blog Posts

Obama Negotiates with Himself on Oil. Again.

by Jamie Friedland 5/16/2011 - 11:08 am

President Obama’s position on oil has been one of the most disappointing and incoherent facets of his administration to date.   On Saturday, this trend continued as the President announced a series of shifts to increase domestic oil production. [Read more]

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• 7 comments
• 372 reads

GOP vs. the Vatican?

by Jamie Friedland 5/9/2011 - 9:48 am

Three years ago, the Roman Catholic Church commissioned a report to investigate the environmental changes occurring on our planet.  The Vatican’s non-denominational scientific arm, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, reached out to international experts and asked them to compile the report that will soon be delivered to Pope Benedict XVI. [Read more]

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• 3 comments
• 440 reads

Campaign Curiosities

by Jamie Friedland 5/3/2011 - 8:41 pm

For the last few months, I’ve been working for a campaign consultant group.  Others might find collecting and formatting electoral data boring, but I actually enjoy it.  Every so often you come across a real gem or bizarre anecdote, and I finally have the time to share a few of these with you.  Please forgive me for the following schizophrenic list:

The 2012 Republican candidate for Kentucky Attorney General is named Todd P’Pool [sic].  Evidently his family could not find a satisfactory Earth language to pick a name from. [Read more]

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• 10 comments
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Help Climate Modeling While You Sleep

by Jamie Friedland 11/18/2010 - 1:08 pm

Want to participate in climate research while you sleep?  As of yesterday, you can.  “Crowdsourcing,” also known as “distributed computing,” has become an increasingly popular way to tackle challenges that require large volumes of complex computer modeling.  Climate modeling is one such challenge. [Read more]

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• 1 comment
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Ok, GOP, Let’s Talk About Compromise

by Jamie Friedland 11/3/2010 - 1:01 pm

I made the mistake of turning on the TV this morning.  Ms. Generic Correspondent was interviewing triumphant supporters from John Boehner’s district in Ohio about what their win means for America.  What I heard floored me.  This was live and I was too stunned to think to record it, so I’m paraphrasing:

OHIO RESIDENT:  “For the last 2 years, it’s been Obama’s way or the highway.  Finally we’ll get some compromise in this country.”

REPORTER: “You really think this election will result in more compromise?”

OHIO RESIDENT: “Yup.  That’s what this election said to Congress.  It’s time for Democrats to actually work with Republicans now.” [Read more]

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• 21 comments
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FL-Sen: Steele Queues Race Card for RNC Re-Elect Bid

by Jamie Friedland 10/28/2010 - 11:52 pm

On today’s menu for political scandal du jour is a report that Bill Clinton tried to encourage Kendrick Meek, the Democratic senate candidate in Florida, to drop out of the race in favor of independent candidate Charlie Crist.  At the moment, Kendrick is trailing in very distant 3^rd place, splitting the Democratic-leaning vote with Crist and ensuring a Republican victory next week. [Read more]

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• 9 comments
• 524 reads

Baby Steps: The Senate Eyes a Renewable Electricity Standard

by Jamie Friedland 9/22/2010 - 10:21 am

Just finished my second post at Change.org's environment page:

At this point, we’ll take what we can get. This is the resigned tune being sung by many environmentalists and clean energy advocates as Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Sam Brownback (R-Neb.) unveiled a proposal to implement a national renewable electricity standard on Tuesday. And, amazingly enough, it looks like the votes are actually there. [Read more]

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• 4 comments
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President Obama Killed Bipartisanship

by Jamie Friedland 9/20/2010 - 10:01 am

President Obama campaigned on bipartisanship.  We wanted a change, so he chose not to investigate the partisan excesses and likely transgressions of the Bush administration; he unhinged the pendulum and just laid it on the ground.  Instead of overcorrecting in the other direction, he tried to start anew as a united nation.  America was ready to move forward.  The Republican Party was not. [Read more]

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• 15 comments
• 737 reads

What the Primary Elections Mean for the Environment

by Jamie Friedland 9/15/2010 - 11:49 pm

Hi all, check out my first post at Change.org on what the primary elections mean for the environment:

Despite a Democratic supermajority and a successful bill in the House of Representatives, this summer witnessed another climate failure in the Senate. Unfortunately, the situation is not improving. In our warming world, the term “glacial pace” is now a completely appropriate description for climate policy progress: Decades of frustratingly slow advance are now reversing into a rapid retreat.

... [Read more]

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• 22 comments
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A Guide to Natural Gas Fracking

by Jamie Friedland 9/13/2010 - 11:43 am

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is a drilling technique that has earned a lot of media coverage lately - especially in regard to natural gas.  In the last couple of years, it has been credited with dramatically increasing U.S. and world natural gas reserves enough to  potentially transform global energy markets previously dominated by coal. [Read more]

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• 7 comments
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