<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, mother jones]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, mother jones]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/motherjones http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/motherjones <![CDATA[Mozilla's Mitchell Baker investigated over looks, not finances]]> Mother Jones, the lefty politics magazine based in San Francisco, tarnishes its usually sterling reputation for tough investigative reporting with an interview with Mitchell Baker, chair of the Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit behind the Firefox Web browser. The deepest "inside the Firefox's den" they venture? Exposing the arresting effects of Baker's mane of red hair on the mostly male-dominated rooms she commands. If Mother Jones were up to its usual hijinks, it would be asking Baker, instead, about rumors that Mozilla faces a $14 million back tax bill after flunking its latest audit.

Mozilla hasn't filed financials since its 2006 report, when it just squeaked by a rule that allowed it to avoid disbursing more of the money that has gushed into its coffers from a lucrative search-referral deal with Google.

Since nonprofits like Mozilla are allowed to file their finances on a downright sluggish schedule, it will be some time before we know what's really happening with the browser maker. But it has been holding onto a large chunk of change just in case it faced a challenge over its nonprofit status, and we've heard that the latest review of Mozilla's finances didn't hold good news. Wouldn't that have made for a much interesting conversation than whether Baker considers herself a geek sex symbol?

(Photo via Mother Jones)

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<![CDATA[R. James Woolsey and the rise of the greenocons]]> How to make your cleantech capitalist dreams resonate with the hicks and hawks of Washington, D.C.? In a perfect storm of liberal guilt and heartland pandering, former Secretary of the Navy and CIA director R. James Woolsey has become a domestic-energy sustainability convert. And he's just one of a number of red-blooded Americans who support the war in Iraq and investment in renewable energy, according to Mother Jones. Woolsey joined Henry Kissinger, who hasn't met a long-range bombing platform he didn't like, in endorsing John McCain, whom Woolsey compared to environmental steward Teddy Roosevelt. If cleantech startups want to drink from the fountain of defense spending that has traditionally irrigated the Valley, they need to pay attention.

Woolsey is clearly playing an active and public role as the face of the movement, tooling around Virgina last month in a biofuel-powered Ford, touting the algae-derived blend that's just perfect for the military's vast fleet of diesel vehicles. And he's the perfect bipartisan foil, a longtime Democrat who's worked with Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton:

He still thinks the United States should continue its global military role even as it untangles itself from the Middle East, standing by the decision to depose Saddam Hussein. "I'd support his ouster again if there weren't a drop of oil in Iraq," he explains.
McCain must figure Woolsey can pull in center-right Democrats who favor a strong protectionist economy (and harbor anti-Arab sentiments).

The greenocon promise is a Fortress America of tanks and solar panels, plug-in hybrids and nuclear reactors. I can hear the strains of "America, Fuck Yeah!" now, and it brings a single, deeply profound tear to my eye. (Photo by AP/Charles Krupa)

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