Research Assistant Internship Position Announcement 

E SOURCE, a growing firm in Boulder, Colorado providing information
to the energy services industry, seeks a qualified individual as a
Research Assistant.   We seek an intelligent, energetic, and
entrepreneurial person with demonstrated excellence in research.   

The position is a one-yearinternship designed to provide experience
in the field of energy efficiency.  

Successful applicants will work within ourResearch group assisting
in the research and writing of E SOURCE reports, primarily in fields
of Energy Information and Communications and in Distributed Energy. 

Proven ability in learning, synthesizing, and communicating
information about new topic areas is more important, however, than
particulare subject matter experience. 

Annual compensation for this position will be in the mid-$20s per year 
plus full, excellent benefits. 

Please send resume and cover letter to: 
        Debbie Davia 
        E Source 
        1033 Walnut Street 
        Boulder, CO 80302 

For more information email her at: 
         

NO CALLS PLEASE.  

> ================================================================
THE NAUTILUS INSTITUTE 
for Security and Sustainable Development 

Deadline: June 30 or until positions are filled 

Two job openings at leading public policy institute 

Security Program Assistant 
        --produce daily report of news and analysis from the Northeast 
        Asia Region 
        --support Asia/Pacific Security Program Director 
        --$13-$16.50 per hour DOE 

Energy, Security, Environment Program Officer 
        --research and write about technological, institutional, and  
        economic issues related to energy choice and regional environ- 
        mental cooperation, especially in Northeast Asia 
        --Masters degree or equivalent experience 
        --$35,000-$45,000/year DOE 

To apply to either of these openings, visit our web site and review the 
complete job descriptions: 
        http://www.nautilus.org 

The Nautilus Institute 
1831 Second Street 
Berkeley, CA 94710-1902 
Phone: (510) 204-9296 
Fax: (510) 204-9298 
E-mail: 

WELFARE FOR POLITICIANS COULD HELP THE WELFARE OF THE REST OF US

My dear fellow Americans,

A recent New York Times/CBS poll says that 89 percent of us think our political
campaign system should be fundamentally changed.  Just eight percent of us
think it needs only minor tinkering.  (The option "no change, our campaigns
work splendidly" was not even offered as a choice.)

We're not dummies.

According to the poll 68 percent of us do not believe Congress has any
intention of changing the campaign finance laws -- and 53 percent of us don't
think President Clinton does either.

They haven't fooled us.

There are a few items in the poll that bother me, though.  That's what I want
to discuss with you here.

First, the poll says we are convinced that campaign money corrupts the
government, but we do not list this problem as a high priority compared to
crime, schools, and the economy.

I ask you to rethink that one.  The moneyed interests that buy off our
government are costing us ordinary taxpayers hundreds of billions in higher
taxes and lower benefits.  They are the reason our schools have so little while
our Pentagon wastes so much.  Their steady pressure to cut government programs
for everyone but the rich is a major reason why many of us feel we're getting
nowhere and some of us give up and turn to crime.  Because of money flows to
politicians, our health care system is increasingly inhumane and unaffordable. 
Because banking interests bought off regulators, we had to bail out banks run
into the ground by criminals.  Our mineral, forest, and grazing resources are
being given away to tycoons who leave destruction behind them on the land.

We're being robbed.  Systematically.  Massively.

Every day we can see in the news some small or large example of our government
working for campaign contributors and against the people.  Last week, for
example, the Senate voted down a bill that would have slapped a hefty tax on
cigarettes and used the money to pay for medical care for 10 million children. 
This idea was pushed by a Republican, Orrin Hatch, and a Democrat, Ted Kennedy.
 
Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of it.  But tobacco companies write big
checks and children don't.  So the bill was voted down 55-45, as precise a
measure as you'll ever see of the degree to which our Senators are owned by
tobacco companies.  (You don't have to buy them all; you only have to buy more
than half.)

We no longer have a democracy.

We have, as one woman said, as she failed to stop a hazardous waste incinerator
next to her children's school, a "wealthocracy."  A debate over clean air
standards is raging right now, the coal and auto companies are bearing down
hard and one Capitol Hill staffer told the Washington Post, "There's no way
that the final decision will be made ... solely on the basis of protecting
children."

Friends, this is not a low-priority problem.  If we need the government to
enforce environmental rules, to help poor people in any way, to keep bulldozers
and ads out of national parks, to defend the country cost-effectively, to
maintain highways and bridges, to enforce the law even-handedly, to tax us
fairly, or to be even minimally competent, then campaign reform is the top
priority, because it's the key to all other priorities.

When asked how to fix the system, most of us, says the poll, favor public
disclosure of where campaign money comes from and how it is spent.  We think
radio and television stations should give free time for campaign messages.  But
seventy-eight percent of us oppose public financing of campaigns.

That rejection of public financing is something else I'd like to ask you to
think about.  I too used to wince at the thought of being taxed for campaigns. 
"Why pay them to indoctrinate me?" I thought.  "Don't encourage them," some of
my friends say.  I've heard public campaign funding called "welfare for
politicians."  I've heard people say it would be too expensive.

It wouldn't be nearly as expensive as the present system is.  It would cost us
millions and save us trillions.  There could be no better investment.  And
consider this: if we paid for their campaigns, there could be no doubt in the
politicians' minds that they work for us.  They could concentrate on that work,
rather than spend half their time trolling for funds for their next campaign. 
Poor folks could actually run for office; rich folks wouldn't have an automatic
advantage.  And, if we were paying for political speech, there's a chance the
Supreme Court would let us set some ground rules for it.  No mud-slinging. 
Tell us about your actual record, what you've voted for, what you've stuck up
for.  Speak to us in full sentences for minutes at a time.  We'll give you
enough money to make your case fully, but not enough to hire PR firms to sell
you like fast food.

Our founding fathers warned us that democracy can't last unless we are willing
to fight for it in every generation.  Wars are not the only kinds of fights,
and foreign dictators -- or foreign campaign contributors -- are not the only
threats to government of, by, and for the people.  If we want our democracy
back, our battle has to be, as was that of our founding fathers, against the
corrupt power structure that rules us.

We can do it.

(Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at
Dartmouth College.)