Category Archives: ALEC

Moving the pet coke

by

Well, of course….they’re dumping pet coke in Chicago…and Whiting, Indiana….

“Petcoke tends to have higher metal content than coal – like nickel, vanadium and selenium,” added Geertsma. “Coal can have higher mercury content, so they’re both bad in terms of toxic heavy metals content.”

~~~~~~~~

The report says that Canadian exports of petcoke to the U.S. more than doubled between 2010 and 2012, and BP Whiting’s expansion will triple its petcoke production to 6,000 tons per day.

~~~~~~~~~

And I got my answer to where the petcoke piles were moved to–Ohio.

 

More on Fukushima **edited

by

The comments on the last blog have some good links:

Nearly a third of all babies born after 3/11/11 are more likely to have thyroid issues.  If you recall, radiation interferes with the thyroid.  A good page here on what happens to the body.

More here.

Another link to a comments page about nuclear fallout and its affects on those in the military:

We think there are 150,000 more Atomic Veterans across the U.S. who do not know that their oath of secrecy has been recended, since 1963, and who also may not know that they may be entitled to VA benefits. The National Association of Atomic Veterans ( NAAV ) was formed in 1979 to assist Atomic Vet’s in accessing the VA system, for the purposes of getting treatment and compensation for a host of health issues precipitated by their exposure to ionizing radiation particles while proudly serving their country, as Mr. Beatty did, at Operation Crossroads… We continue to get phone calls, weekly, from A-vets who have recently been made aware of our organization, and who are in need of assistance in these areas. We look forward to hearing from anyone who may read this article…… Our website is: http://www.naav.com

R J Ritter – Nat. Commander
NAAV, Inc.
Member: Veteran’s Advisory Board on (radiation) Dose Reconstruction.

~~~~~~~~~

Pass the word–perhaps this will help someone affected and not knowing where to go for help.

~~A side story on the chemical spill in West Virginia…criminy, if this isn’t nature slapping us in the face, warning us that we’re inept in dealing with this stuff, I don’t know what is…nature can only endure so much.

The attitude that the river will “take care of it” is utter bullshit.  It’s just going to go somewhere else and cause health issues for the unfortunate ones.

Meanwhile, the Koch brothers have a pile of petcoke right next to the river in Detroit…**edited:  I stand corrected. It has been removed….but the report fails to tell us where the pile was moved to..?  Wanna bet it was to some poor neighborhood?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Understanding the gravity of NAFTA

by

Idle No More has a post up on the far-reaching effects of NAFTA.  This is especially important because now we have NAFTA on steroids with TPP being fast-tracked through Congress.

Here’s an update on Blackfire.

More here.

From the article:

Though officials did meet with NGOs opposed to the mine, they accepted Blackfire’s take that protestors were out to squeeze money from the firm, says MiningWatch’s analysis of the emails.

~~~~~~

Of course….because the mining company execs see everything in $$, they think everyone *else* thinks as they do.  It is inconceivable to them that there are people who value the environment, their health, their children’s health, the Earth, etc.

Note how the company was unable to substantiate claims against Abarca.  It appears he was thrown in jail under false claims.

NAFTA, and I fear TPP, are all about taking power and control away from the local people.  It means losing their autonomy to decide what happens in their communities, as the mega million dollar lawsuit illustrates.

These trade agreements are not supportive of the democratic process, rather a dictatorial process.  How is this representation of taxpayers?

Gov. Pence wants to give $1 billion to businesses

by

…in the form of a tax break…by eliminating property taxes for businesses.

From the article:

An analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency determined that if the tax were eliminated, schools and cities in Lake County would lose $74.2 million, Porter County $14 million and LaPorte County $7.2 million. That’s about the same annual impact as property tax caps, which have decimated government services in all three counties.

~~~~~~~~

I can smell ALEC all over this push to eliminate taxes for the wealthiest while putting more of the burden on the middle class and poor, if they try to make it up through sales tax.

And then there’s the continued assault on Glenda Ritz’ authority as a duly elected official who got more votes than Pence.  (Indeed, they were practically begging people to attend his inauguration.  A website reported that 1500 people attended his inauguration….I’m betting that 1,000 were homeless people given $20 to be there. Or perhaps state workers threatened with their jobs if they didn’t attend. /snark)  I also tried to access the site that lists Pence’s contributors for his inauguration day–the website was listed as suspicious!  Nope, not going to risk that.

Anyway, here we are still under the death grip of the Koch brothers and neocon toadies….

Slave Labor to fight fires

by

So now the prison system is using prisoners to fight wildfires…for $1 an hour, and that’s if they’re lucky.  Others have received only 50 cents an hour.  This is just wrong on so many levels.

And, as someone noted in the comments, it fits right in with for-profit schools, for-profit security state, for-profit healthcare, etc., with forcing people to work for slave wages, so the 1% can make even more profits.  Disgusting.

This is what was happening with the mental health system before reform–they were forcing folks to work without pay.  While I do think that having something to do and learning a trade is valuable, it must be fair and paid with decent wages.

 

 

Label the FDA

by

Occupy Monsanto has this up on the ongoing efforts to get GMO food labeled.  A shareholder has proposed labeling, but the board has rejected that.  (no surprise there)

They are having an event this week to bring attention to the FDA ignoring the public’s wishes for labeling.

Education News and the postal service

by

Raginghorseblog has a good riddance message to “if-you’re-poor-blame-God” Mayor Bloomberg.

Mercedes Schneider has a post up here on New Years and here on AFT Myths–really good blog on the myths and debunking them with pointed questions.

As I thought about the profiteers circling around public education, the postal service popped into my head.  They actually made a profit last year, but you wouldn’t know it by theBush Administration’s demanding they pay into retirement funds for people not even born yet…

…it suddenly occurred to me that not only are the profiteers going after public education and other social programs, the postal service is also a target for a couple of reasons:  a) strong union–gotta break those unions; and  b) public service efficiently run but could be run more *cough* efficiently.  Or, in other words ::damn, look at the golden opportunity to make some bucks while delivering crappy service…::  and, finally, c) postal workers make pretty good money….so they gotta get rid of them!

See…they can’t portray the postal carriers like teachers and say that they are not doing their job because, well, the mail gets delivered in a reasonable time with good rates through wind and rain and dark of night. They had to come up with some other way to bankrupt them and make it look like it was their fault, see?  Hence, we have the nonsense of paying for people that aren’t even born….making it look like they can’t make a profit or be self-sufficient…then the neocons/neolibs cry foul and trot out the overused sob story that the postal service is costing taxpayers money!  Not exactly.  They are funded by Congress for $100 million to deliver service to the blind and Americans overseas.  Otherwise, they are funded by stamps and other services the public pays for.

Even more astounding is that the postal service made a profit in this economy.  Now that’s impressive!

Neocons rewriting the Bible

by

…well, I wish I could say this is a surprise…but, no, I was waiting for the “re-write” because Jesus is just too, too, liberal…you know, feeding people, healing the sick without being paid, throwing the bankers out of the Temple…

See, the neocons were hiding behind the “Moral Majority” schtick and intimidating folks with their self-righteous blather.  Now that some of us have been speaking out about spirituality, they have suddenly realized their game is up.

Sorry, neocons….try as you might, you cannot have a re-do to support your selfish, hateful, punitive actions that feed the dark side.

An Educator for Chancellor…what a concept…

by

Bill de Blasio better check with ole’ slick Willy and Hilly to rethink his choice for Chancellor.   He must be mistaken, because Bill, Hillary, Michelle Rhee, Eli Broad, and Bill Gates don’t approve of actual educators being involved in…you know…education administration.  De Blasio obviously didn’t get the memo that he needs to appoint an investment banker, technology terrorist, or some other profiteer to run the schools.  /very snarky