…and you want to frack this…?

Only a heartless person would want to ruin this by fracking….

Reign of Error; Kochs, et al, planning assault on Ed.

Patrick Walsh has a report up on Reign of Error, by Diane Ravitch.

Oh, and have you heard?  It’s open season on teachers.  The climate that No Child Left a Mind and Race to the Bottom have created—to punish students for not being perfect students and their teachers, who are under tremendous pressures to not have any stupid kids (said facetiously)–has now come to fruition.  I’m sure Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michelle Rhee, et al, are laughing themselves silly.

Jan Ressenger put up a link to this report from the Guardian on just how far the Kochs and their comrades are willing to go….not only to destroy public education, but continue attacks on working folks and unions…

SPN’s president, Tracie Sharp, told the Guardian that “as a pro-freedom network of thinktanks, we focus on issues like workplace freedom, education reform, and individual choice in healthcare: backbone issues of a free people and a free society.”

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I wonder if she could get the word “free” in there any more…was she wrapped in a flag, too??  Because that would *definitely* mean that this program was patriotic and would strengthen democracy…

...by destroying it…

“it’s for your own good” has to be the biggest lie ever told!

Side note~ someone in the comments section linked to the Yes Men video. Enjoy. (Be sure to click on Part 2–with Surviva-balls.  Hilarious.)

Someone also kindly posted a link to a list of Kraft foods.  Again…where are the antitrust laws?  Why is one food manufacturer able to control so much of the market share?  Not that junk food, which is the majority of crap that Kraft makes, is something healthy..what if folks were able to afford healthy made-from-scratch food…?  We could do some serious damage to Kraft’s bottom line if we refused to buy their junk food and bought only fresh….and we’d be healthier, too.

Center for Media and Democracy has the scoop on SPN.  (As a side note~ I haven’t been getting regular emails of the CMD for a few months now–it’s been spotty at best…interesting.  I’ll have to make a note to keep checking their website for updates.)

True to nature, they hide their lobbying disguised to avoid paying taxes.  Good Grief, these people know how to play the game of getting someone else to pay while they reap the benefits.

The mention of the Goldwater Institute raises huge red flags–Hillary Clinton was a Goldwater Girl.  An excellent blog here on her history…er, her trying to re-write her history…and Bill’s.

The Clintons LOVE poor black people on welfare

• The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) that was dreamt up by past Republican administrations, was actually passed by Congress and signed by Clinton. This act was filled with vindictive measures aimed at the poor. Among other things, it set a five-year lifetime limit for cash assistance and gave the states power to adopt stringent restrictions in several other areas. Another key part of the Act, was the imposition for the first time of lifetime limits on welfare. Once a welfare mother uses up this lifetime limit, set at five years by the federal government, she and her children can never again receive federal cash benefits, no matter how desperate their condition and no matter what happens to the overall economy.
Bill Clinton has certainly laid his Mack game down heavy in the black community. Maybe that’s why the African-American community has been so thoroughly duped by lip service, prominent public appearances and appointments, and an office on Harlem’s 125th (although Clinton certainly hasn’t used it much).

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Ahem.   There are white people on food stamps, as well.  The Clintons, along with the Kochs, et al, don’t like POOR people.  Period.

We can’t talk about Bill Clinton’s love for his “black race” without mentioning Rwanda. You remember what happened in Rwanda? If you don’t, then I suggest you rent the movie “Hotel Rwanda” and be prepared to be thoroughly disgusted. Bill Clinton not only refused to intervene to save over one million people from being hacked to death, but he even declined to convene his Cabinet to discuss the crisis.

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I highly recommend Hotel Rwanda.  Just don’t watch it and Schindler’s List on the same weekend.  I actually had to call my son after watching them both one weekend….I needed to talk to a sane human being…

And let’s not forget this piece on the secretive group Hillary Clinton belongs to.  As I’ve said on many occasions…it never ceases to amaze me how people who call themselves Christian act nothing like Christ.  Who would Jesus bomb, Hillary?

I’ve read this piece before, but this sentence just packed a punch:

It emerged, he [Reverend Don Jones] says, as a third way, a reaction against both separatist fundamentalism and the New Deal’s labor-based liberalism.

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…a reaction against….the New Deal’s labor-based liberalism.  In other words:   unions….working folks….public education…social security…medicaid…..livable wages…(and the environment, too, but that would come later).

…and if you listen carefully to conservative media, you’ll hear subtle and outwardly snide attacks on Roosevelt’s New Deal.  Get it, now?

And this:

Niebuhr and Tillich’s combination of aggressiveness in foreign affairs and limited domestic ambition naturally led Clinton toward the gop. She was a Goldwater Girl who, under the tutelage of her high school history teacher Paul Carlson (whom Jones describes as “to the right of the John Birchers”), attended biweekly anticommunist meetings and later served as president of Wellesley’s Young Republicans chapter.

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…she attended biweekly anticommunist meetings.  Wellesley…if the movie “Mona Lisa Smile” is any indication, is a conservative’s utopia…so Young Republicans chapter there?  Pretty hard to swallow that this was a fluke -a flash in the pan….especially when one turns a critical eye to Hillary’s record.  I mean, if they call themselves Democrats, but act as Republicans…

“Mind conservative but a heart liberal” tells me that she is like so many guys who say they’re “socially liberal, but fiscally conservative”.  What this means is:  I’m selfish and self-absorbed.  And I don’t follow my heart.  I let my purse strings do the thinking for me.   In other words, I choose money over God.  (Jesus said that we could only serve one Master–money or God.  Not both.)

Okay, there is more to write, but I’m really tired from the day and need to call it quits.

 

Anti-fracking activists struck by vehicle

(I really wanted to take some time off, but there is just too much stuff going on…)

Natives protesting fracking on their land have been run over.  I’m unclear about the first paragraph and whether the persons were run over by SWN vehicles.  In the posted tweets, note the upside down Canadian flag (on the mylar balloon)–I have to wonder if that were purposeful, as they have flown the U.S. flag upside down as a signal of distress.   And support is growing around the world, with Ireland expressing their solidarity with the Elsipogtog.  Bless the Irish 🙂

In this link,  the journalists have rallied around Miles Howe, the journalist arrested three times so far:

The Canadian Association of Journalists issued a press release Monday calling on “the RCMP to either lay charges or stop harassing a journalist working in New Brunswick arrested for the third time on Nov. 28,” referring to Media Co-op’s Miles Howe.

“RCMP behaviour suggests they are unfamiliar with the charter rights of a free press and the allowances those rights permit journalists while covering controversial and volatile situations,” CAJ president Hugo Rodrigues said.

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More here.

This just in:  RCMP arrests Santa.  For shame.

Caption:  “Well, that about sums it up.”  Yep….except the politician needs to be wearing a blazer with all the corporate logos that sponsor him/her on it…..and their pockets full of cash they bribe with…

On a hot summer day, nothing sounds better than a cool drink of water….

(sorry for the visual, but you get the point…contaminated water is unappealing to look at as harmful to the body.)

Ways to help the Elsipogtog.  You can click on the picture to enlarge. More here.

The Warriors send their greetings and Thanks.

Blessings to the defenders of the water and land…

Speaking of the Native Tribes

Continuing coverage of the Mi’kmaq protests in Canada~

The injunction is explained:

The above journalist was arrested.

His arrest, for the third time (he was not charged in either of the two previous arrests) is unacceptable and it appears to be the state’s preferred strategy for stopping him from getting the word out about protests in Elsipogtog.

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I think this is as clear a case as any for harassment.  Howe was not charged in the previous two arrests…so they’re going for a third…?

Here’s the video of his arrest.  Note the officer taking a video of the person who is taking the video of the officers arresting Howe.  Three officers for an unarmed person who is not resisting arrest?  Really?

The update below the video link states Howe has been released and is in good spirits.

Another article on more arrests.  What I don’t understand is that they had left the protest…and then they were arrested.

A note up for a rally tomorrow.

 

 

Suzuki showing support for First Nations

David Suzuki is supporting the Elsipogtog protests.  Thank you, David!

Meanwhile, the trucks arrive in convoy. Another pic here.

Harper spies on the peaceful group. Note that their own intelligence says they do not see them as a violent threat….yet, they show up in riot gear and tear gas the peaceful protestors. I’m glad to read that they are also protesting Enbridge, which is in my own backyard.  “We want to keep the people and environment safe…”  bwahaha, that’s rich.  If you really cared about the environment, you wouldn’t be building a pipeline to begin with.

(DN also covered this happening in the U.S. towards nonprofit groups that big business perceives as threats. Big Brother has arrived.)

Lastly, this pic of a smiling female Warrior.

My other blogs on energy and fracking here, here, and here, and here.

 

The War against Teachers

Reclaim Reform has this somber post up on the worldwide attack on the teachers, the teacher’s unions, and free speech, as well. The last video (world wide) really got to me–treating these folks like animals!  Take note that World Bank demanded the austerity measures….

The Good Enough Student

Assailed Teacher has a great blog up on a student “Tammy” who does okay in school….but is struggling to pass a global test.  She must pass this one test in order to graduate.  Again, the “good enough” mothers analogy of Phyllis Chesler passed into my head…and I thought that “Tammy” is a “good enough” student.  Not perfect, but okay.    What really bothers me about all of this is that they are labeling kids as stupid who are quite all right.  They’re fine.  They understand concepts appropriate for their ages.  And yet, they are being put in categories that are not a true definition of their abilities.

Also, beneath this piece is an “interview” with Arne Duncan that’s pretty funny.  Too bad that it gets a little too close to the truth.

Money for me, not for thee

Continuing the saga of the Food Stamp *cough* savings….

Here’s another article on it.

The comments are interesting, and someone links to this page on Stephen Fincher, whose family farm received…wait for it…$8.9 million in farm subsidies…

…they must be the farmers Joe Donnelly consulted with for the farm bill. /snark

Oh, and Jesus gave loaves and fishes to the hungry.   It’s interesting what portions of the Bible the so-called religious choose to quote to justify their meanness and cruelty.

 

 

 

 

 

Scrooge’s children

must be republicans…and some democrats.  Joe Donnelly was on the local radio station this morning, talking about the Farm Bill.  I guess the new catch word is “savings” when describing cuts to food stamps.  Yep, he actually was promoting the idea of “savings” when taking food away.  He stated that farmers helped write the bill….that he was big on farmers having a say in the bill.

….and then, after stating there would be savings in the farm bill, (from food stamps), he ends his talk with the radio host with “Have a Happy Thanksgiving”.  I kid you not.  Utter callousness and indifference.

Meanwhile, we spend $$$ on overpriced defense suppliers:

Makes you sick, doesn’t it?  Republicans, who are always whining about the budget, never mention this.  They would much rather take food out of someone’s mouth than hold contractors accountable, and save millions in the process.

The witch hunts of teachers

The latest from Teacher’s Letters to Bill Gates.  Queen Melinda seeks to rule education high atop her perch in her gated castle.

I’m glad that someone else has noticed the disturbing similarities between the Puritan witch hunts of Salem and what is happening to teachers.

Again, I say that it has been happening in the private sector for awhile now, but unrecognized by others.  As I read this disturbing piece, from the above link, the “good enough” mother espoused by Phyllis Chesler** popped into my head.  Teachers will never be perfect.  None of us will ever be perfect, even though some of us might try to reach for it. Again, there are disturbing similarities between the demands for teacher perfection and motherhood perfection.   The demands against mothers has largely gone unreported and unnoticed by the mainstream media…except to pile on the negative.  Mothers and teachers both have been pilloried by the media.

**A side note~ Wilson mentions in her article that uppity women and lesbian/bisexuals are likely to lose custody.  One doesn’t even have to be a lesbian in order to lose custody–all the ex has to do is allege she is lesbian in order to lose custody.  A woman who does not have a gentleman friend can be alleged to be a lesbian….and on the flip side, if she is a party girl and has dated frequently, she will also lose custody.  In other words, if she isn’t screwing around, there’s something wrong with her.  If she is screwing around, there’s something wrong with her.  She can’t win.

Also mentioned in the Teacher’s Letters articles are the tent cities.  They’ve been on my mind, lately, especially with all the happy, happy news that the economy has turned a corner and the jobs are flowing again….yeah, I’m not seeing it, either…

Here’s a list of Bush/Clinton cities.

A good article here.

Another here:

They fail to go into more depth about all the factors leading to the economic collapse, which is so important because those factors–deregulation of the banking/insurance industry, NAFTA, ignoring antitrust laws, not taxing corporations nor the rich, 40% of the budget going towards the defense department,  and stagnant wages–have not been dealt with and the economy will not become robust again without correcting them.