Yes, folks, this is where your hard earned tax dollars are going to…not to teachers’ salaries or the unions like the education profiteers would like you to think….
Good Grief. I have no words.
Wait…yes, yes I do…how many people in this room would like to get up and walk out?
How many?
How many?
Jan Resseger has a blog up on the report of the Chicago Teachers Union strike in September 2012. This, my friends, is what a democratically run union looks like. Other unions TAKE HEED.
The teacher’s and counselor’s passion is evident in this report. They care about these kids and what the profiteers are doing to them. Note how the police, fire, parents, and community stepped up and supported them. Good for them.
Here’s the background on the rally today at Saucedo Elementary in Chicago.
It’s pretty serious when a teacher is threatened with termination if she/he refuses to subject the kids to this form of bullying.
Fred Klonsky has this up on a rally for Chicago Teachers Union and parents against the testing, testing, testing mentality of the education profiteers and their toadies.
Rally is at 3:30 p.m. at Saucedo Elementary at 2850 W. 24th Blvd. Wear red in support!
Warrior Publications has this up from John Kane on relearning what our ancestors knew…
Some folks are so far removed from nature that they don’t have even the very basic knowledge of…living. Living in harmony, that is…
We’ve been fed this false belief that technology is superior to nature…when nothing trumps nature. Just look at the powerful force of nature during any storm…and how technology takes a hit every time.
Technology has put up a wall between us and nature. We lose that connection. We lose the talent of our senses without engaging them daily. (Think of folks walking into water fountains or walking into traffic while talking on cell phones.)
…and when we lose that connection, we lose the ability to value nature–to understand nature. And as the post says–we lose the ability to know our place within nature and our time here.
Being poor helps with that–washing clothes by scrubbing them on a washboard gave me a sense of accomplishment–I knew that I could do a decent job of it; learning how to manage on so little helps one really learn how to prioritize on what is important–you learn what is fluff and what is substance; and the biggest re-connect with nature is your own sense of self-worth and pride in that you made it. You survived. And nature is better for it because the balance of give-and-take is restored. You no longer take and take, but realize you must give, too. Not easy…but ohhh so worth it, in the end. You gain something so much more valuable.
PRESS RELEASE: Tuesday, February 25, 2014
CONTACT: Nick Surgey, nick@prwatch.org, (608) 260-9713
KEYSTONE PIPELINES EXPOSED: NEW FILM REFUTES JOBS, SECURITY, GAS PRICE, TAX, SAFETY, AND CLIMATE CLAIMS
MADISON — Today, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released a new short film and launched a series of major investigative reports debunking key claims of proponents of the Keystone XL Pipeline, as the State Department solicits comments from the public on its controversial environmental impact assessment.
Over the past seven months, CMD has interviewed experts and activists in Port Arthur, Texas; Detroit; and Washington, DC; and examined detailed tax, safety, economic, environmental, and campaign finance studies in assessing the claims made by proponents of the pipeline, which would carry more than 3/4 million barrels of tar sands oil a day from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries.
“We made this film and investigated the public relations campaign for the Keystone XL pipeline because the fake ‘facts’ about jobs and energy security peddled by industry-funded politicians and uncritical pundits has left too many Americans deeply misinformed,” said Lisa Graves, the Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy. CMD is the publisher of the award-winning “ALEC Exposed” investigative reporting project about the American Legislative Exchange Council.
The film, “Keystone PipeLIES Exposed,” highlights little known facts about the KXL pipeline project such as the corporate exemption for tar sands oil from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund and the limits on taxes due for foreign oil imported to foreign trade zones like Port Arthur. The film also includes footage from major tar sands oil spills in the U.S. and Canada that were only briefly in the headlines despite the enormous damages they caused. A short excerpt of the film is available at: https://vimeo.com/87520545
CMD’s short film documents that, despite the claims of politicians and others backing KXL:
— KXL will not directly create 100,000+ jobs but 3,900 short-term and 50 long-term ones.
— KXL will not produce billions in corporate tax revenues, due to tax loopholes most Americans have never heard of.
— KXL will not be safe from disastrous leaks, but it will be exempt from corporations paying into a key disaster insurance fund because it is “unconventional oil,” which puts taxpayers on the hook for billions.
— KXL will not make America energy independent; and, in fact, most of the tar sands oil is planned for export from the Gulf of Mexico via tankers to foreign countries.
— KXL will not be climate neutral — in spite of that suggestion made in an assessment prepared by an industry-linked group — but it will speed climate change and global instability.
Dave Saldana, the Emmy Award-winning writer, director, and producer of the film, commented: “The Keystone XL pipeline is a phenomenally bad idea. I looked at the claims as a lawyer; what did the evidence show me? The evidence shows that its job creation claims are grossly inflated; that better, greener alternatives would aid America’s energy independence and put more Americans to work for a longer time than the pipeline; and that the pumping of tar sands oil across the U.S. primarily for export to foreign countries poses enormous risks to America’s water supply, food supply, and air quality. And that’s before you even get to what it does to climate change.”
CMD’s film and related documentation are being released in advance of the March 7 deadline the State Department has set for public comments on the government’s recently released environmental impact assessment, which critics believe signals that the State Department is poised to give a green light to the pipeline’s expansion across the U.S.-Canadian border and to the Texas shores. On March 2, activists are preparing for KXL protests across the nation.
NEW RESOURCES FOR THE PRESS AND PUBLIC ON KXL
The production package for “Keystone PipeLIES Exposed” includes a 22-minute film, a fact sheet debunking the main myths about the KXL, seven 3-minute short videos for easy sharing, and other materials about the the experts cited in the film, which you can find at our new website http://www.pipeLIESexposed.org. Follow the conversation at #pipelies.
In addition, five in-depth investigative pieces will be published — each day this week — at CMD’s original reporting site, http://www.prwatch.org. Follow us on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/CenterforMediaandDemocracy and Twitter https://twitter.com/PRWatch
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**UPDATED: Please sign the petition against XL here.
This week’s pics of beautiful Canada. I was thinking about Neil Young’s song and the video of the Earth before the energy companies move in, and how much is lost that cannot be regained after they’re done stripping the land…
WordPress had a general country count of visitors for the blog. I have to say that I was tickled the first time I saw someone from another country visit the blog.
But I was blown away by a visitor from…Russia.
First, I want to say “Hello!” and welcome.
Second, I want to say don’t believe what they say about all Americans. For the most part, we are probably a lot like you–we want to take care of our families, keep food on the table, be healthy, and have a purpose in life. We’re all connected and more alike than not.
Most of us want peace and are sick of wars.
We’re also very concerned about the environment.
The XL pipeline is a terrible venture, as is the Enbridge pipeline going in my state of Indiana. We’re also home to BP petcoke refining operation in Whiting, Indiana, a very toxic venture, as well.
I think Indiana has been as close to living in Russia as it ever has for this winter has been really rough. We’re thinking of adopting the penguin as the new state bird (a little Hoosier humor sent on the dreaded f_cebook.) Ha.
So…have a look around and comment if you like–would love to hear from you.
You’ll have to translate it, though, the only Russian word I know is “nyet”. Ha.
Diane Ravitch has this link up on Rep. Ellen Cogen Lipton fighting the good fight for Michigan public schools from the profiteers.
From the link:
State Superintendent Mike Flanagan, who signed his authority over school reform to the experimental EAA for 15 years in 2011, asked to get it back immediately, apparently due to deep concerns about the EAA’s many failures – but EAA Chancellor John Covington refused. Given the crumbling relationship between the EAA and Flanagan, Lipton said the EAA must be brought to a halt, not expanded, as Republicans in the Legislature are seeking to do.
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and then there’s this:
And why won’t the governor, through his control over the EAA Board of Directors that hired and can fire Covington, demand Covington to immediately return control to Flanagan or be removed from office?”
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Stunning. Absolutely stunning that they signed authority over for 15 years to an uproven entity!! Who does that?!
Of course the Repubs are not only not stopping this, but trying to expand it. (Probably hoping that it will be harder to stop a speeding train). Eli Broad, Bill Gates, Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Koch Brothers, John Arnold, and the billionaires boys club have too much at stake to take their marbles and go home…
So…Joe Donnelly was on the local radio station getting free air time, er I mean, informing the public…
…when he was laying into President Obama for the executive order to force the minimum wage to $10.10 for federal workers.
Donnelly casually mentions that George W. Bush did this (and so did several other presidents, including Reagan and Clinton, who were neck and neck with executive orders). More here on Mike Pence (now Indiana’s governor) who thinks executive orders are just fine for George W. Bush.
Donnelly stated that President Obama “should have tried to work with us…and he jumped the gun…”
bwahahahahahaha
Um, he has tried to work with Congress. Members of Congress have had a secret agreement to deliberately thwart Obama and block nominees, legislation, etc.
They have blocked raising the minimum wage for as long as I can remember. While they complain that they need an automatic pay raise every year, Congress looks the other way while people go hungry, lose their homes, go without medical care, and live under constant stress of deciding whether to pay the light bill, mortgage, heat bill, or put food on the table.
You might remember Donnelly phrased cutting food stamps as “savings” when on the radio just before Thanksgiving….absolutely callous while ignoring waste and fraud and bloated budgets in other areas, such as Defense spending.
Eagle 
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