Category Archives: defense contractors

Highway collapses along U.S. – Mexico border

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Global News has this up on highway collapse thought to be caused by several local earthquakes.

So…yeah, I’m looking at fracking in the area.  Here’s a report on fracking near the area:

(not linking to it for obvious reasons)

thehydroexcavationblog.com/south-texas-hydro-excavation-link-love-shale-fracking-growth/

From the article:

U.S. oil production has reversed a 30-plus year decline and, by some estimates, the country will become the world’s largest oil producer by as early as 2017 and will achieve full energy self-sufficiency by 2030.

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::…meanwhile, citizens are dropping dead of *mysterious* illnesses at  a rate parallel to the amount of fracking being done…..:: /not really snarky, but a little too close to the truth

I found a protest blog by Mexican nationals.   Again, you’ll have to use google translate.

I also found this on the detrimental decision to release control of Mexico’s oil resources to outside investors.  Combine that with this previous story on the huge reserves just ripe for fracking…and well, you can draw the picture.

Egyptians are also protesting fracking.  Can you imagine poisoning the Nile?  Good Grief.

 

Opposing Enbridge

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Warrior Publications has this up on the curious fact that people opposing the Enbridge pipeline are not the radicals that the Oil industry and the politicos would like you to think.

Like I’ve said before, there are a lot more people in favor of protecting the environment but are afraid to be categorized as terrorists or radicals, so they remain silent.  It really came home to me when I wrote an op-ed for my local paper talking about environmental concerns, including GMO labeling.  I had people call me and talk to me in person (in a low voice, no doubt so no one else could hear the conversation) about how they agreed with me.  But they didn’t take that next step and write their own op-ed on how they, too, wanted to protect the environment.

The oil industry and others have done a bang up job of portraying *all* environmentalists as radical, violent people….when only a small number of people have done things that are disagreeable to the rest.  And I’m sure there were agent provocateurs amongst the violent ones.

The following isn’t related to the environmental protests, but it is helpful in understanding that it isn’t paranoia on the part of protestors:

 

The ripples that come after…

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...Congress cuts unemployment benefits.  I disagree with the writer’s assertion that the Democrats “wanted to continue” unemployment benefits.  Are you kidding me?  These are the same people going along with Third Way mentality that wants to end New Deal social programs….

…meanwhile, they budgeted $500 Billion for the defense budget….a budget that should be reigned in, because they have too many contractors, too much waste,  (want to find money to support the jobless, give food to the hungry, and find homes for the homeless?  $430 MILLION in cutting waste is a place to start)  and an NSA that is running amok.

There is just something very, very wrong when a country spends more money to kill people than save them.

 

 

 

 

Money can’t buy security, either…

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<sigh>  Well, folks, if you were feeling a little more secure about our Constitution with the last court ruling on NSA surveillance...think again.

As the commenters said, I wonder what kind of dirt the NSA has on Judge William Pauley.  There is no way on Earth that this is in keeping with the Fourth Amendment:

 

U.S. Constitution › Fourth Amendment

Fourth Amendment

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

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This bears repeating:  No warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

Probable cause is required for searching a person, their houses, papers, and effects.  A court must agree that there is probable cause in order for the agency to violate someone’s privacy.

This amendment protects a person from a government abusing its power, as we saw in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and China.  People who are not doing anything wrong have a right to be let alone.

 

Third Way

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You might remember this post with a quote that says the words “third way”.  Not long after I posted it, Ed on the Ed Show (MSNBC) mentioned the Third Way.  I can’t remember exactly what he said, but it was negative and the segment intrigued me.

I’ve just now gotten around to doing a bit of research on Third Way.  Whew…do you smell a rat??  Me, too.

Red flags are going off with Elizabeth Warren being attacked by supposed Democrats for…speaking out against selling us out to the 1% by cutting Social Security and other social programs….calling them “populist”. Um-hmmm…that and the word “entitlement” are key words for the “I’ve-got-mine-screw-you” crowd. 

Now, getting back to the previous post with Hillary Clinton’s religious leader saying those words:  third way…and how they wanted to do away with New Deal programs:

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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Social Security. Public Schools.  Medicaid.  Medicare.  Public employees like fire fighters, police.  Public Libraries.  A decent living wage.

I know that it’s hard to believe they want to destroy it all, but all signs are pointing towards that very end.

Elizabeth Warren stands in the way of that.

Here’s a humorous video up on it:

Please, please run for President, Elizabeth.  Please!!  I’ll go knocking on doors…whatever needs done to help get you votes.  Hillary Clinton is nothing but a Goldwater Girl doing the dirty work of the bankers, warmongers, education profiteers, Big Oil, Monsanto, and no doubt countless other organizations that don’t give a crap about Americans or America, the poor, the elderly, the children, the environment, nor the middle class.

Please run, Elizabeth.

Enbridge allowed to go ahead in Canada

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Warrior Publications has a blog up on the ruling that it’s okay to allow a repeat offender access to its victims…

Part of the problem with the conditions set is that even though Enbridge must carry $950 million in insurance…one cannot replace what is lost with…money.  You can’t eat money. You can’t breathe money.  You can’t drink money.  It won’t make a bit of difference if you have billions upon billions of dollars if you are made ill by breathing particulate, eating food grown in polluted soil, or trying to cleanse your kidneys and liver with petrochemically poisoned water.

 

 

Why won’t public schools just go away already?

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(said very snarkily)

Jan Ressenger has this up on the recent nominee to the Dept of Education.  Yeah, if you were hoping that President Obama had somehow seen the light about the U.S. education fiasco, well, you (and I) were sadly mistaken, because he’ s nominated another corporate takeover twerp.

Be sure to click on the link to the Nation’s report:

In addition, [Ted]  Mitchell serves as an adviser to Salmon River Capital, a venture capital firm that specializes in education companies. Mitchell sits on the board of Parchment, an academic transcript start-up that is among Salmon River Capital’s portfolio. Salmon River Capital helped create one of the biggest names in for-profit secondary education, Capella University.

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Italics mine.

That, my friends, should read as a rap sheet.

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In other Education News, School Matters has this blog on the lack of transparency for the State of Indiana….so what else is new?

I agree that individuals should probably not be named, but there absolutely needs to be an accounting of how many students went to school B, and how much money was diverted from School A.

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School Finance 101 has a good report on the lies and statistics of mis-edumucation.  One can make statistics say anything you want, if you know how to skew the data…or leave out the data that doesn’t agree with your goals.

We will not obey TPP

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Wisconsin, bless their little hearts, have drafted a resolution that they are a “TPP-free” zone.  The negotiations have been shielded from public scrutiny but the article states that bits have leaked out and…it’s scary as hell–a Monsanto lobbyist is leading the negotiations.

From the article:

Countries, including those in the European Union, could also find it increasingly difficult to ban, or even require the labeling of, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) if biotech companies determine that those countries’ strict policies restrict fair trade and infringe on the companies’ “rights” to profit.

To top it off, corporations would be allowed to resolve trade disputes in special international tribunals, effectively wiping out hundreds of domestic and international food sovereignty laws. Products labeled fair trade, organic, country-of-origin, animal-welfare approved, or GMO-free, could all be challenged as “barriers to trade.”

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It’s an attack on local autonomy….the right to decide what is best for your community.Good Grief, these corporations can.not.get.enough.profits.  Greed, greed, greed.

 

Larry Lujack

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Those of you not from the Midwest won’t get this post, but an icon of the 70s has passed–Larry Lujack who dominated the radio during the 70s, has passed.   We lived three hours away from Chicago, but the powerful WLS reached our little town and much of northern Indiana. (There is a great youtube of Lujack broadcasting in May 1971.  I don’t think it’s “official” , though, so I can’t link to it.  But just listening to it is a great toss back to those days–the fun we had (describing oil cans as “beautiful” *snort* ) and the times–Vietnam updates /protestors are featured on the news and I’m not sure, but I think they are announcing officers being investigated for shooting Vietnamese, but I’m not sure if it’s related to the My Lai massacre.)

We loved listening to Lujack on our school bus as we made the trip into school, laughing at programs like the “Tooth Fairy”…complete with background noise like doors opening/closing, footsteps, and all that made radio great.  I feel sorry for my kids’ generation, because they never got to experience that part of our culture.

I had the name “boogiecheck” for awhile as a log on name.  People thought it was something dirty–it wasn’t.  It was in reference to a program on WLS with John Records Landecker, where he made short bits of callers’ conversations into a hilarious soundbyte.   The program was so popular that when Landecker went to a local high school to speak at a convocation, he was greeted with the crowd chanting:  “Boogie Check, Boogie Check, ooh aah!  Boogie Check, Boogie Check, ooh aah!”   This was the intro to the program from that moment on.

Landecker once told a story of one Friday, a payday, in the olden days where they actually handed out paper checks that one took to the bank to deposit.  He said he picked up his check, and started to walk towards the bank, and with each step, he felt more tired.  His arm hurt.  By the time he got to the bank, he could barely put one foot in front of another.  When he got to the bank teller, he found the reason why:  he was carrying Larry Lujack’s paycheck instead of his own.  Haha.  Must have been soooome big ole’ paycheck. 🙂

Peace and comfort to Larry’s family on his passing…