Warrior Publications has this up on what we already knew, but yeah, putting it in writing that Harper and the rest see the land rights of the First Nations folks being problematic.
See…it’s so much harder to get the oil out when you have to ask permission by folks who see it as violating the Earth. They aren’t as easily swayed by $$ because the Earth is sacred to them.
It’s even more of a problem when those folks have the law on their side.
Honor the Treaties, Canada.
I really don’t know clouds at all…
(from Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now)
City Jackdaw inspired this with his post.
You can still see with the imagination…as long as those aren’t chemtrail clouds**, which invariably are shapeless flat expanses… that you really should not be under after sprayed…your health depends on it.
**brought to you buy Bill Gates and his two, count that, two, scientists who have all knowledge of all the universe to control weather and kill us in the meantime….
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~
**UPDATED: Please sign the petition against XL here.
Here are snippets of the documentary on the grip the Kochs have on policy. It’s truly heartening what happened in Wake County, a southern area, and how they were not willing to go backward.
Also, this documentary leaves out the Gates Foundation and Eli Broad and the Walton family’s influence on destroying public education…just wanted to note that important piece of this pie.
…you will ever see is here.
It is just mindboggling how the Koch brothers have their tentacles in every aspect of society: union busting, voting rights, livable wages, social security, corporate taxes, healthcare, etc….
Not only that, but equally troubling is how easily Congress and politicians can be bought.
They are more than willing to endorse the racist ideas of the Kochs by a stealth way of re-segregating schools, interfering with one’s right to vote, and dumping toxins in poor and black neighborhoods. The only thing missing from this documentary is how BP is right there with Koch and will most likely accept the petcoke byproduct of tar sands at the Whiting, Indiana refineries. Indiana always seems to get lost in the concerns of pollution.
Another troubling aspect of this documentary is how Ed Shultz is featured as being against the Kochs, but he is for XL pipeline….which the Kochs are behind! One can only wonder how much the Kochs have paid to MSNBC or to Shultz (which I would find it hard to believe, but Kochs seem to go on the belief that everyone has a price…and they only need to find out what that price tag is…) since Ed has changed his tune, and the Kochs are known for greasing palms to buy people’s silence or worse, it’s not without merit to question if they have paid somebody off to get Ed to promote the pipeline.
I’m glad, however, to say that some of us care about the environment and our health and our children’s health and are resistant to this dirty money…
This week’s eye candy from Canada.
#2 is breathtaking. Can you imagine this being gone due to fracking or polluted with bitumen from a leak in tar sands pipeline, a la Kalamazoo?
Another beautiful rainbow on #3.
#9 talk about spoiling an otherwise gorgeous picture…same with #11.
Otherwise, great pics…
Anne Clair, an Elsipogtog mother, wrote this about her son being jailed while protesting SWN trespassing on the native owned land.
Again, I ask– If most of the taxpayers are against fracking and tar sands, then why are the oil companies allowed on that land? Why were the police there and who are they working for if the taxpayers do not want this?
Politicker has this up on Jerry Nadler speaking out on the republican plan of decreasing the surplus population–through even more cuts to food stamps..in a Depression…oh, wait, we’re not supposed to call it a Depression…my bad.
I’ve debated back and forth whether to write about my situation with the state. Like so many people on food stamps, it’s humiliating to have to beg for food. It’s humiliating to go to job interviews and not get that call, even though the interviewers seem to like you….then you are called lazy and unmotivated by these republican (and some Democrats) jackasses….so they’re going to “help you” not be lazy and unmotivated…
Briefly, I did get them reinstated…BUT the state pulled a number out of its arse that isn’t even reflecting of what I am bringing home.
Gah, this is hard talking about, but here goes: I made a total of $520.00 since September. The average of those months is $130.00 per month…before taxes. The state has done some fuzzy math and now deemed me making $260.00 + what my son gives me. I told them that he only helps me out if I don’t make enough to cover my supplements and vitamins (which keep me healthy until I can get this horrible poison out) and my gas and the basics like laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, etc. I really hate having to ask him for money, so if he does help out, it’s never over $100, unless the car needs work or some emergency comes up. He signed a paper stating such.
So…they decided that he helps me out *every* month, regardless, which is a lie.
Even with all the false money that I don’t have coming in, the total they have assigned is…$360.00 per month.
And they cut my food stamps because apparently I’m living high on the hog at their false total of $360. Yep.
This does not take into account taxes taken out, gas to get back and forth to work, and the weather, which has impaired my ability to work. They don’t take into account that the car needs tires, a transmission fluid change, and other maintenance just so I can make it to work. Doesn’t matter to them.
According to them, I’m making $360, with no taxes to pay and no other expenditures.
$143 is all they will give me for an entire month’s worth of groceries. And now they want to cut that even more. They spend more than that on a month’s worth of coffee.
Oh, and what was that about the automatic pay raises of Congress? You can’t “make it” on $100,000 per year?
Mitt Romney and his cronies, gutting jobs while raking in the cash….and looking the other way while people go hungry.
My post on being lazy and unmotivated here.
My other posts on food stamps here, here, and here.
My piece on the media slamming the poor ..I should note that I also saw the South Bend station doing the exact.same.thing within months after this piece aired.
So…you can’t find a job, you’ve got food stamps that don’t last a month, and you’re not supposed to beg for money…vicious, heartless, and punitive.
And when the sociopaths talk about wanting to cut food stamps because of fraud, they neglect to mention the program is one of the best run with only a 3% error rate!
Meanwhile, they look the other way at rampant fraud with the Dept. of Defense….and the welfare queens of McDonald’s and Walmart.
**edited to add: I just want to make it plain that this is not a pity post. Like I said in the previous post, we don’t want your stinking charity. We want jobs with livable wages.
Eagle 
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