Saturday, May 7, 2011

Why We Need a Nationwide Moratorium on Fracking

Fracking for natural gas is a hotly contested issue these days as reports of widespread contamination of drinking water supplies, methane gas leaks and undocumented toxins used in the process continue to cause public concern in the largely unregulated industry that won exemption from federal Drinking Water Protection guidelines during the Bush Administration under Dick Cheney's direction. Oh yeah, the hydraulic fracturing process was developed by good old Halliburton and sold as "green" to us by its former CEO, Dick Cheney.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/fracking-moratorium_b_858654.html

This extensive report on the gas fracking industry and it's false claims of safety and climate neutrality was produced by the author's organization DeSmogBlog. 
How Unconventional Gas Fracking Threatens Our Water, Health and Climate
http://www.desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/

Monsanto gave us Agent Orange, Aspartame and Cancer Causing Additives in our Food Supply -

Let's not forget the horrors of Agent Orange and the sickness and birth defects it caused for US veterans and the Vietnamese as we contemplate Monsanto's role in our society and its increasing dominance in the US food supply and industrial agriculture model. This story was published by Veteran's Today and serves to review Monsanto's conduct over the years, some of the harm it's perpetrated against public health, and points out the revolving door appointment of a former Monsanto lobbyist as Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the FDA. 
http://current.com/127sd4c

Protests in Benton Harbor follow Martial Law Enforcement

This PR Watch update on the Emergency Financial Manager law in Michigan that allows the Governor to strip all local elected officials and statutory powers, in effect declaring martial law, and place authoritarian powers in the hands of unelected political appointees. The test case for this law is Benton Harbor and it is part of a statewide push to privatize education and strip teacher's unions of their collective bargaining rights and jobs. Governor Snyder has now identified 23 new districts that are at risk of having the EFM laws applied to their local governments. This is an anti-democratic process that s currently being legitimized in Michigan and it should cause grave concern to all Americans who value their constitutional protections and democratic rights. Included is a link to a Rachel Maddow segment on the Benton Harbor story featuring an interview with the Lansing mayor who ran against Snyder in the last election.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/05/10702/protests-benton-harbor-follow-martial-law-enforcement

FDA Approved Big Pharma Drugs Without Effectiveness Data

The rush to brings drugs to market has resulted in many drugs with less benefits than current available treatments to be prescribed to patients. A Congressionally-funded directive to determine comparative effectiveness of new drugs has often been ignored by the FDA which has approved a number of these drugs without studying the effectiveness data.
http://www.NaturalNews.com/032279_Big_Pharma_fraud.html

Honduras: Teargassed Open, for Business

A report on the situation in Honduras where a US-backed military regime has been repressing dissent violently in the course of crushing teacher's unions in a push to privatize education throughout the country. 
http://www.thenation.com/article/160472/honduras-teargassed-open-business

Raw Foods Raid - The Fight For the Right To Eat What You Want

This ReasonTV video about continuing FDA armed raids and persecution of natural food producers and cooperatives, ostensibly on behalf of the industrialized food industry, is alarming to say the least. It's a short, sweet and immensely important report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioN0ehlyyXI

FDA claims power to seize food without evidence of contamination

The more I learn about the activities of the FDA in persecuting the natural foods industry, and it's role in supporting the pharmaceutical industry at the risk of public health, the more I fear that the agency's agenda is not aligned with a purported mission to protect the public interest. 
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/05/fda-claims-power-to-seize-food-without.html

Profits At Largest 500 Corporations Grew By 81 Percent In 2010

This is a stunning report on the profitability of the Fortune 500 in 2010, a year in which corporate tax revenues as a percentage of GDP were the lowest they've been in years.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/05/fortune-500-corporations-81/