Pennsylvania: the 'ground zero' of the US shale gas drilling boom

The fracking controversy is big news in Britain these days too. The Guardian filed an excellent report on the issue a couple of days ago, pointing out that the natural gas industry is relying on a flawed report that claims that the hydraulic fracture process is safe.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/21/pennsylvania-ground-zero-shale-gas

Now, in the state of Texas, there is a movement taking hold to ban the recklessly destructive pollution caused by fracking for natural gas.
Resistance to Gas Drilling Rises on Unlikely Soil
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/us/24ttnaturalgas.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Bradford County Fracking Spill Stopped After Two Days Of Leaking Chemicals In Pennsylvania

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/22/fracking-spill-bradford-county-pa-2011_n_852432.html

Unsuck Earth Day, Please

A piece highlighting the hypocrisy of Earth Day and the opportunism that takes advantage of the build-up to the annual one-day celebration of the earth and all of its manmade problems.
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/04/unsuck-earth-day-please

Google to buy 100.8 megawatts of Oklahoma wind energy

This is a positive trend that we should do much more of as a country if we are going to development sustainable energy capacity and reduce global warming. The Chinese and Europe, Germany in particular, are way ahead of the US in making similar investments in wind and solar energy.
http://www.grist.org/wind-power/2011-04-22-google-to-buy-100.8-megawatts-of-oklahoma-wind-energy

Gov. Chris Christie Considers Defying Court Order

Governor Christie may join the ranks of national GOP players who believe they can disregard various legal restrictions on their actions. This article highlights the details of the Christie episode and reviews other actions taking place in various Republican-controlled states around the countries.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/22/christie-defy-court-order/

Why Are We Throwing Traumatized Vets in Jail for Calling 911?

This development presents a compelling indictment of our nation's ability to manage the complexities of social dysfunction in a sensible and enlightened way. Rather than treat veterans for PTSD and other maladies that require patience, capable social services and special courts for troubled veterans, we are putting non-violent vets in jail for being a public nuisance. It's a pathetic demonstration of our inability to solve problems in a country that continually harps on its "American Exceptionalism."
http://www.alternet.org/news/150663/why_are_we_throwing_traumatized_vets_in_jail_for_calling_911/?utm

States Shameful Trade-Off: Putting Prisons over Public Schools
http://www.alternet.org/news/150696/states'_shameful_trade-off:_putting_prisons_over_public_schools/?page=1

China Rethinks Nuclear Power

In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster the Chinese have put massive development of nuclear power plants on hold, and are pressing to expand installation of renewable and sustainable energy sources like wind and solar.
http://www.thenation.com/article/160095/china-rethinks-nuclear-power

Wall Street Front Group Loading Up Conservative Activists With Soft Ball Questions For GOP Town Halls

No one should be surprised that the GOP is manipulating public town meetings to project their tightly monitored talking points and control the content. It is, however, pretty sweet to find out what's in the works before events even happen. It would be nice if the national media were on this beat but I wouldn't count on it. 
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/22/american-action-network-talking-points-town-hall/

In North Carolina, the Pig Manure is Hitting the Fan

The 10 million hogs in NC generate 40 million gallons of untreated waste containing antibiotics, synthetic hormones, and other chemicals that leach into the environment. Voluntary regulations for this waste have had little effect in controlling this pollution and the problem has gotten out of hand with a deleterious impact on public health and waterways.
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/in-north-carolina-the-pig-manure-is-hitting-the-fan/

Natural Gas Drilling Is at a Crucial Turning Point

ProPublica has been investigating the details behind hydraulic fracturing in the natural gas industry since 2008, and what they've discovered is that the industry is not as clean and safe as proponents claim. This is a critical health and safety issue for huge swaths of the US where fracking is proceeding with reckless abandon despite warnings that the chemicals used in the process are introducing toxics and radiation into our drinking water supply. Reports have also begun to emerge that Natural Gas drilling might create almost as much greenhouse-gas release as coal.
http://www.propublica.org/article/natural-gas-drilling-is-at-a-crucial-turning-point1

Pickens Thinks New Yorkers Don’t Understand Fracking

T. Boone Pickens, who is a magnate in the oil and natural gas business, delivers a message to New Yorkers and the rest of the country about the safety of hydrofracking: don't worry. It's safe! If it's so safe then why did former VP Dick Cheney make sure that the chemicals used in the process were exempt from Clean Drinking Water Act oversight? And, Mr. Pickens, how about letting the public know exactly what chemicals are used in the fracking process. That would actually make it easier for people to test water supplies for contamination by knowing what compounds to look for...
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/pickens-thinks-new-yorkers-dont-understand-fracking/

GOP Struggles to Dent the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

It seems that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was created by the Dodd-Frank financial reforms to protect the public against predatory loans and other unethical and illegal practices has emerged from the budget fight in a strong position despite attempts by the GOP to undermine the bureau and cut its' funding. This is good news for working Americans and I personally hope that President Obama will nominate Elizabeth Warren to be the permanent head of the CFPB.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/160086/gop-struggles-dent-consumer-financial-protection-bureau

Fla. GOP Pushes Controversial Voting Law Changes

Florida Republicans are moving to cut in half the amount of time allotted for early voting in the state, in an attempt to hurt the Democratic ticket in 2012. Over three quarters of Florida voters turned out in 2008 and there were long lines despite two weeks of early voting. These maneuverings clearly are an attempt to reduce turnout that might benefit Democrats, as higher voter participation did in 2008, and is being pushed by the state's conservative Governor Rick Scott.
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/21/135604869/fla-gop-push-controversial-changes-to-voting-laws?ft=1&f=1001

Chomsky: Is the World Too Big to Fail? The Contours of Global Order

Noam Chomsky connects the Grand Area doctrine that was established as the US emerged from WW II as a dominant global force, to the Iraq War and now the intervention in Libya, as well as  a host of 20th Century United States military and geopolitical actions.
http://www.alternet.org/news/150697/chomsky:_is_the_world_too_big_to_fail_the_contours_of_global_order/?utm

Inhofe Claims Fracking Has ‘Never’ Contaminated Water Supply One Day After Spill Contaminates Stream

The defenders of hydrofracking in the natural gas industry are engaged in full-blown deception on a national level. This is a new and largely unregulated process that has already been shown to be dangerous to groundwater in the documentary Gasland as well as in repeated investigative reports by the NYT and ProPublica, and such threats to drinking water need to be addressed by our public servants.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/21/jim-inhofe-fracking-never-contaminate/

Apple's secret location tracker: An "ominous development"

There is a hidden file on the iPhone G4 and the iPad 3G that tracks locations by GPS and stores them on the devices. This, of course, has enormous implications for privacy and constitutes an invasion that has great potential for abuse.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/04/21/apple_tracking_implications/index.html

Wisconsin Democrats to challenge Republican recall petitions

In the wake of Democrats filing recall petitions for five GOP Senators in Wisconsin, the Republicans have now gotten into the act with three petitions of their own to recall Democratic lawmakers there. However, there appears to have been widespread misconduct in how the signatures were collected and Democrats will challenge their validity.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/21/969040/-Wisconsin-Democrats-to-challenge-Republican-recall-petitions?utm

Nevada Sen. John Ensign announces resignation

The Democrats will have a shot of picking up a seat in the Senate in the special election to replace the scandal-plagued Ensign in Nevada.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gf4D8icp1fn1j7SZJUcA1pCPgmLw?docId=5179b28af5f744938209b25653c70b3c

What Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know About Animal Factories

Recent legislation to make it illegal to take photos of CAFO operations is just the tip of the iceberg of efforts to keep animal factory farms from public view.
http://civileats.com/2011/04/21/what-industry-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about-animal-factories/

A Year After Gulf Tragedy, Offshore Oil Companies Still Shielded by Liability Limits

ProPublica reports on the $75 million liability cap in the oil industry, fostered by the Oil Pollution Act, that does not provide enough of a deterrent for reckless cost-saving practices that put workers and the environment at risk.
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/a-year-after-gulf-tragedy-offshore-oil-companies-still-shielded-by-liabilit

Dem Rep To Introduce Bill Aimed At Squelching Tea Party License Plates

Here's to Gary Ackerman (D-NY) for introducing the "License Plate Political Slush Fund Prevention Act" in response to legislation in AZ that would generate income for the Tea Party through license plate sales. He also points out that the state could forfeit 15% of highway funds if they violate the principle that government should not support political organizations.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/ackerman_to_introduce_bill_aimed_to_squelch_tea_pa.php?utm

Budget Deals Deep Cuts to Obama Administration’s Transparency Sites

Transparency laws in government, like climate change, environmental regulation and financial reforms, are the enemy of corporate interests fueling the American political landscape. Read the ProPublica report on how the budget compromise would undercut the transparency movement promoted by President Obama.
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/budget-deals-deep-cuts-to-obama-administrations-transparency-sites

What’s Worse Than an Oil Spill?

Ocean acidification, as a result of CO2 in the atmosphere that is absorbed by ocean, threatens coral reef formations, oysters and other mollusks at the bottom of the food chain, while systemic overfishing by factory fishing fleets threatens to wipe out one of our greatest renewable resources, fish. 
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/whats-worse-than-an-oil-spill/?ref=opinion

Wind turbine suffers catastrophic failure; no one is irradiated

Human error is inevitable in any system but can only have catastrophe consequences in particularly risky operations, such as, deep water drilling and nuclear power plants. Both of these activities are so risky that government liability caps (former) or 100% government financing (latter) are required before the private sector will touch them. Why should we, through the actions of our government representatives, assume these massive environmental and financial risks?
http://www.grist.org/list/2011-04-14-wind-turbine-suffers-catastrophic-failure-no-one-is-irradiated

Capitalism's Crisis Within, and How Larry Summers Still Doesn't Get It

Proponents of the disastrous financial deregulation of the financial markets, such as Alan Greenspan, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, are back on the scene fighting against implementation of Dodd-Frank reforms.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janine-r-wedel/capitalisms-crisis-within_b_851876.html

Greenspan's Back to Lead the Charge Against responsible Regulation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-ted-kaufman/greenspans-back-to-lead-t_b_851909.html

Bill McKibben’s must-watch speech to climate activists at Power Shift 2011

It's truly amazing that the US Chamber of Commerce and the GOP can be so aggressive in promoting climate denial in their push to profit from fossil fuel extraction and consumption in this country. They have managed to dissemble the critical argument that we face a massive global crisis resulting from an over-heated planet burning too much greenhouse-gas fuel. The topic was hot a few years ago in the US and now it's decidedly on the sideline of national priorities. We are victims not only of our collectively short attention spans but of a political establishment that does not have the will and courage to change course for the sake of humanity and the future. Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, wrote the first book on climate change 22 years ago and has dedicated his life to fighting with other climate activists to save the planet. You may be tired of hearing about climate change but the problem is not going away. We all need to take a stake in this battle for a sensible and responsible policy to preserve the earth as we know it, or resign ourselves to a future marked by ever-increasing droughts, floods and human devastation. Watch the video and get onboard. Talk it up everyday. Pass your energy to others. Fight the good fight and hope we can get the numbers to realize substantive change in time to make a difference.
http://www.grist.org/climate-change/2011-04-18-bill-mckibbens-must-watch-speech-at-power-shift

Thousands March for Clean Energy in DC
http://www.350.org/en/about/blogs/breaking-thousands-march-clean-energy-dc

Obama to Thousands of Young Climate Activists: Push Me
http://www.thenation.com/article/160001/obama-thousands-young-climate-activists-push-me

Are We In the Process of Creating a New and Enduring American Underclass?

Corporate profits are near an all-time high, worker productivity continues to rise, labor costs have declined the most since 1962, yet the economy employs 7 million fewer people than in 2008. The corporate drive for productivity and profits at all costs, exemplified by outsourcing jobs, lobbying against the rights of labor and squeezing pay and benefit concessions from the workforce, has had a disastrous effect on millions of Americans who face long-term unemployment, suffocating debt and a bleak outlook for the future. 
http://www.alternet.org/news/150633/are_we_in_the_process_of_creating_a_new_and_enduring_american_underclass/?utm

"BP Hasn't Made People Whole"

The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has largely disappeared from the headlines but the damage from millions of barrels of oil spilled in the Gulf and its effect on the populations there rages one.
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/04/bp-anniversary-gulf-spill

Faces from the Gulf, One Year after the BP Disaster
http://www.grist.org/oil/2011-04-19-faces-from-the-gulf-coast-one-year-after-the-bp-disaster/P1

10 Reasons to Still Be Pissed Off About the BP Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico
http://motherjones.com/environment/2011/04/bp-anniversary-top-ten

Citizens Group Files Petition To Recall Power-Hungry Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder

Recall efforts are now underway in Michigan in an attempt to halt what amounts to martial law being implemented in several cities, under the guise of Emergency Financial Managers who usurp the power of locally elected officials, in addition to tax breaks for wealthy and corporate interests, and the breaking of labor contracts throughout the state at the behest of Gov. Rick Snyder. The story includes a segment from the Rachel Maddow show on what is currently happening in Michigan.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/20/rick-snyder-recall/

Big Brothers: Thought Control at Koch

"Legal experts interviewed for this story called the blatant corporate politicking highly unusual, although no longer skirting the edge of legality, thanks to last year’s Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which granted free speech rights to corporations."
http://www.thenation.com/article/160062/big-brothers-thought-control-koch

The last time CO2 was this high...

We are in trouble on earth because of the global rise of temperatures that are resulting in the melting of polar ice caps and the disastrous rise of sea water levels among many other environmental problems. 350.org is an activist organization dedicated to stopping global warming NOW...
http://www.350.org/en/about/blogs/last-time-co2-was-high

Plutocracy Now: What Wisconsin Is Really About

More information and perspective on the ultimate goal of the current anti-worker, anti-regulatory, pro-business agenda of the GOP and the Democratic political establishment. It's clear that business advocates and their cronies in Congress are serving the financial and powerful elite and do not much care for the concerns of middle-class Americans. This piece by Kevin Drum is historical in nature and traces the roots of the demise of organized labor as a major political force and how the trend has undermined the collective will of the people, and living standards, for the past forty years.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-labor-union-decline

Wikileaks' Julian Assange and NYT's Bill Keller Trade Barbs at UC Berkeley

This is an interesting summary of a recent debate on the transparency movement and the limits of the American press' will to hold powerful interest to account for their actions.
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/04/julian_assange_bill_keller_uc_berkeley.php

Drug-Resistant Bacteria in Half Your Meat? Time for Congress to Act

The news keeps getting worse with regard to antibiotic-resistant bacteria in our food supply. The health implications of this trend are potentially devastating as large swaths of our population could become infected with bacterial diseases which traditional antibiotics would be unable to treat effectively. We need to legislate against the reckless industrial uses of antibiotics in food production, or we will fail not only ourselves but our children and the generations that follow.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/drugresistant-bacteria-in_b_849928.html

"Staph causes hundreds of thousands of infections in the United States every year, and drug resistant staph like MRSA kills more Americans than AIDS/HIV."

Germans pay extra for clean energy—is it worth it?

The aggressive incentives legislated by Germany to increase renewable energy production have resulted in a major transformation of the energy sector in this industrialized European country. The German example demonstrates that an economy can maintain competitiveness and growth while undergoing the transformation to clean energy sources, and is a model that should be emulated here in the US.
http://www.grist.org/energy-policy/2011-04-18-germans-pay-extra-for-clean-renewable-energy-is-it-worth-it

Maine Republicans Slam Republican Gov. Paul LePage

Republicans in Maine are pushing back against the extremist anti-regulatory, anti-worker agenda promoted by Tea Party supported Governor LePage.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-jw-stickings/maine-republicans-slam-re_b_845123.html

Southampton Village To Become First Municipality in New York To Ban Plastic Bags

Whereas paper bags are not the answer either, the ultimate goal is to get people to use their own reusable cloth bags for shopping as much as possible. Plastic bags are a scourge on the environment and require millions of barrels of oil to produce each year, and then often end up in the ocean. If we're going to fix this problem we've got to start somewhere. Kudos to Southhampton for their efforts on this issue.
http://www.citizenscampaign.org/news/story.asp?id=334

3.9 Earthquakes Shake Arkansas, Some Doubt 'Fracking' Link

Arkansas has been wracked by an unusual rash of earthquakes which has prompted the state to halt fracking for natural gas because of the possibility that injections of toxic fracking waste liquids deep underground might be contributing to the seismic activity. There's been a moratorium on fracking in the state since March 4.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/09/arkansas-earthquakes-2011_n_847040.html

One Year After: Soldier in WikiLeaks Iraq 'Murder' Video Speaks Out in New Film and Interview

A soldier who participated in the "Collateral Murder" video released by WikiLeaks defends the organizations transparency actions and contends that Pvt. Manning should not be charged with releasing classified documents because the event had previously been described in a book.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/159689/one-year-after-soldier-wikileaks-iraq-murder-video-speaks-out-new-film-and-interview

UN, Legal Scholars Criticize Administration for Treatment of Bradley Manning
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/13/966182/-UN,-legal-scholars-criticize-administration-for-treatment-of-Bradley-Manning?utm

Sleepwalking into the Imperial Dark

As dark as the prognosis might be I'd rather not sleepwalk through it. There is some dignity to knowing what's being done to you and the rest of humanity, and trying in some measure to stand up for those things you believe as just.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/decline-american-empire

Obama Returns to his Moral Vision: Democrats Read Careful

This is a riveting analysis of President Obama's recent speech on the budget and the morality that has been at the core of American democracy since the Constitution was created. It's a hopeful and inspiring beacon of a story that I enjoyed immensely, if just for the ecstasy of the vision of America that it  painted.
http://www.alternet.org/news/150645/obama_returns_to_his_moral_vision:_democrats_read_carefully!/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet_news

Florida GOP trying to pack state Supreme Court for Rick Scott?

Stuff like this is going on all over the country. It's really alarming and people should be talking about it. This is very anti-Constitutional assault underway in this country that attacks the core principles and protections that define a Democracy.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/19/968090/-Florida-GOP-trying-to-pack-state-Supreme-Court-for-Rick-Scott?utm

Canada Backpeddles on GMO Wheat Issue!

The biotech industry and the political establishment beholden to it threaten to wipe out conventional and organic farming with an all out push to promote and permit transgenic crops that contain viruses, human genes and other genetic modifications throughout our food supply. None of these GM seeds and food products have been studied for their environmental and health impact.
http://farmwars.info/?p=5734&utm_

USDA moves to let Monsanto perform its own environmental impact studies on GMOs

When are we going to learn that industry, let alone rapacious polluters and biotechs like Monsanto, are fundamentally incapable of acting in the public interest for the sake of being responsible corporate citizens?
http://www.grist.org/industrial-agriculture/2011-04-19-usda-to-let-monsanto-do-own-environmental-impact-studies-on-gmos

Cannibal USDA okays rice modified with human gene

The USDA is a major promoter of GM crops and transgenic foods that have not been tested for safety and pose potentially devastating threats to human health. The momentum of the biotech interests in promoting these frankenfoods is aided and abetted by regulators and politicians across the national spectrum and there is regrettably inadequate organized resistance in the states at this time. We all need to get in this game and oppose the reckless and unsafe biotech agenda or the unscientific proponents of bioengineering will continue to treat the public as guinea pigs in the great experiment that exposes people to viruses and foreign genes in our food supply.
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/usda-okays-rice-modified-with-human-gene-to-be-grown-on-3000-kansas-acres/

Here are a few petition sites on this issue where you can register opposition to widespread approval and promotion of transgenic crops and food.

Support True Health Claims

Amend S 384 - No GMOs

Support the FRAC Act

Ban Bayer's bee-killer Clothianidin

Stop antibiotic overuse on farms

Uproot GE Trees

Drown GE Salmon

Sign the Truth In Labeling petition - to label foods containing GMOs

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/action.cfm

Fukushima and the Happy Talk About Nuclear Power

The nuclear disaster at Fukushima has recently been upgraded to the highest danger level in history, matched only by Chernobyl, yet industry hacks and politicians continue to promote nuclear power as safe. This report points out that Fukushima has seven sources of radiation (3 reactors and 4 spent fuel rod pools) that are leaking into the environment representing roughly 20 times the radioactivity of Chernobyl.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/04/10579/fukushima-and-happy-talk-about-nuclear-power

Astroturfing Net Neutrality

A report from Save The Internet on industry front group lobbying, astroturfing, on the critical issue of Net Neutrality. The public must stand up and make their voices heard as we increasingly are inundated with corporate messages that distort the issues in the media and in cyberspace.
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/11/04/19/astroturfing-net-neutrality

Daily Show: Oliver - Dennis Kucinich's Improbable Success

The Daily Show put together this hysterical investigative piece on how Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has been re-elected in conservative Ohio for seven terms and now is preparing another run after the GOP eliminated his district altogether. As bad as things are it's essential that we keep our sense of humor!
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-april-14-2011/dennis-kucinich-s-improbable-success