Walker And Prosser Crushed Regulations On Koch Industry’s Phosphorus Pollution In Wisconsin

The Koch brothers agenda goes far beyond the current attack on collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin, as this ThinkProgress report on activities to de-regulate dangerous phosphorous pollution makes clear. The blind drive for profit in the US all too often results in reckless practices that destroy our environment and put people's health at risk.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/13/walker-koch-phosphorus/

New Report: Topsoil Loss Worse than Previously Thought

The Agribusiness farming model is wreaking havoc on the nation's rich topsoil and also contaminating huge swaths of our water supply, because the herbicides that are liberally sprayed on our crops are exempted from Clean Water Act regulations. 
http://civileats.com/2011/04/13/watching-the-future-wash-away/

Big Ag is Pissing Away Our Nation's Rich Topsoil
http://www.grist.org/industrial-agriculture/2011-04-13-big-ag-washing-away-midwest-topsoil

USDA Certified Organic Milk NOT Tested for Radiation Contamination

The lax regulatory environment of the US food supply is in evidence once again, as the government refuses to test our milk supply for radiation despite reports of elevated levels, above EPA standards, resulting from the ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan.
http://farmwars.info/?p=5800&utm_

Should some pesticides be banned to protect bees? A USDA scientist dances around the question

Over-reliance on pesticide use in farming is creating a host of serious problems, including an annual colony collapse disorder in the US that results in the die-off of significant portions of the bee population each year.

http://www.grist.org/industrial-agriculture/2011-04-06-should-pesticides-be-banned-protect-bees-USDA-scientist-pettis

Fracking nightmare destroys small farmers

"As if we didn’t have enough problems with the fake food safety bill, a genetically modified food takeover by the USDA’s terrorist arm Monsanto, chemtrails dumping aluminum, barium, and strontium on farmland, and Japan’s radioactivity spreading across the country, now we have a huge fracking (hydrolic fracture mining) nightmare that is threatening to destroy our farmland with poisoned water."
http://farmwars.info/?p=5767

The fracking process involves pumping millions of gallons of water, sand, and over 900 toxic chemicals thousands of feet underground to release tiny pockets of gas by literally breaking up the rock where the gas is trapped. The method has been compared to exploding a pipe bomb deep underground. Chemicals used in the process are kept secret from the public, medical professionals, and even regulators, because fracking is exempt from key provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The exemption, which was granted in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, has been dubbed “the Halliburton Loophole” because Halliburton pioneered the fracking process, and then-Vice President (and former CEO of Halliburton) Dick Cheney was heavily involved in setting the Bush administration’s energy policy.http://www.waterdefense.org/the-problems/fracking

The Contango Game: How Koch Industries Manipulates The Oil Market For Profit

"As a recent Center for Public Integrity report uncovered, Koch lobbied aggressively against Obama’s financial reform bill, particularly on provisions related to transparency in the energy trading market. Is Koch again buying up supply in expectation of higher crude prices during the summer or beyond — as many analysts have predicted? No one knows, especially when the energy speculation and trading industry currently operates with virtually no regulation"
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/13/koch-industries-price-gouging/

Deep-sea drilling - have we forgotten the Gulf of Mexico spill?

Deep Sea drilling is resuming around the world a year after the Gulf of Mexico disaster and people seem to have forgotten the horror and damages caused by the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf. 350.org provides a few options for action for those who want to apply pressure to prevent these dangerous fossil fuel expeditions that threaten to destroy more ecosystems and worsen others.
http://www.350.org/en/about/blogs/deep-sea-drilling-have-we-forgotten-gulf-mexico-spill

Plouffe reiterates that President Obama will not renew the Bush tax cuts

It looks as though Obama is once again on record against the Bush Tax Cuts and that they will because a 2012 election issue. Hopefully, the President will follow through this time around.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/13/966689/-Plouffe-reiterates-that-President-Obama-will-not-renew-the-Bush-tax-cuts?utm_

"Any Sound Fiscal Policy must reverse the Bush tax cuts"
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/13/966498/-Any-sound-fiscal-policy-must-reverse-the-Bush-tax-cuts?utm_

Senate panel slams Goldman in scathing crisis report

This report censures misleading and fraudulent practices during the mortgage crisis that Goldman Sachs and other banks used to profit from 'crap' securities, and has been forwarded to the DOJ for possible prosecution. Let's hope something comes out of it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_financial_regulation_report

What the Union Fight is Really About: Defunding the Left

Wedge politics, "starve the beast" strategies, budget attacks and the war on unions are all GOP strategies designed to weaken the voice of the public and compromise the ability of the Left and the Democratic party to affect change. 
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/scott-walker-defunding-democratic-donors

Obama's "bad negotiating" is actually shrewd negotiating

I think Greenwald is, unfortunately, spot-on with his analysis of the Obama Administration's budget actions that seem to conflict so drastically with his 2008 campaign promises. It's all about getting re-elected and not about changing the way Washington goes about its business. 
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/04/13/obama/index.html

Activists travel to Albany to speak out against hydrofracking

Though it may be an inconvenient drag for all of us, I believe that the only way to effectively combat threats to public health posed by industrial recklessly, currently occurring on a massive scale in the hydrofracturing push for natural gas, is massive and sustained activism and opposition by the public. We have to find a way to realize our true numbers and leverage this pressure in the political process.
http://www.citizenscampaign.org/news/story.asp?id=331

Europe takes step towards ban on genetically modified crops

An update on legal aspects of efforts to ban and regulate GM crops in Europe. The relentless assault on existing and proposed regulations by the American-dominated biotech industry aggressively seeks to undermine these efforts on the continent, just as it does here at home in the US.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/europe-takes-step-towards-ban-on-genetically-/blog/34239?utm_
"The committee also agreed that if these rules fail, governments should ensure that those responsible for the contamination pay damages. The “polluter pays” principle applied to agriculture. The committee also agreed that biotech companies should finally open up their products to independent research into the environmental and health risks of GM crops."

Irish call for moratorium on GM crops

The battle against transgenic seeds and food products is truly of a global nature. While we struggle to gain critical mass in our organizational attempts to halt GM crop production and label all foods containing GMOs, it is good to know that others around the world are fighting, and in some cases winning, similar battles. Now, the Irish are fighting to stem the biotech tide in Ireland.
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/irish-call-for-moratorium-on-gm-crops/

Paul Ryan's Health Industry Ties, Barack Obama's Bundlers and More in Capital Eye Opener: April 8

OpenSecrets reports on several important issues including a vote in Wisconsin that passed by 78% in Dane County to amend the Constitution so that only a human being can be entitled to a Constitutional right. "Move to Amend" is an attempt to overturn the US Supreme Court's Citizen's United ruling in which corporations were granted the status of individuals in political campaigns, allowing unlimited financial influence in elections throughout the country. The proposed 28th Amendment could be an enormously important tool in combatting the excessive power exercised by corporations in America today.
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/04/paul-ryans-health-industry-ties.html

Pa.’s New Jobs Czar Fought Enviro Regs for Years

The new Republican Governor in PA is aggressively pursuing a pro-natural gas agenda and willfully seeking to circumvent EPA and statewide environmental regulations designed to protect public health and the safety of water supplies.
http://www.propublica.org/article/pas-new-jobs-czar-has-anti-regulatory-history

U.S. subsidizes Brazilian cotton to protect Monsanto's profits

This is an interesting case involving the WTO and the battle over intellectual property rights related to genetically engineered seeds.
http://iatp.typepad.com/thinkforward/2011/04/us-subsidizes-brazilian-cotton-to-protect-monsantos-profits.html

"Brazil then asked the WTO for permission to retaliate against the U.S. by imposing trade sanctions. The WTO decided that Brazil was entitled to impose 100-percent tariffs on over 100 different goods of U.S. origin. Even more importantly, however, Brazil was entitled to suspend intellectual property rights for U.S. companies, including patent protections on genetically engineered seeds."

The fight that just won't die

A lengthy and nuanced story about the clash between Hoover and FDR that remains a flashpoint in American politics today.  
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/10/hoover_roosevelt_rapaport/index.html

Union supporters regroup after stunning election reversal

I really believe there needs to be more concern about the anti-labor actions taking place all over the country. Wisconsin is energized and more and more people need to fight in some ways for the rights of labor, we will all benefit in the long run if we stand up now.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_5c4eabd6-62d4-11e0-9c11-001cc4c002e0.html

The BioPirates of Science: Genetic Engineering – Science or Hoax?

A great piece examining the unscientific, random methods used in bio-engineering, a lack of accreditation from its practitioners, a hand in hand relationship with USDA, and the utter lack of risk assessment testing by Monsanto and other biotechs. Farm Wars provides detailed depth into the risks associated with the use of Cauliflower Mosaic Virus Promoter in transgenic crops, and many other dangerous aspects of GMOs. 
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/realityzone/UFNGMOhivVirus.html

Separate Shelves for GM Foods is Now Law - in Cyprus
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/separate-shelves-gm-foods-now-law/20110408