Thank God Environmentalism Is Dead

Oddly, many organizations of the Christian Right actively oppose environmentalists and regulations to reduce pollution, global warming and toxic dumping. This is despite studies that demonstrate that society received $20 in health and productivity benefits for every $1 spent in enacting and enforcing the Clean Air Act. It appears that these religious organizations have been co-opted by their fervent right-wing, pro-business supporters.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-cabin/thank-god-environmentalis_b_863383.html?ref=fb&src=sp

John Nichols: Effort to thwart voter suppression necessary and appropriate

Efforts by senate Democrats in Wisconsin to defeat a Voter ID bill counters a nationwide trend of limiting voting access in what amounts to voter suppression initiatives based on spurious assertions of voter fraud.
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/article_346411da-8203-11e0-ae0f-001cc4c03286.html

California Internet Privacy Bill: Facebook, Google Explain 'Strong' Opposition

Social networking sites come out in opposition to a new internet privacy law in California. While there may be some problems with the legislation, it's clearly in the public's interest to have increased control over personal data that is shared by the likes of Google, Facebook and other networking sites.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/17/california-internet-privacy-bill-facebook-google-opposition_n_862942.html?ref=fb&src=sp

Websites Skew Views of the News
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/2011/05/10756/websites-skew-views-news

No Exemptions for Wisconsin Firefighters and Police

A new bill in Wisconsin would limit collective bargaining rights for police and firefighters in that state. An Ohio anti-union bill also strips these workers of organizing and bargaining rights. Wisconsin emergency union workers have stood with other public sector workers since the beginning of the Walker assault on labor, and it would make a big difference in this battle if the rest of the country's police and firefighters also stood up for the rights of labor.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/05/10761/no-exemptions-wisconsin-firefighters-and-police

New trade pacts will kill jobs, and Obama knows it

An expose of the hypocrisy of the Obama Administration in claiming that the new free trade agreement with South Korea, Panama and Columbia will create American jobs. In an acknowledgement that the agreement will actual result in job losses, the administration is insisting on expanded assistance for Americans impacted by the deal.
http://www.salon.com/news/david_sirota/2011/05/18/obama_trade_contradictions/index.html

How gas drilling contaminates your food

The dangers of Hydraulic Fracturing for natural gas, known as Fracking, to drinking water supplies have been revealed over the past couple of months. The fracking process, which was exempted under Cheney's 'Halliburton loophole' from the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, CLEAR Act, and EPA regulation, not only threatens our drinking water but is a disaster for sustainable agriculture. Unless fracking is banned because of the toxic wastewater it creates, thousands of small farmers will be ruined by the poisons released into the environment by the natural gas industry.
http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2011/05/18/fracking_food_supply/index.html?utm

Forced Pooling: When Landowners Can't Say No to Gas Drilling
http://www.propublica.org/article/forced-pooling-when-landowners-cant-say-no-to-drilling

Gas Drilling Companies Hold Data Needed by Researchers to Assess Risk to Water Quality
http://www.propublica.org/article/gas-drilling-companies-have-the-water-quality-methane-risk-data

Democrat wins special election in heavily Republican New Hampshire state legislature district

In the third recent special election victory in GOP-controlled states for Democrats, Jennifer Daler of New Hampshire's win signals that there is a strong public backlash building against the extremist right-wing anti-worker agenda.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/18/977200/-Democrat-wins-special-election-in-heavily-Republican-New-Hampshire-state-legislature-district?utm

Emergency vents in 31 U.S. reactors same as ones that failed in Fukushima

Let's not allow our government and the NRC to mislead us about the safety of nuclear energy in the US. There are many compelling reasons why we should not accept the party lines of industry and regulators that are aging reactors are managed to protect public safety at all costs. It simply is not true. The priority for operators and their advocates in government is to keep costs down, both in old and new projects, by promoting exemptions to existing rules and systemic passivity in safety oversight.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/18/977106/-Emergency-vents-in-31-US-reactors-same-as-ones-that-failed-in-Fukushima-?utm

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Sits in Prison While the IMF Keeps Ravaging Entire Economies Every Day

After a salacious week filled with revelations of sexual misconduct by the erstwhile head of the International Monetary Fund, AlterNet focusses on the impact of the IMF on countries impoverished by the global financial meltdown of 2008. Countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal have received IMF loans in return for selling off state assets and other austerity measures.
http://www.alternet.org/news/150999/dominique_strauss-kahn_sits_in_prison_while_the_imf_keeps_ravaging_entire_economies_every_day/?utm

"But that’s what the IMF has always done. It provides loans at cheaper rates than countries would receive any other way during times of economic distress, in return for forcing them to open their economies to hot money looking for a good deal. This is based on the premise that public infrastructure and social safety nets are the cause of financial woes, and not the over-leveraged banks that funneled in the hot money to begin with."

The People vs. Goldman Sachs

They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers.....

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511

WILL THEY BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE
OR CONTINUE TO SNAKE THROUGH THE REVOLVING
DOORS TO STEAL OUR $ ?

CONTACT YOUR SENATOR ASAP AND
LET THEM KNOW YOU WANT JUSTICE!

The Strengths and Weaknesses of American Exceptionalism

This is an excellent piece on the need for a transformational shift of the American model to reverse stagnant wages and the debilitating income inequality levels that have made the US a country defined by high and longterm unemployment, poverty, inequality and debt.
"But there is no such conservative openness to economic management and social reform in the contemporary United States. On the contrary, the current Republican Party debate is truly exceptional, characterized as it is by an internationally-unique rigidity of dogma, ignorance of foreign practices, and barely-disguised contempt for foreign models. Nativism, intellectual bankruptcy and self-delusion go hand-in-hand in what passes for intelligent economic discourse in right-wing circles in America these days. The danger is that their folly might yet rub off on the rest of us."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-coates/american-exceptionalism_b_855812.html

Are Petitions An Effective Way of Remedying Important Issues?

I have recently been wondering about the potential effectiveness of on-line petitions, and had hoped that massive responses to such petitions could, in fact, influence policies in a meaningful way. Many of you may already be familiar with this report from Snopes on this issue, but it was news to me and I post a link to it here. The bottom line, apparently, is that online petitions are largely ineffective beyond reflecting a subset of public opinion, and are easily dismissed by policymakers and manipulated by computer techies to distort the authenticity of 'signers.' Many petitions, furthermore, are never delivered to the intended politician or group after signatures are collected. A much more effective activity for those who truly want to demonstrate their position on an issue is to write letters as a constituent to elected officials.
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.asp

Big Cat News discusses the empty promise of the online petition and points out that many such petitions are used primarily to collect email addresses of individuals sympathetic to specific issues. They referred me to the Snopes piece above and also to the Capwiz site at the bottom of this post which enables citizens to write directly to their representatives on any issue they wish.
http://bigcatnews.blogspot.com/2009/01/catlawscom-and-petition-sites.html

Capwiz.com site for writing directly to elected officials.
http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/officials/congress/?district=08&azip=10036&state=NY&bzip=6333

Guidelines on effectively letter writing from Friends Committee on National Legislation - this is a terrific resource for people determined to have their voices recorded on the great issues of the day.
http://fcnl.org/resources/toolkit/write_congress/

6 State Battlegrounds in the Right-Wing War Against Teachers, Firefighters, Caregivers and the Entire Middle Class

I've also admired the fire and homespun combativeness that Jim Hightower has brought to his writings over the years. He and Molly Ivins, one of the great truth-tellers of journalism who died a few years ago, were terrific friends as I read in her biography, A Rebel Life. Jim is still kicking those in political power who seek to marginalize the rights and pocketbooks of working Americans, with this recent piece about the legislative assault that is currently being carried out against the public throughout the nation, honing in on the activities of six key states.
http://www.alternet.org/news/150928/6_state_battlegrounds_in_the_right-wing_war_against_teachers,_firefighters,_caregivers_and_the_entire_middle_class/?utm

THE SECRET SHARER - Is Thomas Drake An Enemy of the State?

Thomas Drake was a whistleblower at the NSA and sought only to inform the public of waste and fraud at the agency. In doing so he attracted the wrath of the national security apparatus and Obama's DOJ which has charged him with violating the Espionage Act. It turns out that the Obama Administration has been the most aggressive presidency in history in acting against whistleblowers, bringing more Espionage Act charges against Americans than all precious administrations combined. These suits are designed to have a chilling effect on future whistleblowers, cutting off the major source of information that has traditionally existed for information based on government documents about corruption and other wrong-doing to the public, through releases to the press. America is fast becoming a police state and the forces behind these trends are formidable and organized effectively. Proponents of civil rights and privacy rights had better get it together quickly, and on a massive scale, if there is any hope to reverse the tide.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=1

Lynch vetoes anti-union bill in New Hampshire

The Governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch (D), vetoed the Republican-controlled legislature's anti-union bill to make the state "right-to-work,"pointing out that states with such laws tend to have workers with a lower standard of living who more often have to do without health insurance. It's really great to see some reasoned push back against the assault on workers collective bargaining rights for a change.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/11/975158/-Lynch-vetoes-anti-union-bill-in-New-Hampshire?utm

Open thread for night owls: ConocoPhillips thinks cutting oil subsidies is 'Un-American'

Wouldn't it be something if these absurd billions in federal subsidies to the oil and gas industry were finally eliminated? While we're at it let's do something about legal oil speculation activities that artificially inflate gas prices and amount to a robbery of the general public.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/11/869264/-Open-thread-for-night-owls:-ConocoPhillips-thinks-cutting-oil-subsidies-is-Un-American?utm

Japanese Officials Ignored or Concealed Dangers

The Times is having a good day as I've felt compelled to post several pieces from the paper today. This in-depth report on the nuclear industry's history of ignoring and downplaying safety issues at nuclear power plants in Japan, particularly risks associated with earthquake vulnerabilities, reveals that regulators and government there were too closely aligned with TEPCO to effectively perform their duties to protect public health. We have precisely the same problems here in the US and yet our officials are pushing for new nuclear power plant construction despite the fallout from the disaster in Japan. Do not forget that all nuclear plants in this country are subsidized 100% with taxpayer money because the private sector will not invest without government support, because of the massive risks and cost overruns involved in nuclear energy. Based on this story and the history of NRC negligence in regulating nuclear power in America, we simply cannot trust the governments assertions that these plants are safe. We need to stand up and say "No!" to more nuclear power in this country, and insist that the hundreds of spent nuclear fuels rods and pools that currently exist, as well as the aging plants still in service, are responsibly managed and regulated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/world/asia/17japan.html?pagewanted=2&hp

Greenpeace Welcomes Japanese Move to Shut Down Reactor - Will US Regulators Learn From Japan?
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/greenpeace-welcomes-move-to-shut-down-japanes/blog/34620

Propublica reports on persistent cost-cutting shortcuts that have undermined the integrity in the construction of a nuclear fuel plant that produces particularly dangerous mixed oxide fuel in the US. Engineers on the NRC who complained about safety issues were removed from the project by regulators. 
Safety Reviewers Raise Questions About Construction of New Nuclear Fuel Plant in South Carolina
http://www.propublica.org/article/safety-reviewers-raise-questions-about-construction-of-new-nuclear-fuel-pla

A Conflict Without End

This NYT editorial brings to light new legislation voted by the GOP-controlled House that seeks to expand the terror mandate against any "associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States." The vague language of the law would allow it to be applied to groups who had nothing to do with 9/11 and could also be applied domestically. Such military actions and indefinite detentions (and torture) of 'belligerents' would take place in secret and without the approval of Congress. This is bad news and we've got to resist the hyperbole and false patriotism that its proponents use to sell it to us.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/opinion/17tue1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

HIDDEN DANGERS IN KIDS MEALS

This is a compelling documentary on scientific analysis of data on GMOs, and the health hazards that genetically-engineered food pose for all people with a particular emphasis on the increased impact these foods have on children. It's really critical information that all of us need to have as we contemplate the future of food in America.
http://geneticallyengineeredfoodnews.com/gmo-and-ge-food-related-videos/hidden-dangers-in-kids-meals

New York Investigates Banks’ Role in Fiscal Crisis

A new investigation into the mortgage securitization deceptions of Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley has been launched by the New York State attorney general, Eric Schneiderman. Now, this is good news! 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/business/17bank.html?hp