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/
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
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
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
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
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
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
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/
We all will be affected by Net Neutrality laws in the US and need to stay informed on these issues. Once a tiered service approach is adopted then the voices of the lay public will be muted and the corporate-financed bullhorn will rule the day. It's going to be yet another battle worth fighting for citizens, small businesses and consumers who have been manipulated for so long by commercial interests.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13134494
Groups like Kellogg Garden Products are masquerading as green business by promoting "compost" that is made up of big city sewage sludge containing all sort of chemical and bacterial contamination. In LA recently this "compost" from industrial and human waste was being heralded as part of the organic school garden initiative there.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/05/10700/dont-be-duped-sewage-sludge-industrys-compost
The GOP is desperately trying to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and wants to replace a single head to the bureau with a five person oversight panel, among other tactics designed to curtail its ability to enact reforms that truly benefit consumers and their pocketbooks.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/04/gop-blocks-elizabeth-warren-cfpb_n_857780.html
Here's another story on these developments from CitizenVox, an arm of Public Citizen. This story includes a link to sign a petition that now has over 26,000 signatures, asking Obama to appoint Warren to the post.
http://www.citizenvox.org/2011/05/05/elizabeth-warren-amendment/?utm
This article reveals major allegations against out-of-town petitioners who gathered signatures to recall three Democratic state senators in Wisconsin. All sorts of tactics appear to have been used to get people to sign, including lying about the purpose of the petition. It appears that after all challenges are heard, including six GOP recall petitions, that the recall elections will be held sometime in mid-June. That could be a very exciting time for those hoping to push back against the arrogance of Republicans and their anti-labor, anti-environment agenda.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/05/973490/-Wisconsin-Democrats-file-formal-challenge-against-recall-petitions-submitted-by-Republicans?utm
A recipient of a 2008 Honorary Degree from CUNY, based on her academic work examining McCarthyism, has said she will return her award in protest of the University's politically motivated decision to table the Kushner degree.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/05/05/cuny_kushner_honorary_degree_update
School Blocks Kushner Honor Over Israel
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/?story=/politics/war_room/2011/05/04/tony_kushner_cuny_israel
Noam Chomsky is a brilliant critic of the American capitalist system and its many manifestations, particularly concerning our country's propensity to use military force to protect national interests. In this essay, penned to coincide with the May Day international labor celebrations, Chomsky details recent attacks and trends against labor in the U.S. that are championed in the name of free trade and globalization, while extemporizing on the exploitation and manipulation of the system on the part of the financial class.
http://www.truth-out.org/internationl-assault-labor/1304431702
Public Citizen is actively opposing the new Supreme Court ruling to forces customers and employees to accept binding arbitration, and forego class action remedies, to redress legal claims against powerful corporations. The group is filing litigation in opposition of the recent ruling and it's in the interest of all American consumers and workers to support their efforts.
http://www.citizenvox.org/2011/04/27/att-versus-concepcion-injustice-federal-arbitration-act-class-action/?utm
Public Citizen is actively campaigning for corporations to disclose their political contribution when vying for government contracts, and also agitating for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizen's United Supreme Court ruling. Read this piece and then sign a few petitions that are hosted on the site.
http://www.citizenvox.org/2011/04/29/corporate-royalty-pay-to-play-class-action-lawsuits-transparency/?utm
Former NYS Governor, NY Attorney General and noted Wall Street critic, Elliott Spitzer, has publicly called for US Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute Goldman Sachs for double dealing and lying about their role in the financial collapse and also to a Senate panel. Spitzer points out that Goldman made a high-level decision that the entire housing market was going to collapse, in 2008, and then bet against it.
http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/spitzer04222011.htm
This report from last November details a host of serious side effect problems with fifteen major market drugs that are still sold to unwitting patients who simply believe that the FDA would not approve dangerous medications for human use. In fact, over the past two decades the FDA has transferred significant risk to patients for choosing their medications. They list side effects in package inserts and that is largely the extent of 'buyer beware'. This is very distressing reading.
http://www.alternet.org/health/148907/15_dangerous_drugs_big_pharma_shoves_down_our_throats/?page=1
This article fails to mention the hundreds of unregulated chemicals used in fracking, and the dangers to water safety that they present. Nonetheless, it brings attention to the situation in Arkansas where many believe that the deep drilling and injection of wastewater has spurred seismic activity. In the month prior to the moratorium there were 80 seismic events, whereas since drilling has halted there have only been 20 earthquake events in the region.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/21/fracking-shutdown-earthquakes-arkansas_n_851930.html
Food & Water Watch has produced a talking points guide that refutes 6 beneficial claims of the biotech industry regarding genetically-engineered crops and food.
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/factsheet/greenwashing-genetically-engineered-crops/
