Thursday, February 26, 2015

FRACKING California

Over 150 community, environmental and health groups press governor for urgent action amid revelations of aquifer contamination, benzene in fracking wastewater

SACRAMENTO— After California officials admitted allowing hundreds of oil industry disposal wells to illegally inject wastewater into protected aquifers, more than 150 environmental and community groups filed a legal petition today pushing Gov. Jerry Brown to use his emergency powers to place a moratorium on fracking and other well stimulation techniques. The groups point to tests showing dangerously high levels of cancer-causing benzene in fracking flowback fluid, which is often dumped into injection wells.

“Millions of Californians living near oil and gas wells face grave health and safety threats from fracking and all phases of the oil and gas production process,” the groups wrote in a formal legalpetition delivered to Gov. Brown’s office. “The oil industry is polluting our air, contaminating our aquifers, using dangerous chemicals near homes and schools, increasing earthquake risk by injecting vast quantities of wastewater into disposal wells near active faults, and speeding climate change. These harms and risks pose an emergency and must be halted immediately.”

The legal petition was submitted under the state Administrative Procedure Act, which requires the governor to respond within 30 days. It comes on the heels of the largest anti-fracking rally in history, when 8,000 protesters gathered earlier this month.

“Gov. Brown can and should act immediately to protect California’s precious water supplies from benzene-laden fracking fluid,” said Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Oil companies are illegally contaminating our aquifers during a devastating drought. Fracking also pollutes our air and worsens climate change. Our state suffers more damage every day the governor continues allowing fracking to contaminate our air and water.”

Environmental, health and community-based group leaders from all corners of the state have signed the petition on behalf of their organizations. Supporting organizations include Breast Cancer Action; the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment; Food & Water Watch; Greenpeace; 350.org; Physicians for Social Responsibility-San Francisco; California Environmental Justice Alliance; Earthworks; CREDO; Public Citizen; Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment; and the Center for Environmental Health.

In recent weeks, the magnitude of the emergency has become clearer. State officials admitted that hundreds of disposal wells are illegally injecting oil industry waste water into scores of protected aquifers, including some with water clean enough for drinking and irrigation. That means California’s water is being contaminated in the midst of one of the worst droughts on record. The oil industry is also operating hundreds of illegal wastewater disposal pits that pose water and air-pollution risks.

Fracking flowback fluid is a key part of the oil industry wastewater stream, and recent oil industry tests of this fracking flowback have found dangerously high levels of cancer-causing benzene and hexavalent chromium, in addition to other harmful chemicals. Average benzene levels were about 700 times the federal limit for drinking water.

“Cancer-causing chemicals like benzene have no place in California’s water supply,” said Karuna Jaggar, Executive Director at Breast Cancer Action. “These chemicals harm the health of current and future generations. Governor Brown needs to step up and halt fracking immediately.”

“Oil companies are fracking near homes and schools, and it’s time for Gov. Brown to end this terrible threat to public health,” said Juan Flores, a Delano-based organizer with the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment. “People in the state have suffered from fracking pollution for far too long. The governor needs to protect our air, our water, and our communities by halting fracking.”

“Gov. Brown has gone too far,” said Zack Malitz, campaign manager at CREDO. “It is unbelievable that Gov. Brown allowed the oil industry to break the law and inject poison into our aquifers. Gov. Brown will go down in history as the leader who poisoned Californians’ water in a giveaway to oil companies if he doesn’t stop fracking and all illegal injection wells immediately.”

Numerous scientific studies have linked fracking and other unconventional extraction methods to environmental damage and health problems, including cancer, birth defects, and other serious illnesses. The state of New York recently banned fracking after an exhaustive review by the state health department found that the method poses unacceptable risks to the environment and human health.

Find the full text of the legal petition here:

Emergency Petition for an Immediate Statewide Moratorium on Fracking and Well Stimulation

13 MILLION NEW JOBS!

Over 100,000 Americans support BIG investment in infrastructure jobs! Sen. Bernie Sanders is introducing a $1 trillion bill that will create jobs, repair crumbling bridges and roads, expand high-speed Internet, and increase clean energy.

Add your name! Sign the petition NOW → http://pccc.me/1uLdPow

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Happiness.......

Monday, February 23, 2015

Blaming the Wrong People

Little Free Library: The Trouble Begins

The Danger of Being Neighborly Without a Permit

CONOR FRIEDERSDORFFEB 20 2015, 10:25 AM ET

Three years ago, The Los Angeles Times published a feel-good story on the Little Free Library movement. The idea is simple: A book lover puts a box or shelf or crate of books in their front yard. Neighbors browse, take one, and return later with a replacement. A 76-year-old in Sherman Oaks, California, felt that his little library, roughly the size of a dollhouse, "turnedstrangers into friends and a sometimes-impersonal neighborhood into a community," the reporter observed. The man knew he was onto something "when a 9-year-old boy knocked on his door one morning to say how much he liked the little library." He went on to explain, "I met more neighbors in the first three weeks than in the previous 30 years."
Since 2009, when a Wisconsin man built a little, free library to honor his late mother, who loved books, copycats inspired by his example have put thousands of Little Free Libraries all over the U.S. and beyond. Many are displayed on this online map. In Venice, where I live, I know of at least three Little Free Libraries, and have witnessed chance encounters where folks in the neighborhood chat about a book.
I wish that I was writing merely to extol this trend. Alas, a subset of Americans are determined to regulate every last aspect of community life. Due to selection bias, they are overrepresented among local politicians and bureaucrats. And so they have power, despite their small-mindedness, inflexibility, and lack of common sense so extreme that they've taken to cracking down on Little Free Libraries, of all things.
Last summer in Kansas, a 9-year-old was loving his Little Free Library until at least two residents proved that some people will complain about anything no matter how harmless and city officials pushed the boundaries of literal-mindedness:

The Leawood City Council said it had received a couple of complaints about Spencer Collins' Little Free Library. They dubbed it an "illegal detached structure" and told the Collins' they would face a fine if they did not remove the Little Free Library from their yard by June 19.

Scattered stories like these have appeared in various local news outlets. The L.A. Times followed up last week with a trend story that got things just about right. "Crime, homelessness and crumbling infrastructure are still a problem in almost every part of America, but two cities have recently cracked down on one of the country's biggest problems: small-community libraries where residents can share books," Michael Schaub wrote. "Officials in Los Angeles and Shreveport, Louisiana, have told the owners of homemade lending libraries that they're in violation of city codes, and asked them to remove or relocate their small book collections."
Here in Los Angeles, the weather is so lovely that it's hard to muster the energy to be upset about anything, and a lot of people don't even know what municipality they live in, so the defense of Little Free Libraries is mostly being undertaken by people who have them. Steve Lopez, a local columnist, wrote about one such man, an actor who is refusing to move his little library from a parkway. His column captures the absurdity of using city resources to get rid of it:

Having written previously about crackdowns on parkway vegetable gardens, I knew the city's argument is that you can't do anything that might block emergency vehicle access, obstruct motorists' views, impede pedestrians or make it hard to open car doors. But the Tenn-Mann Library, at the intersection of a four-way stop, does none of those things. And I can't help but point out that a city tree in front of Cook's house, on the parkway strip, has untamed roots that have lifted the sidewalk a few inches, posing a clear and obvious obstruction and tripping hazard. The city pays out millions of dollars in trip-and-fall settlements every year, and last time I checked, tree-trimming was on a 45-year cycle—no joke. But put up a lending library and the city is at your door in a jiffy.

The column goes on to note that a city spokesman "said that if there is no clear obstruction, it might be possible to keep the library where it is if Cook is willing to apply for a permit. And it's possible that city arts funds could be tapped to pay for the permit." This is what conservatives and libertarians mean when they talk about overregulation disincentivizing or displacing voluntary activity that benefits people. We've constructed communities where one must obtain prior permission from agents of the state before freely sharing books with one's neighbors! And their proposed solution is to get scarce public art funds to pay for the needless layer of bureaucracy being imposed on the thing already being done for free.
The power to require permits is the power to prevent something from ever existing. This lovely movement would've never begun or spread if everyone who wanted to build a Little Free Library recognized a need to apply and pay for a permit. Instead they did good and asked permission never.
Radical libertarians who object to all zoning and building codes are told that they're necessary to keep refineries from operating next to day care centers and to ensure that houses don't fall down in earthquakes or burn up due to faulty wiring. And like most, I favor some zoning laws and building codes. One needn't even be a squishy libertarian to object when power ceded to government for such purposes is then used to interfere with a harmless activity to which almost no one objects.
In Shreveport, there was a community outcry and some much-needed civil disobedience.
The Shreveport Times reported:

To protest the shutting down of a Little Free Library on Wilkinson Street, artist Kathryn Usher placed a stack of books on a wooden block outside her Dalzell Street home. A sign reading 'Free Range Books Take One Leave One' hangs above it. Her action was in response to a notice a Little Free Library's owners, Ricky and Teresa Edgerton, received from the Metropolitan Planning Commission's zoning division—a request they cease operating it because the book swap violates city zoning law. If not, they risked further action if the matter were sent to the city attorney. "I did it in solidarity with Ricky," Usher said. "I'm basically telling the MPC to go sod off."

Eventually a reprieve was granted, and the city is at work on a new zoning ordinance. Alexis de Tocqueville would approve.
"I have often admired the extreme skill with which the inhabitants of the United States succeed in proposing a common object for the exertions of a great many men and in inducing them to voluntarily pursue it," he wrote, offering examples including attempts "to diffuse books." He posited that "the most democratic country on the face of the earth is that in which men have, in our time, carried to the highest perfection the art of pursuing in common the object of their common desire and have applied this new science to the greatest number of purposes."
Americans with Little Free Libraries are acting in that venerable tradition. Those exploiting overly broad laws to urge that they be torn down are a national disgrace.

For All Eternity

The winner of the Most Corrupt Politician Award goes to...

Represent.Us

24 mins ·

And the winner of the Most Corrupt Politician Award goes to... Senator Harry Reid! (with Senator Mitch McConnell coming in a close second)

It was a tight contest, with many of you voting that all 4 should crowned winner, but we had to pick just one.#Oscars #AcademyAwards

ICYMI, here's a list of the nominees and their, er, "accomplishments:"

Sen. Harry Reid (D - NV) — For brokering a deal, snuck in at the last second on page 1,599 of the1,603 page omnibus budget agreement, that made it legal to funnel nearly $1.3 million to a political party’s various accounts. The language was drafted by a powerful Democratic lawyer brought in by Reid himself (that's the same Harry Reid who routinely rails against the evils of the Koch Brothers and big money in politics, by the way).

Source:
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/democratic-lawyer-crafted-campaign-finance-deal-113549.html

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Bill (GMO) Gates

Organic Consumers Association

Page Liked · 1 hr ·

Bill Gates and his partner, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), believe GMOs are the answer to Africa’s economic and health problems. But many people, including Mercia Andrews of the Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) in South Africa, see GMOs as “another phase of colonialism." Learn more: http://orgcns.org/1DySmk6 Bill Gates #GMOs

Judging an Art Exhibition

Art Exhibitions:

I know and I accept that: Art is Subjective and Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder.....

I can accept a judge's award, no matter the merit, quality, & overall look of a piece.....

However, when a judge gives Merit Awards to four paintings that all look alike, no matter they are by four different artists, I have a problem with regards to their subjectivity and ability to fairly assess art.

I believe that when judging a show it is important to include all types of media in the awards. Photographs, prints, watercolors, & oils alike.... not just your preferred type of medium.

Last night the 4 pieces that won the "Merits Awards" all looked the same, they looked like they had been painted by the same person.

They were in that boring & valueless gouache-like paint, they were all flat & two dimensional landscapes. The range of colors were limited to large areas of dull oranges, with flat blue skies & grey greens..

All the frames were of that new "trendy" fat gold-leaf, which did absolutely nothing for the paintings..... At lease add a thin white linen liner and make your work "pop"!

What surprised me even more was the fact that the two of the six pieces of mine that the judge deemed "worthy" of the exhibit were bright and colorful! Not one of the dramatic lesser colored pieces was chosen.

The judge had a high prejudice and it was sadly obvious to see.

Have an Apple

Organic Consumers Association

Page Liked · 4 hrs ·

Did you know? Last Friday, the USDA approved the first genetically engineered apple, despite hundreds of thousands of petitions asking the agency to reject it. Can consumers convince fast-food restaurants not to sell GMO apples to our kids? TAKE ACTION! Tell McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts and Subway to Publicly Commit to not Sell GMO Apples:http://orgcns.org/1EgJLDs McDonald's Subway Dunkin' Donuts Burger King Wendy's

Offshore Drilling

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)

Page Liked · 3 hrs ·

Five years after the Deepwater Horizon caused the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, a disastrous plan seeks to open the Atlantic coast (along with the Arctic) to dangerous new offshore oil and gas drilling.

Help put a stop to Big Oil's offshore drilling expansion — TAKE ACTION: http://on.nrdc.org/1DmMgVu

Cacti

Corporate Cash Buy Climate Deiniers

Dirty little man: Willie Soon - one of the GOP's favorite climate deniers - took undisclosed polluter cash, failed to disclose it to scientific journals and was subsequently called as a witness before Congress. In correspondence with his funders, Soon described many of his testimonies prepared for Congress and papers as “deliverables” that he completed in exchange for money.
Read more --> j.mp/1D2KDtB

And now the truth is revealed. The only scientists that the‪#‎climatedeniers‬ can get to defend their archaic views are those they pay off. It's time to end the science fiction of denial and get serious about the biggest challenge facing humanity: http://bit.ly/SwipeDenial

Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html?_r=0

By JUSTIN GILLIS and JOHN SCHWARTZFEB. 21, 2015

**Wei-Hock Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian**
**Center for Astrophysics,** **whose articles have been tied to corporate funding, Pete Marovich**

Friday, February 20, 2015

The Bible Says:

A Revolt - Digital Anarchy

Yesterday ·

www.a-revolt.org : digital anarchy — with Didin Mishbahuddin, Paul Landrus and James L. Fair.

Business Is Profit Based

Oh (not-so) Great White Hunters

African Wildlife Foundation

8 hrs ·

Africa is home to the world's most iconic wildlife, but poaching might destroy it forever.

Here's a snapshot of especially vulnerable species:http://bit.ly/poaching-facts