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Monday, February 28, 2011

SBL Nature Trail




Junco

(click for bigger pic)

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Fracking Stupidity




NYTimes, Feb 26, 2010:
Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers

...thousands of internal documents obtained by The New York Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.

The documents reveal that the wastewater, which is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, contains radioactivity at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the level that federal regulators say is safe for these treatment plants to handle.

Other documents and interviews show that many E.P.A. scientists are alarmed, warning that the drilling waste is a threat to drinking water in Pennsylvania. Their concern is based partly on a 2009 study, never made public, written by an E.P.A. consultant who concluded that some sewage treatment plants were incapable of removing certain drilling waste contaminants and were probably violating the law.

The Times also found never-reported studies by the E.P.A. and a confidential study by the drilling industry that all concluded that radioactivity in drilling waste cannot be fully diluted in rivers and other waterways.

But the E.P.A. has not intervened. In fact, federal and state regulators are allowing most sewage treatment plants that accept drilling waste not to test for radioactivity. And most drinking-water intake plants downstream from those sewage treatment plants in Pennsylvania, with the blessing of regulators, have not tested for radioactivity since before 2006, even though the drilling boom began in 2008.

In other words, there is no way of guaranteeing that the drinking water taken in by all these plants is safe.

[...]

Drilling derricks tower over barns, lining rural roads like feed silos. Drilling sites bustle around the clock with workers, some in yellow hazardous material suits, and 18-wheelers haul equipment, water and waste along back roads.

The rigs announce their presence with the occasional boom and quiver of underground explosions. Smelling like raw sewage mixed with gasoline, drilling-waste pits, some as large as a football field, sit close to homes.


Ah, yes. The exciting possibilities of natural gas.





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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Who's the real "brownshirt" here?




From Mother Jones this conversation with (now former) Indiana deputy attorney general Jeff Cox.
On Saturday night, when Mother Jones staffers tweeted a report that riot police might soon sweep demonstrators out of the Wisconsin capitol building—something that didn't end up happening—one Twitter user sent out a chilling public response: "Use live ammunition."

From my own Twitter account, I confronted the user, JCCentCom. He tweeted back that the demonstrators were "political enemies" and "thugs" who were "physically threatening legally elected officials." In response to such behavior, he said, "You're damned right I advocate deadly force." He later called me a "typical leftist," adding, "liberals hate police."

Only later did we realize that JCCentCom was a deputy attorney general for the state of Indiana.


[...]

In his nonpolitical tweets and blog posts, Cox displays a keen litigator's mind, writing sharply and often wittily on military history and professional basketball. But he evinces contempt for political opponents—from labeling President Obama an "incompetent and treasonous" enemy of the nation to comparing "enviro-Nazis" to Osama bin Laden, likening ex-Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Service Employees International Union members to Nazi "brownshirts" on multiple occasions,...


Oh yeah, he's a regular shiny tack when it comes to history ain't he. Comparing the Service Employees Internationl Union to brownshirts? Let's visit some actual history on the subject of brownshirts and labor unions. From The Coming Of The Third Reich, by Richard Evans:
[page 355] With the Communists already effectively out of the way since 28 February, and the Enabling Act in force, the regime now turned its attention to the Social Democrats and the trade unions. They had already been subjected to widespread arrests, beatings, intimidations, even murder, and to the occupation of their premises and the banning of their newspapers. Now the full fury of the Nazis was turned upon them. They were in no condition to resist. The ability to work together with the unions had been crucial to the Social Democrats in defeating the Kapp putsch in 1920. But it was no longer present in the spring of 1933. Both wings of the labour movement had been united in their disapproval of the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933. And both had suffered similar acts of violence and repression in the following two months, with trade union premises being occupied and trashed by gangs of stormtroopers in growing numbers. Up to 25 March, according to the unions themselves, union offices had been occupied by brownshirts, SS or police units in 45 separate towns throughout the Reich. Such pressure was the most direct possible threat to the continued existence of the unions as the functional representatives of the workers in negotiating pay and conditions with their employers.

[...]

[page 357-358] In early April the Nazis had already begun secret preparations for takeover of the entire trade union movement. On 17 April Goebbels noted in his diary:

"On 1 May we shall arrange May Day as a grandiose demonstration of the German people's will. On 2 May the trade union offices will be occupied. Co-ordination in this area too. There might possibly be a row for a few days, but then they will belong to us. We must make no allowances any more. We are only doing the workers a service when we free them from the parasitic leadership that has only made their life hard up to now. Once the trade unions are in our hands the other parties and organizations will not be able to hold out for much longer."


On 2 May 1933 brownshirts and SS men stormed into every Social Democratic-oriented trade union office in the land, took over all the trade union newspapers and periodicals, and occupied all the branches of the trade union bank. Leipart and the other leading union officials were arrested and taken into 'protective custody' in concentration camps, where many of them were beaten up and brutally humiliated before being released a week or two later. In a particularly horrific incident, stormtroopers beat four trade union officials to death in the cellar of the trade union building in Duisburg on 2 May. The entire management of the movement and its assets was placed in the hands of the Nazi factory cell organization. On 4 May the Christian Trade Unions and all other union institutions placed themselves unconditionally under Hitler's leadership.

[...]

[page 361] With the crushing of the labour movement, the Nazis, assisted by the state's law enforcement agencies and the sympathetic inaction of the armed forces, had removed the most serious obstacle to their establishment of a one-party state.


Also amusing is Cox's reference to "CentCom" in his dress up like mister tough guy online identity.
The United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) is a theater-level Unified Combatant Command unit of the U.S. armed forces, established in 1983 under the operational control of the U.S. Secretary of Defense. It was originally conceived of as the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF). (Wiki)


More at TPM including screen shots of JCCentCom's twittering keyboard combat command tweets.

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Sunday, February 20, 2011

My Wobbly Cat




(click for bigger pic)

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Governor Koch Whore
Gov. Scott Walker knows whose side he's on. Has a candid discussion with his sugar daddy "David Koch".

Via Rumproast YouTube audio of conversation between Gov. Scott Walker and Buffalo Beast.com editor Ian Murphy pretending to be David Koch.

Snip from approx 10 minute mark in second audio/vid:

["Koch"]: Ha ha ha ha. Well, I'll tell you what Scott. Once you've crushed these bastards I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time.

[Walker]: Alright, that would be outstanding. Thanks, thanks for all the support and helping us move the cause forward.


Buffalo Beast.com
...was founded by Matt Taibbi, Kevin McElwee and Paul Fallon in 2002. Wiki link


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Thursday, February 17, 2011

There is Power in a Union

Music Vid:




Billy Bragg, There Is Power In A Union

~::~::~::~::~


"Solidarity is not a matter of altruism. Solidarity comes from the inability to tolerate the affront to our own integrity of passive or active collaboration in the oppression of others, and from the deep recognition of our most expansive self-interest. From the recognition that, like it or not, our liberation is bound up with that of every other being on the planet, and that politically, spiritually, in our heart of hearts we know anything else is unaffordable." ~ Aurora Levins Morales

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eat off the ceiling




click photo for much bigger picture.

Green Bay Packers back union bargaining rights
Present and former members of the Green Bay Packers, all members of the National Football League Players Association, have signed a letter in support of the AFL-CIO's efforts to derail Gov. Scott Walker's plan to cut some union bargaining rights.

[...]

The statements reads: "We know that it is teamwork on and off the field that makes the Packers and Wisconsin great. As a publicly owned team we wouldn't have been able to win the Super Bowl without the support of our fans.

"It is the same dedication of our public workers every day that makes Wisconsin run. They are the teachers, nurses and child care workers who take care of us and our families. But now in an unprecedented political attack Governor Walker is trying to take away their right to have a voice and bargain at work.

[...]

The NFLPA also released a statement in support of the AFL-CIO. "The NFL Players Association will always support efforts protecting a worker's right to join a union and collectively bargain. Today, the NFLPA stands in solidarity with its organized labor brothers and sisters in Wisconsin," the statement said.


SBL Public Service Announcement
In the event of a breaking news update: the key words in the Wisconsin news feed box on the sidebar are clickable links. Clicking on them will change the stories which appear in the box below. Just in case you were'nt already aware of that swell feature.





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Saturday, February 12, 2011

snow storm pic




Feb 8.

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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

SBL Nature Trail











Flying Tits.

( click image for full size pic )

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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Storm Demon




click for bigger pic

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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

PansyCat




painting by American folk artist, aka: pansypoo.

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