Just a reminder for those of you preparing your calendars for the new year: on Monday, January 17th, at 6 pm, Hampshire County Independent Network will sponsor a viewing of the powerful and controversial documentary, "Gasland," at the public library, 153 West Main Street in Romney WV. Afterwards, there will be a question and answer session about natural gas drilling with Brent Walls, Upper Potomac Manager for the Potomac Riverkeeper organization.
For more information, contact us at hampshireindependent@gmail.com, or brent@potomacriverkeeper.org.
Happy new year to all. May the coming year bring the world closer to peace and justice than it appears to be heading.
--Michael Hasty
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
The poorhouse
An extensive article about the history and politics of Social Security:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/29/the-poorhouse-aunt-winnie_n_802338.html
--Submitted by Pat Henson
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/29/the-poorhouse-aunt-winnie_n_802338.html
--Submitted by Pat Henson
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
War propaganda
In a recent column, Glenn Greenwald noted that, when you listen to their arguments, you can't hear any difference between establishment "journalists" and the government officials they are supposed to be monitoring in their role as public watchdogs. Corporate journalists are essentially government stenographers--especially when it comes to matters of foreign policy and military affairs.
Two recent programs, available to watch through the magic of internet video, document the degree to which American media act as the psychological operations arm of the military industrial complex.
The first is an episode of Al Jazeera's "Empire" program, "Hollywood and the War Machine." The program shows the symbiotic relationship between the film industry and the Pentagon, and features an extended conversation with former war correspondent Chris Hedges (arrested two weeks ago at the White House, with veterans protesting America's current wars), and dissident filmmakers Michael Moore and Oliver Stone.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2010/12/2010121681345363793.html
The other is a documentary by the courageous Australian journalist, John Pilger, called "The War You Don't See." It lays out the intellectual origins of the propaganda system necessary to maintain the national security state, and how that system operates today to keep the citizenry confused, misinformed and apathetic.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27116.htm
--Michael Hasty
Two recent programs, available to watch through the magic of internet video, document the degree to which American media act as the psychological operations arm of the military industrial complex.
The first is an episode of Al Jazeera's "Empire" program, "Hollywood and the War Machine." The program shows the symbiotic relationship between the film industry and the Pentagon, and features an extended conversation with former war correspondent Chris Hedges (arrested two weeks ago at the White House, with veterans protesting America's current wars), and dissident filmmakers Michael Moore and Oliver Stone.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2010/12/2010121681345363793.html
The other is a documentary by the courageous Australian journalist, John Pilger, called "The War You Don't See." It lays out the intellectual origins of the propaganda system necessary to maintain the national security state, and how that system operates today to keep the citizenry confused, misinformed and apathetic.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27116.htm
--Michael Hasty
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Financial justice
We all know that the very rich have gotten a lot richer these past few decades while most Americans haven't. The exorbitantly paid continue to thrive during this economic crisis, even as the rest of us have continued to fall behind. How have they managed to restructure the economy to reap the lion's share of the gains and shift the costs of their new economic playground downward, tearing new holes in our safety net and saddling all of us with increased debt and risk?
It can be demonstrated convincingly and historically that the usual suspects---foreign trade, financial globalization, technological changes in the workplace, or increased education at the top---are largely innocent as causative factors.
We should indict what most Americans consider an unlikely suspect---American politics. Runaway inequality and our current economic crisis reflect what government has done to aid the rich, and what it has not done to safeguard the interests of the middle class. This avaricious economy is primarily a result of avaricious politics.
Trace back to the late 1970s, under a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress. A major transformation of American politics occurred. With big business and conservative ideologues organizing themselves to undo the regulations and progressive tax policies that had helped ensure a fair distribution of economic rewards, deregulation got underway (S&L scandals), taxes were cut for the wealthiest, and business decisively defeated labor in Washington. This transformation continued under Reagan and the Bushes as well as under Clinton, with both parties catering to the interests of those at the very top. The epic battles waged during President Obama's first two years (the next two will be worse) reveals an unpleasant but catalyzing truth: avaricious politics, while under challenge, is still very much with us. A political system that traditionally has been responsive to the interests of the middle class has been hijacked by the superrich.
Example: During the past two years 32% of our fellow citizens have been unemployed at some time, while big percentages have also suffered pay cuts or painful reductions in hours. Four and a half million of today's unemployed have now been without work for a year or more, amounting to a lost decade for the vast majority of Americans who've seen middle class jobs offshored, wages fall, family incomes sink, pensions looted, college education priced out of reach, and homes illegitimately foreclosed. Corporate chieftains consider low wages, long periods of joblessness, declining homeownership, and other elements of economic insecurity to be "the new norm". Whether people are young, mid-career, or retired, there's a growing sense across America that a middle class future (the glue that holds our nation together) will no longer be available to them, their children, or grandkids.
What the comfortable class (corporate, media, professional, and political) still doesn't grasp is that this festering insecurity is fast metamorphosing from anxiety to anger, creating a politics of anti-ism that goes far beyond the tiny percentage of people hoodwinked into the Tea Party.
Yet, some of the richest, most pampered people on this planet---people who literally wallow in luxury every day, with never a concern about losing a job, a home, health care, or getting their kids into college---these people are wallowing in self pity. They are Wall Street hedge fund operators—which essentially means they are high-flying financial flimflammers. What has stoked them into an elitist fury is an Obama proposal to close off a tax loophole that has let them pay only 15% in taxes, rather than the 35% rate that us commoners pay. These guys’ billion-dollar paychecks have been classified not as salaries but as 'capital gains'---like you earn when you sell your house---and that's what Obama says is absurd. Are we going to see Glenn Beck host a weeping telethon for a "Save the Billionaires' Tax Loophole?"
Another example: Wally, CEO of Walmart (low-wage behemoth), gets $19 million a year. Wally's workers average about $9.50 an hour. Comparatively, Wally makes $9,500 an hour. Wally pockets as much in two hours as his workers make in a whole year.
And I don't understand how so many corporations (Exxon, Halliburton, etc.) don't pay any income tax on their billions in profit, or on their offshore accounts. And how come there isn't a 1% tax on every Wall Street stock transaction (call it a privilege tax) committed to our general fund that would levy $5 trillion per year? We could quickly pay off China and the rest of our national debt, offer college to anyone wanting to attend for free, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, subsidize green energy production, put photovoltaic roof blankets on every building—think of the employment! We'd be importing labor from around the world instead of seeing it go elsewhere. (Annual Wall Street transaction value, $500 trillion X 1%=$5 trillion.)
One more thing, and then I'm done. Those who think we don't notice America's growing income disparities, should take a peek at a recent opinion survey run by the rightwing, corporate-funded Peter Peterson Foundation. This outfit intended to show that the public backs the teabag agenda of slashing government spending, including balancing the federal budget by putting Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block. B-u-u-u-t, hold on there: the survey of thousands of Americans went badly wrong for the Peterson dialogues.
Far from wanting to gut Social Security payments, 85% of our people favored extending the program, by making the rich pay into the fund at the rate the rest of us do. Six out of ten of the folks in the foundation's 'America Speaks' survey want a new, higher tax bracket to make millionaires pay their fair share of providing for the "common good.”
You can see a good analysis of the survey at the Center for Economic Policy and Research at www.cepr.net.
--Bill Arnold
It can be demonstrated convincingly and historically that the usual suspects---foreign trade, financial globalization, technological changes in the workplace, or increased education at the top---are largely innocent as causative factors.
We should indict what most Americans consider an unlikely suspect---American politics. Runaway inequality and our current economic crisis reflect what government has done to aid the rich, and what it has not done to safeguard the interests of the middle class. This avaricious economy is primarily a result of avaricious politics.
Trace back to the late 1970s, under a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress. A major transformation of American politics occurred. With big business and conservative ideologues organizing themselves to undo the regulations and progressive tax policies that had helped ensure a fair distribution of economic rewards, deregulation got underway (S&L scandals), taxes were cut for the wealthiest, and business decisively defeated labor in Washington. This transformation continued under Reagan and the Bushes as well as under Clinton, with both parties catering to the interests of those at the very top. The epic battles waged during President Obama's first two years (the next two will be worse) reveals an unpleasant but catalyzing truth: avaricious politics, while under challenge, is still very much with us. A political system that traditionally has been responsive to the interests of the middle class has been hijacked by the superrich.
Example: During the past two years 32% of our fellow citizens have been unemployed at some time, while big percentages have also suffered pay cuts or painful reductions in hours. Four and a half million of today's unemployed have now been without work for a year or more, amounting to a lost decade for the vast majority of Americans who've seen middle class jobs offshored, wages fall, family incomes sink, pensions looted, college education priced out of reach, and homes illegitimately foreclosed. Corporate chieftains consider low wages, long periods of joblessness, declining homeownership, and other elements of economic insecurity to be "the new norm". Whether people are young, mid-career, or retired, there's a growing sense across America that a middle class future (the glue that holds our nation together) will no longer be available to them, their children, or grandkids.
What the comfortable class (corporate, media, professional, and political) still doesn't grasp is that this festering insecurity is fast metamorphosing from anxiety to anger, creating a politics of anti-ism that goes far beyond the tiny percentage of people hoodwinked into the Tea Party.
Yet, some of the richest, most pampered people on this planet---people who literally wallow in luxury every day, with never a concern about losing a job, a home, health care, or getting their kids into college---these people are wallowing in self pity. They are Wall Street hedge fund operators—which essentially means they are high-flying financial flimflammers. What has stoked them into an elitist fury is an Obama proposal to close off a tax loophole that has let them pay only 15% in taxes, rather than the 35% rate that us commoners pay. These guys’ billion-dollar paychecks have been classified not as salaries but as 'capital gains'---like you earn when you sell your house---and that's what Obama says is absurd. Are we going to see Glenn Beck host a weeping telethon for a "Save the Billionaires' Tax Loophole?"
Another example: Wally, CEO of Walmart (low-wage behemoth), gets $19 million a year. Wally's workers average about $9.50 an hour. Comparatively, Wally makes $9,500 an hour. Wally pockets as much in two hours as his workers make in a whole year.
And I don't understand how so many corporations (Exxon, Halliburton, etc.) don't pay any income tax on their billions in profit, or on their offshore accounts. And how come there isn't a 1% tax on every Wall Street stock transaction (call it a privilege tax) committed to our general fund that would levy $5 trillion per year? We could quickly pay off China and the rest of our national debt, offer college to anyone wanting to attend for free, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, subsidize green energy production, put photovoltaic roof blankets on every building—think of the employment! We'd be importing labor from around the world instead of seeing it go elsewhere. (Annual Wall Street transaction value, $500 trillion X 1%=$5 trillion.)
One more thing, and then I'm done. Those who think we don't notice America's growing income disparities, should take a peek at a recent opinion survey run by the rightwing, corporate-funded Peter Peterson Foundation. This outfit intended to show that the public backs the teabag agenda of slashing government spending, including balancing the federal budget by putting Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block. B-u-u-u-t, hold on there: the survey of thousands of Americans went badly wrong for the Peterson dialogues.
Far from wanting to gut Social Security payments, 85% of our people favored extending the program, by making the rich pay into the fund at the rate the rest of us do. Six out of ten of the folks in the foundation's 'America Speaks' survey want a new, higher tax bracket to make millionaires pay their fair share of providing for the "common good.”
You can see a good analysis of the survey at the Center for Economic Policy and Research at www.cepr.net.
--Bill Arnold
Monday, December 27, 2010
The gas under our feet
Natural gas is an intricate part of West Virginia's history. Native Americans were aware of "burning springs," a phenomenon where natural gas vents through springs bubbling out of the earth, easily set ablaze.
Natural gas and oil were unwanted byproducts of the salt industry in West Virginia during the early 1800's. Salt drillers often drilled into shallow pockets of gas and oil. The oil was diverted into the Kanawha River, which became known as "The Old Greasy" by boatmen. When gas first became a valuable commodity the salt drillers' equipment was used to drill for gas and oil. The first pipelines were made of wood. In 1889 iron pipes were used for the first time in well bores to keep them from caving in while drilling into softer rock and sand. This allowed a well to be drilled deeper, thus becoming more productive and profitable.
From 1906 to 1917 West Virginia was the number one producer of gas in the United States. Hampshire County lagged behind the rest of West Virginia in gas development. Around 1950 the first gas well was drilled in Hampshire County. Over the next couple of decades or so, there were forty-four permits issued to companies to drill in Hampshire County. The rush to drill in the 50's and 60's brought in an array of companies, some established in the industry, others wildcatters looking to make it. All the wells in the county are statutory deep wells, over 6,000 feet deep. These wells were soon played out.
At the same time Washington Gas Light, a major supplier of gas to the Washington/Baltimore metropolitan area bought acreage in Brandywine, Maryland, with plans to establish an underground storage facility for their natural gas. This project was soon abandoned due to the uproar over safety issues and falling property values in this suburban area.
In 1963 Washington Gas Light created a new subsidiary, Hampshire Gas, and bought up control of the natural gas fields in Hampshire County, along the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. This valuable asset has become a subterranean storage facility for Washington Gas Light. The gas stored in these old played out wells is piped in from the Gulf States and the Southwest. The total capacity of the storage facility in Hampshire County is 13.63 billion cubic feet. All but 2% of this stored gas is used out of state.
If we look to our southern neighbor, Hardy County, we find that Columbia Gas and Transmission, Inc., a subsidiary of NiSource, Inc., owns and operates a storage field there that has the capacity to store 29.60 billion cubic feet of gas. Columbia Gas and Transmission, Inc., operates the only existing pipelines in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. This pipeline runs from just south of Levels and through the center of Hampshire County into Hardy County, accommodating the storage fields in both counties.
NiSource, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, has plans to construct pipeline loops in West Virginia and Northeastern Virginia. They were instrumental in expanding the storage facilities in Hardy County, including building a new compressor station and pipeline capacity. They are not only involved in natural gas storage, transmission, and distribution, but generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity.
As we follow the pipeline that snakes through Hampshire and Hardy Counties into Virginia, we discover that adjacent to it in Warren and Buckingham Counties, Virginia, are two gas fired electric power plants under construction, with more planned in the near future.
In 2008 Carrizo, LLC sought and acquired four permits to drill for gas in the Marcellus shale in Hampshire and Hardy Counties. They successfully struck gas. Now, if we connect the dots, or in this case, the gas wells, they are all in close proximity to the existing storage fields, pipeline, and other infrastructure needed to produce, store, and distribute natural gas to areas that are desperate for cheap gas and electricity.
This industry operates in secrecy to protect its self-interests. We can only surmise what the future holds.
--Jim Dodgins
Natural gas and oil were unwanted byproducts of the salt industry in West Virginia during the early 1800's. Salt drillers often drilled into shallow pockets of gas and oil. The oil was diverted into the Kanawha River, which became known as "The Old Greasy" by boatmen. When gas first became a valuable commodity the salt drillers' equipment was used to drill for gas and oil. The first pipelines were made of wood. In 1889 iron pipes were used for the first time in well bores to keep them from caving in while drilling into softer rock and sand. This allowed a well to be drilled deeper, thus becoming more productive and profitable.
From 1906 to 1917 West Virginia was the number one producer of gas in the United States. Hampshire County lagged behind the rest of West Virginia in gas development. Around 1950 the first gas well was drilled in Hampshire County. Over the next couple of decades or so, there were forty-four permits issued to companies to drill in Hampshire County. The rush to drill in the 50's and 60's brought in an array of companies, some established in the industry, others wildcatters looking to make it. All the wells in the county are statutory deep wells, over 6,000 feet deep. These wells were soon played out.
At the same time Washington Gas Light, a major supplier of gas to the Washington/Baltimore metropolitan area bought acreage in Brandywine, Maryland, with plans to establish an underground storage facility for their natural gas. This project was soon abandoned due to the uproar over safety issues and falling property values in this suburban area.
In 1963 Washington Gas Light created a new subsidiary, Hampshire Gas, and bought up control of the natural gas fields in Hampshire County, along the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. This valuable asset has become a subterranean storage facility for Washington Gas Light. The gas stored in these old played out wells is piped in from the Gulf States and the Southwest. The total capacity of the storage facility in Hampshire County is 13.63 billion cubic feet. All but 2% of this stored gas is used out of state.
If we look to our southern neighbor, Hardy County, we find that Columbia Gas and Transmission, Inc., a subsidiary of NiSource, Inc., owns and operates a storage field there that has the capacity to store 29.60 billion cubic feet of gas. Columbia Gas and Transmission, Inc., operates the only existing pipelines in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. This pipeline runs from just south of Levels and through the center of Hampshire County into Hardy County, accommodating the storage fields in both counties.
NiSource, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, has plans to construct pipeline loops in West Virginia and Northeastern Virginia. They were instrumental in expanding the storage facilities in Hardy County, including building a new compressor station and pipeline capacity. They are not only involved in natural gas storage, transmission, and distribution, but generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity.
As we follow the pipeline that snakes through Hampshire and Hardy Counties into Virginia, we discover that adjacent to it in Warren and Buckingham Counties, Virginia, are two gas fired electric power plants under construction, with more planned in the near future.
In 2008 Carrizo, LLC sought and acquired four permits to drill for gas in the Marcellus shale in Hampshire and Hardy Counties. They successfully struck gas. Now, if we connect the dots, or in this case, the gas wells, they are all in close proximity to the existing storage fields, pipeline, and other infrastructure needed to produce, store, and distribute natural gas to areas that are desperate for cheap gas and electricity.
This industry operates in secrecy to protect its self-interests. We can only surmise what the future holds.
--Jim Dodgins
Friday, December 24, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Have you said goodbye to America yet?
The White House is preparing an Executive Order on indefinite detention that will provide periodic reviews of evidence against dozens of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, according to several administration officials.
The draft order, a version of which was first considered nearly 18 months ago, is expected to be signed by President Obama early in the New Year. The order allows for the possibility that detainees from countries like Yemen might be released if circumstances there change.
But the order establishes indefinite detention as a long-term Obama administration policy and makes clear that the White House alone will manage a review process for those it chooses to hold without charge or trial.
Continue reading at:
http://www.propublica.org/article/white-house-drafts-executive-order-for-indefinite-detention/
--Submitted by Pat Henson
The draft order, a version of which was first considered nearly 18 months ago, is expected to be signed by President Obama early in the New Year. The order allows for the possibility that detainees from countries like Yemen might be released if circumstances there change.
But the order establishes indefinite detention as a long-term Obama administration policy and makes clear that the White House alone will manage a review process for those it chooses to hold without charge or trial.
Continue reading at:
http://www.propublica.org/article/white-house-drafts-executive-order-for-indefinite-detention/
--Submitted by Pat Henson
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Groups move to intervene in PA pipeline project
WASHINGTON - December 21 - Pennsylvania groups are seeking to intervene in a proceeding before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has been asked to expedite approval of a proposed pipeline that would cut through portions of northeastern Pennsylvania. The groups are calling on federal regulators to thoroughly review the cumulative environmental impacts of the project before any decision is made.
The 39-mile pipeline, known as the MARC I Hub Line Project, would be built and operated by the Central New York Oil and Gas Company. It would run through Bradford, Sullivan, and Lycoming Counties in Pennsylvania, crossing pristine drinking water sources and fishing streams in the Endless Mountains, disturbing some 610 acres and leaving 238 acres permanently altered.
The groups argue that the project would spur gas drilling in a previously undeveloped portion of the state, bringing with it threats to public health and the environment that have yet to be thoroughly analyzed.
The pipeline proposal comes as other parts of the state struggle with an explosive rate of gas drilling and an outbreak of industrial accidents and pollution related to rushed and irresponsible development. Unlike New York, Pennsylvania has allowed shale gas development and infrastructure construction to proceed without any comprehensive environmental analysis.
The non-profit environmental law firm Earthjustice filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings on behalf of Sierra Club, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, and the Lycoming County-based Coalition for Responsible Growth and Resource Conservation.
The following is a statement from Earthjustice attorney Deborah Goldberg:
"Pennsylvania rushed into developing the Marcellus Shale with no comprehensive review of the potential effects on public health or the environment. The State was unprepared for the drinking water contamination, air pollution, and dangerous accidents that came with the frantic pace of drilling. It's time to stop scrambling to respond to crises and instead to prevent them in the first place. That's exactly what we're asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to do, and why we're asking it to give impacted communities a seat at the table as it reviews the project. This proposed pipeline is just one of many inter-related gas development and infrastructure projects that industry wants to build in sensitive watersheds and forest ecosystems throughout the Marcellus region. Before federal regulators jump to approve this project, the law requires that they examine it in its larger context."
--Submitted by Nancy Pfaff
The 39-mile pipeline, known as the MARC I Hub Line Project, would be built and operated by the Central New York Oil and Gas Company. It would run through Bradford, Sullivan, and Lycoming Counties in Pennsylvania, crossing pristine drinking water sources and fishing streams in the Endless Mountains, disturbing some 610 acres and leaving 238 acres permanently altered.
The groups argue that the project would spur gas drilling in a previously undeveloped portion of the state, bringing with it threats to public health and the environment that have yet to be thoroughly analyzed.
The pipeline proposal comes as other parts of the state struggle with an explosive rate of gas drilling and an outbreak of industrial accidents and pollution related to rushed and irresponsible development. Unlike New York, Pennsylvania has allowed shale gas development and infrastructure construction to proceed without any comprehensive environmental analysis.
The non-profit environmental law firm Earthjustice filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings on behalf of Sierra Club, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, and the Lycoming County-based Coalition for Responsible Growth and Resource Conservation.
The following is a statement from Earthjustice attorney Deborah Goldberg:
"Pennsylvania rushed into developing the Marcellus Shale with no comprehensive review of the potential effects on public health or the environment. The State was unprepared for the drinking water contamination, air pollution, and dangerous accidents that came with the frantic pace of drilling. It's time to stop scrambling to respond to crises and instead to prevent them in the first place. That's exactly what we're asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to do, and why we're asking it to give impacted communities a seat at the table as it reviews the project. This proposed pipeline is just one of many inter-related gas development and infrastructure projects that industry wants to build in sensitive watersheds and forest ecosystems throughout the Marcellus region. Before federal regulators jump to approve this project, the law requires that they examine it in its larger context."
--Submitted by Nancy Pfaff
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Spellcasting
The magic spell of the Tea Party was so inducing. Under that spell, half of women voters favored the party that advocates abortion abolition, voted for the party that advocates the position that "big gummint", with all that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, is "bad" socialism, whereas big business is "good" for its trickle-down effect. Under the spell, the sick and disabled, who cannot afford adequate healthcare, thought that with Obama's health plan, conditions will get worse and they'd die at the hospital door. Under the spell, they supported a party that resists attempts to have an egalitarian ("liberal," as an adjective, means generous, ample, abundance-sharing, not literal or strict, tolerant, broadminded, or favoring reform or progress) society, and favors instead abolishment of inheritance and capital gains taxes.
Let's see if that spell can recreate all those lost Bushy jobs and secure our border with Mexico, get our economy going and do it in two years before the next election. Can they spellbindingly accomplish the promised lies embedded in campaign speeches? What do you think?
The answer may indicate whether we're having a national nervous breakdown. How many of our basic American values are left in the majority of Americans? We've lost our identity and soul. We and much of the world are wondering what this country really stands for anymore.
What kind of country do we want? Are we happy being a corporate/militarist culture? What are the basic things we want for every American?
If we don't have the kind of country we want, then we have the type of country we deserve--which is getting embarassing, as we watch lobbyist pimps manipulate their whores in Congress.
--Bill Arnold
Let's see if that spell can recreate all those lost Bushy jobs and secure our border with Mexico, get our economy going and do it in two years before the next election. Can they spellbindingly accomplish the promised lies embedded in campaign speeches? What do you think?
The answer may indicate whether we're having a national nervous breakdown. How many of our basic American values are left in the majority of Americans? We've lost our identity and soul. We and much of the world are wondering what this country really stands for anymore.
What kind of country do we want? Are we happy being a corporate/militarist culture? What are the basic things we want for every American?
If we don't have the kind of country we want, then we have the type of country we deserve--which is getting embarassing, as we watch lobbyist pimps manipulate their whores in Congress.
--Bill Arnold
WV AFL-CIO prez disses Manchin
Statement by: West Virginia AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue Regarding Sen. Joe Manchin's Absence during Critical Votes
"Great Senators make difficult decisions and they display courage and leadership in the face of adversity. The late Robert C. Byrd personified these qualities. Unfortunately Senator Joe Manchin isn't demonstrating characteristics of a great Senator during his first month in office. Avoiding key votes on the DREAM Immigration Act and the repeal of the military "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, issues central not only to the citizens of West Virginia, but to our nation, isn't just a bad political maneuver, it is ineffective representation and leadership.
Senator Joe Manchin took an oath to be a voice for the great state of West Virginia in the U.S. Senate. It's a job that encompasses voting on important issues, not avoiding work on the days tough issues are decided. Experience is gained not by sidestepping responsibilities but by commitment, steadfast study and, yes at times, personal sacrifice. It is hoped Senator Manchin will soon begin to display the political integrity and courage West Virginians expect in their Senators and take a page from the late great Senator Robert C. Byrd who never lacked for courage or leadership on the U.S. Senate floor."
--Submitted by Windy Cutler
"Great Senators make difficult decisions and they display courage and leadership in the face of adversity. The late Robert C. Byrd personified these qualities. Unfortunately Senator Joe Manchin isn't demonstrating characteristics of a great Senator during his first month in office. Avoiding key votes on the DREAM Immigration Act and the repeal of the military "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, issues central not only to the citizens of West Virginia, but to our nation, isn't just a bad political maneuver, it is ineffective representation and leadership.
Senator Joe Manchin took an oath to be a voice for the great state of West Virginia in the U.S. Senate. It's a job that encompasses voting on important issues, not avoiding work on the days tough issues are decided. Experience is gained not by sidestepping responsibilities but by commitment, steadfast study and, yes at times, personal sacrifice. It is hoped Senator Manchin will soon begin to display the political integrity and courage West Virginians expect in their Senators and take a page from the late great Senator Robert C. Byrd who never lacked for courage or leadership on the U.S. Senate floor."
--Submitted by Windy Cutler
One nation, under surveillance
The latest installment of the Washington Post series, "Top Secret America"--a declassified look at the infrastructure of America's police state--gives an account of how "homeland security" is being administered at the local level. I encourage you to think about how much money the government's total information awareness program is costing the taxpayers, as you read along. You can get to the article via this link, a breakdown of West Virginia's role in the surveillance network:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/states/west-virginia/
--Michael Hasty
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/states/west-virginia/
--Michael Hasty
Monday, December 20, 2010
Marcellus: the good, the bad and the ugly
THE GOOD
Natural gas can help us loosen the grip of foreign oil, eliminating the need to prop up and create oppressive governments throughout the world. It can be the transition fuel to help us bridge the gap between more polluting fossil fuels and renewable energy; i.e., wind, solar, geothermal. Natural gas generates only half the greenhouse gases emitted by coal and one-third of what is produced by oil. Natural gas also emits less nitrogen oxide, fewer particulates, and virtually none of the sulfur dioxide or mercury emitted by coal.
Marcellus shale gas can supply all of the United States with its natural gas needs for over twenty years. The exploitation of marcellus shale gas is creating new jobs (an estimated 23,000 in West Virginia alone next year). It offers new opportunities in manufacturing throughout the rust belt. It is funneling money into rural areas, creating offshoot businesses. It is reinvigorating existing businesses: restaurants, motels, mom and pop stores. It can help jumpstart the economy and offer hope to millions. King Coal is slowly being replaced by natural gas as the leader in producing electricity (more on gas powered electricity plants in the next article) and lastly, it will expand the tax base, putting more money in the state and local coffers.
THE BAD
According to the West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization (www.wvsoro.org) most surface owners don’t own the minerals under their land, including natural gas, and have little recourse when companies exploiting Marcellus gas move in to extract the natural gas trapped under their land. Their excavations can leave huge industrial footprints on once pristine land. Existing laws do little or nothing to protect the surface owners’ rights. Existing laws were enacted to accommodate big business. We can see the repercussions of lax laws and the lack of enforcement of existing regulations in the coal industry. The laws on the books pertaining to coal give King Coal protection from Mega Gas that the average West Virginian could only hope for. These laws have also allowed King Coal to turn mountains into plateaus with little repercussions for the environmental damage literally heaped on the countryside. Of course, we can't see this onslaught from our homes here in Hampshire County, so it's not in the forefront of our minds. But this could all change with Marcellus gas.
It's imperative that land owners check their deeds to determine if mineral rights conveyed with land transfers. If they did, the owners have more protection under existing laws. Do not sign any lease without lawyering up. The lease offered by a gas company highly favors the gas company, and offers little to no protection to the environment or the owner’s health. With the help of an experienced lawyer any lease offered can be modified to accommodate the owner. Once a lease is signed, the owner of the mineral rights is legally bound to it, absent any fraud on the gas company’s part. Before any work starts, the owner should have his well water tested so the drilling company can be held liable for any contamination to the drinking water.
THE UGLY
With a lack of regulations, great powers are imbued in the natural gas industry. Through influence peddling by lobbyists they invest great sums of money in Washington and Charleston. We are left with a steep hill to climb seeking protection for ourselves and the environment. On December 15, 2010 the State Joint Interim Judiciary Subcommittee was scheduled to meet and vote on a bill that would help tighten regulations involving the gas and coal industry. Not perfect, but a start. This bill would have gone to the full legislature in January for consideration, but not enough Senators showed up to create a quorum. Sen. Herb Snyder (D-Jefferson) threatened to send the Sergeant-at-Arms after Senators with handcuffs if more senators didn’t soon show up. The lax attitudes displayed in Charleston toward legislation that could offer some reasonable constraints on an industry that now has little and limited regulation are just downright ugly.
The witch’s brew that is injected into gas wells during the hydraulic fracking process ( http://hampshireindependent.blogspot.com/2010/11/wv-fracking-law-drafted.html ) consists of up to 560 chemicals, some known carcinogens. From 30% to 60% of the toxic mix that is injected into wells returns to the surface, including heavy metals, radioactive materials, and briny water with a very high salt content. This is all stored in containment ponds. Some of these ponds are not required to have plastic liners – one of those backroom deals made with the gas industry by our Legislators in Charleston. These ponds have been known to leak or overflow in heavy rains, endangering our rivers, streams, and aquifers. Two to three million gallons of water are used in the hydrafracking process. That leaves a highly toxic slurry to be disposed of. When not done properly, it creates a monumental environmental problem that may be irreversible.
The Marcellus gas wells in Hampshire County were hydrafracked this summer. These two wells are vertical wells, which require less water than horizontal wells. Hampshire county and most of West Virginia suffered a severe drought this past summer. Where did the water come from, one of our already overstressed rivers or streams? An option would have been to wait until our waterways recovered. New regulations should require the gas industry to disclose where they acquire water for fracking and have restrictions during times of drought or low water situations. This all should be done through the issuing of permits. Also, the disposal of all fracking fluids should be very tightly regulated. The potential to contaminate ground water is high if well casings are not properly sealed in concrete to protect our aquifers. In some cases the pipe itself has had poorly welded seams (imported from China), causing leaks in gas wells in Pennsylvania.
The stress on our infrastructure, especially roads and bridges, is a major concern. The West Virginia Department of Highways is pursuing legislation that would require gas companies to post bonds of $5,000 to $10,000 per mile on roads utilized by the gas industry to defray the cost of repairs. There is also concern about congestion on narrow rural roads; the constant drone of compressor stations 24/7; air pollution created at or near drilling sites; erosion of access roads, drilling pads, and pipeline excavation areas adding silt and possibly toxins into our rivers and streams. This industry operates in secrecy in its effort to maintain a competitive edge over other companies. This is evident in a statement by Stacy Brodak of Chesapeake Appalachia LLC, "We continue to formulate our development plans for all acreage throughout West Virginia, but generally do not comment publicly regarding our leasing efforts."
It is paramount that the gas industry be regulated and monitored, then be held accountable for any and all damages. We, as citizens of Hampshire County and West Virginia, have a responsibility to be part of the oversight. If we notice anything at a well site that looks environmentally harmful, it probably is. Observe, document, and report to the appropriate agencies whether it's the EPA or a guardian organization like Riverkeepers.
This is not a Liberal "tree hugger" issue. None of us can or wants to live in a toxic environment. Natural gas exploitation is only good if it is done right. And that’s why we all have the responsibility to be vigilant and not trust, but confirm, that the gas industry is acting in good faith and responsibility.
Next: The Gas Under Our Feet
--Jim Dodgins
Natural gas can help us loosen the grip of foreign oil, eliminating the need to prop up and create oppressive governments throughout the world. It can be the transition fuel to help us bridge the gap between more polluting fossil fuels and renewable energy; i.e., wind, solar, geothermal. Natural gas generates only half the greenhouse gases emitted by coal and one-third of what is produced by oil. Natural gas also emits less nitrogen oxide, fewer particulates, and virtually none of the sulfur dioxide or mercury emitted by coal.
Marcellus shale gas can supply all of the United States with its natural gas needs for over twenty years. The exploitation of marcellus shale gas is creating new jobs (an estimated 23,000 in West Virginia alone next year). It offers new opportunities in manufacturing throughout the rust belt. It is funneling money into rural areas, creating offshoot businesses. It is reinvigorating existing businesses: restaurants, motels, mom and pop stores. It can help jumpstart the economy and offer hope to millions. King Coal is slowly being replaced by natural gas as the leader in producing electricity (more on gas powered electricity plants in the next article) and lastly, it will expand the tax base, putting more money in the state and local coffers.
THE BAD
According to the West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization (www.wvsoro.org) most surface owners don’t own the minerals under their land, including natural gas, and have little recourse when companies exploiting Marcellus gas move in to extract the natural gas trapped under their land. Their excavations can leave huge industrial footprints on once pristine land. Existing laws do little or nothing to protect the surface owners’ rights. Existing laws were enacted to accommodate big business. We can see the repercussions of lax laws and the lack of enforcement of existing regulations in the coal industry. The laws on the books pertaining to coal give King Coal protection from Mega Gas that the average West Virginian could only hope for. These laws have also allowed King Coal to turn mountains into plateaus with little repercussions for the environmental damage literally heaped on the countryside. Of course, we can't see this onslaught from our homes here in Hampshire County, so it's not in the forefront of our minds. But this could all change with Marcellus gas.
It's imperative that land owners check their deeds to determine if mineral rights conveyed with land transfers. If they did, the owners have more protection under existing laws. Do not sign any lease without lawyering up. The lease offered by a gas company highly favors the gas company, and offers little to no protection to the environment or the owner’s health. With the help of an experienced lawyer any lease offered can be modified to accommodate the owner. Once a lease is signed, the owner of the mineral rights is legally bound to it, absent any fraud on the gas company’s part. Before any work starts, the owner should have his well water tested so the drilling company can be held liable for any contamination to the drinking water.
THE UGLY
With a lack of regulations, great powers are imbued in the natural gas industry. Through influence peddling by lobbyists they invest great sums of money in Washington and Charleston. We are left with a steep hill to climb seeking protection for ourselves and the environment. On December 15, 2010 the State Joint Interim Judiciary Subcommittee was scheduled to meet and vote on a bill that would help tighten regulations involving the gas and coal industry. Not perfect, but a start. This bill would have gone to the full legislature in January for consideration, but not enough Senators showed up to create a quorum. Sen. Herb Snyder (D-Jefferson) threatened to send the Sergeant-at-Arms after Senators with handcuffs if more senators didn’t soon show up. The lax attitudes displayed in Charleston toward legislation that could offer some reasonable constraints on an industry that now has little and limited regulation are just downright ugly.
The witch’s brew that is injected into gas wells during the hydraulic fracking process ( http://hampshireindependent.blogspot.com/2010/11/wv-fracking-law-drafted.html ) consists of up to 560 chemicals, some known carcinogens. From 30% to 60% of the toxic mix that is injected into wells returns to the surface, including heavy metals, radioactive materials, and briny water with a very high salt content. This is all stored in containment ponds. Some of these ponds are not required to have plastic liners – one of those backroom deals made with the gas industry by our Legislators in Charleston. These ponds have been known to leak or overflow in heavy rains, endangering our rivers, streams, and aquifers. Two to three million gallons of water are used in the hydrafracking process. That leaves a highly toxic slurry to be disposed of. When not done properly, it creates a monumental environmental problem that may be irreversible.
The Marcellus gas wells in Hampshire County were hydrafracked this summer. These two wells are vertical wells, which require less water than horizontal wells. Hampshire county and most of West Virginia suffered a severe drought this past summer. Where did the water come from, one of our already overstressed rivers or streams? An option would have been to wait until our waterways recovered. New regulations should require the gas industry to disclose where they acquire water for fracking and have restrictions during times of drought or low water situations. This all should be done through the issuing of permits. Also, the disposal of all fracking fluids should be very tightly regulated. The potential to contaminate ground water is high if well casings are not properly sealed in concrete to protect our aquifers. In some cases the pipe itself has had poorly welded seams (imported from China), causing leaks in gas wells in Pennsylvania.
The stress on our infrastructure, especially roads and bridges, is a major concern. The West Virginia Department of Highways is pursuing legislation that would require gas companies to post bonds of $5,000 to $10,000 per mile on roads utilized by the gas industry to defray the cost of repairs. There is also concern about congestion on narrow rural roads; the constant drone of compressor stations 24/7; air pollution created at or near drilling sites; erosion of access roads, drilling pads, and pipeline excavation areas adding silt and possibly toxins into our rivers and streams. This industry operates in secrecy in its effort to maintain a competitive edge over other companies. This is evident in a statement by Stacy Brodak of Chesapeake Appalachia LLC, "We continue to formulate our development plans for all acreage throughout West Virginia, but generally do not comment publicly regarding our leasing efforts."
It is paramount that the gas industry be regulated and monitored, then be held accountable for any and all damages. We, as citizens of Hampshire County and West Virginia, have a responsibility to be part of the oversight. If we notice anything at a well site that looks environmentally harmful, it probably is. Observe, document, and report to the appropriate agencies whether it's the EPA or a guardian organization like Riverkeepers.
This is not a Liberal "tree hugger" issue. None of us can or wants to live in a toxic environment. Natural gas exploitation is only good if it is done right. And that’s why we all have the responsibility to be vigilant and not trust, but confirm, that the gas industry is acting in good faith and responsibility.
Next: The Gas Under Our Feet
--Jim Dodgins
Future's watery frackup
Josh Fox's DVD "Gasland" will save our American water, air, and soil from being ruthlessly abused by corporate greed, even here in Hampshire County. It is incredibly inspiring and heart-wrenching. What it portrays is even worse than mountaintop removal.
In 2009, filmaker Josh Fox learned his home in upstate New York in the Delaware River Basin sat atop of the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation containing natural gas that stretches across New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. He was offered $100,000 to lease his land for a new method of drilling developed by Halliburton, and soon discovered this was only a part of a 34-state drilling campaign, the largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history.
"Gasland" documents (I've watched it) Josh's cross-country odyssey to find out if the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing---or fracking---is actually safe. It gets more devastating every time I watch corporate greed destroy innocent community and family lives. Traveling across 24 states to interview affected families, EPA whistleblowers, congressmen and scientists in vast drilling areas, Josh learns of things gone horribly wrong, from illness to hair loss (even among livestock) to flammable spigot water and creekside flamings. His inquiries lead him ever deeper into a web of secrets, executive lying, conspiracy and contamination---a web that potentially stretches to threaten the New York city watershed.
This past week New York's governor signed a moratorium on fracking in New York state until next July. A few weeks ago the City Council of Pittsburg said no more fracking within city limits.
Do we want our County Commisioners to allow fracking here?
--Bill Arnold
In 2009, filmaker Josh Fox learned his home in upstate New York in the Delaware River Basin sat atop of the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation containing natural gas that stretches across New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. He was offered $100,000 to lease his land for a new method of drilling developed by Halliburton, and soon discovered this was only a part of a 34-state drilling campaign, the largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history.
"Gasland" documents (I've watched it) Josh's cross-country odyssey to find out if the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing---or fracking---is actually safe. It gets more devastating every time I watch corporate greed destroy innocent community and family lives. Traveling across 24 states to interview affected families, EPA whistleblowers, congressmen and scientists in vast drilling areas, Josh learns of things gone horribly wrong, from illness to hair loss (even among livestock) to flammable spigot water and creekside flamings. His inquiries lead him ever deeper into a web of secrets, executive lying, conspiracy and contamination---a web that potentially stretches to threaten the New York city watershed.
This past week New York's governor signed a moratorium on fracking in New York state until next July. A few weeks ago the City Council of Pittsburg said no more fracking within city limits.
Do we want our County Commisioners to allow fracking here?
--Bill Arnold
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Fracking reality
Last week, a group of us from Hampshire County Independent Network—Jim Dodgins, Windy Cutler, and myself—joined Brent Walls, the Upper Potomac Manager for the Potomac Riverkeepers, in a tour of a natural gas well where the process of hydraulic fracture, or “fracking,” had been used.
The well was not in operation, but had the capacity to be linked to a network of wells in this region. There is a pipeline nearby.
The well sat on about a two-acre flat round space, covered with gravel and carved out of a ridge, near the top. Brent told us that fracking operations usually take more space. But the trees had been cut to the top of the ridge, so there was capacity to expand. Brent also pointed out the fine sand that had been used in the fracking process, in a small circle a dozen paces from the wellhead.
Just below the well you could see the outlines of about a quarter-acre pond that had been covered up. We wondered if the liner that held the toxic mix of chemicals and water used in the fracking process had been buried with the pond.
There are many questions that surround the fracking process, the subject of at least two draft laws that will be considered in the upcoming regular session of the West Virginia legislature, beginning next month. It is our responsibility as citizens to learn what we can about this process, which is just beginning to boom in this Marcellus shale region, and which has the potential to cause such catastrophic damage to our drinking water, without which life as we know it ceases to exist—the reason New York state just declared a 6-month moratorium on the fracking process, while their legislature investigates it further.
To help with local education on this issue, HCIN will sponsor a viewing of the documentary film, “Gasland,” at the Hampshire County public library in Romney, Monday evening, January 17th at 6 pm. Brent Walls will be there to answer any questions you may have afterwards. I hope you can join us.
Update: Here's a link to a Google map, helpfully sent by Brent, showing the location of the library:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ptab=0&ie=UTF8&view=map&msa=0&msid=207304507056674865202.000497780348a514e3c3e&ll=39.342699,-78.757537&spn=0.001122,0.002393&z=19
*******
Thanks for your comments, Donnyl. Send us an email if you’d like to get plugged into local activities.
--Michael Hasty
The well was not in operation, but had the capacity to be linked to a network of wells in this region. There is a pipeline nearby.
The well sat on about a two-acre flat round space, covered with gravel and carved out of a ridge, near the top. Brent told us that fracking operations usually take more space. But the trees had been cut to the top of the ridge, so there was capacity to expand. Brent also pointed out the fine sand that had been used in the fracking process, in a small circle a dozen paces from the wellhead.
Just below the well you could see the outlines of about a quarter-acre pond that had been covered up. We wondered if the liner that held the toxic mix of chemicals and water used in the fracking process had been buried with the pond.
There are many questions that surround the fracking process, the subject of at least two draft laws that will be considered in the upcoming regular session of the West Virginia legislature, beginning next month. It is our responsibility as citizens to learn what we can about this process, which is just beginning to boom in this Marcellus shale region, and which has the potential to cause such catastrophic damage to our drinking water, without which life as we know it ceases to exist—the reason New York state just declared a 6-month moratorium on the fracking process, while their legislature investigates it further.
To help with local education on this issue, HCIN will sponsor a viewing of the documentary film, “Gasland,” at the Hampshire County public library in Romney, Monday evening, January 17th at 6 pm. Brent Walls will be there to answer any questions you may have afterwards. I hope you can join us.
Update: Here's a link to a Google map, helpfully sent by Brent, showing the location of the library:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ptab=0&ie=UTF8&view=map&msa=0&msid=207304507056674865202.000497780348a514e3c3e&ll=39.342699,-78.757537&spn=0.001122,0.002393&z=19
*******
Thanks for your comments, Donnyl. Send us an email if you’d like to get plugged into local activities.
--Michael Hasty
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Naming the bridge
What’s this? A new name for our bridge? By a unanimous vote of a self-appointed committee arrogating naming rights to itself?
So they had a contest no less. Was this contest open to the public, or just to the committee? I never heard of it, yet this contest has supposedly been going on for seven months. The last I had heard, when the matter was raised a couple of months ago, the Hampshire County Commission had passed a resolution requesting that the name of the bridge remain the same, the South Branch River Bridge. End of story. Period. Or so we thought. Who is on this committee? How many people? Any of you?
Now I understand this will be presented as a bill to the legislature, which they will make into law. Law, mind you. So the legislature has the final right to tell us, the people, what our bridge should be named. How did the bridge get its original name?
I can’t wait to see the letters to the editor on this one.
Please tell me, how did I miss all of this?
Sign me, perplexed and indignant.
--Windy Cutler
So they had a contest no less. Was this contest open to the public, or just to the committee? I never heard of it, yet this contest has supposedly been going on for seven months. The last I had heard, when the matter was raised a couple of months ago, the Hampshire County Commission had passed a resolution requesting that the name of the bridge remain the same, the South Branch River Bridge. End of story. Period. Or so we thought. Who is on this committee? How many people? Any of you?
Now I understand this will be presented as a bill to the legislature, which they will make into law. Law, mind you. So the legislature has the final right to tell us, the people, what our bridge should be named. How did the bridge get its original name?
I can’t wait to see the letters to the editor on this one.
Please tell me, how did I miss all of this?
Sign me, perplexed and indignant.
--Windy Cutler
Marcellus: Pain in the Gas
Are we on the fast track to Titusville, Pennsylvania, circa 1860 and the beginning of the unfettered oil boom, or will the heat generated by Marcellus shale create enough light to bring Hampshire Countians out of the dark to pull together?
The U.S. Department of Energy predicts there will be over 20,000 Marcellus gas wells in West Virginia by 2020. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated there are over 150,000 oil and gas wells now in West Virginia. Texas is the only state with more. West Virginia’s pipeline system totals more miles than all of West Virginia’s roads. The potential for irreversible environmental damage is huge. James Martin at the West Virginia Office of Oil and Gas said the 18 inspectors at his agency do not regulate drilling; they only do site management (i.e., silt runoff) and make sure drilling sites are properly graded. The West Virginia Environmental Protection Agency only has 12 inspectors. That’s a total of 30 inspectors to monitor 150,000 wells and thousands of miles of pipeline. That’s an environmental disaster in progress.
With the potential of 20,000 more wells on the horizon and the infrastructure to transport billions more cubic feet of natural gas, we must educate ourselves and the public, become proactive, and demand that the politicians have the environment’s best interest at heart. This includes local politicians and the local media (which has a controversy phobia). The gas industry will try to beat the clock out on regulations. They only see Hampshire County as a way to expand their profit margins. They don't live here. This shouldn't be about left, right, or center – it should be about the center of the universe: our home, Hampshire County.
Next time: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly about Marcellus.
--Jim Dodgins
The U.S. Department of Energy predicts there will be over 20,000 Marcellus gas wells in West Virginia by 2020. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated there are over 150,000 oil and gas wells now in West Virginia. Texas is the only state with more. West Virginia’s pipeline system totals more miles than all of West Virginia’s roads. The potential for irreversible environmental damage is huge. James Martin at the West Virginia Office of Oil and Gas said the 18 inspectors at his agency do not regulate drilling; they only do site management (i.e., silt runoff) and make sure drilling sites are properly graded. The West Virginia Environmental Protection Agency only has 12 inspectors. That’s a total of 30 inspectors to monitor 150,000 wells and thousands of miles of pipeline. That’s an environmental disaster in progress.
With the potential of 20,000 more wells on the horizon and the infrastructure to transport billions more cubic feet of natural gas, we must educate ourselves and the public, become proactive, and demand that the politicians have the environment’s best interest at heart. This includes local politicians and the local media (which has a controversy phobia). The gas industry will try to beat the clock out on regulations. They only see Hampshire County as a way to expand their profit margins. They don't live here. This shouldn't be about left, right, or center – it should be about the center of the universe: our home, Hampshire County.
Next time: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly about Marcellus.
--Jim Dodgins
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Conformity
In his classic travelogue of America in the early 1800s, “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Toqueville also took note of some of the anti-democratic tendencies he found in the American character. One of those less attractive characteristics was the encouragement of citizens to conform to popular opinion. De Toqueville noted the irony that a society of “rugged individualism” was populated by conformists.
You only have to spend a little time at any local convenience store here in West Virginia to see the truth of what de Toqueville was talking about. The remarkable uniformity of dress—feed caps, jeans and sneakers—is testament to both the human urge to conform (more pronounced in some cultures, like ours, than others) and to the level of corporate control of mass consumer culture.
But where conformity is more strictly enforced is in prevailing community opinion—which, in a rural, religious area like this one, is conservative. There is a wider variety of opinion in the local print media, but if you’re driving around in the hills, any kind of talk radio (unless you’re on a ridge and can get the DC stations) is either conservative loudmouths like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, or Christian fundamentalist preachers—ideologues who will reinforce local opinion and buttress local prejudices. Local opinion (and culture) is also reinforced by the practice of open public prayer that often precedes civic meetings.
Given the irregularity of local radio reception and scarcity of programming, I sometimes find myself listening to AM talk radio. I just happened to be in the truck yesterday when Rush Limbaugh was lying—his usual fare—about Senator Bernie Sanders’ 8-hour speech on Saturday, against the Obama/GOP compromise giving tax breaks to billionaires. Limbaugh—who will get a 7-figure annual bonus from the deal, so he’s very happy about it—said that Sanders was lying when he said the richest one percent of Americans own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. But then Limbaugh did a bait and switch on wealth and income numbers, and in the process, hid the truth.
The truth is, in 2009, the richest one percent of Americans owned 37.1 percent of the national wealth. The richest five percent owned 65 percent—which means that Sanders was being conservative in his figures, because the richest one percent actually own more than the bottom 95 percent. And Limbaugh, as usual, is the one who’s lying. But he’s paid well to do that. Nobody knows better than el Rushbo that he’s just another corporate whore shilling for what he accurately terms “state-controlled media,” in rare moments of honesty.
Limbaugh’s cheerleading for the tax deal seems to be paying off, because even though a majority of Americans opposes giving tax breaks to the rich, a new Pew poll shows 60 percent support for the deal—probably a combination of anti-tax conservatives, and people who are resigned to the fact that they won’t get their tax cut unless the rich get their slice, too, because that’s just the way the world works.
So once again, America—resigned, its innocence long lost—conforms its expectations to injustice.
As long as our national political life is centered around media that reinforce conformity with falsehoods, that will continue to be the case.
--Michael Hasty
You only have to spend a little time at any local convenience store here in West Virginia to see the truth of what de Toqueville was talking about. The remarkable uniformity of dress—feed caps, jeans and sneakers—is testament to both the human urge to conform (more pronounced in some cultures, like ours, than others) and to the level of corporate control of mass consumer culture.
But where conformity is more strictly enforced is in prevailing community opinion—which, in a rural, religious area like this one, is conservative. There is a wider variety of opinion in the local print media, but if you’re driving around in the hills, any kind of talk radio (unless you’re on a ridge and can get the DC stations) is either conservative loudmouths like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, or Christian fundamentalist preachers—ideologues who will reinforce local opinion and buttress local prejudices. Local opinion (and culture) is also reinforced by the practice of open public prayer that often precedes civic meetings.
Given the irregularity of local radio reception and scarcity of programming, I sometimes find myself listening to AM talk radio. I just happened to be in the truck yesterday when Rush Limbaugh was lying—his usual fare—about Senator Bernie Sanders’ 8-hour speech on Saturday, against the Obama/GOP compromise giving tax breaks to billionaires. Limbaugh—who will get a 7-figure annual bonus from the deal, so he’s very happy about it—said that Sanders was lying when he said the richest one percent of Americans own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. But then Limbaugh did a bait and switch on wealth and income numbers, and in the process, hid the truth.
The truth is, in 2009, the richest one percent of Americans owned 37.1 percent of the national wealth. The richest five percent owned 65 percent—which means that Sanders was being conservative in his figures, because the richest one percent actually own more than the bottom 95 percent. And Limbaugh, as usual, is the one who’s lying. But he’s paid well to do that. Nobody knows better than el Rushbo that he’s just another corporate whore shilling for what he accurately terms “state-controlled media,” in rare moments of honesty.
Limbaugh’s cheerleading for the tax deal seems to be paying off, because even though a majority of Americans opposes giving tax breaks to the rich, a new Pew poll shows 60 percent support for the deal—probably a combination of anti-tax conservatives, and people who are resigned to the fact that they won’t get their tax cut unless the rich get their slice, too, because that’s just the way the world works.
So once again, America—resigned, its innocence long lost—conforms its expectations to injustice.
As long as our national political life is centered around media that reinforce conformity with falsehoods, that will continue to be the case.
--Michael Hasty
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Local power
One of the many steps that will have to be taken to wean civilization off of fossil fuels is to generate power at the local level.
Over a decade ago, in my column in the Hampshire Review, I suggested that Hampshire County start generating its own power by using cattle and other waste in a biogas digester, an antique technology that can greatly benefit us today--by using waste that is otherwise polluting our watershed, and thereby taking methane that would dissipate into the atmosphere and aggravate global climate change, and instead use it for local power generation.
So you can imagine my satisfaction to see the New York Times article, "Using Waste, Swedish City Cuts Its Fossil Fuel Use." It's about the city of Kristanstad, which has, in just a decade, cut its fossil fuel use in half and reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by a quarter, by using a biogas digester. The manager of the project extols the local supply of biomass as "much more secure than Middle East oil," and noted that "it has created jobs in the energy sector."
What the article has to say about the use of this technology in the US shows that, given its societal benefits, it has tremendous capacity for growth here.
"In the United States, biogas systems are rare. There are now 151 biomass digesters in the country, most of them small and using only manure, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The E.P.A. estimated that installing such plants would be feasible at about 8,000 farms.
So far in the United States, such projects have been limited by high initial costs, scant government financing and the lack of a business model. There is no supply network for moving manure to a centralized plant and no outlet to sell the biogas generated.
Still, a number of states and companies are considering new investment. "
Given the amount of biofuel our agriculture industry generates in Hampshire County, and the uncertainty in global energy markets, it seems both wasteful and foolish not to consider this technology in our local energy future.
www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/science/earth/11fossil.html?src=me&ref=general
--Michael Hasty
Over a decade ago, in my column in the Hampshire Review, I suggested that Hampshire County start generating its own power by using cattle and other waste in a biogas digester, an antique technology that can greatly benefit us today--by using waste that is otherwise polluting our watershed, and thereby taking methane that would dissipate into the atmosphere and aggravate global climate change, and instead use it for local power generation.
So you can imagine my satisfaction to see the New York Times article, "Using Waste, Swedish City Cuts Its Fossil Fuel Use." It's about the city of Kristanstad, which has, in just a decade, cut its fossil fuel use in half and reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by a quarter, by using a biogas digester. The manager of the project extols the local supply of biomass as "much more secure than Middle East oil," and noted that "it has created jobs in the energy sector."
What the article has to say about the use of this technology in the US shows that, given its societal benefits, it has tremendous capacity for growth here.
"In the United States, biogas systems are rare. There are now 151 biomass digesters in the country, most of them small and using only manure, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The E.P.A. estimated that installing such plants would be feasible at about 8,000 farms.
So far in the United States, such projects have been limited by high initial costs, scant government financing and the lack of a business model. There is no supply network for moving manure to a centralized plant and no outlet to sell the biogas generated.
Still, a number of states and companies are considering new investment. "
Given the amount of biofuel our agriculture industry generates in Hampshire County, and the uncertainty in global energy markets, it seems both wasteful and foolish not to consider this technology in our local energy future.
www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/science/earth/11fossil.html?src=me&ref=general
--Michael Hasty
Fracking forum
For those of you who are preparing your 2011 calendars, mark January 17th as the evening when the Hampshire County Independent Network will sponsor a showing of the controversial documentary, "Gasland," at the Hampshire County public library in Romney, at 6 pm. The film, which chronicles the experiences of people whose lives have been affected by the process of hydrofracking (which uses a pressurized mix of toxic chemicals and water to extract natural gas from underground), will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Brent Walls, who manages the Upper Potomac region for the Potomac Riverkeeper organization.
Potomac Riverkeeper is a member of the national Waterkeeper Alliance, which has recently become interested in the process of hydraulic fracture, for the possible dangers it presents to underground water. A group of us from HCIN met with Brent last week, and I'll report more from our meeting later in the week.
Meanwhile, for more information, you can check out the group's website at www.potomacriverkeeper.org, or contact Brent: brent@potomacriverkeeper.org.
--Michael Hasty
Potomac Riverkeeper is a member of the national Waterkeeper Alliance, which has recently become interested in the process of hydraulic fracture, for the possible dangers it presents to underground water. A group of us from HCIN met with Brent last week, and I'll report more from our meeting later in the week.
Meanwhile, for more information, you can check out the group's website at www.potomacriverkeeper.org, or contact Brent: brent@potomacriverkeeper.org.
--Michael Hasty
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Mr. Sanders goes to Washington
The only true socialist in the US Congress, and a genuine progressive hero, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, started speaking against the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and for the majority of Americans who oppose them, at 10:24 yesterday morning, and didn't finish his speech on the Senate floor until 7 last night. He has inspired at least eight Senate Democrats to join the unanimous House Democratic caucus in opposing the Obama-GOP plan. Obama may have triangulated too far.
*******
Looks like there may be a milquetoast, face-saving agreement coming out of the climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, which had been veering toward descent into chaos. The UK Independent has a look at the stakes involved:
www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/after-the-copout-in-copenhagen-its-chaos-in-cancun-2155938.html
*******
The UK Guardian reports that there are indications that the US is preparing espionage charges against another hero of democracy, Julian Assange of Wikileaks. Are they trying to do an end run around the extradition to Sweden, and send him straight to Gitmo?
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/10/julian-assange-lawyers-us-charges
--Michael Hasty
*******
Looks like there may be a milquetoast, face-saving agreement coming out of the climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, which had been veering toward descent into chaos. The UK Independent has a look at the stakes involved:
www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/after-the-copout-in-copenhagen-its-chaos-in-cancun-2155938.html
*******
The UK Guardian reports that there are indications that the US is preparing espionage charges against another hero of democracy, Julian Assange of Wikileaks. Are they trying to do an end run around the extradition to Sweden, and send him straight to Gitmo?
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/10/julian-assange-lawyers-us-charges
--Michael Hasty
Friday, December 10, 2010
The new silent majority
There is an important article at the progressive Campaign for America's Future website, written by Richard Eskow and titled, "The New Silent Majority." Here's an excerpt:
"Only 4% of people polled by CBS News after November's election thought that Congress should focus on deficits, and only 2% thought Washington should make taxes its highest priority. Yet those two topics have dominated the debate ever since, all but crowding out the concerns of the majority. Politicians and the media obsessed over them and ignored the topic that 56% of the public considered its highest priority: jobs and the economy.
We've only heard serious talk about "job creation" in the last 24 hours -- and that's in the context of a tax deal! Before yesterday, any attempt to bring up the public's top priority was dismissed by Washington insiders as the irrelevant chatter of marginal extremists. "Stimulus" was a dirty word, not to be spoken in polite company. Now it's on everybody's lips - conveniently enough, just as it could be applied to extending tax cuts for the wealthy. That part of yesterday's deal was opposed by 64% of the American public.
Is it any surprise that over 70% of those polled by CBS were either "dissatisfied" or "angry" with the way Washington works? Neither Obama's base nor his fellow Democrats had a seat at the table when this deal was cut, and that's become a major news story. But seven out of ten voters weren't represented at that table, either. In the long run, that 's a much bigger story.
...When asked how we should cut the deficit, the public would rather raise taxes on the wealthy than cut Social Security - by more than two to one. That includes 71% of independents, 77% of Republicans--and 76% of Tea Party supporters. That's the populist face of the New Silent Majority."
www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010124909/new-silent-majority
The article also has some interesting things to say about Obama's sport of "hippie punching."
*******
Hampshire Review columnist Bob Flanagan has joined the chorus of those calling for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's assassination--adding further confirmation that nobody really believes any longer that this is a nation of laws, and not of men. RIP, America.
--Michael Hasty
"Only 4% of people polled by CBS News after November's election thought that Congress should focus on deficits, and only 2% thought Washington should make taxes its highest priority. Yet those two topics have dominated the debate ever since, all but crowding out the concerns of the majority. Politicians and the media obsessed over them and ignored the topic that 56% of the public considered its highest priority: jobs and the economy.
We've only heard serious talk about "job creation" in the last 24 hours -- and that's in the context of a tax deal! Before yesterday, any attempt to bring up the public's top priority was dismissed by Washington insiders as the irrelevant chatter of marginal extremists. "Stimulus" was a dirty word, not to be spoken in polite company. Now it's on everybody's lips - conveniently enough, just as it could be applied to extending tax cuts for the wealthy. That part of yesterday's deal was opposed by 64% of the American public.
Is it any surprise that over 70% of those polled by CBS were either "dissatisfied" or "angry" with the way Washington works? Neither Obama's base nor his fellow Democrats had a seat at the table when this deal was cut, and that's become a major news story. But seven out of ten voters weren't represented at that table, either. In the long run, that 's a much bigger story.
...When asked how we should cut the deficit, the public would rather raise taxes on the wealthy than cut Social Security - by more than two to one. That includes 71% of independents, 77% of Republicans--and 76% of Tea Party supporters. That's the populist face of the New Silent Majority."
www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010124909/new-silent-majority
The article also has some interesting things to say about Obama's sport of "hippie punching."
*******
Hampshire Review columnist Bob Flanagan has joined the chorus of those calling for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's assassination--adding further confirmation that nobody really believes any longer that this is a nation of laws, and not of men. RIP, America.
--Michael Hasty
Thursday, December 9, 2010
We, the terrorized
The Hampshire County sheriff's office has fingered the culprit in the anonymous bomb threats that closed down Hampshire High several times last week: a 14 year-old girl.
The front page of the Hampshire Review has a huge headline, several different articles, and two pictures of students being taught the rudiments of totalitarianism as they walk through metal detectors, and get personal scans. One story even had anonymous students cheerily suggesting even more intrusive ways their behavior can be monitored by the state. Good little totalitarians, the article implicitly suggests.
What kind of society is so easily terrorized by a 14 year-old girl?
--Michael Hasty
The front page of the Hampshire Review has a huge headline, several different articles, and two pictures of students being taught the rudiments of totalitarianism as they walk through metal detectors, and get personal scans. One story even had anonymous students cheerily suggesting even more intrusive ways their behavior can be monitored by the state. Good little totalitarians, the article implicitly suggests.
What kind of society is so easily terrorized by a 14 year-old girl?
--Michael Hasty
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Seeing the light
One of the most eloquent progressive voices in recent years has been that of William Rivers Pitt, who has until recently been a strong Obama supporter, but whose bitter disappointment has opened his eyes to the reality of the present American political system:
"The pervasive corruption caused by the damfool idea that "Money = Speech," validated by Supreme Court decisions like Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, and the larger caustic concept that corporations are people - with the same rights and privileges of people - created a scenario where everyone involved in national power politics is bought, and so nobody is guilty. They have to be, if they want to get anywhere...but once they get somewhere, they're already gone. The so-called "liberal" Democratic Party has been as much at that filthy trough as any of the worst Republicans who could be named. The difference is only a matter of inches; they are all bought and paid for to one degree or another, and that unavoidable fact defines our current political reality as solidly as slavery defined the American political realm 150 years ago...except this time, we are the slaves - white, black, brown, men, women, gay, straight...everyone who lacks a seven-figure bankroll - all of us wreathed in chains we cannot see, even as those chains restrain us fully and rob us of our freedom completely."
www.truth-out.org/thinking-about-bobby65677
--Michael Hasty
"The pervasive corruption caused by the damfool idea that "Money = Speech," validated by Supreme Court decisions like Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, and the larger caustic concept that corporations are people - with the same rights and privileges of people - created a scenario where everyone involved in national power politics is bought, and so nobody is guilty. They have to be, if they want to get anywhere...but once they get somewhere, they're already gone. The so-called "liberal" Democratic Party has been as much at that filthy trough as any of the worst Republicans who could be named. The difference is only a matter of inches; they are all bought and paid for to one degree or another, and that unavoidable fact defines our current political reality as solidly as slavery defined the American political realm 150 years ago...except this time, we are the slaves - white, black, brown, men, women, gay, straight...everyone who lacks a seven-figure bankroll - all of us wreathed in chains we cannot see, even as those chains restrain us fully and rob us of our freedom completely."
www.truth-out.org/thinking-about-bobby65677
--Michael Hasty
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Draft proposal
Okay, so the plan is to keep the millionaires and billionaires from paying their patriotic fairly-taxed share, for the privilege of milking the trough at our public expense. I can see going along with that--if the millionaires and billionaires purposely allow their children, of both genders, up to the age of 30, to be drafted for frontline combat duty, to prove to the rest of us that they really do appreciate the decades we've permitted our children to be cannon-slaughter for their economic benefit.
How soon would that end the economic, military and political human slaughter?
These arrogant elites want to shrink our (or more accurately, their) government, and cut taxes, while the rest of us want to maintain the government services important to our lives. We deplore the budget cuts that have so far reduced our children's education, our water, sewer, renewable energy production and transmission, transportation infrastructure, our natural environment, and our public safety.
Fearmongers who scream about wasteful bureaucracy and totalitarian rule actually give rise to what really threatens our liberty: uncontrolled corporate greed. This "great recession" demonstrates how unsupervised banks devour the very market system that produces our wealth, when our government's ability to regulate such excesses is bound by usurious anti-government bias.
There are many honest cooperative practices (ask Elizabeth Warren) that can be utilized to willfully correct our anomalies. We are not collectively adhering to those possibilities because fearmongers in mainstream media keep throwing purposefully confusing roadblocks in our faces.
These foxy-oriented GOP fearmongers can't realistically understand that virginity--sexual, poltical, economic or historical--results from a lack of opportunity.
We must ask even when they don't tell.
--Bill Arnold
How soon would that end the economic, military and political human slaughter?
These arrogant elites want to shrink our (or more accurately, their) government, and cut taxes, while the rest of us want to maintain the government services important to our lives. We deplore the budget cuts that have so far reduced our children's education, our water, sewer, renewable energy production and transmission, transportation infrastructure, our natural environment, and our public safety.
Fearmongers who scream about wasteful bureaucracy and totalitarian rule actually give rise to what really threatens our liberty: uncontrolled corporate greed. This "great recession" demonstrates how unsupervised banks devour the very market system that produces our wealth, when our government's ability to regulate such excesses is bound by usurious anti-government bias.
There are many honest cooperative practices (ask Elizabeth Warren) that can be utilized to willfully correct our anomalies. We are not collectively adhering to those possibilities because fearmongers in mainstream media keep throwing purposefully confusing roadblocks in our faces.
These foxy-oriented GOP fearmongers can't realistically understand that virginity--sexual, poltical, economic or historical--results from a lack of opportunity.
We must ask even when they don't tell.
--Bill Arnold
Porno-scanner health risks
Some prominent scientists are suggesting that the focused radiation of the TSA airport porno-scanners could lead to breast cancer and sperm mutation:
www.naturalnews.com/030607_naked_body_scanners_radiation.html#ixzz17KxNMu7K
*******
The investigative website Pro Publica has a new article on an upcoming federal hearing on problems with gas drilling that go beyond fracking:
www.propublica.org/
--Michael Hasty
www.naturalnews.com/030607_naked_body_scanners_radiation.html#ixzz17KxNMu7K
*******
The investigative website Pro Publica has a new article on an upcoming federal hearing on problems with gas drilling that go beyond fracking:
www.propublica.org/
--Michael Hasty
Monday, December 6, 2010
Cultural anomalies
To stem the descent of our culture into savage social and economic injustice, we'll need to cease and desist from fueling ignorance and demagoguery and ask ourselves, "Is the march of injustice unstoppable, inevitable"? Reactionary elements have unjustifiably assumed control of our media and are unlikely to relinquish it, ever, unless forced to.
The reality is that history-making nonviolent resistence is not usually taken as an act of moral display. It does not typically begin by putting flowers in gun barrels and it does not end when protesters disperse at local stoplights. It involves the use of a panoply of forceful sanctions---strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, disrupting the functions of disservicing goverenments, and other forms of non-cooperation, in accordance with a strategy for undermining an oppressor's pillars of servitude.
It is not about making a point; it's about taking power.
--Bill Arnold
The reality is that history-making nonviolent resistence is not usually taken as an act of moral display. It does not typically begin by putting flowers in gun barrels and it does not end when protesters disperse at local stoplights. It involves the use of a panoply of forceful sanctions---strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, disrupting the functions of disservicing goverenments, and other forms of non-cooperation, in accordance with a strategy for undermining an oppressor's pillars of servitude.
It is not about making a point; it's about taking power.
--Bill Arnold
Indispensable reading
Another important analyst of America's "Deep State"--the interface between government and the underworld--is Alfred McCoy, distinguished historian and author of "The Politics of Heroin." He coordinated a group of 140 historians to draw some conclusions about the present status of the United States as the world's "indispensable nation."
They concluded that America is an empire in rapid decline, and McCoy lays out four possible scenarios for how that decline will play out over the coming decades, in his article at Tomdispatch:
www.tomdispatch.com/post/175327/tomgram%3A_alfred_mccoy%2C_taking_down_america/
My only quibble with the piece is that they posit a functioning New World Order as a future event. Here's how McCoy describes a possible future in one scenario:
"In a dark, dystopian version of our global future, a coalition of transnational corporations, multilateral forces like NATO, and an international financial elite could conceivably forge a single, possibly unstable, supra-national nexus that would make it no longer meaningful to speak of national empires at all. While denationalized corporations and multinational elites would assumedly rule such a world from secure urban enclaves, the multitudes would be relegated to urban and rural wastelands."
I would suggest that that's a pretty apt description of today's world, regulated by the World Trade Organization. But it may be just a matter of degrees of difference between us; a project of that magnitude, even ten years in the distance, would already be well underway.
--Michael Hasty
They concluded that America is an empire in rapid decline, and McCoy lays out four possible scenarios for how that decline will play out over the coming decades, in his article at Tomdispatch:
www.tomdispatch.com/post/175327/tomgram%3A_alfred_mccoy%2C_taking_down_america/
My only quibble with the piece is that they posit a functioning New World Order as a future event. Here's how McCoy describes a possible future in one scenario:
"In a dark, dystopian version of our global future, a coalition of transnational corporations, multilateral forces like NATO, and an international financial elite could conceivably forge a single, possibly unstable, supra-national nexus that would make it no longer meaningful to speak of national empires at all. While denationalized corporations and multinational elites would assumedly rule such a world from secure urban enclaves, the multitudes would be relegated to urban and rural wastelands."
I would suggest that that's a pretty apt description of today's world, regulated by the World Trade Organization. But it may be just a matter of degrees of difference between us; a project of that magnitude, even ten years in the distance, would already be well underway.
--Michael Hasty
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Totalitarianism marches on
The big news in Hampshire County this week was the bomb scare at Hampshire High, another example of the general policy of state over-reaction that the Age of Terror has boxed us into. A note with a bomb threat was found Tuesday, and word was quickly out via student social media, so the panic was on. In the spirit of the current totalitarian ethic, where every student is treated as a potential criminal, the school was shut down early on Tuesday and Wednesday and evacuated while bomb-sniffing dogs scoured the place. In other words, we’ve reached a state where, if someone wants to avoid taking a test or get out of school early, they just have to leave an anonymous note in the bathroom.
The terrorists have won.
This incident provides further confirmation that the consolidation of schools into mass education centers over the last half-century has been a mistake. It’s unthinkable that something like this would happen in a one-room schoolhouse. The “economy of scale” that was used to justify the destruction of neighborhood schools has proven to have hidden financial and social costs that exceed the value of school consolidation. I look forward to the day when communities begin discussing this quandary in earnest.
*******
The hunt for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and the attempt to keep people from actually viewing the revealing cables, continues. I found the Wikileaks IP address at Democratic Underground a few days ago, and as of this morning, you could still view the diplomatic cables, as well as the war memos:
http://213.251.145.96/
We got another confirmation that the government is monitoring Facebook today, via Huffington Post, where an article said that grad students at Columbia and Georgetown universities have been warned not to even mention Wikileaks on their Facebook accounts, if they are hoping for future employment with the US State Department. But at a time of near-universal condemnation of Wikileaks from both politicians and media, it’s good to see that there are a few voices of courage on both the mainstream left (the Charleston Gazette) and right (National Journal, in an op-ed by former Bush speechwriter Matthew Dowd) defending Assange. He may turn out to be the Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers (and who worries about Assange’s safety) of this era.
*******
Speaking of the Gazette, there’s a fiery op-ed this morning from regular contributor Eva Knapp on how the robber barons have again taken over America.
http://wvgazette.com/Opinion/OpEdCommentaries/201012040022
To complete the picture, and in spite of the convoluted rhetoric used to explain their vote, both nominally Democratic West Virginia senators voted with the Republicans yesterday (in separate votes) to make sure that the wealthiest one percent of Americans get to keep their tax cuts from Bush. But the whole process is nothing but a puppet show to maintain the illusion that there are still two distinct parties in the American government.
Those tax cuts originally passed the Senate in 2001 via the “reconciliation” process—which only requires a simple majority. But the middle class tax cuts failed to pass the senate yesterday with 53 votes, because the Democrats are insisting reconciliation can’t be used, and they need 60 votes. How is it that reconciliation could be used in 2001, but can’t today for the exact same tax cuts?
And for that matter, how long will Americans put up with their ruling class’s puppet government?
--Michael Hasty
The terrorists have won.
This incident provides further confirmation that the consolidation of schools into mass education centers over the last half-century has been a mistake. It’s unthinkable that something like this would happen in a one-room schoolhouse. The “economy of scale” that was used to justify the destruction of neighborhood schools has proven to have hidden financial and social costs that exceed the value of school consolidation. I look forward to the day when communities begin discussing this quandary in earnest.
*******
The hunt for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and the attempt to keep people from actually viewing the revealing cables, continues. I found the Wikileaks IP address at Democratic Underground a few days ago, and as of this morning, you could still view the diplomatic cables, as well as the war memos:
http://213.251.145.96/
We got another confirmation that the government is monitoring Facebook today, via Huffington Post, where an article said that grad students at Columbia and Georgetown universities have been warned not to even mention Wikileaks on their Facebook accounts, if they are hoping for future employment with the US State Department. But at a time of near-universal condemnation of Wikileaks from both politicians and media, it’s good to see that there are a few voices of courage on both the mainstream left (the Charleston Gazette) and right (National Journal, in an op-ed by former Bush speechwriter Matthew Dowd) defending Assange. He may turn out to be the Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers (and who worries about Assange’s safety) of this era.
*******
Speaking of the Gazette, there’s a fiery op-ed this morning from regular contributor Eva Knapp on how the robber barons have again taken over America.
http://wvgazette.com/Opinion/OpEdCommentaries/201012040022
To complete the picture, and in spite of the convoluted rhetoric used to explain their vote, both nominally Democratic West Virginia senators voted with the Republicans yesterday (in separate votes) to make sure that the wealthiest one percent of Americans get to keep their tax cuts from Bush. But the whole process is nothing but a puppet show to maintain the illusion that there are still two distinct parties in the American government.
Those tax cuts originally passed the Senate in 2001 via the “reconciliation” process—which only requires a simple majority. But the middle class tax cuts failed to pass the senate yesterday with 53 votes, because the Democrats are insisting reconciliation can’t be used, and they need 60 votes. How is it that reconciliation could be used in 2001, but can’t today for the exact same tax cuts?
And for that matter, how long will Americans put up with their ruling class’s puppet government?
--Michael Hasty
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Veterans to protest war in DC
On Thursday, December 16, 2010, Veterans for Peace and others will stage the largest veteran-led civil resistance to U.S. wars in recent history. After a rally at Lafayette Park in Washington, DC, many will engage in nonviolent civil resistance at the White House. See Stop These Wars for more information.
During the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King called our government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” This was true then—and even more so today. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan grind on, killing children every day, in our name, with our tax dollars. How long are we going to let this go on?
We believe that the power of courageous, committed people is greater than that of corporate warmongers. But we will only see our power when we use it collectively, when we stand together. United for Peace and Justice urges everyone who can to go to DC on the 16th to support the action.
For those who can’t go to DC, we call on UFPJ member groups to organize local solidarity demonstrations at noon at the Federal Building in your city. Appropriate slogans would be “Mr: Obama: End These Wars!”, “Stop the Afghanistan War”, “Not Another Day, Not Another Dollar, Not Another Life”, “Jobs Not War”, and “Bring the Troops and War Dollars Home”.
Register your action so others can find you and so that we can show the national scope of the response.
UFPJ will produce a flyer for the local demonstrations which can be locally customized and we will send that out in the next few days. Questions? Email ufpjafghanistan@gmail.com for information.
www.unitedforpeace.org
--Submitted by Windy Cutler
During the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King called our government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” This was true then—and even more so today. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan grind on, killing children every day, in our name, with our tax dollars. How long are we going to let this go on?
We believe that the power of courageous, committed people is greater than that of corporate warmongers. But we will only see our power when we use it collectively, when we stand together. United for Peace and Justice urges everyone who can to go to DC on the 16th to support the action.
For those who can’t go to DC, we call on UFPJ member groups to organize local solidarity demonstrations at noon at the Federal Building in your city. Appropriate slogans would be “Mr: Obama: End These Wars!”, “Stop the Afghanistan War”, “Not Another Day, Not Another Dollar, Not Another Life”, “Jobs Not War”, and “Bring the Troops and War Dollars Home”.
Register your action so others can find you and so that we can show the national scope of the response.
UFPJ will produce a flyer for the local demonstrations which can be locally customized and we will send that out in the next few days. Questions? Email ufpjafghanistan@gmail.com for information.
www.unitedforpeace.org
--Submitted by Windy Cutler
Friday, December 3, 2010
Graf speaks out
Virginia Lynch Graf, the unsuccessful Democratic challenger to our Congressional representative, Shelly Moore Capito, has an op-ed in today's Charleston Gazette that seems to be a refinement of the letter she sent around to supporters soon after the election. Here's how it opens:
"Voters of West Virginia's Second Congressional District rewarded Rep. Shelley Moore Capito with two more years in office. As her opponent, I wonder why.
Was it her continual votes for war funding? It's now over $3 trillion. Perhaps that makes West Virginians feel secure. Was it her ties to special interests to perpetuate her campaigns? I guess that takes the burden off of ordinary contributors to elect a Congress member. Could it be the fact that corporations get tax breaks, loopholes and other financial incentives from her votes that enable them to trickle their wealth down to the rest of us? Maybe it's the fact that she opposes unions and stimulus money to keep Americans working. After all, if we got rid of unions, we could return to unbridled labor laws, which would make all those lazy people work longer and harder for their salaries.
And we all know stimulus money was bad, so Ms. Capito opposed it. Clearly, she knew better than most economists who encourage an even bigger stimulus to avoid another Great Depression. Ms. Capito knew wasteful spending when she saw it: A tax break for the middle class and small business owners and funding to keep policeman, firemen and teachers at their jobs was just too expensive. Nonetheless, she did get her picture taken each time stimulus money was awarded."
What makes the op-ed timely is Capito's vote yesterday against tax cuts for the middle class. Like the rest of the GOP, she wants to make sure that her party's chief constituency--the "haves and have-mores," as George W. Bush once described them--get theirs, regardless of how few jobs those tax cuts have actually created since they were enacted (their excuse for supporting them) and the deficit be damned.
The Republican commenters accuse Graf of sour grapes, but I think her analysis of why she wasn't supported is just as realistic and accurate as her assessment of Capito's record.
www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/OpEdCommentaries/201012011012
*******
Progressive blog Firedoglake has a good synopsis of the case that Nigeria has in its reportedly pending indictment against Dick Cheney, and why it looks like the Obama administration is trying to arrange for Nigeria to drop the case--as the Wikileaks cables show it did in Spain, to get that government to drop torture cases against a half-dozen Bush administration officials. Change you can believe in. Really.
http://firedoglake.com/
*******
Finally, one of the most important writers on the subject of America's Deep State, former Canadian diplomat Peter Dale Scott, gave a speech to the prestigious Commonwealth Club in San Francisco last month, outlining why the Continuity of Government (COG) executive order issued by Bush after the 9/11 attacks, and still in effect today, seems to have replaced the US constitutional order. Here's his conclusion:
"With a few notable exceptions, there has thus far been scant interest in the media and the public in the extraordinary facts that Cheney and Rumsfeld were able to
1) help plan successfully for constitutional modifications, when not in government [Ed. note: Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld developed the COG plans when they worked together in the Ford and Reagan administrations, and continued this work as corporate CEOs during the Clinton administration], and
2) implement these same changes themselves when back in power.The first of these facts gives us a glimpse of an on-going power realm independent of the publicly acknowledged state. In the words of James Mann, “Cheney and Rumsfeld were, in a sense, a part of the permanent, though hidden, national security apparatus of the United States, inhabitants of a world in which Presidents come and go, but America always keeps on fighting.” A CNN Special Assignment assessment of the COG planners was even more dramatic: “In the United States of America there is a hidden government about which you know nothing.”
What is the first step out of this current state of affairs, in which the constitution appears to have been superseded by a higher, if less legitimate authority? I submit that it is to get Congress to do what the law requires, and determine whether our present proclamation of emergency “shall be terminated” (50 U.S.C. 1622, 2002).
As part of this procedure, Congress should find whether secret COG powers, never submitted to Congress or seen by it, are among “the powers and authorities” which Bush in 2007 included in his prolongation of the 2001 emergency and which are maintained today under Obama.
This is not a technical or procedural detail. It is a test of whether the United States is presently governed by its laws and constitution, or whether, as has been alleged, the laws and constitution have now in places been superseded by COG.
Congress should go further to look into the activities of Cheney’s ninety days of COG shadow government in 2001, and their relationship to the genesis of the Patriot Act, the ten-year program for detention camps, and the permanent militarization of US domestic law enforcement."
http://japanfocus.org/-Peter_Dale-Scott/3448
--Michael Hasty
"Voters of West Virginia's Second Congressional District rewarded Rep. Shelley Moore Capito with two more years in office. As her opponent, I wonder why.
Was it her continual votes for war funding? It's now over $3 trillion. Perhaps that makes West Virginians feel secure. Was it her ties to special interests to perpetuate her campaigns? I guess that takes the burden off of ordinary contributors to elect a Congress member. Could it be the fact that corporations get tax breaks, loopholes and other financial incentives from her votes that enable them to trickle their wealth down to the rest of us? Maybe it's the fact that she opposes unions and stimulus money to keep Americans working. After all, if we got rid of unions, we could return to unbridled labor laws, which would make all those lazy people work longer and harder for their salaries.
And we all know stimulus money was bad, so Ms. Capito opposed it. Clearly, she knew better than most economists who encourage an even bigger stimulus to avoid another Great Depression. Ms. Capito knew wasteful spending when she saw it: A tax break for the middle class and small business owners and funding to keep policeman, firemen and teachers at their jobs was just too expensive. Nonetheless, she did get her picture taken each time stimulus money was awarded."
What makes the op-ed timely is Capito's vote yesterday against tax cuts for the middle class. Like the rest of the GOP, she wants to make sure that her party's chief constituency--the "haves and have-mores," as George W. Bush once described them--get theirs, regardless of how few jobs those tax cuts have actually created since they were enacted (their excuse for supporting them) and the deficit be damned.
The Republican commenters accuse Graf of sour grapes, but I think her analysis of why she wasn't supported is just as realistic and accurate as her assessment of Capito's record.
www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/OpEdCommentaries/201012011012
*******
Progressive blog Firedoglake has a good synopsis of the case that Nigeria has in its reportedly pending indictment against Dick Cheney, and why it looks like the Obama administration is trying to arrange for Nigeria to drop the case--as the Wikileaks cables show it did in Spain, to get that government to drop torture cases against a half-dozen Bush administration officials. Change you can believe in. Really.
http://firedoglake.com/
*******
Finally, one of the most important writers on the subject of America's Deep State, former Canadian diplomat Peter Dale Scott, gave a speech to the prestigious Commonwealth Club in San Francisco last month, outlining why the Continuity of Government (COG) executive order issued by Bush after the 9/11 attacks, and still in effect today, seems to have replaced the US constitutional order. Here's his conclusion:
"With a few notable exceptions, there has thus far been scant interest in the media and the public in the extraordinary facts that Cheney and Rumsfeld were able to
1) help plan successfully for constitutional modifications, when not in government [Ed. note: Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld developed the COG plans when they worked together in the Ford and Reagan administrations, and continued this work as corporate CEOs during the Clinton administration], and
2) implement these same changes themselves when back in power.The first of these facts gives us a glimpse of an on-going power realm independent of the publicly acknowledged state. In the words of James Mann, “Cheney and Rumsfeld were, in a sense, a part of the permanent, though hidden, national security apparatus of the United States, inhabitants of a world in which Presidents come and go, but America always keeps on fighting.” A CNN Special Assignment assessment of the COG planners was even more dramatic: “In the United States of America there is a hidden government about which you know nothing.”
What is the first step out of this current state of affairs, in which the constitution appears to have been superseded by a higher, if less legitimate authority? I submit that it is to get Congress to do what the law requires, and determine whether our present proclamation of emergency “shall be terminated” (50 U.S.C. 1622, 2002).
As part of this procedure, Congress should find whether secret COG powers, never submitted to Congress or seen by it, are among “the powers and authorities” which Bush in 2007 included in his prolongation of the 2001 emergency and which are maintained today under Obama.
This is not a technical or procedural detail. It is a test of whether the United States is presently governed by its laws and constitution, or whether, as has been alleged, the laws and constitution have now in places been superseded by COG.
Congress should go further to look into the activities of Cheney’s ninety days of COG shadow government in 2001, and their relationship to the genesis of the Patriot Act, the ten-year program for detention camps, and the permanent militarization of US domestic law enforcement."
http://japanfocus.org/-Peter_Dale-Scott/3448
--Michael Hasty
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Enemies of the state
Anyone who was wondering exactly how efficiently the Empire--of which the US is merely the enforcement arm--can dispose of a genuine threat to its control of information, need only observe the ongoing case of that international "terrorist"--as he's been described in US media--Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks.
Very likely the target of a US "swallow" (as the old Soviet KGB's sexual operatives were known), Assange now finds himself an internationally hunted man, with governments the world over (including Australia, where he has citizenship, and Sweden, where he has to this day never been questioned by the police concerning the rape allegation against him) seeking for crimes in their statute books with which to charge him. We've also been treated to a revealing look at what a Pentagon "shock and awe" cyberattack looks like. Very impressive. Global fascism in action.
The revolution will not be webcast.
*******
Of all the horrors to emerge from the Nazi concentration camps, one that strikes a particularly resonant chord in the human psyche is the experimentation on fellow humans.
Truthout has an exclusive article today on the use of an anti-malaria drug at the Guantanamo prison camp as a form of "pharmacological waterboarding."
www.truth-out.org/controversial-drug-given-all-guantanamo-detainees-amounted-pharmacologic-waterboarding6558
--Michael Hasty
Very likely the target of a US "swallow" (as the old Soviet KGB's sexual operatives were known), Assange now finds himself an internationally hunted man, with governments the world over (including Australia, where he has citizenship, and Sweden, where he has to this day never been questioned by the police concerning the rape allegation against him) seeking for crimes in their statute books with which to charge him. We've also been treated to a revealing look at what a Pentagon "shock and awe" cyberattack looks like. Very impressive. Global fascism in action.
The revolution will not be webcast.
*******
Of all the horrors to emerge from the Nazi concentration camps, one that strikes a particularly resonant chord in the human psyche is the experimentation on fellow humans.
Truthout has an exclusive article today on the use of an anti-malaria drug at the Guantanamo prison camp as a form of "pharmacological waterboarding."
www.truth-out.org/controversial-drug-given-all-guantanamo-detainees-amounted-pharmacologic-waterboarding6558
--Michael Hasty
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
NY fracking moratorium
The New York Times Green blog reported yesterday that the NY House of Delegates has passed a moratorium on natural gas drilling using the process of hydraulic fracture, or "fracking."
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/
The bill has already passed the state senate, so it will just need the governor's signature for the moratorium to go into effect. As you would expect, industry is lobbying hard against the law. But the vote was a convincing 93-43, so you know there's a lot of popular sentiment behind it.
The reason these laws are so popular is that people are skeptical that industry will police itself, given recent history, and the survival instinct kicks in when there is a hint of threat of poisoning our water--which is what the industry can't guarantee won't happen, because they don't really know what subterranean passages may open up with the pressure of the fracking process. Over 70 percent of the carcinogenic-tainted water they use in the process is left under the ground.
This is an issue that requires our close attention here in West Virginia, where our legislature will be considering its own fracking laws in the next regular session, and here in Hampshire County, where, as Jim Dodgins reported yesterday, we already have Marcellus shale wells.
Here's a good website to take a look at the issue:
www.propublica.org/series/buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
*******
On the issue of human rights in America, which has also been a topic discussed in this blog of late, the US was the recent subject of its first-ever formal evaluation by the United Nations Human Rights Council, which issued its report last month. In her article at Online Journal, Mary Shaw, the former Philadelphia-area coordinator for Amnesty International, gives a good synopsis of the report's recommendations on how America can improve its human rights profile.
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_6632.shtml
--Michael Hasty
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/
The bill has already passed the state senate, so it will just need the governor's signature for the moratorium to go into effect. As you would expect, industry is lobbying hard against the law. But the vote was a convincing 93-43, so you know there's a lot of popular sentiment behind it.
The reason these laws are so popular is that people are skeptical that industry will police itself, given recent history, and the survival instinct kicks in when there is a hint of threat of poisoning our water--which is what the industry can't guarantee won't happen, because they don't really know what subterranean passages may open up with the pressure of the fracking process. Over 70 percent of the carcinogenic-tainted water they use in the process is left under the ground.
This is an issue that requires our close attention here in West Virginia, where our legislature will be considering its own fracking laws in the next regular session, and here in Hampshire County, where, as Jim Dodgins reported yesterday, we already have Marcellus shale wells.
Here's a good website to take a look at the issue:
www.propublica.org/series/buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
*******
On the issue of human rights in America, which has also been a topic discussed in this blog of late, the US was the recent subject of its first-ever formal evaluation by the United Nations Human Rights Council, which issued its report last month. In her article at Online Journal, Mary Shaw, the former Philadelphia-area coordinator for Amnesty International, gives a good synopsis of the report's recommendations on how America can improve its human rights profile.
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_6632.shtml
--Michael Hasty
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