Liberal/Progressive/Populist Thoughts from way outside the Beltway...
We'll tell you how it looks from out here in the Other Washington...
And rain on the conservatives parade.
I hope this piece on NOW will begin to wake people up to the place we find ourselves. As the gas and oil interest sell people "friendly, green agreement" to use their property for hydralic fracturing gas extraction to people who are facing economic hard times, we must decide if this is the legacy we want to pass on to those who come after. It was telling to me when a landowner was asked, "what if the "fracking"ruins your water or land?" The person responded, "I will have enough money to move." Is this who we are? Are we really that selfish?
Attempts to make natural gas the new "green" is getting play on both sides of the isle as in a previous post I was horrified to hear t boone pickens featured. Until we face the fact that barbaric extraction is never going to be the answer to continuing our current consumption of Earth's resources, we are never going to move to live on the planet in a way that supports future human life. A short term energy fix at the expense of our water, air and land is suicidal. And it is just passing the bill for our continued overconsumption to our children and grandchildren. That seems to be the epitome of selfishness.
This post by Dave Ewoldt says it very well.... we have truly lost our way.
Alternative Energy Ignores the Problem ........Plus, the Industrial Growth Society is only possible with the embedded energy of fossil fuels, which are post-peak and what's left of them is so environmentally destructive to obtain that only a society that has completely lost its way would attempt doing so. Even 100% LEED building standards, hybrid vehicles (or any other proposal that thinks we can "green" consumption and continued growth) can't overcome that basic ecological fact.
full post
It is seven years today since the United States led the attack, invasion and occupation of Iraq under the bush crime family, with the support of most of the humans in the United States. Another year has passed and freedom is still on the march as our occupation of Iraq continues on steroids.
Today I remember River, whose last post was October 22, 2007 from Syria, where her family had fled as out of country refugees, along with about 1,500,000 other Iraqi humans. I wonder where she is today??? I heard her from Baghdad from the beginning of this immoral, illegal action by our country against hers. She amused me, told me stories that broke my heart and informed me about what a human goes through on the recieving end of our actions. She leaves us with .......
....I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...
Wake up humans in the United States of America, we can do sooooo much better. Our grandchildren's lives depend on it.
This piece by Dahr Jamail reminds us, if we can hear, of the horror of what the United States of Americas' policy aimed at Iraq, has meant for the Iraqi humans. Our blood and treasure continues to support one of the most corrupt regimes on planet Earth, as our Supreme Court rules that corporations are people and money is speech, making it exponentially possible for more blood and treasure to be funneled to continue this brand of looting the Earth's treasure. And the horror began to go on steroids in Afghanistan and surrounds last year. We must own this and stop it if our descendents are going to enjoy life on the planet.
The New ‘Forgotten’ War by Dahr Jamail March 15th, 2010 Extra! The Magazine of FAIR
Iraq occupation falls into media shadows
“The Western world that slaughtered Iraq and Iraqis, through 13 years of sanctions and seven years of occupation, is now turning its back on the victims. What has remained of Iraq is still being devastated by bombings, assassinations, corruption, millions of evictions and continued infrastructure destruction. Yet the world that caused all this is trying to draw a rosy picture of the situation in Iraq.”
-Maki Al-Nazzal, Iraqi political analyst
As Afghanistan has taken center stage in U.S. corporate media, with President Barack Obama announcing two major escalations of the war in recent months, the U.S. occupation of Iraq has fallen into the media shadows.
But while U.S. forces have begun to slowly pull back in Iraq, approximately 130,000 American troops and 114,000 private contractors still remain in the country (Congressional Research Service, 12/14/09)-along with an embassy the size of Vatican City. Upwards of 400 Iraqi civilians still die in a typical month (Iraq Body Count, 12/31/09), and fallout from the occupation that is now responsible, by some estimates, for 1 million Iraqi deaths (Extra!, 1/2/08) continues to severely impact Iraqis in ways that go uncovered by the U.S. press.
I must also call attention to Dahr's previous post and this video. One of the horrors we visit on other humans come in the form of Depleted (not) Uranium and the humans in Iraq have recieved massive doses of our nuclear weapons.
this piece from Dave Ewoldt, who is a Tucson leader of the Transition movement and member of Transition Whatcom and Whatcom County ex-pat, is really important. We can turn toward a way of living on the planet that ensures our descendents have a home.
I was asked to be one of the speakers at Tucson's annual Peace Fair and Music Festival on February 27, 2010. Here are my prepared remarks.
.....According to the thousands of scientists who study catastrophic anthropogenic climate destabilization, we're quickly running out of time. According to geophysicists and biologists, we're running out of natural resources and the biodiversity needed to keep the food chain from collapsing. No food chain, no food. It doesn't get much simpler than that. We have to quit being afraid to say this is exactly what's happening just because it might alarm or upset or challenge deeply cherished worldviews.
I mean, since America already ranks next to last out of 150 countries on the UN's happiness scale, when 50% of the American population requires at least one prescription drug per day, when our lifespans, our incomes and our sovereignty are steadily decreasing, what have we got to lose by being honest with people, with forthright truth telling? We actually are capable of handling it. The myth that insists otherwise does nothing but support the status quo, so be very wary of those who repeat it.
Again we must own this and change the way we live on planet Earth NOW!!!! I will apologize to the other humans in my life who do not want to hear the bad news, I will look for every opportunity to speak about the plight of all the humans and our responsibility to try in our own way to stop the bleeding. Whether it's barbaric extraction or waging wars it must be stopped.
And don't forget to sign on to Move to Amend if you haven't yet.
