limpyhobbler
limpyhobbler's JournalAmericans protest fracking as Obama cheers for it
It took years, but opponents of fracking, the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of natural gas, are finally getting their point across. President Barack Obama, however, still isn’t convinced of the cons.
What began as a grass roots campaign to examine the dangers of high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing has over the last few years spawned a massive movement of critics who are committing countless hours towards find a way to abolish fracking. When American energy companies drill deep into the Earth’s surface to free up natural gas, groups are able to mine a natural resource without dangerous offshore production facilities or by cutting deals with foreign nations. The trade-off to many, however, is simply not worth it.
Yes, fracking can provide massive amounts of methane gas to be used domestically; but it also produces millions of gallons of wastewater that can contain elements that are known carcinogens. Despite fracking freeing up cancerous agents and releasing them into the environment, there are roughly 400,000 of these wells across America. As advocates against the excavation process raise questions regarding its safety and fight to free their cities and towns from these wells, opposition is growing, and fracking, for now, seems to be slowing.
In the Empire State, where fracking occurs in countless sites, Ithaca College biologist Sandra Steingraber tells Mother Jones that the movement is "the biggest since abolition and women's rights in New York." Ten miles west, Ann Furman of Concerned Citizens of Ulysses (CCU) in Ulysses, New York says that they got 1,500 of 3,000 registered voters to sign off against fracking in the town last year.
continue->http://rt.com/usa/news/fracking-obama-drill-union-707/
Politicians side with gas companies, ignore science on shale gas drilling. Drinking water threatened
So the president gave a great State of the Union address last night. 95% of what we said was good. I’m glad I voted for him over John McCain. Not like that was a hard decision or anything. I was excited about Obama in 2008 and made a lot of phone calls and canvassed for him.
Natural gas drilling from the deep underground shale layers is currently poisoning water supplies in America. This is the hydro-fracturing or fracking process.
The government should step in to protect people so we can have clean water to drink.
Politicians including the President say we should continue this toxic drilling and injection without slowing down.
Many people are concerned about this poisoning and are calling for a moratorium on fracking until it can be shown to be safe.
A new poll of Ohio voters shows 72 percent think the practice should be stopped until more study of it can be done.
A new poll of Ohioans shows that more than seven in ten want the controversial practice of hydro-fracking stopped until more study of it can be done, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released this morning.
The first statewide poll on hydrofracking--the practice of pumping millions of gallons of chemical-laced water into shale deposits to crack open oil and natural gas deposits far below the earth's crust--shows Ohioans anxious about its impact on the environment. By a margin of 72-23, Ohioans say the practice should be stopped until further study.
http://www.nofrackohio.com/news/2012/1/20/new-quinnipiac-poll-ohioans-strongly-oppose-hydro-fracking-u.html
The President says drillers on public lands should disclose their chemicals.
That’s nice but
1) It should apply to all drillers not just public lands
2) Disclosing chemicals does not stop the currently ongoing poisoning
The President says “my Administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy”.
But it is already being developed very unsafely, threatening our drinking water, and the government should be protecting us, instead of siding with the polluters. The administration to date has taken no actions to protect people from this.
The government is siding with the gas and oil companies like Halliburton.
Those companies have great access to politicians because they have a lot of money.
They can meet with Senators any time they want.
Regular people who are concerned with clean water have almost no access to politicians. They sometimes have to go to great lengths to get even a meeting with a state legislator.
I’m really disappointed that politicians including President Obama are choosing to ignore the science presented to them by the Environmental Protection Agency, by shale gas expert advisory groups, by the scientific community, and by the concerned residents of these communities.
In December, the Environmental Protection Agency released a draft study that tentatively confirms hydraulic fracturing contaminates groundwater and drinking water wells. The gas industry has argued the opposite, putting communities and the environment at risk.
In November, the President’s own Shale Gas Advisory Panel advised that “…. if action is not taken to reduce the environmental impact accompanying the very considerable expansion of shale gas production expected across the country – perhaps as many as 100,000 wells over the next several decades – there is a real risk of serious environmental consequences…”
In November, the Scientific American – the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States and 2011 National Magazine Award winner -- editorialized that “drilling for natural gas has gotten ahead of the science needed to prove it safe”.
The President should be putting communities first. But by promoting increased gas drilling when his own advisors and the scientific establishment tell him that we have neither the science nor the oversight to ensure safe drilling, he is not.
http://www.earthworksaction.org/media/detail/president_obama_should_put_communities_first_not_drilling_industry_profits
Once we are done paying Halliburton and friends to make our water undrinkable, we can then pay them to clean it back up and sell it back to us at a profit.
By siding with the gas companies, our politicians are failing to take into account the cost in health to communities and families.
Besides people, there are also a lot of animals out there trying to get a drink out of a stream. Fish and deer and bald fricken eagles.
I would expect this stance from George W. Bush or John Kasich, but to be honest I wasn’t expecting it from President Obama.
What should the President have said last night instead?
“I call upon all natural gas developers engaged in hydrofracking near water supplies to temporarily halt their activity until the process can be shown to be safe.”
Easy as pie.
I remember using typewriters, but then went straight to computers.
I skipped the word processor era altogether. Didn't know it was going on.
Coded racial rhetoric from the so called "mainstream" gop candidates creates space for extremists.nt
I'm not a fan of Microsoft, really, truly, but...
Microsoft Word is the single greatest piece of software ever written in the history of this planet earth.
There I said it.
Microsoft Excel not far behind...
They just work. I love having a Linux or Apple machine around, but I always have to keep a windows box too so I can run MS Word and Excel.
Romney is hiding some ugly stuff in his older tax returns for sure.
He should release at least 10 years worth.
No doubt we would find out he had years where he paid less than 10% of his income in taxes, and then has the nerve to say rich people are overtaxed.
Here's a talking point: What is Mitt hiding?
China and India are separate cases that shouldn't be lumped together.
China has made great strides in eliminating extreme poverty, famine, disease, illiteracy. But it was done first under communist dictatorship and then under corporatist-capitalist-communist-dictatorship, or what ever the f*ck they call what they are now. It's nice that they feed everybody but the system is politically repressive in the extreme. And now it looks to me like China is turning into a nation of slaves. I don't like it and I don't want to be complicit in it. I was disgusted by China when I was a kid and they were more communistic, and I'm even more disgusted by it now. Of course the people of china ought not be demonized, but the government deserves it.
India has much more freedom and democracy. Their democracy suffers from bribery and corruption, but whose doesn't. India has made some strides in eliminating famine and hunger, but disease and sanitation are still problems. India is gaining wealth through it's relationship with the US and other economic partners. But unfortunately India suffers from extreme wealth inequality, much more so than in the united states. The income gains of the last 20 years are contributing to a slowly growing middle class. But most Indians are being left out or are falling further into poverty. So what's to demonize? It is what it is.
Former economic hitman, John Perkins on Citizen Radio.
Former economic hitman, John Perkins on Citizen Radio.
http://wearecitizenradio.com/2012/01/20/20120120-former-economic-hitman-john-perkins-2/
It's a re-run, but it was a really informative interview.
As an EHM (Economic Hit Man), Perkins’s job was to convince Third World countries to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development—loans that were much larger than needed—and to guarantee that the development projects were contracted to U.S. corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel.
Once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the U.S. government and the international aid agencies allied with it were able to control these economies and to ensure that oil and other resources were channeled to serve the interests of building a global empire.
Perkins is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and the new book, Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded–and What We Need to Do to Remake Them.
Also check out Perkins’ website (http://www.johnperkins.org/) and add him on Twitter (http://twitter.com/economic_hitman).
He joins Citizen Radio for the full hour to discuss his job as an EHM, US-led assassinations, his accurate predictions that Iceland’s economy would collapse, the dangers of hyper-Capitalism and global Corporatism (including how America’s domestic banks, the IMF, and The World Bank enslave people with debt,) and the EHMs’ treatment of Iran, Bolivia, and Venezuela.
Bill Maher is the least funny man on television. His show should be canceled.
He is seriously blaming his audience, for costing him money? He should be grateful that anybody would even want to download that piece of crap. I didn't see it. How does he still have a show? I've successfully avoided watching his crap show for nearly 20 years. I've seen it like 3 times and vowed to never view it again. He should be enormously grateful that he has been able to make a living at all considering his complete lack of talent. What's Ridiculous is the amount of money he's already been able to make from this tired shtick.
Recommend me some British comedies, new or old.
I'm running out of funny stuff to watch. please help . I have Netflix or I can watch on Hulu or another online service if it's available in the US.
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