Overruling SCOTUS

Grabbing the baton from Hyperlocavore http://hyperlocavore.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/over-ruling-scotus/

The ever erudite Frank Schaeffer has a few good ideas on what We the People can to do take on the corporacrats in the age of Citizens United

There’s only one real answer (legislative parsing aside) to the Supreme Court’s attack on democracy by its ruling that big business can spend its billions to support or oppose candidates.

You’re looking at it right here. Trust me, we have the power– it’s called corporate fear of losing money, time and privacy.

I’m a blogger and writer. There are thousands like me. Together we have the power to keep corporate America from destroying our democracy. We can unleash the righteous anger of the population in a way that will make the “Tea Parties” look like a Sunday school picnic!

Here’s how–
Let us bloggers, writers and activists – of all political positions — promise corporate America that the first corporations to make use of this Supreme Court ruling will pay a price so steep that no one else will ever want to try it again.

Here’s what I propose:

Let all bloggers who agree that democracy is at risk because of this decision unite here today to preemptively declare that any corporation that takes advantage of the Court ruling will:

• Have its directors, named and outed– inclusive of office addresses of the person posted widely and repeatedly with calls to picket them 24/7
• It’s executives named and outed– inclusive of office addresses of the person posted widely and repeatedly with calls to picket them 24/7
• It’s major stock holders named and outed– inclusive of office addresses of the person posted widely and repeatedly with calls to picket them 24/7
• That there will be agitation for the corporate headquarters to picketed
• That the PR firm, add agency and creative people who work on any such add campaign (and media firm, TV and/or radio station’s executives that sell them the time) be outed — inclusive of office addresses of the person posted widely and repeatedly with calls to picket them 24/7

…And that all this will be done by all bloggers to the best of their investigative abilities… and we promise to do this regardless of the content of the add and even if in some individual instance we agree with the candidate (or cause) being helped.

Yes, this is a threat and a promise, actually a sacred vow to sustain our democracy.

Let the first corporation to try stripping the rest of us actual individual citizens of our free speech — by overwhelming us with their money at the behest of the election-stealing Court — become a cautionary tale that will not soon be forgotten.

Do you agree?

Will you promise to make this happen?

Then say so! Sign this statement, post it on your blog and pass it on

Signed, posted, and will pass it on!

NOAA Climate Services Website Launch #350 #climate

For those of you who missed the very very quiet launch of NOAA’s Climate Services website at http://www.climate.gov, a site intended for use by the general public.

Everyone should go take a look, it’s well done. I have high hopes for its future!

Explore NOAA Climate Services
Climate Watch Magazine Articles | Images | Videos Data and Services Past & Present Climate | Predictions | NOAA Partners | Climate & You | Data Library		Understanding Climate Assessment Reports | Presentation Library | Fact Sheets | Calendar of Events Education Teaching Resources | Professional Development | Multimedia

via climate.gov

Take a little field trip, bring your friends

Posted via web from TweetingDonal’s Temporary Insanities

URGENT ! HELP NEEDED on PINE RIDGE Reservation !!!!!!!!! Come on People !!! I know Haiti is a big

Qorianka Kilcher

On Monday 1st February 2010, @Qorianka said:

URGENT ! HELP NEEDED on PINE RIDGE Reservation !!!!!!!!!

Come on People !!! I know Haiti is a big mess and I personally have done several PSA and fundraisers for Haiti…. because they do need our help…. but Despite the emergency in Haiti , there are many other IMPORTANT issues which are being neglected and forgotten by all the media coverage and by volunteers and people willing to donate.
people !!!!…….. A State of Emergency has been declared on the Pine Ridge Lakota “Sioux”Indian Reservation.
People have died. Many more people are at risk of
freezing to death. Another cold front is coming in, yet where is the
national media coverage?
Kids and Elders are getting their Electricity turned off by the electric company and gas companies are not delivering heating propane to those who are hit by the bad economy and cant afford the bill.

Does the ‘Lacreek Electric Company’ – a non-Indian utility often thought
to be prejudiced, care that people are suffering, since they are pulling
meters every day? (which is illegal throughout the rest of the u.s.
during the winter months).

What will Obama and the federal government do about this? While they dig
out Haitians, indigenous people right here may freeze to death. What are we going to do about it?

Help put this message out for help. The children and families of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation need our help now. It is urgent that all 40,000 residents of the Oglala Nation have electricity and propane.

Call LaCreek toll free at 800-655-9324 or (605)685-6581 to see how you can
help pay into a customer’s account, example $5 into ten customers would
require a $50 donation by you. Tell LaCreek to make sure tanks are full
for ALL area residents between the months of November to March – and to
collect any delinquent payments between April and October.

Also, check out this non-profit to see if it is appropriate for you:
Arlene Catches The Enemy 605-867-5771 Ext 13.
Tax Deductable, Non-Profit (501-c-3). She can take credit cards over the
phone: Pine Ridge Emergency Fund, C/O Economic Development Administration
PO Box 669, Pine Ridge, SD 57770-0669

And call Lakota Plains Propane at 605-867-5199 and find out what homes have elderly or children and if they need money put down on their account to be
able to have a warm home tonight.

******************

List to assist Elders at Pine RidgeShare

Below are several Elders in the Kyle Community of Pine Ridge that are in immediate need of assistance. The contact information has been confirmed and permission has been granted to share their information with you.

There are several ways I will mention where assistance is needed and I’ll share here before I begin the information for where you can assist in paying for Propane for those who need it or to contact a local grocery store to pay for food for families who need this. Other ways of assisting the individual families will be listed with their contact information below.

To pay for propane for any individuals listed below use the information here and be sure to make your payment to the account of the individual(s) you choose to help. The propane company requires a minimum order of $120 of fuel before they will make a delivery to the individual. You can also pay for a persons propane and they will credit the individuals account so that when they do run out of any fuel they may have at the moment they can simply call and the company will deliver more.

Lakota Plains Propane (will take credit card)
Highway 407
Pine Ridge, SD 57770
605-867-5199
Be sure to request a receipt and use the contact for the person you are helping to call and followup to be certain they received the help you paid for.

Kyle Grocery (will take credit card)
Owner: Liz May
605-455-2824
Again be sure to follow up with the person you make a donation for to be sure they received the appropriate credit for purchasing food.

Elders in need are as follows:

Adolph Bull Bear
605-454-2190
He remains in need of continued assistance for propane, his son who is disabled lives with him and he is in need of food assistance which you can contact Kyle grocery (above) to make a donation for food. He will also need help with his electric bill.

Arlene Talks (age 72)
605-407-8243
She has a daughter and a granddaughter (age 7) who lives with her and is in need of propane and food assistance and you can contact the propane and grocery above to assist. You could also contact her for mailing address to send items for her granddaughter such as clothes, etc.

Janice One Feather (age 61)
605-455-2889
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 44, Kyle SD 57752
For Propane Delivery give House # 307
She has two grandsons living with her. Asa Steele age 7 and Dillon Westover age 9. You can mail donations for the two boys to the mailing address above for her and if you mail by fedex, UPS, etc use the house #307 Kyle SD 57752. She is in desperate need of food assistance and propane and you can use the info for propane and grocery companies above to pay for those items.

Donna Garnette
605-455-2527
605-441-7541
She has two grandchildren (Boy and girl), you can contact her for an address to offer assistance in clothes, etc for the children. She is in need of Propane and food assistance and you can use the info above for both companies to assist them with that.

Lilly Mae Red Eagle (age 88)
605-455-2612
Mailing address: P.O. Box 2, Kyle SD 57752
For propane delivery give House #HC2
She is in need of Propane and food assistance. You can use the info above for both companies to assist them with that. For deliveries by fedex, ups, etc use the house #HC2 Kyle SD 57752

Perlene Yellow Wolf (age 65 approx)
605-455-1458
She is in need of propane and food assistance. She lives with her daughter Crystal and three children. You can use the info above for both companies to assist them with that. They have a lot of problems with pipes freezing so if anyone in the immediate area could help with this that would be greatly appreciated.

May you be richly blessed for sharing your blessings with these elders and ensuring some relief to their suffering. Please help now as the need is immediate but please remember to help again in the future if you are able to as their needs are continual. Thank you in advance for sharing your love and helping these elders.

Short: http://tl.gd/6hav1 | Posted from Twitlonger

Twitlonger is in no way affiliated with Twitter, but we really love those guys.
Site developed by Stuart Gibson. Design by Paddy Duke.

via twitlonger.com

Time to pay attention to something a bit closer.

Posted via web from TweetingDonal’s Temporary Insanities

As Weed Resistance Grows, GM Herbicide-Tolerant Crops Fast Becoming Useless // Current

via current.com

It’s fascinating to see how the last 50 years of history have had no impact on a profit making strategy, even when it threatens the industry that’s supposed to make all the profits.

Much like we’ve found with overuse of antibiotics, we are getting graphic demonstrations of what happens when you over use herbicides.

“Weeds in GM cotton fields in the US have developed resistance to the herbicide glyphosate to such an extent that this could threaten the sustainable use of glyphosate-resistant crop technology, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal…”

Go check out the whole article.

Posted via web from TweetingDonal’s Temporary Insanities

The Super Green List: Connecting Human and Ocean Health | Seafood Watch | Monterey Bay Aquarium

Good for You, Good for the Oceans

Combining the work of conservation and public health organizations, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has identified seafood that is “Super Green,” meaning that it is good for human health and does not harm the oceans. The Super Green list highlights products that are currently on the Seafood Watch “Best Choices” (green) list, are low in environmental contaminants and are good sources of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids.

This effort draws from experts in human health, notably scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The Monterey Bay Aquarium will continue to work with these organizations to balance the health and environmental attributes of seafood.

The Super Green list includes seafood that meets the following three criteria:

• Low levels of contaminants (below 216 parts per billion [ppb] mercury and 11 ppb PCBs)
• The daily minimum of omega-3s (at least 250 milligrams per day [mg/d])*
• Classified as a Seafood Watch “Best Choice” (green)

via montereybayaquarium.org

Take a look at this web page to get the full scoop! The lists include “Best Choices” that are healthy and sustainable. You can also find a searchable database, and downloadable applications for your iPhone at http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_recommendations.aspxwhich is an associated page from the same site.

Posted via web from TweetingDonal’s Temporary Insanities

Green Jobs – Green Jobs Info & Resources #eco #jobs #green

Posted on 03. Feb, 2009 by jeff in Green Jobs

Use Your Skills for the Greater Green

There is at least one major sector of the American job market that is growing fast right now – despite the recession – and that’s green jobs. According the American Solar Energy Society’s 2007 green jobs report, [download here ] “green industries already generate 8.5 million jobs in the U.S., and with appropriate public policy, could grow to as many as 40 million jobs by 2030.” A recent New York Times article noted that “56,000 newly trained workers and 14,000 project managers would be needed to realize [President] Obama’s one-year goals for energy efficiency alone.”

Green jobs and careers are those that fall under industries that are in the process of “greening” America, or in other words, making this country more environmentally friendly and sustainable. They include everything from energy conservation and alternative energy to natural resource management to green construction. The following diagram presents many of the career pathways that you might pursue through Veterans Green Jobs.

 

Veterans Green Jobs believe that green careers lead not only to job security and prosperity for our nations veterans, but that work which strengthens and heals our planet, economy and communities is inherently meaningful, especially for those citizens who have already expressed a willingness and leadership capacity in serving this country.

Please visit our site frequently, as we will be adding lots of information on green jobs and careers on an ongoing basis. In the meantime, here are some additional resources on green jobs (sometimes referred to as green-collar jobs).

Green Jobs Resources

Green for All
An overview of green-collar jobs

Green Mechanical Council
A consortium of green-minded professionals, businesses and unions

Green-Collar Vets
Linking veterans with green skills development, education and employment

Greenjobs.com Green Jobs Board

via veteransgreenjobs.org

Please pass this along, especially to any veterans you know… they may not need this resource, but they may know someone who does.

Pass it on!

Posted via web from TweetingDonal’s Temporary Insanities

Is Genetically Modified Corn Toxic? : Discovery News #Food

In the United States, we grow and eat corn whose genes have been tweaked to make the plants more resistant to pests and pesticides. Most European countries don’t, largely because the citizenry fears it isn’t safe. But try as scientists might, they haven’t been able to find any good reason why we shouldn’t eat genetically modified (GM) food.

Until now. Maybe. A new analysis of data released by Monsanto pried from Monsanto’s lawyers’ cold dead hands by a tag-team of legal experts at Greenpeace and other groups suggests there may be something to the idea that we shouldn’t be eating maize that’s had its DNA messed with.

The study found that three strains of modded crops — MON 810 and MON 863, which are resistant to pests, and NK 603, which is foritified to withstand weed killer — significantly disrupted the blood chemistry of rats who ate them. According to an article in …

See the original article for details!

But as is often the case in these type of reports, the conclusions aren’t terribly convincing. For one, the effects are barely statistically significant, and the article goes on to say that independent toxicologists who saw the paper said Seralini was reading too much into the results.

So we’re left with ambiguity. Terrific.

There’s just one thing I want to know: why do activist groups have to team up to force Monsanto to release tests showing whether or not GM food is toxic? Shouldn’t food have to be demonstrably NON-poisonous before anyone is allow to start feeding it to people??

Source: New Scientist

Image: Texas A&M University

via news.discovery.com

Yep, gotta wonder what Monsanto doesn’t want us to know…

Posted via web from TweetingDonal’s Temporary Insanities

If you ever had any doubt about who owns your butt, well, this should destroy any illusions: The Fix – Supreme Court overturns corporate campaign spending ban

Supreme Court overturns corporate campaign spending ban

It’s hard to overestimate the impact that the Supreme Court’s reversal of a two-decade-old ban on corporate independent expenditures in campaigns will have on the political landscape in 2010 and beyond.

The ruling, long anticipated and issued this morning, will allow corporations as well as labor unions to spend freely on television ads — and other forms of direct advocacy — for or against a candidate’s election. The Court also overturned a prohibition on corporations and labor unions running so-called “issue” ads — commercials that do not expressly advocate for the election or defeat of a candidate — in the final weeks of a campaign.

“This is a sweeping decision, period,” said Marc Elias, a Democratic election lawyer. “In one opinion the Court struck down all limits on independent expenditures directly from corporations.”

via voices.washingtonpost.com

The appointing of so many conservatives to the bench is definitely having it’s impact. Thanks Amerika, for the Reagan, Bush, Bush years… what a disappointment.

Posted via web from TweetingDonal’s Temporary Insanities

Cruise ship docks at private beach in Haiti for barbeque and water sports via Boing Boing

Cruise ship docks at private beach in Haiti for barbeque and water sports

The Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines’ ship Independence of the Seas went ahead with its scheduled stop at a fenced-in private Haitian beach surrounded by armed guards, leaving its passengers to “cut loose” on the beach, just a few kilometers from one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the region’s history. The ship’s owners justified it as a humanitarian call, because the ship also delivered 40 palettes of relief supplies while its passengers frolicked on zip-lines and ate barbeque within the 12-foot-high fence’s perimeter:

The Florida cruise company leases a picturesque wooded peninsula and its five pristine beaches from the government for passengers to “cut loose” with watersports, barbecues, and shopping for trinkets at a craft market before returning on board before dusk. Safety is guaranteed by armed guards at the gate.

The decision to go ahead with the visit has divided passengers. The ships carry some food aid, and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to help stricken Haitians. But many passengers will stay aboard when they dock; one said he was “sickened”.

“I just can’t see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water,” one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.

“It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving,” said another. “I can’t imagine having to choke down a burger there now.”

via boingboing.net

No words… no words…

Posted via web from TweetingDonal’s Temporary Insanities

Errors and lies thrive in cold weather – opinion – 14 January 2010 – New Scientist

Take a look at Michael Le Page’s opinion piece on the “It’s cold, so there must not be global warming” crock. Good links and reasonable thoughts… although the “reasonable” label doesn’t necessarily apply to the Comments section below the piece.

 

---

 

Errors and lies thrive in cold weather

• 14 January 2010 by Michael Le Page

 

Global warming is still happening (Image: Ruaridh Connellan/Barcroft Media/Getty Images)

via newscientist.com

HERE’S the question to put to all those who confidently declare that the recent severe winter conditions prove that global warming is nonsense: “Next time there’s a heatwave in summer or an unusually mild spell in winter, will you publicly accept that the ‘warmists’ were right all along? If not, why not? If a cold snap means the climate is getting colder, surely a spell of hot weather proves it is getting warmer?”

The point, of course, is that a bout of extreme weather does not prove anything about climate change. Climate is the average weather over decades.

That said, it is perfectly reasonable to ask why, if the world is warming, have so many places in the northern hemisphere been experiencing record lows? The answer is that for the past few decades cold Arctic air has mostly stayed in the Arctic over winter, trapped by strong winds spinning around the pole. This winter the vortex has weakened and in many places cold air is spilling further south than usual.

The result has been freezing weather for places as far afield as Florida, China and the UK. However, the Arctic, Greenland, much of the Mediterranean and southern Asia have been warmer than usual. So overall the northern hemisphere winter may be no colder than in previous years, it’s just that the heat is distributed differently. Indeed, the average surface temperature of the entire planet during January may yet turn out to be one of the warmest on record.  

See the rest on the NewScientist Opinion page linked below.

Posted via web from TweetingDonal’s Temporary Insanities