Yes, there are two Americas’ Virginia, they exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. One tolerant and broadminded, the other intolerant and narrow-minded!
Sincerely, thinkingblue, from the TOLERANT AND BROADMINDED USA
PS: Joe (You Lie) Wilson, et al reside in the other America!
Rachel Maddow On the History of Republican Race Baiting
Be Scared, Be Very Very Scared.
Yesterday I blogged about the right-wing character assassination whack job on Shirley Sherrod. The hateful conservative blogger Andrew Breitbark's feeble attempts to bring down yet another person whose only sin was being connected with the NAACP. Breitbark, is out to destroy this hundred year old institution. Why you might ask? Because we have a black president, it's that simple and they can't stand it.
The bigotry, hate and bitterness within the Republican Party is so thick you can (as the old saying goes...) CUT IT WITH A KNIFE! But that's not the only reason they have a bug up their derriere. The other reason is a lust for power and race baiting seems to work EVER SO WELL for them. So the red elephants are on the Internet or Fox (YOU CALL THAT NEWS) keep on keeping on using RACE BAITING! Please watch the Rachel Maddow Show of July 21, 2010 to see how far back the Republicans have used this form of noxious maneuvering to lie, steal, cheat or claw their way into power. thinkingblue
Race baiting is any form of speech, actions, or other forms of communication, to anger, intimidate or incite a person or race of people, to behave in ways that are inimical, and often harmful, to their personal or group interests. Race baiting is a means of implying that racism is a motive in the actions of others towards the race being baited, where none in fact exists. The term "race" in this context can be construed very broadly to include a collection of whatever aesthetic features define a race or ethnicity.
Thus the use of any language or actions perceived to be for the purpose of exploiting weaknesses in persons who can be identified as members of certain groups, or to reinforce a group's perceived victimhood, can be contained within the concept of "race baiting". Many people who practice race baiting often believe in racism, or have an interest in making the group believe that racism is what motivates the actions of others.
Examples Race baiting in political campaigns
In the close 2006 US Senate race in Tennessee, the Republican National Committee ran a television ad that depicted a white woman flirting with black Democratic candidate, Harold Ford. The ad was denounced by many, including many Republicans, as “a powerful innuendo that plays to pre-existing prejudices about African-American men and white women."
THE VOICE OF REASON
RACHEL MADDOW DOES IT AGAIN
Rachel Maddow: Fox News To White People: Be Very Afraid! Black People Are Coming To Get You! Part 1
Rachel Maddow: Fox News To White People: Be Very Afraid! Black People Are Coming To Get
Please sign this very important petition "demand question time" (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top... The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind "NO" any longer! thinkingblue
Rachel Maddow Again Tries To Make Sense Out Of Nonsense In The Shirley Sherrod {Character} Assassination Attempt By A Right-Wing Blogger. (video below)
I am so thoroughly disgusted with the latest BULLY attack on an organization or in this case a person who spends their life trying to help others. The same blitzkrieg this big piece of BM, Andrew Breitbart perpetrated upon ACORN last year.
ACORN The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was a collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocated for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues. ACORN had over 400,000 members and more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S., as well as in Argentina, Canada, Mexico, and Peru. ACORN was founded in 1970 by Wade Rathke and Gary Delgado. Maude Hurd has been National President since 1990; Bertha Lewis was appointed CEO in 2008.
ACORN's priorities have included: better housing and wages for the poor, more community development investment from banks and governments, better public schools, and other social justice issues. ACORN pursued these goals through demonstration, negotiation, lobbying for legislation, and voter participation. ACORN comprised a number of legally distinct non-profit entities including a nationwide umbrella organization established as a 501 that performed lobbying; local chapters established as 501 nonpartisan charities; and the ACORN Housing Corporation. These entities supported labor-oriented causes.
During the 2006 mid-term elections, political controversy emerged over voter registration fraud by four ACORN employees. In 2009, selectively edited videos were released by two conservative activists using a hidden camera to elicit damaging responses from low-level ACORN employees that appeared to advise them how to hide prostitution activities and avoid taxes. This created a nationwide controversy resulting in a loss of funding from government and private donors.
By March 2010, 15 of ACORN's 30 state chapters had closed and at least two others had severed ties with ACORN. On March 22, 2010, ACORN announced it was closing its remaining affiliated state chapters and disbanding due to falling revenue.
Below is an explanation of why this inhuman being who goes by the human name of Andrew Breitbart went after ACORN in the first place. As the typical benumbed conservative who worships money and power above all else, he can't stand anyone or anything going after the cutthroats in business who prey upon the weak.
Predatory lending and affordable housing
ACORN investigates complaints against companies accused of predatory lending practices. ACORN also works to support strict state laws against predatory practices, organizes against foreclosure rescue scams, and steers borrowers toward loan counseling; Following a three-year campaign, Household International (now owned by HSBC Holdings and renamed HSBC Finance Corporation), one of the largest subprime lenders in the country, and ACORN announced on November 25, 2003 a proposed settlement of a 2002 national class-action lawsuit brought by ACORN. The settlement created a $72 million foreclosure avoidance program to provide relief to household borrowers who are at risk of losing their homes. The settlement came on the heels of an earlier $484 million settlement between Household, Attorneys General, and bank regulators from all 50 US states.
ACORN and its affiliates advocate for affordable housing by urging the development, rehabilitation and establishment of housing trust funds at the local, state, and federal levels. The group also pushes for enforcement of affordable-housing requirements for developers and promotes programs to help homeowners repair their homes and organize tenant demands.
An ACORN official voiced support for a proposal Hillary Clinton made during the presidential primary election to create a federal fund for distressed homeownersREAD MORE
Despite a massive Web presence and a successful ACORN attack, Andrew Breitbart is little more than a faux-outraged showman.
By Jake Blumgart May 6, 2010 (August J. Pollak)
The Obama era has been kind to crazed conservative commentators—perhaps too kind for their own good. In a market saturated with loudmouth reactionary malcontents it can be tough for a would-be Internet provocateur/entrepreneur to really break away from the pack. To distinguish himself, ultra-right opinion-maker Andrew Breitbart’s favored tactics include picking fights with practically everyone, gaming the media with wily, web-based tactics, and snorting the odd line of red wine powder (“it’s very dry”).
Yet despite all his shenanigans, Breitbart is largely just another iteration of the old angry-white-guy-unashamed-of-it trope. Breitbart’s tired but persistent rants against progressive politicians are almost entirely banal—“We have now entered the first full-fledged Alinsky presidency”—even where they are viciously overblown: “The Democratic party has been exposed as trying to create a Kristallnacht to save the Obama presidency.” You can get almost the exact same shtick from Glenn Beck—but with a blackboard.
Breitbart’s medium, not his message, is the best way to distinguish him from the swarm of cranky, white, middle-aged pundits dominating the conservative movement these days. Although he appears regularly on Fox News, and periodically in print outlets like the Washington Times, the Internet is Breitbart’s primary base of operations.
The origins of Breitbart’s Web-related prowess lie in The Drudge Report, the conservative’s hallowed digital mainstay. In the mid-1990s, when Matt Drudge launched his aggregation website, Breitbart was aimlessly drifting after a lackluster stint at Tulane University. When he saw Drudge’s nascent project begin to take shape, he quickly signed up, eventually taking on about half the workload.
The hectic schedule and conspiratorial tilt of the website fit perfectly with Breitbart’s helter-skelter personality. "I have a very good memory. I'm also good at connecting things together,” he says in a recent profile. “That allowed me to make outrageous cockamamie narratives. To be able to apply that to the newsworld.” READ MORE HERE
GOOD NEWS BELOW: thinkingblue
Andrew Breitbart defamed Shirley Sherrod; Brietbart could be in trouble
Taking a Comic Con break to look at what else is happening; Google Trends reveals the ugly story of what happened to previously unknown Shirley Sherrod.
Conservative hit-blogger Andrew Breitbart's known for his extreme approaches in attacking liberals, but what he did to Shirley Sherrod, a goverment worker who gave a speech to the NAACP this year and regarding a matter that happened 24 years ago, was that he apparently made a new video to claim she was racist, and went way too far.
While he says he intended to harm the NAACP, he picked Shirley Sherrod to do it. She did not ask for this. Breitbart altered a video to twist her words.
Andrew Breitbart may be a target for the U.S. Department of Justice' Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section ("CCIPS") which is in the Criminal Division. The website, which was forwarded to this blogger by the DOJ on another issue, covers various types of crimes that involve a computer.
If Breitbart altered the video of Shirley Sherrod to make it look like she was making a statement he then called racist, he's certainly guilty of defamation of character against Shirley Sherrod.
Breitbart may also be guilty of Internet harassment. He certainly should be made a high-profile example to discourage others from these uses of the computer and The Internet to harass a person. Enough is enough.
Please watch Rachel Maddow do her usual magic trying to make sense out of nonsense. We can always count on Rachel to expose the HATE AND RANKER within the GOP/TEAPARTY (and whatever else they call themselves) movement. thinkingblue
Please sign this very important petition "demand question time" (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top... The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind "NO" any longer! thinkingblue
Yesterday on Thom Hartmann, I saw a hypnotizing phone interview with R.D. Wolff author of Capitalism Hits Fan. Information was unveiled about things I had not fully realized. For instance:
In the 70's, when wages began to stagnate and American workers were forced into a dysfunctional spiral of borrowing and debt that ultimately exploded in the mortgage meltdown. Click This Link http://www.rdwolff.com/content/capitalism-hits-fan-movie
Although, lucky for me, I escaped the inevitable mortgage meltdown but all the other negatives that had been happening to the American Worker, myself and my family felt. The debt trap, 2 incomes and still unable to make ends meet, the rising cost of health insurance, the elimination of safety nets, the list goes on and on. We the middle-class have been pinched and pulled in every direction by the wealthy one percent power that had (and still has) taken hold of our capitalistic system. It’s been too long hidden from the collective psyche of the We who represent the middle and the bottom on the economic ladder. Thanks to people like Professor Richard Wolff, these clandestine maneuverings of the American Soul has been brought out of its darkness and exposed to light. One should never forget that knowledge is power and wisdom is strength. I hope we will be able to start a reversal in the way we were led (brainwashed) to THINK. I hope there is still time and the generations of We still to come will have a chance at the GOOD OLE AMERICAN DREAM. But forgive me, I am doubtful. thinkingblue
PS: On this subject:
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is advising the White House NOT to put Elizabeth Warren in charge of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- a watchdog agency she invented and is most qualified to lead. Can you sign our urgent petition to the President?
PETITION TO PRESIDENT OBAMA:
Elizabeth Warren has proven that she is willing to stand up to Wall Street on behalf of consumers and is the logical choice to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Tim Geithner is a longtime Wall Street insider, and if he's recommending against Elizabeth Warren that's all the more reason to appoint her.
Please sign this very important petition "demand question time" (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top... The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind "NO" any longer! thinkingblue
Please sign this very important petition "demand question time" (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top... The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind "NO" any longer! thinkingblue
I've noticed CNN moving toward the views of the Tea Party and Limbaugh's Ditto Heads... Maybe, that's why I seldom watch it anymore. Come on CNN, if you want more viewers try taking them away from MSNBC and not FOX (you call that news?). What do you have against a THINKING audience anyway? thinkingblue
You too, can tell CNN off by signing the petition below...
--- Since Saturday, more than 45,000 ColorOfChange.org members have called on CNN to stop helping FOX launch its latest race-baiting smear campaign.If enough of us speak out, we can stop FOX's distortions from spreading. Can you help us reach the 50,000 mark by signing the letter to CNN and asking your friends to do the same?...You can sign the letter here -- it takes just a moment:
FOX has consistently stoked the fears of some White Americans that President Obama might favor Blacks over Whites -- an irresponsible and dangerous game. But it's even more dangerouswhen other news networks amplify and validate what they're doing. This is FOX's plan, and it's important to note that just before the story got covered on CNN, FOX spent the previous day accusing the other news organizations of not covering the story. They set the bait and CNN took it.
It's the same pattern that was used to put ACORN out of business. FOX ran a smear-campaign with partial or fabricated information and then got other news outlets to follow and run with the same story without digging deeper. Once the truth came out, it was too late.
We expect FOX to lie and distort. But for CNN and others to fall into the trap of repeating FOX's claims is a different story. Now, in hopes of preventing similar situations in the future, we must fight back. Join us in calling on CNN to do real reporting, and not mainstream FOX's distortions and lies. And when you do, please ask your family and friends to do the same. It only takes a moment:
"demand question time" (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top... The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind "NO" any longer! thinkingblue
It is hard to believe the blatant, out N' out criminal activities that went on during the Bush/Cheney years, under the eyes of the law and without consequences. Illegal wars, spying on the people without their knowledge, torture, UNCONSTITUTIONAL LOOPHOLES. (Read This) Are we really free? This doesn't sound like freedom to me. If it weren't for the freedom of the press that produce media iconoclasts like Jon Stewart, our so called freedom would be in name only. I'm to the point that I don't trust any politician. When I see one of them speaking on TV, I turn off the sound and believe me, you could not tell if Mr. or Ms. Politician was an "R" or a "D"... their mannerisms are so similar. Just a bunch of greedy individuals all worried about their own rice bowls. They're supposed to represent us but they do anything but represent us. The only representing they do is for self interest. So again, if it weren't for people like Jon Stewart, Thom Hartmann, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and the like, we might as well be living in the closed society of Iran for all the truths we would be able to learn. thinkingblue
PS: Please watch The Jon Stewart Show clip below and read The New York Time Opinion Article and learn, learn, learn.
A Mark Twain Quote: "Sir, I have been through it from Alpha to Omaha, and I tell you that the less a man knows the bigger the noise he makes and the higher the salary he commands." "How I Edited an Agricultural Paper," 1870
A version of this article appeared in print on November 3, 2009, on page A28 of the New York edition.Published: November 2, 2009
Among the many dubious provisions in the 2005 energy bill was one dubbed the Halliburton loophole, which was inserted at the behest of — you guessed it — then-Vice President Dick Cheney, a former chief executive of Halliburton.
It stripped the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate a drilling process called hydraulic fracturing. Invented by Halliburton in the 1940s, it involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals, some of them toxic, into underground rock formations to blast them open and release natural gas.
Hydraulic fracturing has been implicated in a growing number of water pollution cases across the country. It has become especially controversial in New York, where regulators are eager to clear the way for drilling in the New York City watershed, potentially imperiling the city’s water supply. Thankfully, the main company involved has now decided not to go ahead.
The safety of the nation’s water supply should not have to rely on luck or the public relations talents of the oil and gas industry. Thanks in part to two New Yorkers — Representative Maurice Hinchey and Senator Charles Schumer — Congress last week approved a bill that asks the E.P.A. to conduct a new study on the risks of hydraulic fracturing. An agency study in 2004 whitewashed the industry and was dismissed by experts as superficial and politically motivated. This time Congress is demanding “a transparent, peer-reviewed process.”
An even more important bill is waiting in the wings. Cumbersomely named the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, it would close the loophole and restore the E.P.A.’s rightful authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing. It would also require the oil and gas industry to disclose the chemicals they use.
The industry argues that the chemicals are proprietary secrets and that disclosing them would hurt their competitiveness. It also argues that the process is basically safe and that regulating it would deter domestic production. But if hydraulic fracturing is as safe as the industry says it is, why should it fear regulation?
Please sign this very important petition "demand question time" (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top... The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind "NO" any longer! thinkingblue
I know - petitions are a pain -- but before you give up on them, sign this one. Please, pretty please -- for our future which hangs in the balance. Remember: Big Oil is not our friend. Ditto for banks, doctors, insurance companies, brokers, etc. ad nauseum. Maddi
My Reply: Thanks Maddi, I signed the petition and will send it around. I hope it works, even if just a smidgen... It seems the more money you possess the more help you get if you gamble it all away. Makes no sense but who are we to question? It's always been that way and it always will remain that way... Pardon me for sounding so cynical... It seems, Pessimism and Skepticism is all they (Big Oil, Big Banksters, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Big Government {but only for the rich} Big Medicine...ad nauseum) have left us with. thinkingblue
Stop Big Oil Bailouts www.stopbigoilbailouts.comI can't believe our government just gave Big Oil (includes BP) $35 billion in tax breaks! Sign this growing petition to help get them repealed.
America's richest oil companies are shaking you down.
While reaping the largest corporate profits in history, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron and other Big Oil companies have shaken more than $35 billion in special subsidies and tax breaks out of the U.S. taxpayer. Then, when Big Oil dumps millions of gallons of oil into our oceans and waterways, they leave us with the cleanup bill.
BP and other Big Oil companies have been getting government hand-outs that fleece billions from taxpayers every year. ExxonMobil, the most profitable corporation in American history, avoided paying ANY income taxes to the Federal Government last year and then pocketed an additional $46 million from the IRS.
Surprised? We were.
Enough is enough. It's time to end federal subsidies and tax breaks to BP and other Big Oil companies. Instead of subsidizing the most profitable dirty fuel companies on the planet, we could be supporting new startups that specialize in clean and green energy. We can break our addiction to oil, create green jobs and make sure disasters like the one in the Gulf of Mexico never happen again.
But we need your support to make sure our leaders follow through.
Sign now to tell Congress and candidates for office nationwide to stop the shakedown, and stop taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil and all the other Dirty Fuels.
Please sign this very important petition "demand question time" (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top... The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind "NO" any longer! thinkingblue
WHY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CANNOT GET OFF FOREIGN OIL DEPENDENCY!
It's Sunday July 11, 2010, my usual Internet visit for this day took me to a clip of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
What a trip. Jon known for his sarcasm and wit did a show that had all the discernment that Jon usually delivers, with one extra tidbit... A sad reality of what the leadership in our country (past and present) really is... A JOKE! Eight presidents going back to Nixon (1969), all delivering the same old worn-out speech to We The People Of The USA, dire warnings that we must, (MUST) get off our dependency of foreign oil. Over 40 years of rhetoric, empty wordiness, barren, blatant sounds of robust bullshit. They all read the speeches written for them by college educated writers and that's exactly where it ended, words typed on a piece of paper. Watching the skillful editing of this show was indeed sad. Today with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and all the adversity this spill is bringing and will continue to bring us for decades (if not longer) is depressing beyond belief. Any one of those leaders could have changed this scenario but decided instead to KICK THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD; the everlasting road that has finally come to an end today. thinkingblue
Please sign this very important petition "demand question time" (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top... The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind "NO" any longer! thinkingblue
I cannot believe that there is a strong effort out there in 'La La Land' to condone corporate racism. We humans should be advancing our enlightened collective minds not sending it back to the dark ages.
What is wrong with some people?
Imagine yourself a hard working, play by the rules person who happens to be of dark pigmentation. OK, now imagine you are driving on a highway and you realize you need to stop and use a restroom facility. You stop by a small gas station and go up to the proprietor and politely ask for the key, expecting civility back but instead you are received with a look of aversion. Even though, in your mind you know why this business owner is giving you a gander of distaste, you are a bit taken aback because you can't believe that in this day and age your skin color is being challenged. Here you are the same being as this fellow, just different ancestry and because of that this non-thinking little man is LEGALLY allowed to, without speaking a word shake his head "NO" and point to the road, as if to say... ‘You're not welcome here, hit the road bud.’ Well, that's the direction people like Rand Paul and John Stossel want us to go.
Down the beaten path, back to the insensitive times of…
The Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated De jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages. FROM THIS SITE:
Oh, folks like Paul and Stossel always calmly counter, ‘we are not advocating racism in Public places like The Jim Crow Laws, we only want Private Corporations to have the freedom to practice racism, if they so desire.’
Below is a video that epitomizes sound judgment and experience. I wish Rand Paul would or could hear/see it. If people would only open their minds and SEE, we could all achieve success by using what works best... COMMON SENSE. I am also embedding this on my website:www.thethinkingblue.com
TAKE ACTION HERE . . . By now you've heard that the GOP's U.S. Senate candidate for Kentucky repeated his claim that a central piece of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was wrong, and that businesses should be free to discriminate against whomever they please. Rand Paul didn't seem to care that without federal intervention, people of color might still be second-class citizens in most aspects of American life.
Thanks to our friends at the civil rights organization, Color of Change, we now know that FOX contributor and business anchor John Stossel went even further than Paul and called for the section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that applies to business to be repealed. And he's refused to back down, saying that:
"It's time now to repeal that part of the law because private businesses ought to get to discriminate. And I won't ever go to a place that's racist and I will tell everybody else not to and I'll speak against them. But it should be their right to be racist."
In Stossel's America, corporations have a constitutional right to enforce racial segregation. Not in our America!
This is a very dangerous moment. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons entitled to constitutional protections. Now Fox News Corp. is promoting the idea that the Supreme Court should protect "corporate persons" from the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Recent history has shown that the public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act is still needed. In 1994, it was used to hold Denny's Restaurants accountable, after the chain repeatedly refused to seat Black customers. Just last year, it was used to go after a Philadelphia pool that prevented Black children from swimming there.
We have to protect the gains of the 1960s era civil rights movement. We must prevent the absurd doctrine of corporate personhood from being used to strike down civil rights law. And we must expand our efforts to amend the Constitution to make clear -- once and for all -- that human beings, not corporations, are protected by the Bill of Rights.
Act now. Sign below to tell the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice to prepare a public memo on the threat of "corporate personhood" to the civil rights of real people:
Please sign this very important petition "demand question time" (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top... The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind "NO" any longer! thinkingblue
After viewing this documentary, I was mortified and ashamed of what our species is capable of. If you think this is a free country... THINK AGAIN! The Bush/Cheney administration did everything in their power to take away as many freedoms as possible so doors could be opened to allow THE CORPORATE "BEING" to have free reign on getting at any type of resource no matter who or what was in the way. I know it's hard to believe that they would go so far as to ruin our planet if only to make another buck. But with every dollar they get a nickel’s worth of power. The Power to Destroy. If you haven't seen Avatar I recommend you rent it. It is a chilling glimpse into the future of what can happen to Mother Earth when all her natural resources are depleted. Think it a fairytale? Another... THINK AGAIN! Watch the trailer of Gasland below and The Daily Show featuring the filmmaker of Gasland, Josh Fox. Stay enlightened, information may be the only weapon we have to help save our planet against The Corporate World who will kill every living creature upon it, if they areallowed. thinkingblue
The dirty truth behind the new natural gas. Related: A V.F. video look at a town transformed by fracking.
Early on a spring morning in the town of Damascus, in northeastern Pennsylvania, the fog on the Delaware River rises to form a mist that hangs above the tree-covered hills on either side. A buzzard swoops in from the northern hills to join a flock ensconced in an evergreen on the river’s southern bank.
Stretching some 400 miles, the Delaware is one of the cleanest free-flowing rivers in the United States, home to some of the best fly-fishing in the country. More than 15 million people, including residents of New York City and Philadelphia, get their water from its pristine watershed. To regard its unspoiled beauty on a spring morning, you might be led to believe that the river is safely off limits from the destructive effects of industrialization. Unfortunately, you’d be mistaken. The Delaware is now the most endangered river in the country, according to the conservation group American Rivers.
A V.F. video look at a town transformed by fracking.
That’s because large swaths of land—private and public—in the watershed have been leased to energy companies eager to drill for natural gas here using a controversial, poorly understood technique called hydraulic fracturing. “Fracking,” as it’s colloquially known, involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals, many of them toxic, into the earth at high pressures to break up rock formations and release natural gas trapped inside. Sixty miles west of Damascus, the town of Dimock, population 1,400, makes all too clear the dangers posed by hydraulic fracturing. You don’t need to drive around Dimock long to notice how the rolling hills and farmland of this Appalachian town are scarred by barren, square-shaped clearings, jagged, newly constructed roads with 18-wheelers driving up and down them, and colorful freight containers labeled “residual waste.” Although there is a moratorium on drilling new wells for the time being, you can still see the occasional active drill site, manned by figures in hazmat suits and surrounded by klieg lights, trailers, and pits of toxic wastewater, the derricks towering over barns, horses, and cows in their shadows.
The real shock that Dimock has undergone, however, is in the aquifer that residents rely on for their fresh water. Dimock is now known as the place where, over the past two years, people’s water started turning brown and making them sick, one woman’s water well spontaneously combusted, and horses and pets mysteriously began to lose their hair.
Craig and Julie Sautner moved to Dimock from a nearby town in March 2008. They were in the process of renovating their modest but beautifully situated home on tree-canopied Carter Road when land men from Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas, a midsize player in the energy-exploration industry, came knocking on their door to inquire about leasing the mineral rights to their three and a half acres of land. The Sautners say the land men told them that their neighbors had already signed leases and that the drilling would have no impact whatsoever on their land. (Others in Dimock claim they were told that if they refused to sign a lease, gas would be taken out from under their land anyway, since under Pennsylvania law a well drilled on a leased piece of property can capture gas from neighboring, unleased properties.) They signed the lease, for a onetime payout of $2,500 per acre—better than the $250 per acre a neighbor across the street received—plus royalties on each producing well.
Drilling operations near their property commenced in August 2008. Trees were cleared and the ground leveled to make room for a four-acre drilling site less than 1,000 feet away from their land. The Sautners could feel the earth beneath their home shake whenever the well was fracked.
Within a month, their water had turned brown. It was so corrosive that it scarred dishes in their dishwasher and stained their laundry. They complained to Cabot, which eventually installed a water-filtration system in the basement of their home. It seemed to solve the problem, but when the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection came to do further tests, it found that the Sautners’ water still contained high levels of methane. More ad hoc pumps and filtration systems were installed. While the Sautners did not drink the water at this point, they continued to use it for other purposes for a full year.
“It was so bad sometimes that my daughter would be in the shower in the morning, and she’d have to get out of the shower and lay on the floor” because of the dizzying effect the chemicals in the water had on her, recalls Craig Sautner, who has worked as a cable splicer for Frontier Communications his whole life. She didn’t speak up about it for a while, because she wondered whether she was imagining the problem. But she wasn’t the only one in the family suffering. “My son had sores up and down his legs from the water,” Craig says. Craig and Julie also experienced frequent headaches and dizziness.
By October 2009, the D.E.P. had taken all the water wells in the Sautners’ neighborhood offline. It acknowledged that a major contamination of the aquifer had occurred. In addition to methane, dangerously high levels of iron and aluminum were found in the Sautners’ water.
The Sautners now rely on water delivered to them every week by Cabot. The value of their land has been decimated. Their children no longer take showers at home. They desperately want to move but cannot afford to buy a new house on top of their current mortgage.
“Our land is worthless,” says Craig. “Who is going to buy this house?” MORE HERE
coinciding with the HBO release of his new documentary, Gasland. He talks with Jon Stewart about the film, which exposes the toxic chemicals being leeched into water supplies as a consequence of the new natural gas drilling method sweeping the nation, hydraulic fracturing. Some water supplies are so drastically affected by the chemicals that residents are actually able to light their tap water on fire.
Fox explains that we are currently in the biggest natural gas drilling boom in history to which Stewart sardonically replies, "Well, it's natural gas, so it's actually the healthy gas. They actually sell it in whole foods. It's so tasty, this gas."
Fox further talks about the natural gas drilling industry's deceptive tactics to buy the rights to drill on peoples' property and their PR effort to smear the information in his film. He describes the industry's exemption from certain regulations through the "Halliburton loophole", to which Stewart remarks, "That sounds like the worst sex position ever."
Please sign this very important petition "demand question time" (of ourpolitical leaders)HERE..
We really need more dialog from those at the top... The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind "NO" any longer! thinkingblue
Christopher Hitchens to Begin Cancer Treatment Christopher Hitchens possessed a mind that made you either love him or hate him. I do love his intelligence but his warmongering and embrace of the neo-conservative movement provoked me to also hate some of his thoughts. But love or hate he certainly is a force to be reckoned with. thinkingblue
At the front of his book (Hitch-22) he includes two excerpts from other writers:
W.H. Auden, “Death’s Echo”
The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews
Not to be born is the best for man
The second best is a formal order
The dance’s pattern, dance while you can.
Dance, dance, for the figure is easy
The tune is catching and will not stop
Dance till the stars come down with the rafters
Dance,dance, dance till you drop.
–W.H. Auden, “Death’s Echo”
Excerpt from Chapter I, "The Anaesthetic of Familiarity," of his 1998 book Unweaving the Rainbow (by Richard Dawkins)
To live at all is miracle enough. -- Mervyn Peake, The Glassblower (1950)
We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.
Please sign this very important petition "demand question time" (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top... The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind "NO" any longer! thinkingblue
Yes, there are two Americas’ Virginia, they exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. One tolerant and
free-thinking, the other intolerant and close-minded!
Sincerely, thinkingblue, from the TOLERANT AND FREE-THINKING USA
PS: Joe (You Lie) Wilson, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh et al reside in the intolerant America!
Taking a Comic Con break to look at what else is happening; Google Trends reveals the ugly story of what happened to previously unknown Shirley Sherrod.
The real shock that Dimock has
