Monday, January 30, 2012

Supernatural Writings

Headline reads: Jury finds Afghan family guilty in honor killings

EXCERPT: The prosecution presented wire taps and mobile phone records from the Shafia family in court to support their honor killing allegation. The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.

"There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this," Shafia said on one recording. "Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows ... nothing is more dear to me than my honor."

It’s hard to be hit with tears, first thing in the morning but this story is absolutely one of the most depressing tragedies of our times. A brainwashed family, consumed in superstition and misogyny, murder 3 young girls and another older female who is part of this polygamous unit because of some flimsy ‘honor’ by the male dominator of the household. In their delusional world of religious dogma there is no empathy, only the teachings from a couple of thousand years ago. No protection, no refuge for the children born into such homes. Even the word ‘home’ sounds depraved where such twisted disciplines exist. The saddest part of this nonfiction is… it still prevails in too many places on this planet today. Misogyny cloaked in religion is rampant all over the world. Will we, as human beings ever become discerning enough to realize that Supernatural Writings from thousands of years ago do not fit into today’s reality? Not as long as religion and its leaders hinder free thought, using the often subjective word ‘sin’ as a tool to control. So very Sad! thinkingblue

Jury finds Afghan family guilty in honor killings

KINGSTON, Ontarioon Sunday found three members of an Afghan family guilty of killing three teenage sisters and another woman in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, (AP) — A jury shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor," ending a case that shocked and riveted Canadians.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and using the Internet.

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger said the evidence clearly supported the conviction.

"It is difficult to conceive of a more heinous, more despicable, more honorless crime," Maranger said. "The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."

In a statement following the verdict, Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson called honor killings a practice that is "barbaric and unacceptable in Canada." MORE HERE: http://news.yahoo.com/jury-finds-afghan-family-guilty-honor-killings-202441543.html

Also: The Origins of Islamic Law -
http://www.crf-usa.org/america-responds-to-terrorism/the-origins-of-islamic-law.html

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Jan Brewer - The Ugly American


Jan Brewer Republican from Arizona is really one UGLY AMERICAN... inside and out! Her rudeness to President Obama was unprecedented. She is so full of bigotry, its thick enough to see and one can literally cut it with a knife!

You can tell she is lying when she speaks because, believe it or not... SHE ISN'T GOOD AT IT. She reminds me of a little child trying to fool the grownups. How pathetic that she was able to win the governorship of Arizona. How many lives has she ruined so far...? I wonder, HOW MANY? I'm sure it's in the 4 digits, maybe even 5 or 6.

When I saw how rudely she treated our President (he is President to us all) …and we all know why... She doesn't like his skin color and probably believes the police should have asked him for his papers. She knew that it wasn’t possible for her brown-shirts to confront THE PRESIDENT... so she decided to do it herself.

What Hubris, she is so cocksure of herself it’s pitiful but that's not new within the GOP, they all believe they are the ELITE and everyone else should be at their beck and call, completely subservient to them..

Well, maybe it's easy to convince their diehard followers that they really care about people, we, the other half of America… you know the ones with half a brain, know exactly what they (GOP) are up to. That's why they hate us, that's why they hate President Obama, that's why they hate INTELIGENCE AND CRITICAL THINKING. They hate anything that will take away their power and will do ANYTHING to maintain or grab control.

Thinkingblue a member of the 99%

---

Jan Brewer - Immigration, border security and "headless bodies"

Brewer believes in strict enforcement of border security, with absolutely no amnesty for illegal immigrants entering the United States unlawfully over the Mexico – United States border. In addition to signing Arizona SB 1070, she has prohibited state and local governments from giving any public benefits to illegal aliens, in addition to making it a misdemeanor for a state or local government official to fail to report immigration law violations discovered while administering a public benefit or service. Brewer has also supported efforts to re-deploy the National Guard of the United States along the southern Arizona border, in an attempt to provide increased border security.

On June 27, 2010, Brewer appeared on "Sunday Square Off", which broadcasts on KPNX-TV. While speaking on the subject of crime related to illegal immigration, she was quoted as saying that "law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert either buried or just lying out there that have been beheaded", a claim that has been disproven.

On July 11, 2010, Jan Brewer announced that 10 million dollars given to her state by the federal government, most of which was intended to go to education, would instead go to enforcing border security.
MORE HERE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Brewer

THE LETTER
PHOENIX – In a sudden about-face, Gov. Jan Brewer on Thursday evening made public a copy of the letter she handed President Obama during their high-profile encounter a day earlier that dominated national news, the blogosphere and water-cooler conversation.

Brewer had presented the letter to Obama during an official airport welcome that turned into a brief confrontation, during which she pointed a finger at the president.

At one point Thursday, the feisty interaction at the start of the president's visit sent "Jan Brewer" to No. 8 on Twitter's trending topics in the U.S. Online sales of Brewer's book Scorpions for Breakfast exploded. And the "finger wag" led to a petition by state Democrats asking Brewer to apologize to the president.

Brewer continued to defend her actions Thursday, saying she meant no disrespect to the president and explaining that she often gestures when she speaks. She called allegations that their confrontation was a publicity stunt "absolutely ridiculous."

In a Thursday night interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, Obama shrugged off the tarmac encounter.

"What I have discovered is that -- I think it's always good publicity for a Republican if they're in an argument with me."

He added: "But this was really not a big deal."

Some of the discussion Thursday in the media and on the Internet about the encounter centered on what was in the letter the governor delivered to Obama on the tarmac of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, particularly after her office said it would not be releasing the letter.

When The Arizona Republic requested a copy, Brewer's spokesman, Matthew Benson, said no copies existed and the letter was "personal, handwritten" correspondence not subject to open-records laws.

On Thursday, Benson released the letter, saying: "Unbeknownst to me" a copy was made. "I sincerely regret the miscommunication."

The one-page letter was written in cursive script on Executive Office stationery. The letter touches on job creation, the state's budget, and Brewer mentions visiting the border.

MORE HERE: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-01-26/brewer-obama-letter/52807280/1

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Ignorance Is Not Bliss – GOP RESPONSE

This is an addendum to the blog GOP RESPONSE

Ignorance Is NOT Bliss!

Mishima

First point:
A healthy 30 year old CHOOSES not to pay for health insurance and he goes into a coma.

Do you LEFT-WINGERS actually believe that the society should FORCE others to pay for the unwise and VOLUNTARY consequences of choices of others? If I decide to spend my money on booze and gambling for decades and wind up broke as a DIRECT RESULT OF THAT VOLUNTARY CHOICE, is society under an obligation – via force of government – to provide a “decent standard of living?” Is that how you people view “compassion?”

Next, “executions.” Perry said, “If you come into our state and kill one of our children, police officers, etc., you will face the ultimate justice.”

thinkingblue response here: GOP RESPONSE

Well, well, well. Let’s see if a LEFTIST can be LOGICAL AND CONSISTENT for a change: The Left-wingers constantly drone on about helping the weak, those who cannot care for themselves, and the helpless, right?

Well, what else is an UNBORN CHILD EXCEPT THAT?

But no, no, no. The Left fights for the right to life of a convicted murderer of police, children or other innocents, but yet advocates to let doctors END THE LIFE of the truly helpless, the dependent and the weak!

---

Mishima "Personhood?" Is that a far Leftist term? i cannot keep up with the different verbiage of the Left-wingers.

But you deflect and advert as usual. Of course, we can look to religious organizations and various charities to care for the babies whose mothers do not want them. But aren't YOU PEOPLE supposed to demand funding out of "compassion" and "caring" for the needy and helpless? Why so much effort and screeching to save the lives of convicted murderers, but silence when it comes to killing helpless unborn babies? Don't you see the hypocrisies? You claim "hatred" when people say a person should reap the results of his VOLUNTARY CHOICES, but dismiss the killing of babies in the very next sentence.

How can you NOT see the contradictions and hypocricy?

---

thinkingblue Response: The right-wingers are always spouting (more like spewing) their ugly messages of KILLING UNBORN BABIES. Taking into account the right-wingers’ vast amount of ignorance, this is the ONE gargantuan convoluted talking-point of theirs’ that is UTTERLY senseless. (talking-point -noun- a fact or feature that aids or supports one side, as in an argument).

First and foremost a fertilized egg is not a CUTE CUDDLY AND HUGGABLE BABY. The fertilized egg is called a zygote and IN THE BEGINNING this dividing zygote gets pushed along the Fallopian tube, approximately four days after fertilization. The zygote has about 100 cells (as small as a scabies skin mite, not directly visible to the naked eye) and is called a blastocyst. This tiny spec now becomes a parasitic life-form unable to live on its own. It must have a host and the female human body thus becomes that host. The ignorant right-winger believes that a parasitic life-form, which cannot think and needs total assistance from its host to survive, should have more rights than an adult human female who can critically think and take care of all her own needs. It’s not only ignorant it’s downright moronic to believe that a mature human female should not have a freewill choice over what is to happen to her body; she, according to the twisted world of the right-winger, must be forced legally into imprisonment for 9 months without due process. After that she goes through THE SHADOW OF THE VALLEY OF DEATH…

article for image(U.S. women are dying from childbirth at the highest rate in decades, new government figures show.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20427256/ns/health-pregnancy/t/more-us-women-dying-childbirth/#.TyFPhfmAEfg )

…and gives birth. The “baby” is now in existence, and a new incarceration begins for the human female because the baby still cannot live on its own and since the mother is, in all likelihood, POOR (people with money will still get their abortions); thus her baby will most likely suffer the pain and indignities of poverty and will not receive the love and attention a new born baby deserves. And if right-wingers get their way on making abortion illegal they will surely have also gotten their way on not allowing the government to help an impoverished mother financially, in the dreadful years that follow. But of course, the right-winger does not possess the ability to critically think and question, therefore all these insights are for naught upon the brain of a right-winger.

I would not care about any of this except an ignorant vote really does affect all of us, especially those of us who are unfortunate enough to be born into a working poor family. IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS! thinkingblue

GOP RESPONSE (Ignorance Is Not Bliss) ADDENDUM

GOP RESPONSE

THE UGLY GOP

WHY DOES THE GOP HATE?

STOP SOPA PIPA

ARE THE REPUBLICAN VOTERS WAKING UP?

A CRUSH ON NOAA AND OBAMA

OCCUPY WALL STREET - AMERICAN AWAKENING

OCCUPY WALL STREET 4TH WEEK UPDATE

OCCUPY WALL STREET WEEK SIX - We Shall Overcome

OWS - POLICE RAID OVER HEALTH CONCERNS

OWS - STUCK IN GOP'S CRAW

VETERAN'S DAY - A PICTURE THAT SAYS A 1000 WORDS

OWS NEW YEAR 2012

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

GOP RESPONSE

I posted the video 'Thom Hartmann Reveals Tea Party's Winning Secrets --it ain't rocket science--'

on Current TV blog and got this response so, so very typical of the PARTY OF NO.

Mishima

First point:
A healthy 30 year old CHOOSES not to pay for health insurance and he goes into a coma.

Do you LEFT-WINGERS actually believe that the society should FORCE others to pay for the unwise and VOLUNTARY consequences of choices of others? If I decide to spend my money on booze and gambling for decades and wind up broke as a DIRECT RESULT OF THAT VOLUNTARY CHOICE, is society under an obligation – via force of government – to provide a “decent standard of living?” Is that how you people view “compassion?”

Next, “executions.” Perry said, “If you come into our state and kill one of our children, police officers, etc., you will face the ultimate justice.”

Well, well, well. Let’s see if a LEFTIST can be LOGICAL AND CONSISTENT for a change: The Left-wingers constantly drone on about helping the weak, those who cannot care for themselves, and the helpless, right?

Well, what else is an UNBORN CHILD EXCEPT THAT?

But no, no, no. The Left fights for the right to life of a convicted murderer of police, children or other innocents, but yet advocates to let doctors END THE LIFE of the truly helpless, the dependent and the weak!

---

thinkingblue:

There isn’t anything one can say to a hardened indoctrinated right-winger about life, to change their superficial attitudes. Their idea about the miracle of existence is so one-dimensional, so black & white and so… childlike. To believe that one size fits all is naive; we all come from different backgrounds, different cultures, different economic circumstances, different ideologies and have different perceptions, in other words WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT yet we experience life with a mutual empathetic understanding about one another. We all feel pain and we suffer whether it is mental or physical, therefore we all (should) care about one another. We can’t do it on an individual basis because that would be like trying to save a drowning man alone which would result in the hero drowning along with the victim (panic has no conscience). What is needed is a floatation device to keep the man afloat until you can pull him to safety or wait for trained first responders to arrive. We’re all in this together and we all may need a floatation device thrown our way someday, no matter how rich or poor our economic condition may be. Right-wingers like to blame people for their life misfortunes as if we have the ability to plan our every move second by second. If someone finds himself in a dire life situation, it’s his own fault. The unrealistic Ayn Rand's "Objectivism", (the tendency, to deal with things external to the mind rather than with thoughts or feelings.) is not, down-to-earth nor sensible. If the human animal’s evolutionary course went down that road, I would not be here trying to critique the right-wing form of unconscionable analysis which is… just watch others fall prey to somebody/something and DO NOTHING BUT shake heads and point fingers in judgment claiming IT’S THEIR OWN DAMN FAULT or LET THEM DIE!

----

AMERICAN INDIAN PHILOSOPHY

American Indian Philosophy offers Great Wisdom to modern human beings. It spotlights how we treat God’s Creation, our Mother Earth, and how we treat each other.

Words of Black Elk:

“I could see that the Wasichus (whites) did not care for each other the way our people did before the nation’s hoop was broken. They would take everything from each other if they could, and so there were some who had more of everything than they could use, while crowds of people had nothing at all and maybe were starving. They had forgotten that the earth was their mother. http://melungeons.com/articles/american.htm

THE UGLY GOP

WHY DOES THE GOP HATE?

STOP SOPA PIPA

ARE THE REPUBLICAN VOTERS WAKING UP?

A CRUSH ON NOAA AND OBAMA

OCCUPY WALL STREET - AMERICAN AWAKENING

OCCUPY WALL STREET 4TH WEEK UPDATE

OCCUPY WALL STREET WEEK SIX - We Shall Overcome

OWS - POLICE RAID OVER HEALTH CONCERNS

OWS - STUCK IN GOP'S CRAW

VETERAN'S DAY - A PICTURE THAT SAYS A 1000 WORDS

OWS NEW YEAR 2012

THETHINKINGBLUE.COM

The Ugly Face Of The GOP

Isn’t it amazing that so many members of the GOP can tell their followers that they love them and then turn around and DO EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO BRING THEIR FAN CLUB TO ITS KNEES, they seem to know that whatever obnoxious stunt they pull, sooner or later their groupies will forgive them? Newt Gingrich is one such GOP member but he stands out above the rest. His over the top monstrous statements can even shock a battle-scarred, been around the block news media, which makes me shocked over their shock. Now we all know that Newt outwardly is a pretty ugly dude for sure but no one is condemning him for that, we all get somewhat superficially ugly as we age according to our culture’s standard of beauty. Newt’s true ugliness comes from deep inside his frontal lopes but as deplorable as he and his rhetoric is, it’s really just the tip of the iceberg of what the GOP stands for. Sound opinionated? Maybe it is but watching and listening to the leaders of this party and seeing how their offensive language (dog whistles) towards certain groups affect their followers, (with standing ovations)one can’t help but render an opinion that the GOP AND ITS IDEOLOGY IS NASTY TO THE CORE. Please watch the video I uploaded to my youtube channel. With Newt Gingrich's win in South Carolina I wanted to circulate a bit of history on this man that the Republican voter has decided to embrace. LOOK OUT, people Newt is a psychopathic sociopath and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. The only thing that has stopped him in the past was the fact that people started to fear him. Wake up your fears America because HE'S BACK! thinkingblue



PSYCHOPATHIC - a mental disorder in which an individual manifests amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.

SOCIOPATH - a person, as a psychopathic personality, whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

THE UGLY GOP

WHY DOES THE GOP HATE?

STOP SOPA PIPA

ARE THE REPUBLICAN VOTERS WAKING UP?

A CRUSH ON NOAA AND OBAMA

OCCUPY WALL STREET - AMERICAN AWAKENING

OCCUPY WALL STREET 4TH WEEK UPDATE

OCCUPY WALL STREET WEEK SIX - We Shall Overcome

OWS - POLICE RAID OVER HEALTH CONCERNS

OWS - STUCK IN GOP'S CRAW

VETERAN'S DAY - A PICTURE THAT SAYS A 1000 WORDS

OWS NEW YEAR 2012

THETHINKINGBLUE.COM

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

FIGHT AGAINST SOPA & PIPA January 18, 2012

FIGHT AGAINST SOPA & PIPA January 18, 2012

Who's Going Dark to Protest SOPA, PIPA?

By Chloe Albanesius
January 18, 2012 07:00am EST

Wikipedia SOPA Protest

As many as 7,000 Web sites could go dark today in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), according to community organizers. From major players like Wikipedia, Google, and Reddit to smaller, grass-roots sites, the Web is banding together to battle what they consider to be overly broad and potentially harmful legislation.

Here's a look at just some of the sites that will be closing their doors for 12-24 hours today in protest of SOPA and PIPA. SopaStrike.com also has an extensive list. If you see more throughout the day, let us know in the comments. And chime in on whether you think an Internet blackout is an effective way to battle the bills.

WIKIPEDIA: The English versions of Wikipedia went dark at midnight on Wednesday and will remain that way for 24 hours. "This is going to be wow. I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday. Tell everyone you know!" Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales tweeted this week.
click WIKIPEDIA here
BOING BOING: Boing Boing also went dark at midnight. "Boing Boing is offline today, because the US Senate is considering legislation that would certainly kill us forever. The legislation is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and would put us in legal jeopardy if we linked to a site anywhere online that had any links to copyright infringement," the site reads.

click BOING BOING here

REDDIT: Reddit shuts down at 8am Eastern time Wednesday morning. "Instead of the normal glorious, user-curated chaos of reddit, we will be displaying a simple message about how the PIPA/SOPA legislation would shut down sites like reddit, link to resources to learn more, and suggest ways to take action," the site said in a blog post last week.
click REDDIT here
GOOGLE: "Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet," Google said in a statement. "So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our U.S. home page." That includes a large black bar atop the Google logo on Google.com, as well as a link to Google's Take Action Web site.

click GOOGLE here

MOZILLA: Mozilla is redirecting traffic from the main Mozilla.org and Mozilla.com English web sites to an action page for 12 hours on Wednesday, Jan. 18 from 8am to 8pm Eastern. Mozilla is also changing the look of the default Firefox start page so that visitors will see a black page with a call to action message to increase awareness of PIPA/SOPA, rather than the traditional white page with the Firefox logo, though search functionality will remain intact. "We hope the blackout of our U.S. sites will help bring attention to this important issue and encourage users to educate themselves about PIPA and SOPA," Mozilla said in a statement. "All users will still be able to receive security updates and access our technical support website. This will NOT affect Firefox users."
click MOZILLA here
WORDPRESS: "If you want to join the protest by blacking out your WordPress site or applying a ribbon, there is now a variety of blackout plugins in the WordPress.org plugins directory," WordPress said in a blog post. "While joining the protest in this manner is laudable, please don't forget to also make those phone calls to U.S. Senators—they're the ones with the voting power."
click WORDPRESS here
TWITPIC: The Twitter pic site currently has a "Stop Censorship" banner across its logo. Clicking on the logo brings you to a SOPA/PIPA information page, including contact information for your representatives in Congress.
click TWITPIC here
CHEEZBURGER NETWORK: "All Cheezburger sites will also be instituting a blackout on January 18th to protest SOPA and PIPA," CEO Ben Huh tweeted last week.
click CHEEZBURGER here
URBANSPOON: Will black out access to portions of the site's user-generated content (including photos and reviews). When users hover over the black areas, they'll be able to click on anti-SOPA messaging to learn more, and then access the blocked content.
click URBANSPOON here
CITYSEARCH: Local guide will be blocking access to multiple parts of the site: Things to Do Nearby; the first review under each business; and the marketing message on the top of the web site; will also link to anti-SOPA messaging.
COULD NOT FIND CITYSEARCH BLACKOUT
ASK.COM: Q&A site is donating ad space on the home page to voice opposition to the act to over 60 million Ask.com users; ad will link to the Open Congress site, giving users a place to directly take action against the bill.
click ASK here
For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

5 opjections to sopa

Boycott companies that support SOPA & PIPA

FAQ
What is the intent of SOPA/PROTECT IP?

The stated intent of the bills is to provide tools for law enforcement and copyright holders to protect their intellectual property rights.
What’s wrong with protecting copyrights?

Nothing! The devil, as they say, is in the details. PROTECT IP and SOPA will cause too much collateral damage, have a high potential for abuse, and won't even be that effective at stopping the crimes they target. Read alienth's examination of where these bills fail.
I'm not in the U.S. Why does this affect me?

Many of the sites that you may use (e.g. Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc.) are all affected by this law and will be required to hide offending domains from you.

If a non-U.S. site is blocked in the U.S., the site could suffer financially or even be bankrupted by the loss of U.S. traffic and revenue.
What are the differences between PROTECT IP and SOPA?

At a general level, the bills are very similar. SOPA, the "Stop Online Piracy Act," is from the House of Representatives, while the PROTECT IP Act is from the Senate. Either or both bills may pass a vote in their chamber of congress on their way to becoming law. Both must be defeated to end this threat. There have recently been more detailed explanations in an ELI5 thread and alienth's blog post.
What about ACTA?

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, is a multi-national agreement with similar goals to the U.S.-only PROTECT IP and SOPA bills. It is criticized for many of the same reasons that PROTECT IP and SOPA are, but is also concerning because it has been drafted in secret. ACTA is not the focus of this blackout but please take the time to learn more about ACTA.
I'm not a U.S. citizen. How can I help?

You can still call or e-mail the U.S. representatives (sponsors of the bills would be a good choice). However, you may want to turn your attention more towards ACTA or other over-zealous copyright bills in your country.
When will reddit be back? What should I do when it comes back?

reddit will return to normal service at 8 PM EST (0100 UTC). While our protest is temporary in nature, PROTECT IP and SOPA are not. Continue to pay attention and join the conversation in /r/SOPA when reddit returns.


Check out the /r/SOPA Community FAQ.

click here for info on who supports and who opposes bill 112-s968

WHY DOES THE GOP HATE?

ARE THE REPUBLICAN VOTERS WAKING UP?

A CRUSH ON NOAA AND OBAMA

OCCUPY WALL STREET - AMERICAN AWAKENING

OCCUPY WALL STREET 4TH WEEK UPDATE

OCCUPY WALL STREET WEEK SIX - We Shall Overcome

OWS - POLICE RAID OVER HEALTH CONCERNS

OWS - STUCK IN GOP'S CRAW

VETERAN'S DAY - A PICTURE THAT SAYS A 1000 WORDS

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

WHY DOES THE GOP HATE (everything sane)?

WHY DOES THE GOP HATE (everything sane)?

This was a letter posted on Daily Kos by one of its members. It was so, to the point, that I felt a need to circulate it around a little more thus this post. It is a rant to all those who like to refer to themselves as members of the Tea Party and their GOP leaders. The GOP has such an easy task when it comes to adapting people's minds so that they will vote for them; Spread hate and they will be yours, is their message and it has worked for more years than I like to remember. Let's stop the hate and bring on common-sense solutions to all our problems. I say ALL because we are ALL the same regardless of what the Republicans would like us to believe. thinkingblue

An open letter to the people who hate Obama more than they love America

By MinistryOfTruth DailyKos

I meet you all the time. You hate Obama. You hate gay people. You hate black people, immigrants, Muslims, labor unions, women who want the right to make choices concerning their bodies, you hate em all. You hate being called racist. You hate being called a bigot. Maybe if you talked about creating jobs more than you talk about why you hate gay people we wouldn't call you bigots. Maybe if you talked about black people without automatically assuming they are on food stamps while demanding their birth certificates we wouldn't call you racist. You hate socialism and social justice. You hate regulations and taxes and spending and the Government. You hate.


You like war. You like torture. You like Jesus. I don't know how in the hell any of that is compatible, but no one ever accused you haters of being over-committed to ideological consistency. You like people who look like you or at least hate most of the things that you hate. You hate everything else.

Now, I know you profess to love our country and the founding fathers (unless you are reminded that they believed in the separation of church and state), but I need to remind you that America is NOT what Fox News says it is. America is a melting pot, it always has been. We are a multi-cultural amalgamation of all kinds of people, and yet you still demonize everyone who is not a rich, white, heterosexual christian male or his submissive and obedient wife.

You hate liberals, moderates, hell, anyone who disagrees with Conservative dogma as espoused by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. You hate em.
Well, here are the facts, Jack. If you hate the Government then you are unqualified to manage it. If you hate gay people more than you love America than you should take your own advice and get the hell out. There are several countries that are openly hostile to gay people, but they are full of brown people and you don't like them much either from what I understand. It looks like you are screwed, but that's not what I am here to tell you.

Now that you have thrown everything and the kitchen sink at President Obama and it still hasn't worked you are panicking. Obama's approval ratings are still near 50% despite your best efforts to undermine the economy and America's recovery at every step you can. You tried to hold the American economy hostage to force America into default on its' debts, debts that YOU rang up under Bush, so you could blame it on Obama and it failed. You've used the filibuster more than any other Congress ever, going so far as to vote against providing health care access to 9/11 first responders. You remember 9/11, don't you, it's that thing you used to lie us into a war in Iraq, and then when Obama killed Bin Laden and ended the war in Iraq you told people that he hates America and wants the troops to fail. You monsters. You hate Obama with a passion, despite the fact that he is a tax cutting, deficit reducing war President who undermines civil rights and delivers corporate friendly watered down reforms that benefit special interests just like a Republican. You call him a Kenyan. You call him a socialist. You dance with your hatred singing it proudly in the rain like it was a 1950's musical.
Frankly, you disgust me. Your hatred nauseates me. Your bigotry offends me. Your racism revolts me.
Dear haters, I am openly questioning your patriotism.
I think you hate gays, Obama, black people, poor people, all of us, women, atheists and agnostics, Latinos, Muslims, Liberals, all of us, I think you hate every one who isn't exactly like you, and I think you hate us more than you love your country.

I think you hate gay soldiers more than you want America to win its wars.

I don't even think you want America to win wars, you just want America to have wars, never ending wars and the war profiteering it generates. You love that kind of spending, you love spending on faith based initiatives and abstinence based sex education (George Carlin would have loved that one), you love spending on subsidies for profitable oil corporations, you spend like drunken sailors when you are in the White House, but if it is a Democrat then suddenly you cheer when America doesn't get the Olympics because it might make the black President look bad. But oooh you love your country, you say, and you want it back. Well listen here skippy, it isn't your country, you don't own it, it is our country, and America is NOT the religiously extremist Foxbots who hate science, elitist professors and having a vibrant and meaningful sex life with someone we love if Rick Santorum doesn't approve of it. Rick Santorum isn't running for America's fucking high school dance chaperone, he should probably just shut the hell up about sex, but he can't because he has nothing else to run on.

Republicans can NOT win on the issues. They've got NOTHING. All they have is a divide and conquer class war that pits ignorant racist and bigoted people against the rest of us in a meaningless battle of wedge issues and the already proven to fail George W. Bush agenda again of tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, privatization and war profiteering and nothing else, so all they can do is blame black people, gays the government, anybody and everyone else for their own failings. The party of personal responsibility, my ass.
But they love multi-national corporations, just ask a gay hating and racist religious extremist if they think Corporations are people and they will gladly agree, but if you ask them if gay people are people they aren't so sure.

Dear haters, you are the cruel, heartless misinformed assholes who would sell America out to Haliburton in a heartbeat, you would rather pay ZERO taxes than you would see a newly born baby get access to quality health care, you cheer when we discuss denying health care to young people with preventable diseases, and you boo when we discuss the First Ladies plan to cut back on childhood obesity. You are a cross to carry and a flag to wrap yourself in away from being the people who Sinclair Lewis warned us about, but I guarantee that if Fox News told you to dress that way you would, because you are the same blind, ignorant and closed minded dunces who drove this country into a civil war years ago because you are bound to the notion that some men are more equal than others. In short, the reason I proudly wear my union army hat is because of seditious sell outs like you who constantly fuck over working class Americans so a foreign entrepreneur like Rupert Murdoch can get a bigger tax break. If corporations are people, they are neither American patriots nor capable of love. Just like you.

So stop wearing your hate with pride. Stop celebrating your anti-science, anti-math ignorance. Stop using code words to mask your bigotry like "family values", especially when you hate my family and when you stand on the same stage as a guy who has had three marriages or if you share a seat in the Senate with a guy who cheated on his wife with hookers while wearing diapers. You should be ashamed. I know that you are just doing this to motivate your misinformed hate cult base because if they actually knew that your ideas will make them poorer than they are now, they would never vote for you. You are doing your best to impoverish your countrymen so rich people can get bigger tax breaks and you can keep on delivering corporate welfare to the special interests who have bribed you, and I am disgusted by the way you gleefully parade your hatred with aplomb. I don't think you do love America. At least, not as much as you hate everyone in America who isn't exactly like you.
You should think about that, and maybe get some help.

And for the record, I do not hate you. I am embarrassed by you and nauseated by your cruel and thoughtless behavior and your all consuming greed, but I do not hate you. I forgive you and I hope you can change someday, but I don't hate you. You have enough hate in you for the rest of us as it is.

----

A Message From MinistryOfTruth on dailykos
News Community Action

Dear bullies who can dish it but can't take it & suddenly got sensitive, CRY ME A RIVER!Wednesday, January 11, 2012 2:28 PMOne day when I was in elementary school a bully beat me up because I was fat. I went home crying, and my dad asked me what was wrong. I told him about the bully and about getting beat up and he asked me if I knew how to throw a punch. I was probably 10 years old and I had never been in a real fight before. So my dad took me into my room, took the mattress off of my bed, put it upright against the wall and taught me how to fight. He taught me how to take a punch like a boxer and move with it. He taught me how to throw a punch like a soldier. My dad was a Navy Veteran with a Motorcycle, a union carpenter with a strong back like Paul Bunyan and a laugh to match. After my boxing lesson, my dad told me to go outside and pick a fight with that kid the next time I see him, and he told me that if I didn't do it and go stand up to that kid I was grounded.
The next time I saw that kid I stood up to him. He took a swing at me and missed and I socked him right in the mouth. That was the last time that kid ever bullied me again.
On Monday I wrote An open letter to the people who hate Obama more than they love America In that post, I called the bullies out for who they are. I stand by every word I wrote.
The response I got back was overwhelmingly supportive. By Wednesday afternoon that post has racked up over 2,200 tweets, over 15,000 likes on Facebook. 56,000+ shares on social media networks. 99% of the people who responded to my open letter were vocally supportive of standing up to the bullies. It was the other 1% of responders who were offended that really made me understand finally after all these years have passed since my dad taught me how to stand up to bullies exactly what it is that bullies stand for . . .
And it makes me think of that scene from The Big Lebowski, where the Nihilists burn down the Dude's car and demand a ransom but then whine when Walter stands up to them. I guess what I am trying to say is that these men are nihilists. These men are cowards, there's nothing to fear. These men are cowards. Cowards who can only pick on the weak, but when you show strength and stand up to them they can't take it. They can dish it but they can't take it.

---

Word for word, MinistryOfTruth speaks the language we all feel. We, the ones who think and demand better from our leaders. We, who refuse to march in lockstep to outright bigotry perpetrated by propagandist who use fear to make people do what they know in their hearts is wrong. We, who can see the injustice brought on by too many years under Republican/Corporate control. We, who can realize that class warfare is real and disparities between the classes has become overwhelmingly unfair. I don't know if things will ever change but for sure we must stop being silent and join together in rants of anger. Too long we have been controlled by those who wish to enslave us for their own profits and power. We have as silly Herman Cain so comically expressed, BLAMED OURSELVES and remained mum and ashamed. Embarrassed about going bankrupt due to gargantuan medical bills or job layoffs because as Pat Buchanan once said after the GOP changed bankruptcy laws that made it almost impossible for the middle class to use this tool the Corporate World employs all the time, (paraphrasing) “IT’S ABOUT TIME AMERICA DID SOMETHING TO STOP THE DEADBEATS FROM GETTING AWAY WITH NOT PAYING THEIR BILLS”. The inequalities that have overtaken America are not our fault but it will be, if we stay quiet and do as we are told. I salute the OWS groups; they are shedding enlightenment where there was only ignorance, to the utter dismay of the Corporatists’. thinkingblue


OCCUPY WALL STREET - AMERICAN AWAKENING

OCCUPY WALL STREET 4TH WEEK UPDATE

OCCUPY WALL STREET WEEK SIX - We Shall Overcome

OWS - POLICE RAID OVER HEALTH CONCERNS

OWS - STUCK IN GOP'S CRAW

VETERAN'S DAY - A PICTURE THAT SAYS A 1000 WORDS

OWS NEW YEAR 2012

THETHINKINGBLUE.COM




Are Some Republican Voters Starting To Finally Wake Up?

Are Some Republican Voters Starting To Finally Wake Up?

I LOVE it... "LUNCH PAIL REPUBLICANS"

EXCERPT FROM - GOP group launches ad against "Right to Work"

http://www.wthr.com/story/16530862/gop-launches-ad-against-right-to-work:

David Fagan is a member of the Lunch Pail Republicans. He says he's been a Republican since he was 18, held office as a Republican, but the debate at the Statehouse has him fighting against his own party leaders and he plans to take that fight to the trenches...

"Right To Work" an Orwellian newspeak term.

Uh Oh, what language will the GOP and Frank Luntz use if their sycophants all get wind of their newspeak terminology? thinkingblue

http://myapologies.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/gop-newspeak/

I use to get so angry at Andrew Sullivan for his pathetic attempt to paint Neocons as heroes but now, since he started THINKING... Believe it or not he's making sense! thinkingblue

Sullivan supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, and was initially hawkish in the war on terror, arguing that weakness would embolden terrorists. Immediately following the September 11 attacks in 2001, he wrote a controversial essay for The Sunday Times, in which he stated, "The middle part of the country — the great red zone that voted for Bush — is clearly ready for war. The decadent Left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead — and may well mount what amounts to a fifth column."[45] In an October 14, 2001 post, Sullivan announced that recent anthrax attacks had sealed his support for war on Iraq, including the possible use of nuclear weaponry by the United States. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Sullivan

Now watch the NEW AND IMPROVED Andrew Sullivan on Hardball:



A CRUSH ON NOAA

GOP HATE 2012

OWS NEW YEAR 2012

OCCUPY WALL STREET - AMERICAN AWAKENING

OCCUPY WALL STREET 4TH WEEK UPDATE

OCCUPY WALL STREET WEEK SIX - We Shall Overcome

OWS - POLICE RAID OVER HEALTH CONCERNS

OWS - STUCK IN GOP'S CRAW

VETERAN'S DAY - A PICTURE THAT SAYS A 1000 WORDS

THETHINKINGBLUE.COM

A Crush On NOAA & President Obama

A Crush On NOAA & President Obama


I caught this magnificent info about President Obama’s plans for NOAA and the Dept. of Commerce on the Rachel Maddow show the other night and thought WOW; this has got to be my first video for the 2012 election. The Republicans with their shrinking Tea Party are trying to take this nation back to the mid 1800's NO, further back to the times of Pharaohs and Monarchs:

{{The first states were mostly monarchies, as far as we can tell. They were ruled by kings or queens. The earliest monarchies that we know about are the ones in Sumer and Egypt. These both began around 3000 BC.}} http://www.nobility-association.com/monarchyhistory.htm

{{Throughout most of history, governments -- usually monarchies headed by kings, emperors, pharaohs, and other major or minor tyrants -- actually owned everything under their rule, including, believe it or not, the people. In those regimes the population was considered to be subjects, not citizens. That means that the people were treated as the underlings, subjected to the will of the ruler.}} http://wordsmith.org/words/pharaoh.html

Do we really want to return to the days when citizens were called subjects and subjected to the wills of the rulers? Whatever you believe DO NOT VOTE IN ANOTHER REPUBLICAN, we’ve been there, done that! If another Republican president from THE PARTY OF NO takes over the helm, brace yourself for a spiral spin downward to a place of no return! Oh, on your way down say BYE Democracy, HELLO Plutocracy/Oligarchy (USA owned & operated by a few rich folks). thinkingblue

---

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (Predictions In 2010) the United States would be ceded to plutocrats and oligarchs if Republicans win next month’s election, referring to the flood of pro-GOP corporate election spending.

“This election is also about our democracy,” Pelosi said on MSNBC’s “Countdown With Keith Olbermann.” “If they win — which I fully intend to stop them from doing — but if they win, it would mean we are now a plutocracy and oligarchy.”

“Whatever these few wealthy, secret, unlimited sources of money are can control our entire agenda,” she said.

The first female speaker struck an unmistakably ominous tone about wealthy groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and Crossroads GPS spending a fortune bankrolling campaigns — overwhelmingly for Republicans — while concealing their sources of funding.

“It is essential and fundamental to our democracy that we not have it be a wholly owned subsidiary of these corporations, and as a part of the Chamber of Commerce,” Pelosi said.

The influx of unlimited and secret election spending, made possible by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling this January, has led to rich business interests mobilizing in an unprecedented way to topple Democrats from power and back the most conservative candidates. THE END http://www.rawstory.com/

Thethinking Blue facebook - This is the first of the 2012 political videos from my channel on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndFA3682R-A

We The People Of The USA are at a crossroad, if President Obama is not re-elected it will be the end - of Democracy and the beginning of Plutocracy/Oligarchy! No doubt about it. thinkingblue

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Bill O'Reilly You're Useless!

A few videos that illustrate how useless Bill O'Reilly is to the world. Oh, he may have his followers but they are of the ditto-head persuasion that follow Rush Limbaugh. I hate to judge and categorize people in to groups but O'Reilly is an ignoramus and proud of it. The Catholic church should be embarrassed that he so loudly touts that he represents them. thinkingblue

OCCUPY WALL STREET - AMERICAN AWAKENING

OCCUPY WALL STREET 4TH WEEK UPDATE

OCCUPY WALL STREET WEEK SIX - We Shall Overcome

OWS - POLICE RAID OVER HEALTH CONCERNS

OWS - STUCK IN GOP'S CRAW

VETERAN'S DAY - A PICTURE THAT SAYS A 1000 WORDS

THETHINKINGBLUE.COM

A Laugh To Sooth Your New Year Woes

The holidays are over THANK ALL THAT IS GOOD, and it is now time to get back to normal entertainment as opposed to the fantasy type (Say like the old man in a red suit and his flying reindeer or the manger baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.) If you are of sound mind and in need of a good laugh or two, please read the columnist from The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg's . A Laugh Out Loud and I mean LOUD. thinkingblue

PS: Peace

What's Your Problem?

Ask Jeffrey Goldberg
Back in my day, I was a campus radical. Now my son, who is an Ivy League graduate but mostly unemployed, wants to get more involved in Occupy Wall Street. Based on my history, it’s hard for me to tell him this is a bad idea, but I’m not impressed with this movement’s lack of focus and I think he would better serve his future by getting a job and moving out of our home. I know what I sound like, but I think that since my wife and I still support him financially, he should take what I have to say into consideration, Am I wrong? H.L., Los Angeles, Calif.
--

Dear H.L., Your son’s desire raises several problems, not least of which is that he already lives in a socialist paradise—namely, your house—and so maybe he should stop complaining about the unfairness of life. I’m not critiquing his wish to see the world bettered for others, but might I make a couple of suggestions? Most Ivy League graduates are unaccustomed to pepper spray; perhaps he should spray himself in the face once or twice, to test his tolerance. He should also resist the urge to bring high-end camping equipment to protests—this will make him look fey and elitist.

~~~

I am a single woman in my 30s, and I would like to have a baby on my own. I don’t want to go to a sperm bank —too anonymous—and I’m lucky because I have four very acceptable guy friends, any of whom I think would be a willing donor if I choose to go that route. I’ve made lists of their various attributes, and they all basically, even out in the end. The only place where they really differ is in their level of academic achievement, specifically where they went to college. Two went to Ivy League schools (Harvard, Columbia), one went to Duke, and one went to a second-tier state school, the University of Kansas. I assume their undergraduate choices had to do with their SAT scores (I don’t know how they did on standardized testing, and I think it might be rude to ask), so those choices do seem pertinent. How much should I weigh this in making my decision? D.S., New York, N.Y.
--
Dear D.S., To avoid making such a difficult decision, I suggest you collect sperm from all four men, combine the donations in a test tube, and inject this potent mixture using the traditional turkey-baster method. Whichever sperm outswims, outfights, or outfoxes the others will fertilize your egg, which is as it should be, because I think the most ruthless and mercenary sperm is axiomatically the best sperm for you. I suspect that the University of Kansas sperm will win this competition. Just look at the school’s football program: while not on a par with Auburn or LSU, it could crush Columbia or Harvard. As for Duke, I would guess that the sperm will be too drunk to compete.

~~~

Prompted by various books and movies, I’ve decided to make a bucket list of all the things I want to do before I die. The problem is, I don’t know how to limit myself. I have a fair amount of money, and a good amount of time left (I hope), but there are a million places to visit and a million things to do. How do you think I should organize myself in this endeavor? L.D., Miami, Fla.
--
Dear L.D., I understand why you are flummoxed by the variety of choices before you. My suggestion is that you focus your thinking by making a reverse bucket list of all the things you are positive you don’t want to do. I’ve made a reverse bucket list of my own that you may use as a model. Here are 25 of the things that I hope never to do:

1. Climb Mount Everest

2. See any movie or read any book about self-actualizing rich people who climb Mount Everest

3. See that movie about the guy who cuts off his arm in a ravine that isn’t even on Mount Everest

4. Spend three weeks in a Turkish prison—again

5. Read The Remarkable Millard Fillmore, by George Pendle

6. Adopt small African children for ornamental purposes

7. Obey indoor firearms regulations

8. Retire to Abbottabad

9. Take a photograph of my penis and then tweet it

10. Collateralize a debt obligation

11. Juice cleanse

12. Colon cleanse

13. Ethnic cleanse

14. Go on an ayahuasca bender

15. Create a coat of arms for my family

16. Purchase a Teutonic trophy wife

17. Play golf with John Boehner

18. Play golf

19. Make love at midnight in the dunes on the Cape

20. Swim with dolphins, because swimming with dolphins means swimming in dolphin shit

21. Spend a week in a monastery

22. Spend a day in a monastery

23. Join LinkedIn

24. Update my software

25. Write an advice column

~~~

Now get ready for another LOL!

OCCUPY WALL STREET - AMERICAN AWAKENING

OCCUPY WALL STREET 4TH WEEK UPDATE

OCCUPY WALL STREET WEEK SIX - We Shall Overcome

OWS - POLICE RAID OVER HEALTH CONCERNS

OWS - STUCK IN GOP'S CRAW

VETERAN'S DAY - A PICTURE THAT SAYS A 1000 WORDS

THETHINKINGBLUE.COM

Monday, January 09, 2012

Rick Santorum Shrinks When He Hears MIDDLE CLASS. HUH???


WHY ARE REPUBLICANS SO FULL OF SHIT?

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

The Dirty Truth Behind The New Natural Gas - 2010 UPDATE 2012

After viewing the documentary GASLAND, 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 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 are allowed too.
---
2012 - I blogged this page almost 2 years ago, since then we have had Earth tremors and quakes in the Fracking areas that some experts believe are the direct result of Fracking. I know the Republicans want us all to feel that Corporations will do no harm, they care about us and our Earth. To that I say... THE SHIT OF THE BULL! Even in my own hometown there are people who are willing to destroy in order to gain BIG BUCKS for themselves... Go to this link to see how greed is on a steady course of destruction EVERYWHERE.
http://www.youtube.com/user/liveoaklandfill

Please watch GASLAND and then watch the propaganda film on HOW WONDERFUL NATURAL GAS IS, brought to you by one of the United Corporations of America.

thinkingblue

PS: 3 Cheers for Montana!!! Montana Supreme Court upholds election spending limits

GASLAND Trailer 2010


Ohio earthquake was not a natural event, expert says

2012 - CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A 4.0 magnitude earthquake in Ohio on New Year's Eve did not occur naturally and may have been caused by high-pressure liquid injection related to oil and gas exploration and production, an expert hired by the state of Ohio said on Tuesday.

Ohio's Department of Natural Resources on Sunday suspended operations at five deep well sites in Youngstown, Ohio, where the injection of water was taking place, while they evaluate seismological data from a rare quake in the area.

The wells are about 9,000 feet deep and are used to dispose of water from oil and gas wells. The process is related to fracking, the controversial injection of chemical-laced water and sand into rock to release oil and gas. Critics say that the high pressure injection of the liquid causes seismic activity.

Won-Young Kim, a research professor of Seismology Geology and Tectonophysics at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that circumstantial evidence suggests a link between the earthquake and the high-pressure well activity.

"We know the depth (of the quake on Saturday) is two miles and that is different from a natural earthquake," said Kim, who is advising the state of Ohio.

Data collected from four seismographs set up in November in the area confirm a connection between the quakes and water pressure at the well, Kim said.

"There is circumstantial evidence to connect the two -- in the past we didn't have earthquakes in the area and the proximity in the time and space of the earthquakes matches operations at the well," he said.

A spokesman for Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich, a strong supporter of oil and gas exploration in the state, said Ohio could announce a preliminary decision whether to continue the suspension of the wells as early as Wednesday.

The state was already looking into the cause of earlier seismic activity from 10 previous earthquakes, beginning in March, 2011.

According to Kim, this is not the first time Ohio tremors have been linked to human activities. "We have several examples of earthquakes from deep well disposal in the past," Kim said.

A quake of 4.2 magnitude in Ashtabula, Ohio, on January 26, 2001, was believed to be due to deep-well injection, he said. And in 1987 there was an incident with a correlation to high pressure deep well injection, he said.

There are 177 so-called "class two" deep wells in Ohio, according to Tom Stewart, executive vice president of Ohio Oil and Gas Association. They all operate under federal guidelines spelled out by the Clean Water Act.

There is no evidence that the wells in Youngstown were operating at higher pressures than allowed, Stewart said.

"We haven't seen anything from anyone at (the state agency) that would lead us to believe that the well was not operating properly," he said.

Kim said that even though the wells have stopped pumping water into the rock, the area might not have experienced its last earthquake. "It could take a couple of years for the earthquakes to go away. The migration of the fluid injected into the rock takes a long time to leave," Kim said.

Ohio's Democratic Senator, Sherrod Brown, said the quick response by the state shows it is a serious issue.

"There are things we need to know about drilling and earthquakes," Brown told Reuters on Tuesday.

Brown said he supports new energy exploration that brings jobs to the state but has questions about how companies will handle fracking and wastewater disposal. "They have got to answer the question of what they are going to do with the waste just like nuclear power," Brown said.

(Editing by Greg McCune and Jim Marshall) MORE HERE - http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-earthquake-not-natural-event-expert-says-002703764.html

Natural Gas: The Energy to Move Forward





A Colossal Fracking Mess 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

Josh Fox was a guest on The Daily Show Monday night,


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."

WATCH Josh Fox on The Daily Show:

RNC Document Mocks Donors, Plays on 'Fear'

Thom Hartmann on Freespeech TV

New Robes For SCOTUS

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

Click to go to MOVE TO AMEND and sing petition.

MOVE TO AMEND
NEWS UPDATE: MONTANA
Montana Supreme Court upholds election spending limits

In a 5-2 opinion, the Montana court's majority concluded that the state's long history of well-funded natural resource extractors, small population and historically inexpensive political campaigns allow it to demonstrate compelling government interest in regulating corporate financial muscle. Even one of the justices who dissented — saying that the U.S. Supreme Court left no room for states to exempt themselves — argued forcefully against the broad corporate latitude encompassed in the Citizens United decision.

"Corporations are not persons. Human beings are persons, and it is an affront to the inviolable dignity of our species that courts have created a legal fiction which forces people — human beings — to share fundamental, natural rights with soulless creatures of government," Justice James C. Nelson wrote in his reluctant dissent.

"Worse still, while corporations and human beings share many of the same rights under the law, they clearly are not bound equally to the same codes of good conduct, decency and morality, and they are not held equally accountable for their sins. Indeed, it is truly ironic that the death penalty and hell are reserved only to natural persons," he wrote.

Let's keep our heads, while we continue to watch THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

"A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE."thinkingblue

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