Friday, May 04, 2012

Declaring a Farm Forever Inviolate of Drilling for Shale Gas

By Press Action

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive?. I like a little rebellion now and then." -Thomas Jefferson

Drawing upon this nation’s Declaration of Independence as inspiration, Dr. J. Stephen Cleghorn, co-founder of the 50-acre Paradise Gardens and Farm organic farm that sits above the Marcellus Shale formation, is holding a press conference to declare—in defiance of any established laws which say otherwise—that his farm shall never be violated from above or below by unconventional shale gas drilling. He will seal his declaration upon the scattering of ashes that are all that is left of the farm’s co-founder, his late wife Dr. Lucinda Hart-González, who died of cancer in November 2011.

“May her ashes,” he will say as he drops them to the ground below, “declare this farm forever inviolate of any attack upon it as a living system. Her blessed ashes hereby declare a new right of love at the surface and forever below this farm that no gas drill may ever penetrate.”

WHO: Dr. Cleghorn will be joined by grassroots activists who oppose shale gas drilling from the Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air (PACWA), Marcellus Protest, Protecting Our Waters and several others. Also invited: Senator Joseph Scarnati, Speaker Sam Smith, J. Brett Harvey (CEO of CONSOL Energy), Douglas H. Miller (CEO of EXCO Resources) and Larry and Maxine Burkett of Punxsutawney, who hold the deed to the gas rights under the farm.

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| Posted on 05/04.

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

EPA Official Trumpets Gas Industry as Top Lieutenant Gets Crucified

By Press Action

In the wake of the resignation of a high-ranking U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official who used the word “crucify” to describe his philosophy of enforcement against polluters, other agency officials are determined not to make further utterances that could offend the oil and gas sector and other polluting industries. In fact, the agency is going out of its way to sing natural gas’ praises.

Speaking May 1 at a conference on the health effects of shale gas drilling, Bob Perciasepe, the EPA’s deputy administrator and the nation’s second-ranking environmental official, repeatedly said natural gas is going to play a significant role in the nation’s energy future. He touted the fact that U.S. oil and gas production has increased since President Obama took office in 2009.

Perciasepe also discounted arguments that the nation can have either a strong economy or environmental protection, but not both. “Our primary view on this is that it is a false debate,” he said. “Simultaneously, we can do environmental protection and have economic growth.”

With the ability to extract large volumes of natural gas locked in shale rock formations, the United States has an opportunity to be “that innovative shining light for energy development,” he proclaimed.

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| Posted on 05/02.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

The Anarchist 'Terrorists' Arrested in May Day Plot Were Supplied by the FBI

...and an Informant With a Lengthy Criminal Record

By Will Potter

As the Occupy movement carries out massive May Day protests around the country, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task force is trumpeting the arrest of “self-proclaimed anarchists” and “terrorists” who allegedly conspired to destroy a bridge in Ohio. Integral to the development and advancement of this plot, however, were FBI agents themselves and an informant with a drug and robbery record.

Douglas L. Wright, 26; Brandon L. Baxter, 20; and Anthony Hayne, 35, Connor C. Stevens, 20, and Joshua S. Stafford, 23, were arrested by the FBI on April 30, just in time to make the announcement as the nation turns its attention to May Day protests.

The affidavit reveals a plot by the FBI that continues a pattern of behavior in “terrorism” investigations against political activists. Most importantly, undercover FBI agents helped shape the “plot,” offered advice on how and where to use explosives, and allegedly sold explosives to the activists.

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| Posted on 05/01.

The Anarchist Origins of May Day

By Workers Solidarity Movement

Not many people know why May Day became International Workers Day and why we should still celebrate it. It all began more than 125 years ago when the American Federation of Labor adopted an historic resolution which asserted that “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labor from and after May 1, 1886".

In the months prior to this date workers in there thousands were drawn into the struggle for the shorter day. Skilled and unskilled, black and white, men and women, native and immigrant were all becoming involved.

Chicago

In Chicago alone 400,000 were out on strike. A newspaper of that city reported that “no smoke curled up from the tall chimneys of the factories and mills, and things had assumed a Sabbath-like appearance”. This was the main center of the agitation, and here the anarchists were in the forefront of the labor movement. It was to no small extent due to their activities that Chicago became an outstanding trade union center and made the biggest contribution to the eight-hour movement.

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| Posted on 05/01.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Communities Grow More Polarized in Uncertain World of Shale Gas Development

By Press Action

“The areas of the United States having the highest levels of long‐term poverty, outside of those having a history of racial inequalities, tend to be found in the very places that were once the site of thriving extractive industries.” -William R. Freudenburg

The fracking debate isn’t only about the environmental damage. The economic and social impacts of shale gas drilling also are proving divisive in state houses and communities located above natural gas fields across the country.

In Pennsylvania, residents who live in counties with the heaviest shale gas industry activity are experiencing an increase in social conflict, Timothy Kelsey Ph.D., professor of agricultural economics at Pennsylvania State University, said at an April 30 conference on the health impacts of shale gas extraction. The conference, held in Washington, D.C., was sponsored by the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

Communities “are becoming more polarized” between those residents for and against drilling in the Marcellus Shale, Kelsey said. Part of the conflict is between “the haves and the have-nots”—landowners who received relative pennies from gas companies to lease their land and those who struck more lucrative deals, he said.

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| Posted on 04/30.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

The UN May Have Silenced the Afghan Public

By Afghan Peace Volunteers

“Today, Afghanistan and the U.S. initialed and locked the text of the strategic partnership agreement,” said Karzai’s spokesman, Aimal Faizi. “This means the text is closed…”

Why “lock” or “close” the future of Afghanistan to 30 million ordinary Afghan citizens?

While the world may accept that the U.S. and Afghan governments have some “state” or “noble” considerations for not revealing the contents of the U.S. Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement, how about the democratic consideration of involving Afghans in their own future?

Even the Afghan Parliament was in the dark and uninvolved until they were recently given a peek when Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, read “portions” of the Agreement to assembled parliamentarians on 23rd April, saying that the U.S. will defend Afghanistan from any outside interference via “diplomatic means, political means, economic means and even military means.”

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| Posted on 04/29.

With a Rebel Yell, Deep Green Resistance Takes Message to Southeast

By Press Action

During a two-week period this summer, radical environmentalists will be spreading their message of resistance to industrial capitalism to an area of the country that they hope will prove a fertile recruiting ground. Instead of preaching to the converted in historically friendly communities across the western United States, Deep Green Resistance is heading to the Southeast, where the ruling elite has never hesitated to subsidize a nuclear power plant project or clamp down on a trade union organizing effort.

A traveling group of DGR activists will be touring seven Southeast cities in what the group’s organizers are calling the “Culture of Resistance Roadshow.” At each stop of the tour, there will be music, art and informative presentations that DGR hopes will give activists the tools they need to make a difference in the struggle for a livable future.

The tour kicks off in Miami on June 16 and then makes its last stop in Washington, D.C., on June 30. In between, the traveling roadshow will visit Gainesville, Fla., on June 18, Asheville, N.C., on June 22, Chapel Hill, N.C., on June 23, Knoxville, Tenn., on June 25, and Richmond, Va., on June 27.

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| Posted on 04/29.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

1,000 Reasons to Strike on May 1: A Day Without the 99%

By Mickey Z.

"What are you rebelling against?”

“Whaddya got?"

-From the 1953 movie, “The Wild One"

It’s no accident that “the system”—this dominant and destructive culture of ours—makes us feel so damn alone, makes us feel like we can’t make a difference, like we can’t “fight City Hall.”

The nature of top-down rule, of course, is to leave those on the bottom throwing up their hands in resignation, heaving a collective sigh, and concluding: Whaddya gonna do?

I’ll let you in a secret or three: We are not alone, we can make a difference, and what we’re “gonna do” is occupy a goddamned strike on May 1.

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| Posted on 04/28.

PennFuture Dissects Pennsylvania's Shale Gas Giveaway

By Press Action

Pennsylvania’s noxious new natural gas law, Act 13, has received a fair amount of press attention, much of it negative. In drafting the legislation, state lawmakers gave the shale gas industry everything it wanted, including the right to drill almost anywhere and full protection from local ordinances.

The law, which took effect April 14, contains many sordid provisions. To help people understand the new law, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, or PennFuture, has released a handy guide to all of the favors and loopholes for the gas companies that Act 13 provides. PennFuture, an environmental advocacy group that supports natural gas drilling as long as it is regulated properly, said the guide was “deliberately written to be as accessible as possible to all, primarily presented in a question-and-answer format.”

“Since this law was signed, there has been a great deal of confusion about the various provisions,” George Jugovic Jr., president and CEO of PennFuture, said in an April 23 statement. “This plain language report separates rumor from fact, and will help elected officials, public health officers and physicians, and citizens in and out of the drilling fields understand their rights in terms of drilling.”

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| Posted on 04/28.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Get the Fracking Facts, You Water-Drinking Being!

By Lucia della Paolera

Straight from reservoirs in upstate NY, New York City’s tap water, long considered some of the cleanest and purest in the country—not to mention UNFILTERED—is at risk of becoming permanently contaminated.

The PSA “ANYBODY of WATER,” by I AM PICTURES in association with I HEART H2O raises awareness about the threats facing New York’s water, so that New Yorkers can take action to protect it immediately.

Over the past decade the global demand for energy has increased exponentially.

Diminishing supplies of conventional fuels such as coal and oil, as well as growing scientific consensus and public awareness about the environmental hazards of the extraction of such fuels has led to the search for alternate ways to power our country. Recently, the natural gas (methane) found in large quantities in deep underground formations of shale in vast areas of the United States has become the go-to power source to profitably replace US dependence on coal and foreign oil.

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| Posted on 04/27.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Experts: Shale Gas Drilling's Liabilities Far Outweigh Potential Economic Benefits

By Press Action

The natural gas industry needed a better sales pitch. It was moving into new and potentially hostile territory. Not everyone in the Marcellus Shale region was going to welcome gas companies with open arms. And then industry officials received a special gift from their colleagues on Wall Street, the ones instrumental in creating the financial meltdown of 2008. With the economy in a tailspin, the industry found the perfect antidote to what its members viewed as venomous complaints about the natural gas extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing.

Jobs and economic development would become the industry’s rallying cry as it stormed into the region, disrupting communities and destroying ecosystems. Landowners and mineral rights owners were promised huge sums of money if they signed leases to allow natural gas companies to create industrial zones in their backyards. Local business owners were told they could expect a jump in sales as the invading armies of contract workers and drilling companies would spend huge sums of money at local establishments.

But not everyone living in the states located above the Marcellus Shale geological formation was buying what the industry was selling. Many were skeptical. Others were downright angry. Groups of concerned residents emerged to fight the industry’s planned takeover of their communities. They wrote letters to local officials and organized protests. And they sought out experts to analyze the industry’s rosy economic predictions.

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| Posted on 04/26.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Roots of Occupy: Wall Street Has Always Been War Street

By Mickey Z.

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” -Benito Mussolini

There’s plenty that feels new and fresh about Occupy Wall Street (OWS): the younger participants, the scope of the coalition, the endurance, the creativity, and the outrage. What’s not new is the target of that outrage: Wall Street, Corporate America, and the politicians they fund have been at this deadly game for more than a century.

Mic Check: The pursuit of profit long ago transcended national borders and well… anything resembling justice, community, solidarity, or morality.

To learn more about these roots of Occupy, read on...

Know Your History
In the years before World War II, for example, doing business with Hitler’s Germany or Mussolini’s Italy (or, as a proxy, Franco’s Spain) proved no more unsavory to the captains of industry than, say, selling military hardware to Indonesia does today.

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| Posted on 04/25.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

A Farm Inviolate of Gas Drilling

By Stephen Cleghorn

On May 12, 2012 my wife Lucinda’s remains (her ashes) will be laid to rest as protector of this organic farm and all its inhabitants—human, animal and plants—in perpetuity. Amidst the tearful and joyful celebration of the life she lived and left behind for all those who were privileged to know and love her, Lucinda will forever become part of this farm for which she cared.

Two days before that—on May 10th—I will convene a press conference to declare this farm off-limits to unconventional drilling for gas in the Marcellus Shale that lies a mile below it.

During the press conference I will make the first deposit of Lucinda’s ashes, saving the rest for the family gathering two days hence. With that deposit this land becomes sacred ground, held in trust by me and those who follow me as portion of the common wealth by which we are all sustained.

Those gathered on that day will learn a new meaning of “surface rights.” The rights of all beings whose lives are sustained at the surface and depend upon the clear, clean water that runs upon and below it will be declared the inalienable rights by which human affairs are to be conducted. I will speak of the impermeable love of the land that is present just below our feet like an invisible barrier that no drilling rig can penetrate.

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| Posted on 04/24.

Monday, April 23, 2012

DGR Unleashes News Service on 'Cabal of Power-Mad Psychopaths'

By Press Action

Deep Green Resistance, the radical environmental group, has launched a news service to keep people informed of two important global trends. The first being the environmental destruction associated with industrial capitalism and how it will eventually kill the planet if left unchecked. The second being the growing number of individuals and groups determined to put an end to the ecological devastation.

The mainstream news media does a miserable job monitoring the global environmental crisis and an even worse job covering the people who are defending the earth. “The DGR News Service intends to help close this gap by providing news and commentary about the ecological and social disaster we have found ourselves in, and those fighting to stop it,” DGR said in an April 18 news release. “The site will gather together news stories from mainstream, alternative, and activist sources, essays by writers such as Waziyatawain, Derrick Jensen, Aric McBay, and Lierre Keith.”

Jensen, McBay and Keith are co-authors of the book, Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet. The book, published in 2011, examines strategic options for resistance, from nonviolence to guerrilla warfare, and the conditions required for those options to be successful. It provides an exploration of organizational structures, recruitment, security, and target selection for both aboveground and underground action.

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| Posted on 04/23.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

The Earth Needs More Than a Day: Why We Occupy (Part 1)

By Mickey Z.

"The earth is not dying. It is being killed, and the people killing it have names and addresses.” -Utah Phillips

April 22 is—wait for it—“Earth Day.”

Tragically, far too many of us humans live insulated within a culture so disconnected from its literal landbase that we have to set aside one day a year to acknowledge the existence of the mortal coil upon which we dwell.

Mic Check: Planet Earth doesn’t need a “day.” Planet Earth needs an army of informed and dedicated defenders.

#####

Why We Occupy:

  • 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, storm water, and industrial waste are discharged into U.S. waters annually.
  • Every second, 10,000 gallons of gasoline are burned in the United States.
  • Each year, Americans use 2.2 billion pounds of pesticides.
  • 81 tons of mercury is emitted into the atmosphere each year as a result of global electric power generation.
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| Posted on 04/22.

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