Wednesday, June 20, 2012

George Pyle considers "What EnergySolutions is for..."

Too bad nobody reads the paper.  If they did, they would have noticed in Sunday's Salt Lake Tribune Opinion section, the important column by Georgy Pyle: "What Energy Solutions is for..."

It was bad enough that we had a company in Utah that claimed it could be trusted to store radioactive material that remains deadly for millions of years. Then it "went public" (ironic phrase).

So now this company is more beholding to its investors than it is to keeping those tons of garbage of Mass Destruction contained away from "the public" -- for the necessary time and all eternity.

We now have the ultimate blackmail upon Utah. If EnergySolutions doesn't make money, they'll want out of the business. Then, who will maintain the walls between us and the hellish poison?

There are still important questions to ask the Bush Family.

My comment on the article titled "Charles Hopper, Ex-Lehman Brothers Exec, Commits Suicide In Face Of Financial Distress" at Huffington Post.
            




" I still want to know more about how the two Bush family members (W's brother, Jeb, and cousin, George Herbert Walker IV) did when Lehman crashed. They were both hired on in high level executive positions in Lehman's last years (GHW in 2006 and Jeb in 2007).

What did they walk away with --- and, of course, what was their effect on the company and its 2008 crash?

Why haven't they found the need to fall on their swords?"

Monday, May 28, 2012

May 28, 2012

On this Memorial Day, Blair's testimony in a London courtroom was interrupted with cries of "WAR CRIMINAL!!!" -- a perfect reminder that we should remember the leaders who lied to start wars and who forced unnecessary sacrifices we sadly memorialize -- on this day. 
 
David Lawley-Wakelin, a freelance documentary film maker, entered the courtroom from behind a curtain and shouted quickly, while he had the chance: "Excuse me. This man should be arrested for war crimes. JP Morgan paid him off for the Iraq war; three months after we invaded Iraq they held up the Iraq bank for £20bn. He was then paid $6m every year, and still is, from JP Morgan, six months after he left office. The man is a war criminal."
 

(Photo from the Huffington Post site)
 
See video here.
 
To honor those who lost their lives, we can and should hold these leaders responsible. There is no statute of limitations for war criminals. Augusto Pinochet was arrested 30 years after his crimes. So, the truth is that Bush, Cheney, and Blair can never rest easy. (To learn more, there's this significant Fresh Air interview with Phillipe Sands .)
My thanks to today's courageous protestor, David Lawley-Wakelin.
 
This is not Mr. Lawley-Wakelin's first public accusal of Tony Blair.  He was previously interviewed on the BBC's Question Time where he accused Blair of being a liar prepared to kill for oil.  He has also made a 45 minute documentary called The Alternative Iraq Enquiry.
 
Mr Lawley-Wakelin will not be prosecuted. 

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Newt Gingrich Attacks Romney with "King of Bain" Documentary

Thank you, Newt Gingrich. That's something I never thought I'd say, but I'm a Democrat, and I very much appreciate having such important informatio­n to share about the most-likel­y Republican nominee.

Meanwhile, what is the Republican party to do? Every candidate is an extraordin­ary disaster.

Santorum wants to make birth control illegal because he's so "pro-life" -- unless you count his neocon-lik­e militarism and push for war everywhere­.

Ron Paul's libertaria­nism includes a history of writings encouragin­g violence against blacks in American neighborho­ods. His current denials don't hold water when the record shows he has previously defended his newsletter­s.

Perry is another Texas fool pushed to the front by corporate powers mixed in with strange religious extremists­.

Huntsman is too nice to be anything but bland and pushed to the side.

And Newt is a heartless egotist, fiercely stomping around and throwing tantrums.

So they'll go with Romney, unenthusia­stically, for being. . . a leader, and try to figure out ways to defend him. Ha!  

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Update January 2012

Things I KNOW at this moment, as we enter this 2012 election year:

1.  I KNOW that the Citizens United Supreme Court decision must be stopped, whether it is by overturning or a Constitutional Amendment.  (See Senator Bernie Sanders site.)

2.  I KNOW that ALEC, the group exposed in 2011 that coordinates the writing of state laws to support business interests over the interests of citizens, must be further revealed constantly for its anti-democratic, anti-American work.

3.  I KNOW that natural gas fracking and its waste-water injecting are directly connected to the rise in earthquakes, especially in areas that have never had serious earthquakes, and that the industry is big and powerful and doesn't want us to realize this.

4.  I KNOW that the Republicans are attacking Barack Obama for the national debt, unemployment, overspending -- the whole economic problem in the U.S. -- and that is NOT HIS DOING.  He was not just stuck with an outrageous mess left by the Bush administration -- he (or whatever Democrat was sure to follow) was SET UP TO FAIL.  The policies of the Bush administration were designed to crash the government -- to destroy revenue, spend trillions on wars that were not included in the budget, defund and dismantle agencies that should have been protecting Americans, replace scientists with lobbyists.

5.  I KNOW that the actual failures of Barack Obama, the ones that have cost him the support of many who believed he would bring progressive change, are based on an election system that is funded by big money, which means ANYONE who gets elected is in debt to corporate interests.   See the movie The Candidate.

6.  I KNOW that electronic voting machines are not accurate and that we must return to paper ballots.

7.  I KNOW that increased protections against "voter fraud" are the result of Republican operatives looking for any way to decrease the number of Democrats voting.

8.  I KNOW that most of those who try to claim moral superiority and push anti-abortion policies repeatedly demonstrate that they are NOT "pro-life" after the children are born, by defunding programs that support the health and education of these children and their parents.

9.  I KNOW that the Neoconservatives who continue to create Republican policies are working with a philosophy that encourages lying to the public, creating ultimate enemies and dire conflicts, building a self-righteousness drenched in religion and patriotism -- all to distract and make money, to keep the masses manageable.

10.  I KNOW that the more we seek to know the truth, and to share it, the more we can create the communities, the country, the world we believe supports humanity.

That's what's on my mind, today.

********


P.S.  Sorry, but I'm not providing links.  Google away.

P.P.S.  I do recommend Brad Friedman, Greg Palast, Seymour Hersh, Mark Crispin Miller, and Bill Moyers, as sources of information, for starters.