Archive | September, 2011
Agency Struggles to Safeguard Pipeline System – NYTimes.com
10 SepThe little-known federal agency charged with monitoring the system [167,000-mile system of hazardous liquid pipelines] and enforcing safety measures — the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — is chronically short of inspectors and lacks the resources needed to hire more, leaving too much of the regulatory control in the hands of pipeline operators themselves, according to federal reports, an examination of agency data and interviews with safety experts.
They portray an agency that rarely levies fines and is not active enough in policing the aging labyrinth of pipelines, which has suffered thousands of significant hazardous liquid spills over the past two decades.
via Agency Struggles to Safeguard Pipeline System – NYTimes.com.
Obama Jobs Speech Changes Conversation | The Nation
9 SepThe introduction of the “American Jobs Act” was both a policy and rhetorical shift from the administration, away from the above the fray “most reasonable man in the room” strategy aimed at a narrow sliver of independent voters and toward a more aggressive, feistier Obama, one who is not afraid to run against the do-nothing Congress, take his case directly to the American people and ruffle a few feathers. It’s the Obama, quite frankly, that many of his supporters have been waiting quite some time to see.
Quoted from the speech:
But what we can’t do—what I won’t do—is let this economic crisis be used as an excuse to wipe out the basic protections that Americans have counted on for decades. I reject the idea that we need to ask people to choose between their jobs and their safety. I reject the argument that says for the economy to grow, we have to roll back protections that ban hidden fees by credit card companies, or rules that keep our kids from being exposed to mercury, or laws that prevent the health insurance industry from shortchanging patients. I reject the idea that we have to strip away collective bargaining rights to compete in a global economy. We shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom, where we try to offer the cheapest labor and the worst pollution standards. America should be in a race to the top. And I believe that’s a race we can win.
Ron Has the Recipe
8 Sepby Charlie Keil
Ron Has the Recipe
Basically Ron Paul has the recipe: drop fascism-militarism-empire and Wall St. bankster capitalism, shrink the Fed gov’t and its taxation without representation (I’m refusing to pay fed taxes until the wars stop), return “entitlements” (health/education/welfare) back to the states, LOCALITIES, individuals, where problems can be solved by face to face communication, genuine democracy, libertarian sociability (or Bernard Shaw’s “sociable socialism”) the old-fashioned way.
The federal government can not give you/us anything that it hasn’t taken away from you/us first!
I’d keep Social Security separate and working just fine—taking money from us when we’re working to keep us secure when we’re old—if it’s not “borrowed” from to do wars, etc. And if Medicare can be reformed to keep costs down it would be wonderful to extend it to children in their first 5 years of life, get them off to a healthy start.
All questions become practical and solvable at human scale, i.e. locally, in “transition” to sustainability. Paul’s principles and non-programs might get us there in time to save the speciation. That’s my hope, and “yes we can” for today anyway.
How a Famous ‘NYT’ Reporter Led the Media Cover-Up of Radiation Dangers | The Nation
8 SepBut Laurence was keeping a lot to himself. Embedded with the Manhattan Project for months, he was the only reporter who knew about the fallout scare surrounding the Trinity test: scientists in jeeps chasing a radioactive cloud, Geiger counters clicking off the scale, a mule that became paralyzed. Here was the nation’s leading science reporter, severely compromised, not only unable but disinclined to reveal all he knew about the potential hazards of the most important scientific discovery of his time.
This happened half a century ago. But it surely does make you wonder: What’s The New York Times, the so-called paper of record, sitting on now?
via How a Famous ‘NYT’ Reporter Led the Media Cover-Up of Radiation Dangers | The Nation.
The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive
7 SepFollow the link to download a free copy of the book. We have.
Conservatives rely on the government all the time, most importantly in structuring the market in ways that ensure that income flows upwards. The framing that conservatives like the market while liberals like the government puts liberals in the position of seeming to want to tax the winners to help the losers.
This “loser liberalism” is bad policy and horrible politics. Progressives would be better off fighting battles over the structure of markets so that they don’t redistribute income upward. This book describes some of the key areas where progressives can focus their efforts in restructuring market so that more income flows to the bulk of the working population rather than just a small elite.
via The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive.
Ron Paul Interview Transcribed
7 Sep“The Founder’s were right: non-intervention, friends and trade with people, more prosperity, and peace.”
Here’s a clip of an interview with Ron Paul on America Live with Megyn Kelly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sguZg8FI9lo
He’s trying to change history, and so are we. He gave this interview after he placed well in the Iowa straw poll, but got little notice in the MSM. Starting at about 1:10 into the video, Kelly asks Paul whether or not the media is ignoring him:
Paul: Sure. Yeah they are, and we need to ask them why? What are they afraid of? Well, we’re certainly in the top tier. We did well in Iowa and we have a good organization. We can raise money.
But they don’t want to discuss my views because I think they’re frightened by us challenging the status quo and the establishment. When it comes to foreign policy, monetary policy, the entitlement system, because my views are quite different from the other candidates. They’d just as soon us not get the coverage that the others are getting and they will concentrate on establishment type politicians.
Kelly: There seems to be a narrative emerging that you can’t win and therefore they’re giving you back of the hand treatment. There was an editorial in The Wall Street Journal that said “He has no chance to win.” This despite the fact that you are 152 votes within the top spot in the Iowa straw pole. In fact out of almost 17,000 votes cast you were a 150 votes or so from number one. But The Wall Street Journal and others that you can’t win. Why? Why do they believe that?
Paul: Well they want to believe it and they want to promote an idea. They don’t want to promote information because they’re having a couple poles where I either came in first or second when you match my name up against Obama. Because my votes really compete.
“I’m trying to change the course of history.”
This would be a reason why the Democrats don’t want me to win either. Because I can compete against Obama. His base is very unhappy with his expansion of the war, and his lack of interest in protecting civil liberties. And therefore they don’t want to hear from me either. But I’ve done quite well. I’m quite willing to match my name up against Obama any time of the day.
Kelly: It’s got to be somewhat frustrating for you. I mean to come in second and be as close as you were to winning in Iowa, not to mention the polling that you’ve been doing, which is fairly good. To have this kind of treatment in the media, does this disturb you?
Paul: Well it disturbs me. I don’t use the word ‘frustrating’ because I anticipate and I know how the system works, and I know what I’m trying to do, because not like I’m just trying to win and get elected.
I’m trying to change the course of history and our history in this country hasn’t been good for the last 100 years, whether it’s our drift into managing an empire, the destruction of our currency, the deficits that have been run up, the climax of the dollar reserve standard. This is big stuff and nobody else is addressing this.
So in spite of the shortcomings of the reporting of this I write if off a bit, because they don’t have any idea about the significance of the idea of the monetary system and what’s going on with the Federal Reserve.
“The peace candidate is always a very strong candidate.”
But the people, grass roots America, are startin’ to wake up. Millions of people are reading about the Federal Reserve and understanding how they bail out their friends. Trillions of dollars. Give a third of all that money they used in the bail-out, give it to foreign banks. People realize this even though the media, generally speaking, they don’t understand it, they don’t ask the right questions. And if they do understand it they don’t want to get the secret out of how the system that we have protects the special interests, the big corporations, the corporatism that runs our society. Continue reading
Shareable: Equal Energy For All: Can We Democratize the Grid?
5 SepThe Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) recently published an e-book (PDF) advocating complete democratization of the electric grid by abandoning a system that is dominated by large, centralized utilities for a 21st century grid made of independently-owned and widely-dispersed renewable energy generators
A democratized system for creating and distributing electric power ensures that the economic benefits of electricity generation are as widely dispersed as the ownership.
via Shareable: Equal Energy For All: Can We Democratize the Grid?.
Truth and Traditions 