Hanukkah Miracles!

Along with New York banning fracking yesterday, and a U.S. President finally treating our Cuban policy with a modicum of common sense, we were also apprised of the following sign of divine intervention in human affairs, with god revealing his (or her) true face:

Behold, Grumpy Cat is the one true god because I found him in an apple. pic.twitter.com/pSM1VFKYLm
— Darth Skeptic (@weakSquare) December 18, 2014

Even more surprising than the feline nature of God (which is actually not surprising at all), is the fact that God is female. Because, despite the "him" in Darth Skeptic's tweet, we know that Grumpy Cat (alias Tardar Sauce, alias God) is a girl.

Exposing the Other EPA, the "Environmental Policy Alliance"

It's important to look behind the curtains to expose the paid political consultants doing the bidding of corporate interests in ads like these:

Of course it's ridiculous to paint those concerned about the effects of fracking on the environment as the flat-earth science deniers when that crown belongs to those who stop their ears and scream to avoid hearing about climate change, but big lies repeated often, and broadcast on TV, have a way of working their way in the public conversation. So who are the people behind that other EPA, the "Environmental Policy Alliance," which created this ad about Colorado citizens who voted against fracking? It's a front group of a well-connected Washington PR firm, Berman & Co, which also operates front groups defending corporate interests in all areas from tobacco to liquor to dietary fat to oil and gas fracking. Here's its leader, Rick Berman, smirking his way through an interview with Rachel Maddow in 2010.


And here's a long list of Berman & Company's current list of front organizations polluting the public debate with corporate money.

Other Berman Front Groups

• ActivistCash.com
• AFT Facts
• American Beverage Institute
• AnimalScam.com
• Big Green Radicals
• Center for Consumer Freedom
• Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy
• Center for Organizational Research and Education
• Center for Union Facts
• CREW Exposed
• CSPI Scam
• Defeat the Debt
• EmployeeRightsAct.com
• Employment Policies Institute
• Enterprise Freedom Action Committee
• EPA Facts
• Green Decoys
• Hands Off My Bacon
• HumaneWatch.org
• Interlock Facts
• Interstate Policy Alliance
• LaborPains.org
• LEED Exposed
• Maternity Pens
• MinimumWage.com
• NegligentDriving.com
• No Drink Tax
• ObesityMyths.com
• PETA Kills Animals
• Physician Scam
• Protecting Bad Teachers
• Responsible Limits
• Rethink Reform
• Rotten ACORN
• SEIU Exposed
• Sweet Scam
• Teachers Union Exposed
• The New Prohibition
• Tipped Wage
• Unite Here Exposed
• Vote Our Future
• WorkerCenters

Today's Fine White Whine Comes from a Fracking Flack (and his right-wing media megaphone)

So, what does the right-wing media have to complain about today (other than the fact that Michelle Obama mentioned Jane Fonda)? It seems that a film festival being held this week at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota will not be showing the amateurish pro-fracking film FrackNation, so they are predictably being accused of liberal censorship of anti-environmental films by filmmaker Phelim McAleer.

"The film festival organizers seem to hate alternative points of view, they seem to want to quash diversity. They seem to be scared of the truth. Basically the Frozen River Film Festival organizers have given in to bullying and taken the easy way out and censored a film that might offend environmental elites who think they know best. These people are cultural censors and don't want the truth about fracking to be shown to audiences."

If that sounds familiar, he also accused the IMF of censoring him last year by not showing his film. "Basically [yes, he overuses 'basically'] they were censoring my presentation, they were censoring my speech," But this time a group other than 'environmental elites' got the blame. "They're trying to force people not to say terrible things because it could offend one of their senior members. They didn't want to offend Russia."

So, what do the the organizers of this week's Minnesota film festival have to say about giving in to bullying from liberal cultural censors? Here's the statement on the website of the Frozen River Film Festival:

"The Frozen River Film Festival regrets to inform its audience that we will not screen FRACKNATION. There is growing national consensus that the film does not qualify as a documentary and the filmmakers were unable to provide someone to stand-up for the film. Upon original acceptance we stated that a filmmaker attend with the film and join in a moderated public forum, as engagement is an important part of our mission. We offered to pay travel and lodging to anyone from the film who could attend. They declined to send someone, so we will not be screening the film."

Those monsters.

You Might Be A Republican If ...

... you look at this photograph I took yesterday and say:

"That would be even more beautiful if there were some fracking rigs installed there!"

From the Zena Cornfield looking toward Overlook in Woodstock, NY.

Have a Great Weekend.

And don't frack this up.

There are no flammable fossil fuels under these New York mountains and forests that are half as valuable as these mountains and forests.

Looking north to the Catskills from Minnewaska State Park in the Shawangunks. August  21, 2012

Josh Fox's Fracking Film for Governor Cuomo

I copied this video from the Rolling Stone website, but I'm sure that Josh Fox's main goal is to make sure that everyone who lives and votes in New York sees this. I'll do my part by making sure that the 10 or 12 people who visit trueblueliberal.org have it placed in front of them. "The Sky is Pink" is definitely worth 18 minutes of your day:

 

Spread the word and post this video everywhere, because we can be sure that this distribution won't be financially supported by the Koch Bros. or SuperPacs, which can easily afford to wallpaper our television screens with nonstop fossil fuel propaganda on every network every night. And we know that the FACTS in this film will be attacked by astroturf organizations and the oil and gas corporations, corporations that Andrew Cuomo won't want to be on the wrong side of when he runs for President in 2016.

Click here for Governor Andrew Cuomo's Contact Page.

Has Governor Cuomo answered this message yet?

Watch Alec Baldwin and Josh Fox leave a message for Governor Andrew Cuomo about fracking in New York State from the stage of the Landmark Theater in Syracuse on June 2, 2012.




Has the Governor answered Alec's call yet?
How quickly would Andy answer the voice mails left by CEOs of those corporations which are generously promising our state jobs, money, cheap gas, trucks, pumps, derricks, flaming faucets, mystery chemicals, wastewater ponds, dirty air, and poisoned wells (and maybe hint in passing about helping him with his possible Presidential plans in 2016)?

Representative Maurice Hinchey

In these years of low approval ratings for Congress, I have been very appreciative of my Representative in Washington, Maurice Hinchey. Read his Wikipedia entry for an impressive list of stands on environmental issues during his time in Congress, most recently with his co-authorship of the FRAC act to end the exemptions from the Clean Water Act given to the gas and oil industries by the Cheneyites.  His anti-fracking activism invoked the wrath of Karl Rove's American Crossroads in the 2010 elections (the 21st-century badge of honor -- the equivalent of being on Dick Nixon's Enemies List).

Later today, Congressman Hinchey will be announcing his retirement from Congress after this term. I want to wish him a happy well-earned retirement, good health, and thank him for his service.  There will be no jokes or snark in this entry.

Fracking Made Simple

This video made by children in Ireland makes more sense about hydrofracking for natural gas than any propaganda spewed by the oil and gas corporations:

Language Matters: Redefining "Eco-terrorism"

Why should we just sit back and let Fox News, the American FBI, and the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research define "eco-terrorism", when it's obvious that the real eco-terrorists are those who would poison our pristine Catskill water with fracking fluids or hunt endangered marine mammals or contaminate the Gulf Coast with millions of barrels of oil or ... well, the prize has to go to those who would remove entire mountains in West Virginia to get to the coal underneath.
The following ABC News story is from last July, but it presents this barbaric eco-terroristic practice of mountaintop removal in a concise horrifying summary.


Note that mountaintop-removing Representative Nick Rahall (D-WV) is a prime example of why I am NOT a registered Democrat, and fracking profiteer Dan Boren (D-OK), who made this recent appearance in the Times is another. While the GOP may be more predictably anti-environment, many -- if not most -- representatives of both parties are consistently more interested in "serious" issues like money and cost-effective energy procurement than in the "frivolous" issue of protecting our earth.
Despite government-sanctioned definitions of eco-terrorism, ask the next generations looking at a flat "reclaimed" West Virginia landscape of toxic ponds, Walmarts, and Waffle Houses if the real eco-terrorists were the short-sighted people in suits who removed the mountains, or the people of ELF and ALF who torched the occasional Hummer and released lab rats.
"Eco-terrorism," in the TrueBlueLiberal dot org Style Guide, is used to describe those who would HARM the ecosystem, not those who attempt to protect it.

Fracking and the Delaware River Basin Commission

I know this video is from a few days ago, but I just stumbled on it now. This segment from Keith Olbermann's Countdown with Josh Fox (Gasland) and Debra Winger (playing Eeyore in this clip) does a great job of summarizing the recent victory of anti-fracking activists in the Delaware River basin:

It's worth listening to Josh Fox's explanation of where hydraulic fracturing for shale gas falls in the larger context of "extreme fossil fuel development" where more and more harmful means of extraction -- mountaintop removal, tar sands, deepwater drilling, fracking and more -- are being used because we delayed our switch to renewables and alternatives and have run low on the easily accessible fossil fuels.

(Of course, if you're a right winger who has stumbled on this blog, you can dismiss all these arguments because some of them are being made by successful Hollywood actress.)

"...you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone . . ."

My favorite quotations about the Occupy Wall Street movement are the ones that go something like this: "Of course I agree with the ideas of the Occupy movement, but I don't agree with the tactics." You hear it all the time, and the #OWS movement has succeeded every time that sentiment is voiced.

When the first few occupiers started in their occupation in the first city, New York, exactly two months ago on 9/17/2011, nobody in the media or government was primarily concerned with the growing American economic inequality. The only economic issue being discussed by "serious" commentators was the debt, and how much more pain was going to have to be doled out to those already suffering from the vagaries of a "free" market skewed to help those at the top (and by those at the top). The range of debate two months ago went all the way from the center right to the far right (and then farther right once the Tea Party got involved).

You won't see Andre Cuomo wearing
one of these anytime soon.

The Governor of my state, a man with national political ambitions, New York's Andrew Cuomo, has firmly planted himself in the center of that limited frame of reference. But he needs to be careful, because the Occupy movement has reopened the curtain on the left-hand side of the political stage, and a large portion of the electorate has finally seen a set of views and arguments that they can relate to and agree with. Cuomo is all for letting the Millionaire's Tax in New York expire at the end of the year and he's taking the corporate side in the contentious debate over hydrofracking for natural gas, but the center has moved. This is the wrong side of both issues within this state and within his party. In a raucous fall meeting of the Democratic State Committee, the party leaders wouldn't let either issue come up for a vote, knowing that our Governor had staked out the Republican positions for himself on both issues. “Go to hell!” yelled committeewoman Lori Gardner after the fracking resolution was tabled. “The party leaders pretty much protect the governor, they were appointed by the governor, and here, they pretended they won.”
To get back to my original point, you can't separate the ideas of the Occupy movement from the tactics. Without the tactics, the overreactions of law enforcement, and the constant presence in the streets of all fifty states over the past two months, those ideas never would have found their rightful place in the national dialogue. Andrew Cuomo is not the only politician who needs to recalibrate (or flip flop) in order to keep his national political ambitions alive. He needs to be listening to the Occupiers in Albany rather than trying to arrest them every night (even though Albany County District Attorney David Soares refuses to prosecute them).
Here's the song about clueless politicians I can't get out of my head tonight:

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

"Frack, Baby, Frack!"

In case you needed any more proof that the hydrofracking process for extracting natural gas from shale formations was dangerous, dirty, and just plain evil, just look at this graphic from Rupert Murdoch's New York Post. "Frack, Baby, Frack!"  The source proves it's as wrong as anything you'd hear from Fox News, but it gains extra odiousness due to its intentional resonance with Sarah Palin's war cry, "Drill, Baby, Drill!"

You can read the article that accompanied this graphic by clicking here: "Anti-Drilling Hysteria: Spreading fear to halt progress".

A Primer on Hydrofracking That's Worth the Time

This presentation should be watched by New York's Governor Cuomo too. Even if he simply speeds it up and clicks quickly through the horrifying pictures, maybe it will cause him to reconsider opening up the Empire State to these polluters.

There is nothing "cheap" or "clean" about this extreme means of natural gas extraction and those of us who live in this beautiful state will NEVER forgive him if he allows this environmental crime here. The (D) after his name does not exempt him from criticism when almost every single one of his actions could be the actions of a Republican (gay marriage being the only exception I can think of).

The Catskills have been saved from corporate rape by one thing -- minerals were never found here in the past. The beauty on the surface and the pristine waters produced here are now far more valuable than anything that may be dug from below. I PROMISE to vote for the Green Party in the next gubernatorial election if fracking is allowed by the current governor. Maybe he should try harder to protect New York from corporate greed than to appeal to the Right - and corporate donors - for his possible future national political ambitions.

Karl Rove's Loss Yesterday

Here's hoping that hubris once again leads to a short residence of the Republicans in the House majority.

To hear Karl Rove talk about "the End of the Obama Liberal Agenda" before his natural constituency of Natural Gas executives today, you would think that the Republicans had won both houses with filibuster-proof and veto-proof supermajorities, and that he had personally been invincible in all his campaigns.
His group American Crossroads came after my Congressman, Maurice Hinchey, late in the campaign with this commercial that started to seem ubiquitous on cable in the Hudson Valley.

What was Maurice Hinchey's chief crime? I don't think there's any doubt that he became a target of the energy industry insiders bankrolling Karl Rove because of his sponsorship of the FRAC Act. The Fracking Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act would end a Bush era loophole written for the natural gas industry which exempts them from the Safe Drinking Water Act and allows them to pump chemicals into the ground without even disclosing which poison mixtures are being pumped into our land and water. In these pristine Catskills -- which still provide unfiltered water to New York City--this threat of drilling and inserting a toxic stew below our mountains and forests strikes everyone who lives here as criminal (if the Republicans can pretend to speak for every American, I can certainly pretend to speak for everyone in my Congressional district).
And despire generic attack ads financed from out of state that dominated local television, with 99% of votes counted, Maurice Hinchey leads Republican George Phillips by 52.4% to 47.6%. You lost this one Karl.

I'M MAD AS HELL TOO, CARL!, or Go Frack Yourself

There's now less than a week left of these ugly emphatic orange and black signs along the side of New York's backroads, impeding the deer and wild turkeys in their quest to run into my car. Soon we'll be back to nothing but piles of leaves and bare trees on the roadsides. I don't seem to be mad about any of the things that Carl and Fox News want me to be mad about, but I am mad that one of Carl Paladino's first acts, if elected Governor of New York, would be to immediately allow hydrofracking here in upstate New York. Who cares if our previously pristine well water becomes poisonous ... and flammable?

Go frack yourself Carl.