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Isn't the oil in Alaska taken from state owned land, that is why the state gets royalites like here in Canada and the coal is coming from privately owned land that was sold by the state to the new owner So all profit is the land owners.
I guess if we are going after the coal and gas shouldn't the same happen to bottled water companies, it's state water. wind turbines that wind is state wind, what about crops that corn comes from the ground Just like coal and gas.
I'm certain that almost all citizens of West Virginia would be on board with this compensation idea, but without a massive payout to those who really run the circus, the politicians will have no incentive or motivation to act on behalf of the vast majority. Without representative government all good intentions are a moot point.
Yes Chuck1949, there are evil people in the world. Like Bush, Cheney, Rove, Wolfowitz et cetera. It is their evil deeds that have provoked so much of this terrorist blowback. Bush, Cheney and their goons have murdered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who they perceived to be obstacles to their self-serving agenda. Those guys are all about their own "advancement". They are nothing but war criminals and thugs. So much of what you've said about Sadam Hussien and Bin Laden could just as easily be said about Bush and all his fascist goons.
Please don't misunderstand me! I'm no fan of Hussien or Bin Laden's either. I would've liked to see ALL those guys from all three countries thrown into a pit together, just so they can duke it out amongst themselves and leave the rest of the world out of it.
I don't agree with your assertion that 9-11 had nothing to "due" with American policies. To the contrary, they had everything to do with America's kleptocratic, murderous foreign policies. What goes around comes around! You know, the ole boomerang effect...
Baby Bush couldn't wait to get his thieving hands on Iraqi oil so that he and his fascist buddies could control the world and its economy. When I attended a dinner party at my mother's house a few months after the twin tower attacks, I commented that 9-11 was the best day in Bush's career. (That got some of her liberal friends all in a huff.) To this very day, I'll stand by that statement. For years, Bush wanted to invade Iraq and 9-11 was just too convenient for him... even though Iraq had nothing to do with it. Just capitalizing on American ignorance, I guess. - Aliceinwonderland
Yes, I agree...the preparations for 9/11 did start in the Clinton era...and probably before. But it was the Neocons who did the planning. (re: PNAC) And I agree that there are evil people in this world, who did this for their own advancement...like the Neocons. Remember, one of the things that was ticking off the western oil companies and the Neocons was that Saddam Husein was threatening to go off of the petro-dollar and looking to other countries like Russia and China because the assholes in the US had pushed their weight around one too many times. Also, there was the issue of the pipeline the US wanted to put through Afghanistan and the Taliban was playing hardball which Bush and his oil buddies didn't like. The Bush regime had even made threats that "if they didn't accept our 'carpet of gold' that we'd give them a 'carpet of bombs'. This was an outright threat made prior to 9/11. If any other country had made such a threat to the US, the US would do a pre-emptive attack on that country..with the excuse that war threats had been made against them....and were justified in attacking. It had everything to do with American policies. Anyone, who has been paying attention to the US violence (murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians...many children) in the Middle East over these past 11 years, and how trillions of dollars have just mysteriously vanished, and the US torture prisons where they tortured prisoners (many were innocent and were just turned in as terrorists by neighbors who didn't like them or who were paid a ransom for them).
I think that many Americans now have their doubts about just how "just" our illegal invasion and occupation of the Middle East has been. They are coming to realize how they have been hoodwinked, and made fools of, by the Neocon menace and the blood-money villains that profit so well from murdering and maiming people.
I am also wondering when our manipulators will stage another 9/11 to scare people back into line again. Will they electronically hijack more airliners, along with some patsies, and crash into yet more buildings? Or will they do something even scarier...like stage a chemical or nuclear attack somewhere in the US? A dirty bomb, maybe? The more people they kill, the more they will scare the crap out of their citizens once again. What will the American citizens give up yet again when/if that happens?
I even wonder about the new "terrorists" called Isis. There are the leaders and wealthy people in top positions in these countries who have made out very well with aid from the US. With the US leaving, say Iraq, maybe the two factions that don't want the US to leave are those very wealthy and powerful Iraqis and the US military industrial complex and right wing politicians. Since the US is always using(in league with) those who, on the one hand they call "terrorists"...(like Al Qaeda)...and then fund and support them against other countries/governments they don't like (like Syria) is it too far fetched to believe that these "terrorists" are also being used by the Neocons in the US to manipulate the citizens....like in getting them to believe that a little bearded man sitting in a cave in Afghanistan planned 9/11 and that he sent those Muslim men to do a jihad on the US?
I know that it was the "excuse" that there were cuts and that various departments didn't readily share their data with other departments, mostly because they were "protecting" their own territories, which is what they claim resulted in the lack of security that might have prevented 9/11. That's a lot of bullsh1t! There were a number of FBI agents that were on to the alleged hijackers (patsies who were set up by having them take flight lessons and making a spectacle of themselves to draw attention to themselves.)
And they made their reports to headquarters and their bosses just ignored it all...buried it. The Bush administration did a lot of bullying of the security agencies all to make this all happen...all so they could created another "Pearl Harbor" in order to whip people into line through fear and confusion caused by the so-called "terrorist attack" and from their lies of mushroom clouds.
All of the clues lead back to the fact that 9/11 was an inside job. It was planned and orchestrated using patsies to take the fall for it all. Those planes were electronically hijacked and guided to their targets. The technology to do that has been around a long time. The technology to blow up those buildings, like that, was in existence for at least 10 years prior to 9/11. Nanothermite, evidence of which was in the 4 dust samples around the WTC site, was invented in Livermore National Labs and NIST knew full well what it could do but chose to dance around and evade the possibility of nanothermite, or any other explosives, as a cause of the demolitions.
And your argument that money was starving the various security programs in favor of social programs, especially during the Bush Administration, is not very believable. And, I'm sure they are, even now, trying to make that claim even though they are spending billions of dollars on spying centers like the one in Utah and still wasting fortunes in trying to push their weight around in the Middle East.
Even Clinton, on his way out, gave away the store to wealthy Wall Streeters and Banksters after all, they had Clinton by the balls didn't they. . Bush immediately cranked up military spending..because he was dead set on finding an excuse to invade Iraq. In fact, the Neocons' Project for the New American Century (PNAC) had stated, prior to 9/11 that: "Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor"**
Social programs since Reagan have bit the dust because it was their aim to make government (including social programs) so small that they could drown it in a bathtub). They weren't doing that to those programs that continued to make the obscenely wealthy elite even more obscenely wealthy...like those who profited from war and spying on us all.
** Section V of Rebuilding America's Defenses, entitled "Creating Tomorrow's Dominant Force"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century
Right on "delster"! I second that, and I mean the whole enchilada. - AIW
I believe there is a reason Alaska gets kick backs from the oil. Because there are not that many Alaskans. Wealthy individuals in this nation have been purchasing elected mules on capital hill since I was a teenager in 1964. Its been progressively getting worse over the years. They have mules on both sides of the political isles from Nancy Pelosi to Mitch McConnel, and I believe they bought or at least threatened the president of this nation. Who is running the show ? I for one would really like to know. It was Donald Reagan during Ronald Reagans tenure. We know Ron didn't put up much of a struggle to protect our liberty. Now Obama has caved in and probably for a good reason. I really don't see much hope for the land of liberty. Not when we are being managed by some huge Human Resources group controlling everything. You can bet on one thing. The only time liberty exist for most is when you not working for a coporation. We would be wise to remember that any corporation is not a democracy and they certainly do not believe in liberty of any kind outside the employee handbook. They do enjoy the freedom and liberty intended for private citizens. It's a sham. Why should any us citizen fear international terrorists, when the worlds biggest terrorist threaten our privacy, liberty, and democracy right in our own back yard.
By the climate has stopped warming, I mean there has been no significant increase in average global temperatures in the last 17+ years - as per satellite data and as acknowledged by the IPCC. Failure to accept this would be to go against the so-called consensus.
'Stopped warming' doesn't mean temperatures are lower, but a cooling trend over the next couple of decades is not inconceivable and is looking more and more likely the longer the pause lasts.
The arctic ice has not melted, it has rebounded in extent and volume in the last year or so. Prior claims of no sea ice by now have proven false.
Alice,
I don't know where to start. Preparations for 9/11 started during Clinton's first term. 9/11 was not Clinton's or Bush's fault. Whether you believe or not, there are evil people in this world, who for their own advancement. Sadam Hussien and Ben Laden wanted to control the Middle East's oil to dominate the world through by crimpling their economies. Neither man cared one bit for their followers or any country's people. They murdered and killed anybody who they thought would help them gain greater power. Thus, 9/11 was planned and carried out. 9/11 did not happen in the Middle East but in New York City. It had nothing to due with American policies. Most people in the Middle East know little or nothing about our country.
We are not talking about the weekly garbage collection, here.
How much do the big defence companies and weapons manufacturers pay for the cleanup of munitions on the battlefield (the whole world now being a battlefield) - especially when those munitions are sold to foreign powers and used in third party conflicts?
How much do BAE Systems or the like pay for mine clearance, or how much does the US defence department pay for the cleanup of radioactive material in Fallujah, for instance?
There is no finalised long term storage and waste disposal programme in place for the handling of nuclear waste and when one is finally agreed on/dedicated will the nuclear industry or any providers be covering the total cost of decomissioning, decontamination, cleanup, storage, etc?
How much is McDs paying for the de-plastification of the world's oceans and beaches?
Your question should surely be how could the piece claim that the fossil fuel industry is the only industry not to pay to clean up it's own waste.
As a veteran and an employee of an intelligence agency, the cause of 9/11 lies more in the severe cuts across the board in of intelligence organizations and Defense Department than in funding of foreign groups. There are numerous causes for the 9/11 disaster. The popular view was to cut the Defense spending and pump money into domestic programs. This money was pumped into political party pet projects and not into education or infastructure improvements. The spending went into programs to gain votes. But that is off my point, complacency after the success the first Gulf and reduced intelligence capabilities were the main causes for 9/11.
So, "slower death"......are you running for "governor"? Be careful what you wish for,......
Seriously? How about....."and a FREE* weekly lottery ticket." ( you might REALLY end poverty for a few people. )
Considering, past, present and future DAMAGE, that proposal is a JOKE. In fact, if I were one of the wealthy of West Virginia, I would via "citizens united" be backing a candidate ( or all of them ) to "run" on just such a platform.......and I would make SURE the proposal eventually succeeded, thereby "owning" both the state and the people in it, FOREVER. ( which sounds like a long time but isn't. )
Seems the lesson of history hasn't really made an impression on you yet, and that "lesson" was nowhere comparable to the one being taught NOW!!!!
Corporate money is poisoning everything. Agree, both answers are pretty much correct. Media, because of Michael Powell, Gen. Colin Powell's son, destroyed independent news agencies across the country, by allowing monopoly consolidation.
I'm usually the one to agree with Thom, but be pessimistic about any sort of changes. I think we're both in agreement about where our economy is headed and how little there can be done to stop it. I can only hope that humanity will become stronger and wiser on the other side.
As part of being responsible, caring human beings, we have to pressure our government to take major action to stop the degradation of the biosphere from climate change. This is causing death and disease to both domestic animals and wildlife, all of which have done nothing to deserve such a horrible fate at our hands. It's time to eliminate the excuse our fossil fuel loving oligarchy uses for "subsidies" for coal and oil that bring nothing but misery to us and profits for them.
Let's make oil and coal liabilities, not an assets!
Why? Because that is what they actually are! Burning fossil fuels is killing us. the sooner we stop "valuing" that poison, the sooner we strip the power away from the biosphere degraders that wield it. Our very democracy is in jeopardy because of centralized energy corporations. That's right; it's just as much about political power as about energy.
Demanding 100% Renewable energy is the way, not only to the extremely important goal of a viable biosphere, but absolutely essential to regaining our democracy from the fossil fuel industry that buys our politicians with the profits from pollution producing fuels while said politicians keep fossil fuel and nuclear power plant "subsides" (taxpayer theft!) to tilt the energy playing field against renewable energy.
This is a chart of the fossil fuel subsidies versus renewable energy! If that isn't a "level" energy playing field that looks like an alpine slope, I don't know what is.
http://wilderness.org/sites/default/files/legacy/userfiles/federal-subsidies-chart-550(1).jpg
I started a petition on Care2: Demand Liberty From Fossil Fuels Through 100% Renewable Energy WWII Style Effort. I'm hoping that if enough people sign my petition, we can make a difference. We have 231 signatures. Will you help me collect more by adding your name?
Posters to download and print to publicize the petition:
http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200614004325.png
http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-190614205808.png
Here's a link to the petition: http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/Ai3Tb
Thank you and please pass it on. The Biosphere you save may be your own...
This is such a great public policy campaign that should in no way be ignored. Great Idea, that i cant believe this has not be implimented earlier on.
You could be more persuasive it you stated some facts.
Why do you say that the nuclear industry, defence industry, weapons manufacturers, fast food industry, et al - do not pay for their waste disposal?
Climate has stopped warming? What does that mean? Does it mean global temperatures are lower? Does it mean GHG is no longer capturing energy? Does it mean the increase in water vapor in the atmosphere stopped? Does it mean the artic ice has melted and cooled off the artic sea - since melting ice takes 80 times the energy that it takes to raise the sea by 1 degree?
Where is my money?
I thought West Virginia and Alaska were part of the USA.
A big echo for sandcat's comment! On other issues, I was thinking rooftop solar power would have two salutary effects. First, free fuel (sunlight) would free up $ to spend on other economic benefits and second, deleterious climate effects (global warming and health problems due to pollutants) would be reduced freeing up $ for other needs. Win-win except for the extractive industries.
Thom, I was just listening to your story about the gathering of elders in which you participated, and your conversation with Frank. I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR MORE ABOUT THIS GATHERING and your experiences there. Please consider discussing it on air or posting more information here at the blog.
We have so much to learn from indigenous people about how to leave properly with the earth.
Ooops, the climate has stopped warming, sea ice extent and volume has increased in the arctic this year, and there are increasing signs of a cooling period ahead.
A carbon tax will only benefit those who already appropriate the most wealth - fossil fuel extraction will continue as clean and green energy is so expensive given the feed in tariffs, subsidies, and high strike price/price per unit.
There will be no net benefit to the environment from a carbon tax, nor from an emission trading scheme.
Carbon capture and sequestration schemes are a good idea in theory, but in practice nature has been running a far more successful and efficient CCS scheme for hundreds or millions of years. We would be best to support that scheme and leave the money making ideas behind.
Given the net benefit of increased CO2 in vegetation growth, we would help far more if we started replanting and greening our environment - wasteland, brown field sites and retail/industrial/technical/business parks in urban areas, railway & motorway embankments and junction areas, supermarket land banks, scrubland not suitable to agricultural use, set-aside farm land, defence department land, etc.
If people really wanted to do their part, I would suggest as well as recycling and conserving energy (if only for common sense and budgetary reasons) not paving over their driveways and planting a few shrubs or trees would have the twofold benefit of greening their neighbourhood and in flood management and helping their local utility companies manage water run off .
Whilst I love the imagery of "pumping toxic greenhouses into the atmosphere" and scratch my head at the suggestion that the fossil fuel industry is "the only industry in the world that doesn't have to pay to clean up it's own waste" (hello, nuclear industry, defence industry, weapons manufacturers, fast food industry, et al!) I must take issue with the highly speculative prognostications above.
Our planet will not be unrecognisable by the end of, or mid century; one hour of activity outside in the shade will not lead to heat stroke unless in the hottest of locations where daytime activities are always so limited; and extreme weather events are not caused by global warming (anyone doubting this does not conform to the alleged consensus - see IPCC report, for instance).
What is the basis for all these claims? Where is the evidence that is not based on models that have been proven to be flawed? Or experts such as Mann who come out with the most ridiculous of comments.
Climate Change is a given. It is a fact and a natural consequence of having an atmosphere. We are also affecting our environment in multiple damaging ways.
We are all welcome to our own opinions, but not to our own facts. Much in the same way that shouting 'fire!' in a crowded theatre can be more dangerous than an actual fire, such highly speculative, alarmist, nonsensical, jumbo-jumbo is not only misleading, but damaging in ways we cannot yet fully fathom.
That people lap this stuff up, whilst ignoring the real threats to our environment and our wellbeing says much indeed.