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Kend ~ Thanks! You are spot on!! Agreed 100%. Let's not give up the Good Fight!
Tar sand oil, the worst kind of oil on the planet. Like saying cyanide soup worse than arsenic soup. It takes on average the equivalent of 8 gallons natural gas to make one barrel of oil from bituminous (tar sand).One barrel yeilds 20 gallons of gas, some jet fuel, some propane, some benzene and other light ends.
Tar sand oil makes at least twice maybe three times as much greenhouse gas as simply burning the natural gas directly in your car or even as a generation source for your electric car. Tar sand might be a logical short term answer for domestic jet fuel and diesel resources. The USA is not nearly as rich in tar sand as Canada but there is plenty of tar sand in the USA.
Keystone pipeline is not about U.S.A supply. If Keystone was about here it would not have to go to Port Arthur, TX. Keystone completion is to make Canada tar sand world market available!
The U.S.A. of for and by the people would encourage and enable capatilism to create 21 century solutions to energy needs. China, Canada and unfortunately this U>S>A> wants to just keep pissin in the creek.
Now I will read Outbacks link @ Huffington post regarding social security. I hope you will all do the same.
I hate to break the bad news to you but here in Canada we have very stringent gun laws, everything you want and we still have just as much trouble as you do.
I agree with you though. it is all a distraction from what really matters. The economy. Get everyone back to work you get more tax revenue, less people are on welfare and food stamps, and all your problems are solved.
I do not believe that any group that engages in any kind of discrimination should be eligible for a non profit tax status including churches.
DAnneMarc, I don't disagree with stringent background checks, as long as they don't go overboard, but I think this assault rifle thing and large capacity magazines is simply silly. Anyone taken in by these spurious arguments doesn't know thing one about firearms.
As to surrendering our firearms, you already know my take on that. The day they try to do that is the day we will all know the reason we own them. No way is it remotely possible for that to happen.
douglas m: I agree. This hysteria, whipped up by the media is BS. There are probably a dozen things that could be pursued on a national level to reduce violence, by ALL METHODS, that would be more effective than more gun control laws, starting with violent media (videos, movies) fed to children and adolescents. If this government is really interested in curbing violence against innocent civilians, then stop the endless warfare! I am so SICK of hearing about Newtown! A tragedy? Yes! But a wart on the ass of our own government's growing brutalization of the middle class and poor people in this country!!!
Isn't that like asking if the KKK or Nazi party should receive tax subsidies? But of course religions do, and a lot of them very discriminatory and political.
Amen. Outback
How many people got stabbed when someone freaked out this week? Regulate knives!
More gun laws equal more gun crime, argue with statistics.
Stealing Social Security FROM THE POOR?!?!? Thousand more times important!
STEAL FROM THE POOR AND GIVE TO THE RICH!!! Just to get re-electected every two/four years.
AND WHEN THEY DESTROY THE HAND THAT FEEDS THEM,US; WHATS NEXT!!!
Outback ~ Kudos my friend! Good point. However, have you considered that maybe they want to take our guns away to disarm us before they take our social safety net away. It might just be an innocent coincidence; but, personally I think at this point it would be to all of our benefit to throw everything we have into defeating this gun legislation just to send a shot across the bow that we can shoot back if we need to. What do you think?
Guns be damned! This is a red herring to distract the masses, along with gay rights and immigration reform. The most serious threat we face today is what they're planning to do to Social Security!
The Social Security argument is heating up! Politicians are making wild, unsupportable statements, aided and abetted by a mainstream news media that can only be described as "the voice of the oligarchy". In his recent budget announcement, President Barack Obama went so far as to say that the proposed chained-CPI change to the Social Security COLA calculation is designed to "strengthen" the program by gradually reducing payout. By this convoluted logic it would make sense to cut benefits to zero, thus preserving the Social Security Trust Fund forever (or until the vultures descend upon it, whichever comes first). Obama's statement is the most Orwellian thing I've heard come out of his mouth yet! The White House has also claimed that, while it was not the "optimal" outcome to include Social security reductions as part of the budged proposal, it was intended as a means of "drawing Republicans to the bargaining table". There are only two possible ways to interpret this; either Obama is once again rewarding the Republicans for their intransigence which will only reinforce that behavior, or taking down Social Security is one of his hidden agendas, which is to say he he has been a Republican mole in deep cover from the start. Neither interpretation is good. I've been interested in the Social Security debate for several years (mainly since I've retired) and have read every article that's come my way on the subject and done a fair amount of Googling of official government sources on the subject. Nowhere have I run across an article as true to the documented facts and as comprehensive regarding all of the issues on both sides of the debate as this article published a week ago in the Huffington Post. I urge anyone with an interest in getting to the truth on the Social Security outrage to read the following article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-don-riegle/post_1901_b_845106.html
What left-wing organizations fall under "Hate Group"? Not trying to be biased to the left, just saying you don't hear allot about left-winged malitia groups arming themselves for the apocalypse much even on Politico or the Drudge Report.
http://nobillionaires.com doesn't exist. but i did find a site called http://nobillionaires.org/. i think i may be possible they changed to org.
Kend ~ I'm sorry! Apparently you took my comment seriously. Actually, I'm blowing off this topic.
You see, the worst thing this project can do is to harm the United States and it's people--perhaps the rest of the world as well. That is people, not the Earth. Until the US, and it's people, do something to redeem themselves for the harm they have done to the rest of the world, this project is doing the work of God. I don't care any more than I'm concerned about Yosemite erupting and burying the US under ash, The Canary Island mountain sliding into the sea and flooding the east coast with a tsunami, Japan spitting into two and destroying the west coast with a Mega Tsunami, or an asteroid impact creating a crater where Texas used to be. If God's happy, I'm happy!
Besides, if we cared at all about God's green Earth this pipeline wouldn't exist in the first place, would it? God gave us more than enough energy for our needs from the Sun in the sky. We choose to feed off of death. We chose death! As we sow, so we should reap! Don't you think?
Timothy Gilmore ~ Wow! Brilliant letter! You took the words right out of my mouth. Thank you and God Bless!
Yes you are right. The Koch's don't run a non profit organization. I live in Alberta where the Oil Sands are. Here the government or Albertians own that oil so we get royalties so the higher the price we get the lower our taxes are. So of course we want more. Oil prices are around $90 a barrel and we are only getting $40 because we have no other pipelines. So believe me we are building more we are not sure where yet I guess it's up to your President but be careful want you wish for it might come true. If this oil goes to China your energy costs will sky rocket.
DAnneMarc, You're right on target, excuse my wording here. The Pentagon has the ability to easily program much of our population with any degree of fear mongering it deems necessary to keep the military industrial complex well funded. Of course the billionaire controlled media is an essential partner in this objective.
Kend, I did a little checking and found out Koch Industries is among Canada's largest crude oil purchasers, shippers, and exporters. Their pipeline from Alberta to the Texas coast will reduce supplies to the midwest and actually increase gas prices for folks here in the United States. So it sounds like Canada and the Kochs are the only winners here. But you know what, in the end we all lose, your grandchildren, everyone, climate change has much more savage clout than the Koch's God almighty money.
I read just yesterday that there was a big oil sand spill in Utah and they had oil running through a neighborhood. This is the second spill in the U.S. We don't need another pipeline to potentially destroy one of our largest water aquifers. The oil being needed for security is bull. The Cock brothers are going to refine it and send it to the highest bidder in China or elsewhere. We need renewable energy and we need it now.
OK, I don't care if this is off topic; I'm posting it anyway, because it's that important!
The amount of disinformation flying around about Social Security would actually be laughable if it weren't so tragic. Our own PRESIDENT is one of the main purveyors of false information.
It's really critical that people stop drinking the Kool Aid being spewed by the politicians as reported by the mainstream media and try to grasp the facts!. PLEASE, read the following: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-don-riegle/post_1901_b_845106.html
This John Birch Society all the way...
The rich don't want to pay to educate the 99% children. So if you want to educate the poor peoples' children you have to devise a way for the poor people - only - to pay for it,....a regressive tax.
My letter to POTUS:
Dear Mr. President, please stop giving our money to the Fascist Republicanazis so you can make political capital. Create more transparency in your administration; there's much too much secrecy, which hides criminals, illegalities and broken laws. "They that doeth Evil hateth the light." Remember??? Stop doing that which is Evil. "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everlasting stream". In other words, stop acting like a white-wing tea party Republicanazi!!!
Confront climate change:
Stop strip-mining in America.
Stop all fracking in America.
Stop all off-shore drilling, and cap all wells.
Stop the XL pipeline construction.
Encourage the production of electric cars and a national power grid for their use.
Abort the NDAA.
Stop criminalizing the poor for being poor. End debtors' imprisonment.
Stop Republicans from suppressing peoples' right to vote.
Stop gun nuts from building arsenals of weapons.
The Constitution calls for an armed, well-regulated militia, not unrestrained, racist vigilante gangs and individuals.
Stop anti-abortionists from destroying Constitutionally guaranteed health care for women.
End diplomatic ties with the Vatican City; it's inundated with corruption and pedophiles, much like Congress.
Stop prosecuting and torturing whistle-blowers.
Pardon Bradley Manning and John Kiriakou.
Fix the filibuster.
Close the Black Sites and return Guantanamo Bay to Cuba.
Legalize hemp growth and development.
Legalize marijuana.
Legalize same-sex marriage.
Prosecute the Wall Street bandits instead of appointing them as members of your cabinet.
Prosecute the Bush administration's war criminals, which is to say, all of them.
Instigate No Budget/No Work, No Pay for both chambers of Congress.
Only 126 workdays for $174,000/salary? That's $1,380 per day, for doing nothing!
Traitors, criminals and thieves run our government!
Repeal the "Patriot" Act.
Veto CISPA.
Improve the American prison system:
If, as Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” then we are a nation of barbarians. Our vast network of federal and state prisons, with some 2.3 million inmates, rivals the gulags of totalitarian states. Once you disappear behind prison walls you become prey. Rape. Torture. Beatings. Prolonged isolation. Sensory deprivation. Racial profiling. Chain gangs. Forced labor. Rancid food. Children imprisoned as adults. Prisoners forced to take medications to induce lethargy. Inadequate heating and ventilation. Poor health care. Draconian sentences for nonviolent crimes. Endemic violence. All for profit...Keep giving in to Republicanazi demands, and we'll ALL be in a coast-to-coast, border-to-border, for-profit prison.
'Way to go, Mr. President.Thank you.
Yours truly,
Timothy Gilmore
I have been writing sonnets lately to focus my vision. Here is one explaining why I think the KeystoneXL pipeline is a bad idea. love, Eliz
STOP KeystoneXL
A toxic pulsing worm, diseased, too long
Pushes hot death through the living heartland.
The guardian soul cries out, “This is wrong!”
And struggles to stop the destructive hand.
Crushed under bidding of violent greed
Sacred earth, battered, bleeds an oily puss.
What is this monster, what is the need?
Killing the green for pottage is not just.
Cannot drink bitumen, money’s not food.
Safety’s a joke, promised jobs -- that’s a lie!
Families are choking, water’s no good;
To enrich a few, so many must die.
Corrupt and careless the rapers must fail;
Only the people, aroused, can prevail.
c 2013 Elizabeth Barger may be used with cites.
Or Jessie you could call it the largest oil clean up in history. The Athabasca river runs right through the sandy oil. When they remove the oil the land is restored to a oil free forest. The First Nations people live down stream of the river. God put the oil there not the oil companies. They have had the chance to more a million times but they stay because it is very lucrative to blackmail the oil companies.
why hasn't anyone complained about all the other pipelines why just this one?
According to TransCanada, their leak detection system only identifies leaks of more than 1% of the flow. If they're pumping 800,000-900,000 barrels per day, that would mean 8000-9000 barrels per day could be leaking and no one would know or for how long until the oil bubbled to the surface or into someone's water and the cattle would start dying....maybe the people, too.
Besides the Arkansas leak, there's the Enbridge tar sands oil leak in July 2010 in Marshall, MI, that contaminated 40-miles of the Kalamazoo watershed. Over a year later, large amounts of the oil still remained on the bottom of streams. According to people in Marshall, there were dumpsters full of dead birds, semi-trailers full of dead animals that were killed by drinking the stream waters and who have watched their neighbors come down with rare disorders and cancers. TransCanada would not say what is in the dilutent in the diluted bitumen.
Yes, the Keystone XL pipeline could be a disaster waiting to happen. What is worse is the destruction of thousands of square miles of Canada's boreal forest to get to the tarsands. The loss of habitat to the wood caribou and bison besides the loss of forest. The pollution of lakes and streams surrounding the tarsands. The deformed fish in the Athabasca, the high cancer rates among resident First Nation peoples in nearby communities. It's a disaster and Michele Bachmann wants that here in the U.S.? A company is already tearing up the landscape out of Moab on State of Utah public lands....in the desert, no less, where water is at a premium.
They know exactly how stupid we are - we proved it after 9/11, on an almost daily basis. These brainwashed foxbots and bluedogs "never forget" as their bumper stickers remind us. I'll bet you can find 50 million stupid amerikkkans who live in fear of terrorists and want us to keep spending a fortune on defense. And this little "scare-flare" will get these dumb sissies pissing their collective pants. Just like everytime Ahmadinejad looks at us cross-eyed there's an endless supply of warmongering tools calling for his head, this will bring the same response from the human shells in the peanut gallery.