jim's op/ed

There appears to be an awakening in progress and this is a good sign.
People around the world coming together and standing up to repressive regimes.
The Arabian Spring brought people out into the street, standing up to brutal dictatorships that have deprived them of basic human rights for decades. In Europe protesters rioted over austerity measures that clearly screwed people already struggling as they watched banks get a helping hand.
Here in America a broken system of government so corrupted by greed and corporate interests has driven a race to the bottom for 99% of the population.
Occupy Wall Street has morphed into an occupation movement of peaceful protesters across the US. No longer on just Wall Street "we the people" have come together in solidarity on a mission demanding the attention the 99% deserve and some real change.

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Here Thom Hartman explains the way it used to be and how we got here...

I have tried, oh lord how I have tried to follow these so-called debates but it's really hard. I can't just sit and listen to all the bullshit. Some of theses idiots are so divorced from facts it becomes really difficult to take them seriously. Well, as a rule I don't. Repeating the same tired ass talking points might fuel the gross stupidity of their base but it does absolutely nothing to produce real solutions for real problems.

Here's the best thing I've seen all week that addresses some of the lies with a big dose of some truth. And it's refreshing...
Robert Reich's 7 Lies...

Here is the trailer for the movie White Water, Black Gold...
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This tar sands project ( the Keystone XL Pipeline ) is an environmental disaster.
From Care2..."Three (More) Reasons to Oppose the XL Pipeline"

1. Lobbying As Usual

A series of emails requested by the NGO Friends of the Earth under the Freedom of Information Act shows a warm relationship between Trans Canada’s lobbyist and State Department officials. The New York Times reports that an official at State Department gave “Fourth of July party invitations, subtle coaching and cheerleading, and inside information about Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s meetings” to the Trans Canada lobbyist in Washington. An FOE spokesman claims the emails show “an absolute bias and complicity between the State Department and TransCanada, a company they are supposed to be acting as a regulator and an independent investigator on.”

2. State Department Hires Firm with Trans Canada Connections

The State Department was responsible for conducting Environmental Impact Statements and public hearings in the states where the pipeline would be built to gather public comment. The firm that State hired to conduct the environmental impact process, Cardno Entrix, lists Trans Canada as a client.

3. The Oil Isn’t Staying Here

The State Department is involved in the pipeline approval process because the project is ostensibly a matter of national security. Yet a new report from Oil Change International states that the oil from the pipeline, after being pumped 1,700 miles across North America, would be refined in the U.S. and sold abroad and will do nothing to wean Americans off foreign oil dependence; its primary purpose is to give the Canadian producers easier access to overseas markets via a tax-free trade zone in Port Arthur, Texas. Oil Change International Executive Director Steven Kretzmann states, “An honest assessment shows that rather than serving U.S. interests, Keystone XL serves only the interests of tar sands producers and shippers, and a few Gulf Coast refiners aiming to export the oil.”

U.S. national security depends on weaning the US and other countries off fossil fuel dependence. Caving in to the interests of businesses like Trans Canada and oil refineries is merely delaying the inevitable shock of peak oil and diverting time and resources from the search for truly sustainable energy.

Don't delay call the White House and tell the State Department that you too oppose the XL Pipeline.
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