Wisco Shenanigans

In recent fun democratic news, last week the state of Wisconsin held an election for a seat on their state’s Supreme Court.  In response to the republican war on labor, voters turned out for an election many of whom would probably not have known was taking place otherwise.  Surprisingly, the conservative incumbent David Prosser was dealt a narrow loss on Tuesday the 5th with wide reports claiming that challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg had pulled off the upset by merely a couple hundred votes.  BUT WAIT!

As the Kloppenburg and Prosser camps were preparing for the 2001esqu court battle to come, some new shit had come to light man.  The Waukesha Co. Clerk had up and forgotten to pass on the results from Brookfield WI which were saved on her pc.  Once she turned them in for counting Prosser gained about 11,000 votes and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat…or something like that.

Crushing? Yes. Incredibly shady? Yes.  Conspiracy? Who knows.  Immediately after these events occurred droves of people were up in arms rightfully upset about this blunder and more importantly calling into question the new election results.   Then the reports came out quelling the conspiratorial claims by identifying the honest mistake and thus killing any likely hood of a drawn out legal battle for the state Supreme Court seat.  Whether or not this election gaff was malicious is now a moot point and we’ll probably never know for sure if this was another case in a long history of election fraud in America.  Prosser has won.

This is a serious blow in the legal challenges to Gov. Walker’s (very illegal) anti-collective bargaining rights law.  The court is right leaning and will in all likelihood side with Walker when the hearing the cases regarding the union busting law.  How they will try to justify the illegal manner with which it was passed has yet to be seen.  Additionally this is seen as a set back in the democratic movement against Walker and the state GOP in Wisconsin.  With a handful of recall efforts set to unfold this summer, Prosser’s victory signals a state still divided and a judiciary on the side of the GOP.

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Hey Ohio!

Please help out Dennis Kucinich here.  Ohio republicans are going to try and gerrymander him out of federal government!

Whether you agree with his politics or not, if you’re an American who believes in the values that this nation supposedly stands for, Rep. Dennis Kucinich deserves your respect and support.  There arn’t many voices left in the legislative branch who truly stand for their own beliefs and not those of some corporation or lobby so we can’t afford to lose the precious few we have.

Please support Rep. Kucinich.

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Nuclear Energy is Insane

*I’d like to preface this by stating I am not a nuclear expert, nor do I play one on tv.

Amidst the horrific tragedies of the 9.0 earthquake and the subsequent tsunami has occurred an infinitely more terrifying event.  The nuclear power plant at Fukushima Daiichi for the most part is in full crisis mode offering up the potential of global radioactive impact.  Please forgive my rhetoric as it smacks of doomsday but I’m fallible and just as influenced by hysterical media as the next poor bastard.  However,  its sadly become more and more apparent as the hours roll by that the scarier reports are more likely than the official line of  “shit’s not good… but its not going to hurt you… but get the hell out of here or stay indoors…but don’t worry.”

The latest reports have all 6 waste pools having cooling troubles, 3 reactors with confirmed partial melt downs, and 1 reactor having strong signs of a containment leak.  Efforts to control the situation are ongoing, but the valiant efforts of the brave people on site seems to be a losing battle.  However,  the most unnerving part about these “facts on the ground” is that there are varying reports and information looks to be censored.  This leaves room for much speculation and hype as well plenty of “the sky is not falling” naysayers.  Clear concise and prompt information should be absolutely demanded in a situation as critical as this, but the world is not getting that.

From what I can gather, if the waste pools are not effectively cooled, the water will boil off leaving decades of nuclear waste exposed.  The heat generated from the spent fuel will cause the waste to melt and catch on fire emitting large amounts of particulate radioactive heavy metals into the atmosphere.  This would essentially be a massive “dirty bomb” causing, quite literally, radioactive clouds and rain to spread regionally, and possibly globally.

Naturally nations all over the world are beginning to question and reassess their nuclear power facilities given these grim senarios.  So whats the response here in the US?  Business as usual.  President Obama, with all his clean energy rhetoric, has all but come to the defense of the nuclear industry.  His stance that nuclear power has to be an integral part of our energy policy has not wavered since his campaign, so i’ll give him credit on that, but sadly its been the wrong one.

Just because there are no greenhouse gas emissions does not mean nuclear power is green.  That premise fails to recognize the massive amount of energy derived from fossil fuels  it takes to build a plant, operate it, and to transport the energy created by the plant.  So there are still great amounts of greenhouse gasses which can be directly attributed to nuclear power.

More importantly, greenhouse gasses are not the only environmental issue at stake.  Nuclear power plants require massive amounts of water which can pollute and put a strain on local aquatic systems.  They generate a lot of heat which certainly influences local ecosystems and atmosphere.  Nuclear plants require a lot of land which damages habitat and most importantly NUCLEAR RADIATION CAN KILL STUFF.  The fact still remains that even though the containment of reactors can be relatively safe, there is no sound way to deal with the nuclear waste, which ultimately is the greatest concern.

Beyond environmental and public health concerns lies the costs of security and safe operation.  Since 9/11 there has been mere lip service paid to the protection of our nation’s nuclear facilities from attack.  However, there has not been wide scale security audits and many facilities are vulnerable.   Additionally, many plants which were built decades ago, are simply not designed to withstand certain acts of god the likes of which have struck Japan.

A simple cost benefit analysis which includes the externalities of environmental, human health, security, and safe operation concerns will conclude that nuclear power is about as smart as buying Bear Sterns stock in the summer of 2008.  Its simply insane.  Yet our nation’s leadership plods forward with nuclear power as part of the solution to getting off of fossil fuels.   Perhaps i’m being naive in thinking that an incomprehensible tragedy such that is taking place at the Fukushima Daiichi plant could smack some sense into our politicians.  But I only need to look back at last summers incomprehensible tragedy that took place in the Gulf of Mexico to realize change is not something I can believe in.

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ALARM

Don’t you just love it when the universe tells you exactly whats up in its own special little way?  This morning I awoke to my alarm clock to the chorus of  “Get Up, Stand Up.”  There I was all tucked into my warm bed slumbering away when I was snapped to attention, to a reggae call to arms….. GET UP STAND UP, STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS.  GET UP STAND UP, DON’T GIVE UP THE FIGHT.  It is precisely this message I pass onto to the good people of Wisconsin…nay, the entire nation.  And to those who defile democracy and trample liberty I say;

…You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.

So now we see the light,

We gonna stand up for our rights!

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Bully TR!

This is a brand of republicanism which has long since been killed off by “greed and brutal arrogance.”  If a republican were to utter these sentiments today he/she would be chastised and tea bagged out the door.

President Roosevelt October 18th, 1905.

So it is in civil life. This Government
was formed with as its basic idea the principle of
treating each man on his worth as a man, of pay
ing no heed to whether he was rich or poor, no heed
to his creed or his social standing, but only to the
way in which he performed his duty to himself, to
his neighbor, to the state. From this principle we
can not afford to vary by so much as a hand s
breadth. Many republics have risen in the past,
and some of them flourished long, but sooner or
later they fell; and the cause most potent in bring
ing about their fall was in almost all cases the fact
that they grew to be governments in the interest of a
class instead of governments in the interest of all.
It made no difference as to which class it was that
thus wrested to its own advantage the governmental
machinery. It was ultimately as fatal to the cause
of freedom whether it was the rich who oppressed
the poor or the poor who plundered the rich. The
crime of brutal disregard of the rights of others is
as much a crime when it manifests itself in the shape
of greed and brutal arrogance on the one side, as
when it manifests itself in the shape of envy and
lawless violence on the other. Our aim must be to
deal justice to each man; no more and no less. This
purpose must find its expression and support not
merely in our collective action through the agencies
of the Government, but in our social attitude.

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High Priced Gas = High Priced Food

The one thing that most American’s can’t afford right now is the price of gas skyrocketing and the implications of which are much more far-reaching than just burning cash in the gas tank.  Because our agricultural and food systems are so heavily dependent on gasoline, the average American will be hit hard at the pump and at the dinner table.

So much of the food we eat is produced via industrial ag which calls for a lot of energy input for the machines that harvest/process the food and then the transportation to distribute it.  On top of that is all the energy it takes to create the seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, food, and the shipping around of animals to name a few. This summer, as gas prices will be high, these costs will be transferred to the consumer.  The price of which hangs heavily on the cost of fuel.

There is a positive to all this!  The economic squeeze at the store can lead us in an environmentally sound path, if we choose to follow it.  Buying local organic produce is currently a top shelf venture for many as prices are high and scenes are a bit too “crunchy fresh bra.”  These problems with over pricing and elitist retail prevail in the market…cough cough whole foods cough cough.  YET, the best way to mitigate the high cost of food from industrial agriculture trucked over large distances is buying locally and organically.

This drive towards local organics can only mean good things for the environment which has suffered greatly at the hand of corporate farming.  Local organics have a lowered overall effect on the environment by using more diverse crops, no chemical fertilizers, integrated pest control, and sustainable waste management.  Furthermore, the operations are on a smaller scale which lowers habitat strains on local ecosystems.

Additionally a spurred interest in organics could influence more and more individuals to seek out other channels than the supermarket for their food namely, the farmers market.  Here you can actually meet the people who grow your food and save some $$$ by cutting out the retailers and distributors.  Theres also much to be said about the social benefits of the farmers market in a community.  It can provide a space for the exchange of goods, services, and ideas  in a local economy as well as bring people in a community together which would otherwise simply pass each other by in their cars on the way to Wal-Mart.

The tandem price hike in gas and food will probably come as a shock to many American’s as we’ve lost our connection with the food we grow.   But we will reconnect with our sources of food if the economic burden becomes great enough.  I suppose it’s the silver lining of a thinning wallet and belt.  That high fuel prices can bring consumers closer to the producers of food, simply because it will be more cost-effective and efficient,

A beautiful farm in the greatest state in the union, Wisconsin

could be seen as a good thing as the bi-product would then become a healthier environment.  Hopefully that can cheer you up a bit when your money’s all gone……

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Shifting Balance of Power: Bloody Revolution and Union Strife

The last couple of weeks have been exhausting to say the least.  We’ve seen a wave of protest sweep the Arab world while Republican’s are making their final attack against Labor in the US. Here are some thoughts on the juicy goings on.

It all began with a quiet revolt in a sleep little country called Tunisia.  Not to discredit the 78 lives lost, but the world really paid little attention other than the passing mentions of “freedom” and “liberty” by the higher-ups.  But its larger implications where that it sent a message to their neighbors that they too could enact change…real change.  Egyptians who were already having labor protests (remember that sentiment for later) immediately went to the streets in protest of their stagnant and corrupt government of over 3 decades, and these protests got the international spotlight.  I bet Tunisians were all like “hey, we’re still here….”

Sixteen days of protests, some pro-Mubarak thuggery, and an Anderson Cooper beating later the Egyptians too had ousted their leadership in hopes of a brighter future.  But looking beyond all the glitzy protesting you learn the real dirty truth.  People were raped, murdered, and power vacuums are being filled by not so savory characters.   Egypt was able to get rid of Mubarak but in his place they now have an interim military government panel headed by the vice president Suleiman.  This guy was and still is a CIA goon, who spent the better part of his career leading the Egyptian intelligence department and has been tied to personally torturing people as part of CIA black site operations.  This guy will most likely win whatever election Egypt might have this year (as noted in recent wikileaked documents from the state department).  Careful what you wish for I suppose.  At least there’s a chance at reform and a better society.  But there are so many plot lines that have yet to unfurl, we’ll have to keep our eyes on Egypt for quite sometime before we know exactly what went down.

Now in Libya, the very brave people of that nation are taking their que and trying to bring about freedom in their nation.  However, this go isn’t so glitzy.  You won’t see Anderson Cooper in Tripoli any time soon.  Qaddafi has hunkered in and sent the military out killing protesters out right.   Reports have Libya calling for regional mercenaries to come and put down the protesters as well as employing aerial assaults against people in the streets.  Literally helicopters and jet planes are bombing demonstrators.  Gruesome images are spreading around the world and Qaddafi went on tv stating “I have not yet ordered the use of force, not yet ordered one bullet to be fired … when I do, everything will burn.”  No funny quips about this one, only prayers and the stark realization of what happens when you challenge power.

Meanwhile here at home, the Republicans have unveiled their final solution to the bastion of the middle class in Wisconsin, organized labor.  Back in November Scott Walker and the state republican caucus was elected with the brunt force of corporate support thanks to the landmark “Citizens United” decision.  They inherited a Wisconsin with a projected budget surplus given to them by the previous Democratic regime.  Promptly Walker and friends passed unsustainable tax cuts which will put the state in a projected budget deficit in the range of $6 billion over the next two years.  So whats the solution?  Deny public workers their right to collective bargaining and hand them a huge pay cut.

Crowds of over 35,000 Wisconsinites flooded downtown Madison and are currently protesting this most obvious of plans.  It’s not about the deficit that the state republicans will create (on purpose) it’s about destroying public employee unions, which is the last strong hold of organized labor.   The public workers of Wisconsin called Walkers bluff immediately and said they would accept the pay cuts but reserve their right to collective bargaining.   The republicans clearly don’t and are continuing to try to force the budget bill through with the provisions not allowing collective bargaining.  If that’s not blatant union busting then I don’t know what is.  More sinister yet, the next step for the republicans of Wisconsin is to begin selling off public energy utilities to private corporations.  This budget bill cannot pass.  Otherwise this same steam roll tactic will continue state after state until there’s nothing left.

Arabs are fighting and dieing for their democratic rights while Republicans in America are fighting to kill those same democratic rights.  Quite the busy few weeks in deed.

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