I’m going to start, from time to time, post questions which I will encourage anyone to answer in the comments section. Up until now, I had heard the musings and ramblings of the potential for yet, another Harpercon minority as the result of another federal election; that the upcoming election would be basically a do or die situation for Steve. I guess that could be possible if his own party developped a backbone to go against their master, which they never seem to do without some serious consequences attached to that; particularly with women MPs. Remember when I mentioned  how most …
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A mainstream press write-up Several hundred First Nations protesters waved flags, including upside-down Canadian flags, and pounded on drums Thursday as they marched through downtown Toronto. Shouting, “No G20 on stolen native land!” the marchers headed along Bay Street carrying placards, banners and Mohawk Nation flags as well as the upside-down Maple Leaf. Police with bicycles walked along the route beside the marchers, using their bikes to keep people on the street. … [Read more] …
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Dana Holtby on the Toronto Media Co-Op “Tour showcases Canadian Environmental Injustices” Tar sands themed floats, oil slicked activists and frontline community members wound their way through city streets on Wednesday as parts of the Toronto Toxic Tour. The tour made stops at RBC, the University of Toronto Mining Building and the Toronto Court House. While G8 and G20 countries produced over 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions, these countries continue to shirk responsibility, supporting large-scale mining and industrial projects that damage the environment and displace …
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Joseph Nevins on CommonDreams.org As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, just one of many manifestations of perilous ecological degradation across the planet, the need to challenge war and militarism—especially in terms of the United States—becomes ever-more pressing. The U.S. military is the world’s single biggest consumer of fossil fuels, and the single entity most responsible for destabilizing the Earth’s climate. The costs of U.S. militarism and war are high and many. In addition to the growing civilian and military death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, total …
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Jane Hamsher in the Huffington Post There has been a massive silence on the part of the major environmental groups in the wake of the BP oil catastrophe, ever since the rig collapsed. But it went into overdrive last week when many of those groups took out an ad in the Washington Post, not to criticize the government’s response, but to praise the president for putting a hold on a drilling project in Alaska: “President Obama is the best environmental president we’ve had since Teddy Roosevelt,” Sierra Club chairman Carl Pope told the Bangor Daily News last week. …
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Yes. It’s a -gate now. I’ve promoted it. Why have I promoted to a -gate? It’s rather simple. But first, here’s why I haven’t promoted it. It’s not because it’s a $2 million price tag for something entirely useless. It isn’t because Uncle Tony (Ind. Minister Clement to others) is dotting patronage on people. It isn’t [...] …
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Writing and a video from Jonathan Watts in The Guardian “Polluting factories in rural communities are forming a deadly toxic cocktail for villagers, leading to surging rates of cancer” Zheng Gumei thought she was down with a cold until the doctor told her to wait outside the room so he could talk to her son alone. “I knew then that I must have a serious illness,” the 47-year-old farmer recalled, wiping away the tears and then staring into the distance. “I’m having treatment now. See, my hair has fallen out,” she said, taking off her hat to show the …
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Brant on The Understory Last week, we reported that Canada’s tar sands have just become the biggest source of oil imports to the US. This week we compare tar sands to the other big source of US oil–the Gulf of Mexico. Industry backers are trying hard to spin differences between tar sands and the Gulf. During a cheerleading trip to DC Germany last month Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach Environment Minister Jim Prentice speculated that the risk of tar sands development in Alberta is “probably less than the kind of risks associated with offshore drilling.” Stelmach, choosing his words a more …
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WHAT IS IT? On June 23rd, environmental justice organizers will be guiding a tour through Toronto to expose institutions most responsible for the environmental and social impacts of Canada’s extractive industries both at home and abroad. Canada is home to 75% of the world’s mining and exploration companies, making it a global leader in this industry. Canada’s place within the G8 nations is largely due to the exploitation of Indigenous peoples, their lands and rural poor for mining, tar sands and oil/gas exploitation. As residents of Canada, we will not standby while the …
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Stephen Harper is a disgusting excuse for a human being, plain and simple.  He has used and abused our Parliamentary democracy to give him more individual power in this country than we have ever seen.  And now he’s flaunting it on the international stage! Coalitions of ‘losers’ don’t get to govern, PM says Richard J. Brennan Ottawa Bureau LONDON—A stern Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismissed thoughts of a coalition governing Canada as it now does in Britain, saying that …
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One of the many subcultures one finds  on the internet are small crowds of science and technology fanatics who label themselves skeptics.  Despite the skeptic’s self-image as a person who is liberated from the shackles of doctrine and dogma, there are a many questionable ideological themes running through these communities.  For many of them, science and technology are always good.  Religion, spirituality, superstition and myth are always bad.  Healing alternatives to Western medicine (drugs and surgery) are scams, shams, superstition and charlatanism. All GM food, …
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I really didn’t know of any other way to show respect to the great late actor of such great films like “Easy Rider”, “Apocalypse Now” and “Blue Velvet” except to to a Saturday Nite Nostalgia playing music from the soundtracks of these three films. Willy Loman beat me to it, but selected only tunes from “Easy Rider”.  So I will only play one “Easy Rider” tune and the rest from Apocalypse Now. I don’t much fancy the music to “Blue Velvet” and I don’t really want to play the Bobby Vinton …
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“Whacha Talkin’ ‘Bout Willis?” was his trademark on “Diff’rent Strokes”, a popular sitcom of the late 70s to the mid-80s starring Conrad Baines of “Maude”, Dana Plato and Todd Bridges. I especially remembered his facial expression following that  abrupt question; like he just sucked lemons and his cheeks puffed out. Since  television watching was somewhat restricted growing up (my father felt most shows on TV were inappropriate learning tools for my brother and I growing up; particularly sit coms), but he would allow from time to time if …
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Andy Rowell on the Oil Change blog One of the ongoing tragedies of the Exxon Valdez oil spill is that thousands of people who worked on the cleanup are sick, have gotten sick, and continue to die from inhaling the lethal cocktail of oil and dispersant. The tragedy is that, like the oil spill itself, the illnesses and deaths were preventable. Move on 21 years and we know the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was preventable. In those two decades we know that oil spill response technology has hardly improved, but if we have learnt anything from the Exxon Valdez is that the clean up workers need to be …
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A press release (from May 20th) The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council is calling on all environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) to improve their policies on working with First Nations communities, particularly CSTC communities that have unresolved land and resource claims in British Columbia, Canada. At a minimum these ENGOs should be adhering to, supporting and promoting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which sets an international minimum standards on how First Nations and indigenous people should be treated. This includes the free, prior …
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Because there is a whole other blog with no decorations; the stories that write themselves will be decorative enough. Here it is, boys n girls! Oh and Stageleft, you’ll be happy to know that one’s comments section isn’t moderated, but any comments by Twatsy and his sock puppets will be duly  erased. …
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Because eventually, I will come up with the truth. Ignoring didn’t help, so now I will fight back. I’m pissed; I ain’t takin’ it anymore, and hell, I am not above smut… not where Twatsy is concerned. Collateral damage? You betcha! This is war! Speaking of inuendo: What really is the relationship between the incoherent Canadian Sense and Twatsy, anyway? This inquiring mind wants to know. Is Canadian Sense also looking to lose his/her virginity to Twatsy perhaps? Rightchik, I meant it,  look at his facebook pic, he looks like he salivates at the idea of  …
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Steve D’Arcy and Syrah Canyon in The Bullet Across Canada, activists have been reacting to the May 18 arson attack on a bank in Ottawa by a group claiming to be politically motivated. The group – calling itself FFFC – set off a fire bomb inside a Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) branch in the Glebe residential neighbourhood near the city’s downtown, and then posted a video of the attack on the internet. Along with the video, the group issued a ‘communiqué’ in which they suggested that RBC was targeted because of its sponsorship of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver earlier this year, on …
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Dawn Paley on the Vancouver Media Co-Op “Mainstream enviros, timber industry shut First Nations out of “historic” deal” Timber companies and environmental organizations came together Tuesday to announce the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, which they say could protect a swath of boreal forest twice the size of Germany, and maintain forestry jobs across the country. “This is an agreement between the two principle combatants over logging,” said Steve Kallick, director of the Boreal Conservation campaign of the Pew Environment Group. But Indigenous peoples …
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Check this out. Hmmm! From the May 10 edition of the NYT: "What did Chevron do when it learned that “60 Minutes” was preparing a potentially damaging report about oil company contamination of the Amazon rain forestin Ecuador? It hired a former journalist to produce a mirror image of the report, from the corporation’s point of view." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/business/media/11cbs.html Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism …
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This from Brianna at RAN: "This Alternet blog which connects the 1 mo anniversary of the oil spill with the True Cost report findings, and Chevron in Ecuador. Bam!!" http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/05/20/is-a-chevron-oil-spill-next/ As I was doing some research this evening, to the harmony of my sister's dogs barking, I found out that Chevron is all over the news today. 1. Intimidating journalists. For trying to get the footage from the filmmaker of "Crude." The journalist sphere, of course, is all up in arms because this is akin to reporters' …
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Public News Service audio report   Download now or listen on posterous rss-14049-2.mp3 (1297 KB) Posted via web from Decolonizing Environmentalism …
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  THE TRUE COST OF CHEVRON: AN ALTERNATIVE ANNUAL REPORT, MAY 2010  INTERVIEWEE INFORMATION LIST  (Biographies Follow)   www.TrueCostofChevron.com   For interviews with Report Authors, Contact: Diana Pei Wu, dianapeiwu@gmail.com, 510-333-3889            Sangita Nayak, emailsangita@gmail.com, 414-412-4518       Note: IH = In Houston week of May 24; available for live interviews!   Primary Alternative Annual Report Contact Person: IH – Antonia Juhasz Global Exchange www.GlobalExchange.org/chevron Lead author & editor, The True Cost of Chevron: An …
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THE TRUE COST OF CHEVRON: AN ALTERNATIVE ANNUAL REPORT, MAY 2010 KEY FINDINGS www.TrueCostofChevron.com CORPORATE BASICS Chevron is the 2nd largest U.S. oil company, 3rd largest U.S. corporation, 4th largest global oil company, 5th largest global corporation, and 46th largest global economy (by revenue).  2009 profits $10.5 billion, lowest since 2003. Already rebounding, however, as first quarter 2010 profits more than double first quarter of 2009. 2009 revenues fell by over $100 billion from 2008. Nonetheless, at $167 billion, they were larger than the GDPs of 137 …
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Dear friends, Your efforts are working! Thank you for pushing it out! This morning, "The True Cost of Chevron: Alternative Annual Report" is featured in many many outlets (amazing for a mid-afternoon release yesterday), including: San Francisco Chronicle, page D-1 (Business Section), "Critics' annual report blasts Chevron," David Baker http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7013417.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Fbusiness+%28chron.com+-+Business%29 Houston Chronicle, Business Section, "Chevron …
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Public News Service-CA May 19, 2010 Report: BP Can't Be Singled Out As the costs of Gulf Coast cleanup efforts from the BP oil spill continue to rise, a new report examines the industry as a whole, in terms of safety and accident records. The international environmental education and resource group Global Exchange has found that operating errors and incidents around the globe are more common than the public likely realizes because most events don't make the news. According to report lead author Antonia Juhasz, accessing information about environmental and cultural damage …
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This is a  quick reminder of the BBQ and Bocce Ball Fundraiser tomorow with Guest MP Scott Brison ( my absolute fave funny MC) tomorrow night in Victoria. Hope to see you there!  Here is a link to August 2009’s Victoria Liberal Scott Brison BBQ video post that was taken by WMO and edited by AMFresh. …
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SF Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/rtarbotton/detail??blogid=187&entry_id=63946 In advance of Chevron's annual shareholder meeting in Houston next week, a damning report of the oil giant's global operations was just released. The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report was written by contributors from 16 countries and 10 states where Chevron's business is wreaking havoc on local communities, the environment, and our climate. If you live in California like I do, you probably know that Chevron is the Golden State's largest corporation, but did …
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PRESS RELEASE   www.TrueCostofChevron.com   Immediate Release May 19, 2009   Contacts:            Diana Wu; +1.510.333.3889; dianapeiwu@gmail.com (English / Spanish / French / Portuguese) Sangita Nayak; +1.414.412.4518; emailsangita@gmail.com (English)     The Truth Behind Big Oil Exposed   Unprecedented Global Network of Chevron-Affected Communities Releases  “True Cost of Chevron: an Alternative Annual Report.”   - Interviews Available Now with Report Authors/Frontline Oil Community Leaders -   San Francisco, CA – As public outrage at the oil industry …
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My last post just shared all the ways that oil extraction is dangerous. Even in cleanup, there is corruption and danger. The people who live off the ocean – the small fishermen and shrimpers – who now cannot go out on the water because of the oil spill, are the ones being asked to clean up. Over half of them are Vietnamese or Native. The others are working class – Anglo, Latino, Black. This is why the climate justice people say, leave the coal in the hole, the oil in the soil and the sand in the land. * * * * * At What Cost? BP Spill Responders Told to Forgo Precautionary …
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The disaster in the Gulf Coast, the BP rig explosion, and the media reports that have recently (finally) made it into mainstream media, is that oil drilling and corporate behavior itself is a disaster. Here are the links: 1. Basically, most offshore drilling is dangerous. It has gotten more so over time. This BP explosion is not the only one, Chevron had a major nasty explosion in 2003. (also pasted below)  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703315404575250591376735052.html?KEYWORDS=Chevron 2. This particular disaster was caused by a perfect storm of a dangerous industry and BP …
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This is why activists and members from communities harmed by Chevron all over the world and across the U.S. are going to Houston, May 25-26, 2010. This is also how the Gulf Coast became vulnerable, how New Orleans became vulnerable to Class 2 hurricane on its way out in 2005. This is also the story of unprecedented environmental damage and alteration, that has damaged the coastline and wetlands, as well as native people's livelihoods, cultures, traditions, songs and stories, in the region.  * * * * …
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http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1451789383542&ref=mf Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism …
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MAKE A CALLS NOWOutside McCain's Office 407 W. Congress, Tucson, AZ National Media Contacts: Juan Escalante (407) 602-8675 and Flavia de la Fuente (949) 910-6362, media@thedreamiscoming.com Please come support these brave students as they risk everything. Documented and undocumented stage rally outside Arizona Senator John McCain's office at 407 W Congress Street Ste 103 Tucson, AZ 85701. Tucson, Arizona. TODAY May 17, 2010, on the anniversary of Brown vs Board of Education, landmark civil rights case, students from around the nation will join local youth in protest of Senator …
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“oil disaster” Watch Out Florida, Here Comes The Oil Gregory White | May. 17, 2010, 2:22 PM Florida Oil Spill 24 Hours The oil leak growing off the coast of Louisiana could be set to make landfall soon, and may be destined to hit another coast line soon thereafter. Worries are growing that after failed attempts to stem the flow of oil from the leak, it may grow and flow along the current towards the coast of Florida. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/florida-oil-map-2010-5#ixzz0oFjNh8VP Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism …
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Tom Knudson in McClatchy Newspapers Like many of her neighbors, Celina Harpe is angry about the oil pollution at her doorstep. No longer can she eat the silvery fish that dart along the shore near her home. Even the wind that hurries over the water reeks of oil waste. “I get so mad,” she said. “I feel very sad.” Harpe, 70, isn’t a casualty of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. She lives in a remote corner of Alberta, Canada, where another oil field that’s vital to the United States is damaging one of the world’s most important ecosystems: …
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After watching Question Period on Sunday and keeping up with the latest news, would the Liberals be trying to pave the way for Guergis to join them with that change in attitude regarding her? More and more Liberal supporters feel sorry for her and fewer and fewer Harpercon cheerleaders are behind her. Depending on what you read, it seems that the riding association of Simcoe-Grey is behind her as well as many of her constituents. I thought that she would run as an independent. But now, if the Liberals see how popular she may still be in Simcoe-Grey, would they have her run in the riding in …
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RP from: http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/indigenous-peoples-support-the-bolivia-cochabamba-peoples%E2%80%99-agreement-of-the-recent-people%E2%80%99s-global-summit-on-climate-change-and-the-rights-of-mother-earth-demand-a-study-on-violations/ Press Release from Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network Jump to Comments Tom Goldtooth from the Indigenous Environmental Network (left) and Evo Morales, the President of Bolivia during the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, NY PRESS  STATEMENT5/7/2010 For Immediate ReleaseContact: Tom Goldtooth, …
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East Bay Express – anti-corporate, Chevron – California  “Court: Chevron Richmond Expansion Is Illegal” http://www.eastbayexpress.com/92510/archives/2010/04/27/court-chevron-richmond-expansion-is-illegal  “The Case Against Chevron” http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/the-case-against-chevron/Content?oid=1514228 Chip Johnson (Richmond, Chevron Refinery, City Taxes) – San Francisco Chronicle  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/13/BA8V1DEECA.DTL  Karla Aguilar, Houston Free Press, “Built to Spill”  …
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Cincopa video hosting solution for your website. Another great product from Cincopa Send Files. Oh Gawd! I can’t believe I actually agree with some parts of  his most recent dispatch regarding Iggy and the Liberals. Yeah, I know he’s not a fan of the Liberals, hates Iggy even more and furthermore, told Beryl Wajsman on CJAD 800Am that he thought that the Liberals cutting health care transfers in the 90s was a good thing.  When one knows all that about him, you get the feeling that like Blatchford, the Kays or Goldstein, they’re not happy unless somebody …
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