Just when it seems like people are ready to explore alternatives, and use less fuel, we are bombarded with speeches and stories about drilling for more oil.  Even right after a fuel spill.

Here is just a small example when searching for stories about today's major fuel spill on the Mississippi River.  Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but it I couldn't let it pass.

Cross posted on La Vida Locavore http://www.lavidalocavore.org

The following diary was written on June 12 for the Northern Agrarian Monthly (you should all check it out) after my farm had over 10 inches of rain in about 36 hours. I was rather bummed out as I wrote, because it was raining again and I had already had around $100,000 worth of damage. Farming is not all fun, don't ever let anyone tell you it is easy, yet we keep on keep'in on. As for now, reconstruction will all need to come out of my pocket. My $1,000,000 farm insurance policy does not cover it, FEMA, no way, USDA is supposed to have money for environmental protection reconstruction since we are in a federal disaster area, but no one knows how much, when, or who will get it. Most WI money for building manure storage areas goes to the biggest farms as they have the most manure. Since I only milk 45 cows I am hardly a blip on the screen.

    I'm not trying to freak out, but see HuffP, Jim Webb: "Under No Circumstances" Will I Consider V.P. Role.
    This is extremely serious.

    If you don't think Barack can lose in November, he very much can. Sebelius is fine (see my old "Sebelius/Webb '08" diaries), but she has no military experience. I don't think Richardson does either, among his other problems. Sam Nunn, too old school. Etc.
    And if you think Joe/Jane Voter doesn't really care about the "war hero" thing, re both McCain and Webb, I'm not sure you understand American politics.

    Jim Webb is essentially what John McCain should have become if McCain had made the right moral and political decisions. And Webb playing "Achilles sulking in the tent" now is not helping this country at all, I have to say. It's time for Webb to hear from the netroots who helped him so much.

    (Action info below)

In light of the fact that I am seeing my net worth go up in smoke, I thought I'd take a look at recent Dow Jones Industrial Average history.

Here are the closing numbers for the Dow on the night before the last 4 Presidential inaugurations and today:

1981.  965.36

1989.  2239.11

1993.  3264.98

2001.  10587.59

Today:  11382.26

Here are the Presidential Returns:

Reagan:  131.9% over 8 years - an 11.1% annual return

Bush I:  45.8% in 4 years - a respectable 9.9% annual return

Clinton:  224% in 8 years - a stellar 15.8% annual return

King George:  7.5% in we'll call it 7 years - a stunning 1.04% annual return.

The numbers don't lie.

We can fight about the fine points of what Barack Obama needs to do to make all Democrats happy and still get the votes from the "too busy for information" middle that he needs to win the election.  But while we are verbally sparing with that, the right-wing hate just keeps coming.  

Now I will admit I’m a white woman; my skin’s so pale it’s scary without makeup.  So I can’t begin to fully catch on to all the subtleties of racism, I haven’t experienced that.  But I know how to read, even between the lines.

We are used to the very direct anti-Obama email foolishness.  But there is a more subtle approach taking root.  I got an email this morning that didn’t take much mental facility to read the screaming racism that poured out onto my computer screen.  Even to my, sometimes malfunctioning, mind the message against African American people was quite clear.

There have been over 1500 tornadoes thus far this year, while in the last three years, we averaged 1100.  Torrential rain, flooding in Iowa, F-5 tornadoes...  What is going on?

It may seem a bit presumptuous of me, sitting high and dry in Texas, to be pontificating on this subject. However, I learned a thing or two (or three) working on relief efforts after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In September 2005 I wrote a diary about some of those things – Katrina Taught Me How To Give .  

That was before Rita arrived. She provided even more learning opportunities.  So jump over if you want some useful information about how to help our neighbors in the mid-West (or in many other natural disasters).

Ever heard of Combustible Dust? No, ask Tammy Miser

Shawn’s back was towards the furnace when they were picking up their tools and there was a blast. Some say Shawn got up and started walking towards the door and then there was a second, more intense blast. Shawn didn’t die instantly. He laid on building floor while the aluminum dust burnt through his flesh and muscle tissue. The breaths that he took burnt his internal organs, and the blast took his eyesight. Shawn was still conscious and asking for help... And the two things that I can always remember and that never leave are his last words, ‘I’m in a world of hurt,’ and his last breaths." Tammy Miser Congressional hearing on combustible dust

When the FBI raided the offices of the Office of Special Counsel, one of the investigations left uncompleted was an investigation into a report that defective pumps had been installed at three gated enclosures protecting the city of New Orleans from flooding, writes the Disaster Accountability Project. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates reportedly has not responded to the Special Counsel's September 2007 letter ordering an investigation based on the OSC's finding that the allegation was likely credible.

DAP Director Ben Smilowitz comments, "There doesn't seem to be much urgency attached to this investigation."

With hurricane season beginning on June 1, the Disaster Accountability Project will be reporting this week and next on inadequacies in government preparedness. This is the first report of the series, published on the DAP Blog (author: Claire Trimble) and cross-posted here with permission.

The Sierra Club recently tested five "Katrina cottages" being used in Mississippi and found all to contain higher levels of formaldehyde than is recommended for long-term exposure by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Normal levels of indoor formaldehyde run between 10-20 parts per billion but three of the five cottages contained over 100 parts per billion. This level is even higher than the 77 parts per billion average tested in the 516 trailers this year by the CDC.

Education Week has a tragic story about children poisoned by elevated levels of formaldehyde (a carcinogen) in the FEMA trailers provided to victims of Katrina. FEMA rushed production of trailers to the site and obviously gave the contract to bozos who glued the things together with the cheapest, and most toxic, materials they could find.  The site is password protected, so I don't know if this link will work http://www.edweek.org/..., but here's the quote:

As much as I'd like to believe that a President Obama will move our country onto a new path, there's this lingering fear in me that our next leader will be challenged unlike any other in our recent history and some of those challenges might be more formidable than any mere mortal can handle.

We need to resolve right now that, assuming Barack Obama becomes our Commander In Chief and he doesn't morph into the Anti-Christ as the wackos predict, that we will not succumb to fear should things go terribly wrong.

As if the devastation from Cyclone Nargis on May 3 was not enough. As if the inability of the government to help the victims or allow international aid organizations to feed and shelter the millions in need was not enough.  As if the people of Myanmar had not suffered enough death, disease, hunger, thirst, cold, and fear.  An estimated 2 million survivors of the storm are still in need of emergency aid.  To date, U.N. agencies and other groups have been able to reach only 270,000 people.

Bottlenecks, poor logistics, limited infrastructure and the military government's refusal to allow foreign aid workers have left most of the delta's survivors living in miserable conditions without food or clean water. The government's efforts have been criticized as woefully slow.

Souce

The situation is about to get much, much worse.  Forecasters are now tracking another tropical low that is expected to become another cyclone and track into the already devastated Irriwaddy delta.

Since the disaster struck, I have been so disgusted and appalled at what is happening in Burma, especially after reading this article that the generals are not just hampering relief, but they are starting to hoard it for themselves.  Yes, they are.  The little they give to the people they take the precious time to re-label the containers to it looks like it's coming from them.  Huh?

One sliver of good news is the EU is threatening that if they do not accept the aid, they could be held accountable for crimes against humanity, of which they are already complicit.

Please, if you are able to help them, here is a link through avaaz.org to send help DIRECTLY to the monks who are doing everything they can, and NOTHING goes throught the government.  They are risking their lives to do this.

Thanks for reading

 
Solar IS Civil Defense
Like this solar LED light and AA battery charger

or this solar/dynamo am/fm/sw radio, similar to the ones US and NATO forces have distributed in Afghanistan.

Solar IS Civil Defense
and, after all,  
we are at war.

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MYANMAR JUNTA DIDDLES WHILE BURMESE DIE

IF EVER THERE WERE A CASE FOR REGIME CHANGE . . .

Generals Intent Upon Profiting From Disaster

The Myanmar Junta refuse to allow foreign aid workers in, demanding money instead, those Burmese Army thugs who run that country by brute force and constant fear. All entreaties have failed. The Franco-American invasion bluff has, if anything, made matters worse by giving the regime an excuse to block entry by foreigners. The Chinese simply don't care what happens in Burma. That leaves it up to us. You and me.
[continued]
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Even though I've been a regular visitor here, I've never posted my own diary. However, as I see a lot of people wanting to help and the traditional way of helping (red cross, doctors without borders etc) are being hindered by the junta's red tape, stubboness, and paranoia, I'd like to suggest an alternative way of helping.

As a Burmese being in the States for 14 years, I believe I have a better understanding of what is happening. As is the case of 2005 tsunami, the military government is extremely weary of outsiders, regardless of the purpose of the visit. It (the ruthless regime machine) is also afraid of any single reporter that would return home and plaster a couple of pictures on the front page of Newsweek or Time magazine.

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MYANMAR JUNTA HOLDS UP RELIEF EFFORTS

FOR POWER OR PROFITS, GENERALS STONEWALL

Colonial, Imperial & Corporatist Powers Rattle Their Swords

Meanwhile chaos reigns even in Yangon (Rangoon). Millions remain homeless and destitute in the coastal provinces. Whether the strategy of exaggerating the crisis, if it is exaggeration, and feigning military action, if it is just a feint, will work remains to be seen.


"US diplomat: 100,000 may have died in Myanmar cyclone"

"France urges UN to force cyclone aid on Myanmar"

"EU Expands Economic Sanctions against Junta"


compleat links to aid organizations on the ground now in burmese disaster areas: donate now online

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