Shark Week

Call 'Em

Busing in a mob to shout down other people's honest political discourse is not the tactic of a reputable political party with a plan to help restore America to its principles. Shame on the GOP!

This is what they've become...A tool of the worst actors in our corporate world, fanning the flames of racism with gross exaggerations and outright lies to maintain the exorbitant bonuses of the healthcare moguls.

Proud of yourselves, Republicans?

Fear and Loathing

Personally, I do not believe the rights provided by the Constitution of the United States of America should go to anything other than a person. I don't believe that at any point in American history we decided that corporations should be people. I do believe that every person in the United States should have the same amount of constitutional rights as everyone else. I consider it a serious flaw in the current manner of executing civil freedoms that we have allowed activist conservative judges to try and make Corporations into People with equivalent rights. A case currently before the Supreme Court of the United States would do just that.

I believe in limiting campaign contributions, period. I think that political campaigns are too costly and out of reach of many very good people who cannot serve in political office because they lack the massive financial backing necessary to win enough votes to their cause. The people who do get financial backing too often achieve that by becoming tools of money. Great piles of money reside with corporations in far greater amounts than with actual people...even the freakishly rich people such as billionaires. Corporations make annual profits in the tens of billions equal to the entire net worth of even our richest moguls. It is this corporate money that has made a mockery of that silly old phrase, "Government Of the people, By the people, and For the people."

If I had my way I would assign each citizen in the United States a certain amount of money that could be allotted to political campaigns. It would be rather small by current standards, say $2000.00 total. Spend it any way you like to promote your candidates. Some folks don't have $2000 to spare and some have $2 Billion. This way they would be more equal in the eyes of the Constitution, though not exactly. As it stands now, a person is limited to what they can give to a candidate and so are corporations, though the very fact that corporations and pacs can give any money to a political candidate offends me. These are not people. These are artificial creations that have no consciences. They have none of the human obligations to humanity that allow them to make moral decisions, and yet, conservatives want them to be able to donate as much money as they want to political candidates. This would allow them to game the system even more than they already do and destroy the last vestiges of humanity and morality that exist in politics. I agree there's not much left but it's all we got.

Until corporate entities grow consciences and responsibility to the greater human good...Until corporate entities can serve in our armed forces and die for their country...Until corporate entities can be jailed for crimes and executed for murder...Corporate entities must not be allowed to destroy our nation by crossing the palms of those Judases who would serve the corporate bottom line while nailing We the People to a cross standing upon the malevolent morass of fascism.

Corporate lackeys are even now disrupting town meetings, shouting down the free speech of others with venom and misplaced cries of 'socialism" in service to the corporations of industrial healthcare who feed on the people's misfortune, and at the very same moment they are crying "socialism" in the face of free speech, they are arguing the virtues of Fascism before the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

"The integrity of our legal system and future economic growth are at stake when law is for sale to the highest bidder, whether directly or indirectly. If the Supreme Court radically reinterprets the First Amendment to ban states and the Congress from regulating corporate campaign spending, our freedom - and the future of our market system - will pay an enormous price."

As Senate Republicans try to make the absurd case that Maria Sotomayor should not be approved to the Supreme Court because she will be an activist judge, they are applauding, at the same time, the potential actions of the worst of activism from the bench...Rewriting the Constitution to give corporations unlimited propaganda rights in the name of human free speech.

I loath those who would make this so. I am afraid of this. It will mean the end of America.

Courage,

Steve

Birthers...Traitors? Or Merely Fools?

If someone intentionally tried to thwart the workings of the United States government by fake documents and misinformation, we would normally call them “espionage agents” and try them for treason if they were exposed and caught. So what about the people who have several versions of a fake Obama birth certificate that purports to prove he was born in the Republic of Kenya and therefore can’t serve as President? Isn’t that treason?

The best of these forgeries has several versions, some better Photoshop products than others, but the funny thing about all this is that they are all so bad that they can only fool fools. The real Obama birth certificate has been released, examined, vouched for by hospital officials, and verified by birth announcements published in the local Hawaiian newspapers in 1961, a really nice touch that would be impossible to fake. So the question is not whether “Birthers” are fools, but whether those who are manipulating them should be tried as traitors to the very nation they claim their brand of virulent “patriotism” to?

Most of the websites that have sprung up surrounding this idiocy spew verbiage intended to support the birther premise and nothing to the contrary is allowed. Here is one that takes a critical thinking approach to the movement and not only blows it out of the water but makes the entire birther movement, including Lou Dobbs at CNN, look like morons.

http://nativeborncitizen.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/third-obama-birth-certificate-appears-in-court/

Rather than dwell on these easily manipulated suckers, I want to know why we aren’t going after the people who are trying to destroy the Presidency of the United States of America by producing fake documents, albeit stupidly and badly done documents?

The bigger problem with American journalism is only partly that a bleached toothed tool like Lou Dobbs is what passes for a legitimate journalist in today’s media. The real problem is that real journalists, who believe in their Constitutional obligation to deliver truthful investigative reporting, have been eclipsed by bleached toothed tools who are willingly manipulated by traitors.

This is why such an obvious movement for the greater good of all citizens, such as Heathcare Reform, is having such a difficult time becoming reality. If there such a thing as Truth Police and they had the power to stop the lies, we would already have a robust public option with everyone in the United States of America having basic health care insurance. Are those who are funding the anti health care reform propaganda traitors, or just insurance industry tools? Even more to the point…Is there a difference?

Peace,

Steve

Howard Dean nails the Health Care Opposition

More espionage in opposition to Climate Change legislation

Quote of the Day

"If only STUPID were Painful."

Whites Creek Palooza

Yesterday was the second annual play slash biological survey day in Whites Creek Gorge.

I lifted these images from Conservation Fisheries biologist Pat Rakes' camera. We had good water clarity but the big gar wouldn't hold still for their portrait. They constantly cruised around us like a swarm of attack subs with big teeth. This one is about three feet long but there were some that were much larger. I'll post more as I get time but for now, see how many of these you can identify..

Raising Money for the Fishes

A fine tasting!



Sorry you guys missed it. What a Hoot!
The Hackensaw Boys don't need to be plugged in to rock the house!

The Shady Grove Meadery was kept hopping as we tried to drink Mead like Vikings.

Cigna Exec: "Everything in Sicko is true!"

Read this next sentence, think about what it says and read it again, because it states in plain language what is wrong with America on so many levels:

"A Cigna executive says everything about Canada and England that was reported in Michael Moore's Sicko was true and that they made a costly and concerted effort to derail the message of the movie."

Now go watch this Bill Moyers interview on PBS...

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html

Treason

The Whites Creek bald eagle babies have left the nest and are being coaxed from tree to tree by mom and dad. There's a lot of screeching and complaining from the babies and a lot of whistling from the parents. Some things are constant in the universe.

My walk last Thursday with a TVA botanist was fascinating. I was concerned that in rebuilding the access trail I might destroy one of the rare plants he has located but my fears were allayed. It's funny that the rare plants usually turn out to be rather abundant in the areas where they still have habitat, as is the case in Whites Creek Gorge. The goldenrod that may be so far undescribed to science grows all over the place. You can't go anywhere without stepping on some of it.

The big concerns I have are worries over water quality. When we have rain one of the larger tributaries, Piney Creek, has that old familiar smell. For now the creek can handle it but what if the problem increases in the future?

When we first moved into the gorge back in 1992, the creek was too cold to swim in comfortably until August. Now it's warm by early June. There is no one who lives in the country who doesn't have their tale of climate change. It's obvious to those who live their lives in touch with the land. I don't understand anyone who doesn't accept that things are changing seriously fast and not for the better. Paul Krugman steps out in public and says what has to be said about politicians who deny global warming because they get more campaign contributions that way. Krugman calls this an "Act of Treason."

...if you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, were people who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial.

...Still, is it fair to call climate denial a form of treason? Isn’t it politics as usual?

Yes, it is — and that’s why it’s unforgivable.

The rest of Krugman's essay

Perhaps "peace" isn't the correct closing after that,

Steve

To Fathers on Father's Day

Are you a biological Father, or are you a Dad?

"Let's admit to ourselves that there are a lot of men out there that need to stop acting like boys; who need to realize that responsibility does not end at conception; who need to know that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise a child."

"Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father."

"We need to step out of our own heads and tune in. We need to turn off the television and start talking with our kids, and listening to them, and understanding what's going on in their lives.

"

Barack Obama

Waddyadu When U Ain't Gotta Job

And you graduated Cum Laude in the worst job market in 35 years?

You go kayaking!




O'Be Joyful Creek in Colorado.

Quote of the Day

A journalist looks at newspapers and why they are losing journalists...

...if Google can successfully sell ads based on a mere list of headlines, shouldn’t newspapers be able to sell even more ads based on a database full of the best local reporting to be had in a given monopoly newspaper market?

Except that the nitwits running America’s big newspaper chains laid off or ran off many of their best local reporters weeks, months or years ago, you know, to cut costs.

Bob Dunn

The Prophet

Obama spaketh, and it was good: "We have to find more environmentally sound ways of mining coal than simply blowing the tops off mountains," he proclaimed.

...Even as the people rejoiced at this good news, coal barons trembled in their temples of black gold. For a decade, these mighty extractors of wealth had been allowed to accumulate unto themselves enormous profits by exploding the tops off the peaks in Appalachia, the oldest mountain range in all the land. With the top third of these awesome, forested mountains reduced to rubble, the barons used giant machines to strip out seams of coal, and then they simply shoved the rubble and toxic coal waste down the mountainsides, burying the valleys and streams below. It was a desecration — but the love of mammon made it the law of the land

Hightower

Weekend Reading Assignment

Government agencies are what we make them be. Anyone who watched the Tennessee State combined hearing on the TVA ash-valanche would have been astounded to see the main line of questioning from our elected officials: "Why didn't TDEC regulations prevent this?"

TDEC is a state agency charged with enforcing the regulations passed by the State Legislature using the budget that the state Legislature gives it. You want Tennessee's environment to be healthy? Tell Dennis Ferguson and Ken Yager...Well, Ferguson anyway. Ken is bought and paid for.

This same situation holds true at the Federal level. We get the EPA that we demand...

Reading assignment

Devil's Beating his Wife

That's what we used to hear when it was sunny and raining at the same time. For the next two months the sun will set directly up Whites Creek gorge in order to make up for dipping behind the far ridge at 4 in the afternoon in the winter. This gives us a nice side light for late afternoon showers.

Honor those who Serve

I am touched by the respect and honor shown by these photos. They were banned by the Bush administration. We weren't supposed to see them. 

As it is, you and I must come to terms with the realization that we failed these fallen warriors by allowing ourselves to be mislead into an unjust war. That we failed them, however, does not diminish their valor. May we accept their gift to their country and consecrate their sacrifice with renewed vows to heal our world and protect it from the misuse of our own power. 

TVA Ash update

TVA skyline taken from Swan Pond Road...

Not having much luck out there...

Remember Swan Pond?

Everything is going great. Fish are even returning to Swan Pond. Here is a nice carp feeding in the crystal clear waters of a drainage ditch alongside Swan Pond Road. (Taken while the nice TVA officer was telling me I couldn't do that. I'm not exactly interested in talking to a TVA officer when I'm walking along a Roane County road, when he has his cruiser parked in the middle of it and telling me I'm blocking traffic. )

Sunday Funnies

A figurine found in the Danube valley in Germany may be the oldest representational art  found to date. It proves that 35,000 years ago humans, at least one of them anyway, had a thing for....

 Boobies. What else?

Industrial Solar?

This is a good thing and a bad idea, all at the same time. 

Governor Bredesen has announced a 5 Megawatt solar farm to be operated in conjunction with TVA and UT Knoxville, and will be funded by $30 million of stimulus money. 

The good part? It's a strong move into solar power production. 

The bad part? It's a continuation of the wrong kind of thinking where energy is concerned...Centralized production and distribution over a grid controlled by energy conglomerates. 

Half of the electricity produced in big facilities is lost before it gets to its end use point. What other countries have gone to is end point generation. Call it roof top solar. An efficient house can run quite well on 4 kilowatts of electricity. That takes a 240 square foot panel array (10 feet by 24 feet) which easily fits on most roofs. The excess is fed into the power grid and the power grid feeds the house in the traditional way when the sun isn't shining. A big solar farm means more power lines, more transformers, and more wasted electricity. 

So the purpose of the stimulus money is to generate dollar flow in our economy. Ask yourself is that purpose is best served by giving the money to a big corporation to build a generating plant so they can sell you electricity? Why wouldn't using the money to subsidize residential solar installations be the best of both worlds? Jobs would be created for installers and the suppliers of residential solar. The need for more giant powerlines would be averted. And frankly, a lot more electricity will be delivered to the end user with a decentralized generating array. 

We are seeing the bubbling to the surface of the struggle of big centralized power generating companies against residential wind and solar electricity generation. Remember in all this that efficiency, conservation, and protecting the environment are the enemy from the viewpoint of power companies. 

I'm with the enemy!

Courage,

Steve

Swine Catch Human Flu

The Canadian pork industry may be devastated by pigs that caught swine flu from a human...

It had to happen.