Fossil Fuels

As I am about to post this blog piece, I just got a call from a man named Garvard Good Plume at Pine Ridge telling me that Wounded Knee is being auctioned off RIGHT NOW.  I feel sick.  Meanwhile, here's what I wrote earlier today....

I am sitting in a cafe in Rapid City, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation, early for my interview with Charmaine White Face.  I watched the riveting, heartbreaking and informative film "Red Cry" for the second time last night to prepare for this interview.  I also studied the very specific and helpful directives about how non-indigenous people can support indigenous people at www.lakotagrandmothers.org.  

I haven't had much time to keep up with blogging... I spent almost a week in Oklahoma, camping near Ponca City with the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance Camp - no electricity in my tent (although one tent did have a windmill and solar panels - I kid you not!).  Although the action that we were training for all week didn't come off as planned, the overall experience came together as one of the most valuable I've had so far in a totally unexpected way.

Marine toxicologist, Riki Ott explains how local communities can protect the health of their citizens by banning harmful chemicals.   A part of the "Making it Right for Real: Working together to Ban Dispersants and Make Democracy Work!" event on Feb 23rd.

http://www.rikiott.com
http://www.ultimatecivics.org

update: May 2 2013
Fracking Ban Stands in New York Town; Victory for Local Communities

Marine toxicologist, Riki Ott explains the FAQs about Corexit and other oil dispersants in regard to their use in oil spill clean up and the associated health risks to humans, animal and plants.  A part of the "Making it Right for Real: Working together to Ban Dispersants and Make Democracy Work!" event on Feb 23rd.

http://www.rikiott.com
http://www.ultimatecivics.org

House Renews Violence Against Women Measure

WS – The politics of beating women. How fu$king shameful… 138 “grown ups” actually voted against this. They all should be “Bitch Slapped”!

The House on Thursday gave final approval to a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, sending a bipartisan Senate measure to President Obama after a House plan endorsed by conservatives was defeated.
The legislation passed on a vote of 286 to 138, with 199 Democrats joining 87 Republicans in support of the reauthorization of the landmark 1994 law, which assists victims of domestic and sexual violence. It amounted to a significant victory for the president and Congressional Democrats, who have assailed Republicans for months for stalling the legislation. More…

Today is “Peanut Butter Lover’s Day” – Got milk?

Man Who Got Smallpox Vaccine Passes Milder Infection to Sex Partner: CDC

WS – The operant words are; U.S. Defense Department program.

Click to view Slide Shows

US sees ‘biggest-ever’ climate protest over Keystone XL pipeline
Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Washington, DC, on Sunday to protest the controversial Keystone XL project, which would see an oil pipeline run across the US Midwest.

­The march’s organizers, environmental movement 350.org, estimated that 40,000 people from 30 states took part in the ‘Forward on Climate’ rally, described as the biggest climate march in US history; police have not yet provided an official estimate.

Protesters chanted "Keystone pipeline? Shut it down," as they marched around the White House, calling on President Obama to reject the Keystone proposal and follow through on climate pledges made during his inaugural

~ Earth First Presentation at NAASN

• Panagioti, “No System but the Ecosystem: Earth First! and Anarchism”
• Moderator: Jeff Brite

Panel Presentation from the North American Anarchist Studies Network Conference

Sethness-Castro, Javier. “For an Ecological Anarcho-Communism” (via SKYPE)

Due to Technical Difficulties the End of Javier's and the beginning of Gabriel's presentation were lost to fluctuating bandwidth from the livestream. 
Below, in text, is the missing part of Gabriel's presentation.  
Below that is the remainder of the panel.

Piser, Gabriel. “Frack and Friction: The Contested Futures of Development in Appalachia”
Engel-Di Mauro, Salvatore. “Anarchism and Environmental Degradation” 
Moderator: John Clark

Weaving Together Ungovernable Flesh: The Activist Threat of State Legibility

Speaking at anti MTR giant Larry Gibson's Memorial; photo journalist Paul Corbit Brown explains part of why social movements frequently fail.  He was speaking to several hundred activists gathered in Charleston WV to mourn the collective loss of a great leader in the fight against mountain top removal and several hundred activists from across the country who had tuned in to this live broadcast.

http://www.paulcorbitbrown.com

breaking! breaking!

evan vokes, a whistle blower, who was also an engineer at transCanada, has the National Energy Board of canada up transCanada's arse!

vokes tried every approach he could through the company's chain of command, using transCanada protocol. he climbed all the way up the ladder wagging his precautionary tail, all the way to ceo russ girling's office, and after having his concerns for safety in regards to his company's pipelines being brushed off by the company he worked for, and being severly distressed at their ambivalence, he went on "stress" leave in november of 2011. vokes took his leave for health related issues in regards to his concern for what he had witnessed first hand on the job. by the end of march, he finally met with canada's National Energy Board, to discuss the list of infractions and concerns, he had in regards to transCanada's practices on their pipelines, and on may 1st, voke's filed the official papework as a complainant with the NEB. on may 8th, vokes was relieved of his position as an engineer for transCanada, when he was summarily fired. this and worse is often the fate of those who have the strength to step forward into the role of truthsayer. 

The entire memorial presentation is right here just click play.

Friends and family of Larry Gibson, the “Keeper of the Mountains,”
celebrated his life and legacy
on Sunday, October 14 from 2 to 6 p.m. in Charleston, WV

The event was broadcast LIVE right here.
1 hour of Tribute videos follows the memorial in this playlist.

I arrived in East Texas September 29^th, 2012. Drove into a small Eastern Texas Town, where the houses pushed back from the yards sprinkled with drought dried grass. I came to cover a story about some folks who built a wall against the KXL pipeline.  A pipeline cutting a swath across the belly of the United States like some deep burnt scar. It's tube to be filled with Tar Sands Bitumen.

I learned about the Alberta Tar Sand where the bitumen was being shipped from years ago at a workshop at an enviromental conference called Powershift. Indigenous folks told stories of machines that dug up around their communities pressing the sand into some sort of high pressure goop that's pushed through the pipes like a super heated laser. Turning the top soil into a dead scar.

Rochester Indymedia interviewed Maura Cowley about Duke Energy, the DNC, and ALEC.