Since once again our crack (or maybe "on crack") major national media spent an inordinate amount of time over the last few days covering the Casey Anthony trial - an event that wasn't really first-tier national news - you may not have heard about the massive oil spill, courtesy of Exxon Mobil, in the wilds of Montana, on the Yellowstone River.
We would be extremely surprised if the corporate executives at Exxon didn't prefer to have their story buried.
Sadly, none of the news we've found about the current ecological disaster has surprised us. First, Exxon said it was just a small spill, nothing to worry about. Then, when pressed, they admitted that the spill could easily go far beyond their initial 10 mile containment zone. This isn't just any zone, mind you. That zone is the Yellowstone River, which flows out of the famed Yellowstone National Park, that contains some of America's most important natural scenery and wildlife.
As we have grown to expect from oil companies like Exxon Mobil, no contingency plan seems to have been crafted, in case a spill like this should happen - which it obviously did. While the cleanup continues, the company still does not have a repair strategy for the "leak."
Montana's Governor Schweitzer did tour the spill site, and said the cleanup effort was "pretty good" so far - but if the oil companies had been doing their jobs properly, it never would have happened at all.
Anyone who understands geography and is aware of the weather in the U.S. this year should understand with astounding clarity, that what happened in Montana won't stay in Montana. Some oil will slip through - and any chemicals like the carcinogen Correxit, used during the Gulf oil disaster of last year, that are dumped into the water to break up the oil, will flow downstream.
Downstream, through a series of rivers and tributaries that are sufffering through some of the worst flooding in history.
Through the flooded city of Minot, North Dakota, down the Missouri River, through the flooded river towns of South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska. Down into the state of Missouri - and then into the Mississippi River, where the remnants of the oil spill can poison even more fish, farmland, and wildlife, all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
For those Nebraskans who keep looking at the proposed Keystone XL2 pipeline, and can only see short-term dollar signs, we invite them to speak with the folks in Valdez, Alaska, people throughout small towns on the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans - or even scientists in Nebraska. The stories of increases in rare cancers and odd health problems is rampant, the economic problems continue, and there seems to be a never ending flow of damaged humans, animals, and landscape in those areas.
If we seem to be against the proposed pipeline project, and a little overprotective of the Ogallala Aquifer, we are - and we can't see how everyone else isn't as well.
Without the clean, life-giving water the aquifer provides to Nebraska and most of the Great Plains, our home region of the U.S. would be a desert - one where people could not survive, long-term. This isn't hyperbole; that region has experienced severe drought before, a chunk of time so damaging it earned its own derogatory nickname: the Dustbowl Era.
An oil spill in the aquifer could mean the poisoning of the water that gives life, not only to the people and animals of the Great Plains, but also to the crops that feed our whole country and much of the world.
It is time we abandoned the Keystone XL project as a state, and began actively investing in alternative energies like wind and solar - both of which, as Nebraskans, we know we have an abundance of.
This isn't some far-left wing, pot-smoking, hippie idea.
This is our life, and our home. It's time to put our families and our country ahead of corporate profit and short-term economic gain.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
'For The Public Good'
As Americans across the country recover from their Fourth of July revelry and get back to work, we hope that you took the time to enjoy the holiday - because the political discussion in Washington is turning right back to the budget, debt, and deficit battle.
We can only hope that you also re-read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights that we linked to yesterday, as those founding documents have a great deal to do with the outcome of the debate going on now.
As E.J. Dionne pointed out in his syndicated column yesterday, our nation is facing a significant crisis in how we see ourselves, one that that is positioning at least a portion of our country to be at odds with the Founding Fathers.
The idea that this nation was created - as many Republicans and regressives on the far right seem to think it was - as a haven from taxation and government is preposterous. As Dionne points out, "A reading of the Declaration of Independence makes clear that our forebears were not revolting against taxes as such — and most certainly not against government as such."
In the first item on the list of King George's many abuses listed in the Declaration, the Founders condemned the king for his refusal to pass laws that were "the most wholesome and necessary for the public good." In the Constitution, the issue of taxation isn't even addressed until the third graph of Section 2. Conversely, the need to "establish Justice" and "promote the general Welfare" are in the very beginning, directly after "We the People..."
This wasn't an oversight by the founders, any more than the choice to NOT deal with the issue of slavery. These were items that were debated and discussed - and then codified in language released to the world.
As Steve Benen also pointed out yesterday, "We’re supposed to believe the leaders of the era were states-rights libertarians, embracing the attitudes of Ayn Rand and Grover Norquist generations before their birth."
The facts about the founders simply don't agree with the regressivist philosophy of today.
The question by many progressives and sane Republicans is, "So how do we fight the crazies, on this issue of the budget?" Surprisingly, Republican Sen. John Cornyn may have given those who do want to protect "the public good" the exact answer on how to defeat the regressive arm of the GOP on this issue.
Sen. Cornyn called for the budget debate to be laid out in public, as did another regressive Republican, Alabama's Jeff Sessions.
We firmly agree with both of them. Let the American people see EXACTLY who agrees with who.
As President Reagan's former budget director Bruce Bartlett pointed out, the American people overwhelmingly agree with the progressives and the Democratic Party right now. Americans are clamoring for unnecessary tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations to be abolished, and tax rates to be raised, albeit slightly, in order to keep our promises and our benefits.
It's long past time for the Democratic Party to stand up for what the American people overwhelmingly want - and by doing so, force the Republican Party to also stand up and defend their stated beliefs; namely continued tax breaks for the richest and those who need them least, while taking away benefits from the sick, elderly, children, and those who need help the most.
As the saying goes, when they show you who they are, believe them.
We can only hope that you also re-read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights that we linked to yesterday, as those founding documents have a great deal to do with the outcome of the debate going on now.
As E.J. Dionne pointed out in his syndicated column yesterday, our nation is facing a significant crisis in how we see ourselves, one that that is positioning at least a portion of our country to be at odds with the Founding Fathers.
The idea that this nation was created - as many Republicans and regressives on the far right seem to think it was - as a haven from taxation and government is preposterous. As Dionne points out, "A reading of the Declaration of Independence makes clear that our forebears were not revolting against taxes as such — and most certainly not against government as such."
In the first item on the list of King George's many abuses listed in the Declaration, the Founders condemned the king for his refusal to pass laws that were "the most wholesome and necessary for the public good." In the Constitution, the issue of taxation isn't even addressed until the third graph of Section 2. Conversely, the need to "establish Justice" and "promote the general Welfare" are in the very beginning, directly after "We the People..."
This wasn't an oversight by the founders, any more than the choice to NOT deal with the issue of slavery. These were items that were debated and discussed - and then codified in language released to the world.
As Steve Benen also pointed out yesterday, "We’re supposed to believe the leaders of the era were states-rights libertarians, embracing the attitudes of Ayn Rand and Grover Norquist generations before their birth."
The facts about the founders simply don't agree with the regressivist philosophy of today.
The question by many progressives and sane Republicans is, "So how do we fight the crazies, on this issue of the budget?" Surprisingly, Republican Sen. John Cornyn may have given those who do want to protect "the public good" the exact answer on how to defeat the regressive arm of the GOP on this issue.
Sen. Cornyn called for the budget debate to be laid out in public, as did another regressive Republican, Alabama's Jeff Sessions.
We firmly agree with both of them. Let the American people see EXACTLY who agrees with who.
As President Reagan's former budget director Bruce Bartlett pointed out, the American people overwhelmingly agree with the progressives and the Democratic Party right now. Americans are clamoring for unnecessary tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations to be abolished, and tax rates to be raised, albeit slightly, in order to keep our promises and our benefits.
It's long past time for the Democratic Party to stand up for what the American people overwhelmingly want - and by doing so, force the Republican Party to also stand up and defend their stated beliefs; namely continued tax breaks for the richest and those who need them least, while taking away benefits from the sick, elderly, children, and those who need help the most.
As the saying goes, when they show you who they are, believe them.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Independence Day
It's Independence Day in the United States, so we realize that many of you won't even be reading this until Tuesday, at the earliest. Still, we think the following is worthy reading for every American, every day. We've edited it for space - so feel free to view the entire document at its official website, including some great information on it's history. While you're at it, you may even want to read the Constitution - and feel free to forward today's Daily Felltoon to those persons you might know who may not know the difference between the two documents.
Enjoy your holiday safely, whatever you choose to do.
---
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States...
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Enjoy your holiday safely, whatever you choose to do.
---
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States...
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
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