Duty to Warn
For The Guardian (UK) -- Is the Alaska Pipeline corroded? You bet it is. Has been for more than a decade. Did British Petroleum shut the pipe yesterday to turn a quick buck on its negligence, to profit off the disaster it created? Just ask the "smart pig."
Years ago, I had the unhappy job of leading an investigation of British Petroleum's management of the Alaska pipeline system. I was working for the Chugach villages, the Alaskan Natives who own the shoreline slimed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker grounding.
Even then, courageous government inspectors and pipeline workers were screaming about corrosion all through the pipeline. I say "courageous" because BP, which owns 46% of the pipe and is supposed to manage the system, had a habit of hunting down and destroying the careers of those who warn of pipeline problems.
Years ago, I had the unhappy job of leading an investigation of British Petroleum's management of the Alaska pipeline system. I was working for the Chugach villages, the Alaskan Natives who own the shoreline slimed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker grounding.
Even then, courageous government inspectors and pipeline workers were screaming about corrosion all through the pipeline. I say "courageous" because BP, which owns 46% of the pipe and is supposed to manage the system, had a habit of hunting down and destroying the careers of those who warn of pipeline problems.
This site normally keeps the “I” to a minimum. In general, the personal occurrences of my life have nothing to do with chronicling and commenting on the entrenched myth of liberal media bias and bringing to light stories that receive little or no attention. But I have lived in New York City for over half my life, and, until today, I couldn't bring myself to write about 9/11. You could say George W. Bush made me do it. In the midst of his ongoing exploitation of this tragedy, from which, in the five years since, his administration has found - through fear mongering, disinformation and McCarthyite attacks - only opportunity to advance its fascist agenda, I humbly present this personal response.
It's true. It's weird. It's nuts. The Department of Homeland Security, after a five-year hunt for Osama, has finally brought charges against … Greg Palast. I kid you not. Send your cakes with files to the Air America wing at Guantanamo.
Though not just yet. Fatherland Security has informed me that television producer Matt Pascarella and I have been charged with unauthorized filming of a "critical national security structure" in Louisiana.
On August 22, for LinkTV and Democracy Now! we videotaped the thousands of Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. It's been a year since the hurricane and 73,000 POW's (Prisoners of W) are still in this aluminum ghetto in the middle of nowhere. One resident, Pamela Lewis said, “It is a prison set-up" -- except there are no home furloughs for these inmates because they no longer have homes.
Though not just yet. Fatherland Security has informed me that television producer Matt Pascarella and I have been charged with unauthorized filming of a "critical national security structure" in Louisiana.
On August 22, for LinkTV and Democracy Now! we videotaped the thousands of Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. It's been a year since the hurricane and 73,000 POW's (Prisoners of W) are still in this aluminum ghetto in the middle of nowhere. One resident, Pamela Lewis said, “It is a prison set-up" -- except there are no home furloughs for these inmates because they no longer have homes.
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
Remarks Election Night
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
After Listening to Pink's Dear Mr. President
I wanted you to hear this song because it says so much about why *this* election in Georgia was so important.
In the film American Blackout, you saw that I say that my district needs jobs. And so, in partnership with faith-based organizations and labor, I put together a program to train my constituents to acquire the skills for jobs that won't be outsourced overseas, and that pay more than a living wage, with health and retirement benefits. Last month, we took in 500 students. Who at the end of their training will have transportable skills, internationally-recognized certification, and a chance to live the American dream, supporting their families and our community.
The news media didn't tell you about that because they wanted you to focus on my hair!
Tonight my mother was hurt by someone in this room, a member of the press. My staff assistant was hurt by someone in this room, a member of the press.
Remarks Election Night
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
After Listening to Pink's Dear Mr. President
I wanted you to hear this song because it says so much about why *this* election in Georgia was so important.
In the film American Blackout, you saw that I say that my district needs jobs. And so, in partnership with faith-based organizations and labor, I put together a program to train my constituents to acquire the skills for jobs that won't be outsourced overseas, and that pay more than a living wage, with health and retirement benefits. Last month, we took in 500 students. Who at the end of their training will have transportable skills, internationally-recognized certification, and a chance to live the American dream, supporting their families and our community.
The news media didn't tell you about that because they wanted you to focus on my hair!
Tonight my mother was hurt by someone in this room, a member of the press. My staff assistant was hurt by someone in this room, a member of the press.
Now about sex.… One school would allow us no flavor for our fare and the other would have us all on a straight pepper diet. ~Alcoholics Anonymous p. 69
I see the world in this spiritual way – way more fluid than how we’re asked to define it. I actually think there’s a whole spectrum of gender, not just men and women. In a lot of cultures, there’s not just two. But I’m glad when people take their destiny into their own hands and take actions that they think will make them happy. ~ Daniella Sea, http://www.girlfriendsmag.com/feature.html June 2006.
The love that dared not speak its name now won’t shut its mouth. ~ Spoken at a dinner party
I see the world in this spiritual way – way more fluid than how we’re asked to define it. I actually think there’s a whole spectrum of gender, not just men and women. In a lot of cultures, there’s not just two. But I’m glad when people take their destiny into their own hands and take actions that they think will make them happy. ~ Daniella Sea, http://www.girlfriendsmag.com/feature.html June 2006.
The love that dared not speak its name now won’t shut its mouth. ~ Spoken at a dinner party
Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline isn’t a household name yet, but he may be soon. In recent months Mr. Kline has shown that he is the type of judicial nominee that President Bush is looking for. Mr. Kline has that most valuable of assets that right-wing Republicans require of a nominee: a “conservative judicial philosophy.” In recent months he has sought to deny poor women of the right to an abortion, despite federal law to the contrary. And he supported handing out a much harsher sentence to a gay teenager who engaged in consensual sex than to heterosexual adolescents.
In August Mr. Kline filed a lawsuit against Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. The lawsuit alleges that by using Medicaid funds to provide abortions the state is depriving citizens, to include fetuses, of the right to life without due process of law. In his civil suit Mr. Kline defined conception as the beginning of life in order to bolster the argument that abortion violates an individual’s right to life. The suit claims that, “At the very moment of fertilization, a new, unique and genetically distinct human being is formed, distinct from its host while dependent upon her.”
In August Mr. Kline filed a lawsuit against Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. The lawsuit alleges that by using Medicaid funds to provide abortions the state is depriving citizens, to include fetuses, of the right to life without due process of law. In his civil suit Mr. Kline defined conception as the beginning of life in order to bolster the argument that abortion violates an individual’s right to life. The suit claims that, “At the very moment of fertilization, a new, unique and genetically distinct human being is formed, distinct from its host while dependent upon her.”
Something peculiar happened to me while particpating in the Voices for Creative Nonviolence's 30-day, 320-mile "Walk for Justice" from Springfield to North Chicago, Illinois to reclaim funding for the common good and away from war.
This afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee while sitting in the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center on Chicago's south side, a Veterans Administration cop walked up to me and said, "OK, you've had your 15 minutes, it's time to go."
"Huh?", I asked intelligently, not quite sure what he was talking about.
"You can't be in here protesting," officer Adkins said, pointing to my Veterans For Peace shirt.
"Well, I'm not protesting, I'm having a cup of coffee," I returned, thinking that logic would convince Adkins to go back to his earlier duties of guarding against serious terrorists.
Flipping his badge open, he said, "No, not with that shirt. You're protesting and you have to go."
Beginning to get his drift, I said firmly, "Not before I finish my coffee."
This afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee while sitting in the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center on Chicago's south side, a Veterans Administration cop walked up to me and said, "OK, you've had your 15 minutes, it's time to go."
"Huh?", I asked intelligently, not quite sure what he was talking about.
"You can't be in here protesting," officer Adkins said, pointing to my Veterans For Peace shirt.
"Well, I'm not protesting, I'm having a cup of coffee," I returned, thinking that logic would convince Adkins to go back to his earlier duties of guarding against serious terrorists.
Flipping his badge open, he said, "No, not with that shirt. You're protesting and you have to go."
Beginning to get his drift, I said firmly, "Not before I finish my coffee."
(HINT: It's not about Busby or Bilbray
or San Diego or even California!)
My reporting and the concerns expressed about the Busby/Bilbray election results as announced, have little or nothing to do with Francine Busby or Brian Bilbray or even, in particular, the June 6th U.S. House special run-off election in California's 50th congressional district.
It has only a tiny bit more to do with San Diego. And only slightly more than that to do with California.
It has everything, however, to do with democracy. Across the entire country. As opposed to any one race in any one area.
If I've not been clear on that until now, please allow me to set the record straight.
My reporting and the concerns expressed about the Busby/Bilbray election results as announced, have little or nothing to do with Francine Busby or Brian Bilbray or even, in particular, the June 6th U.S. House special run-off election in California's 50th congressional district.
It has only a tiny bit more to do with San Diego. And only slightly more than that to do with California.
It has everything, however, to do with democracy. Across the entire country. As opposed to any one race in any one area.
If I've not been clear on that until now, please allow me to set the record straight.
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, two top outlaws smashing our
country's rule of law and democratic liberties, are testing
the American people's resistance. Every day they are testing.
Every day they think by flaunting the words, "war on terror",
they can get Americans to concede more and more of what makes
the United States a constitutionally-abiding government under
the rule of law.
You know what? With not enough exceptions, they are right. Day by day, we're giving up what our forefathers fought to bequeath us since that famous Declaration of Independence of 1776. They were determined that people in this country would not be arrested without charges and jailed indefinitely, that they would not be tortured, or sent to be tortured in dictatorial regimes, or deprived of habeas corpus to take their incarceration to our courts of law, or be snooped on at the whim of the President and his deputies or that people in faraway lands would be destroyed in the tens of thousands due to a fabricated war-invasion-quagmire.
You know what? With not enough exceptions, they are right. Day by day, we're giving up what our forefathers fought to bequeath us since that famous Declaration of Independence of 1776. They were determined that people in this country would not be arrested without charges and jailed indefinitely, that they would not be tortured, or sent to be tortured in dictatorial regimes, or deprived of habeas corpus to take their incarceration to our courts of law, or be snooped on at the whim of the President and his deputies or that people in faraway lands would be destroyed in the tens of thousands due to a fabricated war-invasion-quagmire.
In a previous post (see: �Something Smells Fishy in San Diego�, June 10 post on www.baiman.blogspot.com ), I noted that the official returns for the Run-Off Election and Primary for the 50th Congressional District in San Diego conducted on June 6 � the Busby / Bilbray race, are very odd.
This was an election held on the same day, in the same polling places, in which voters could vote in a particular party Primary (Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, or Peace and Freedom) and vote for a candidate for the upcoming November 2006 general election for the seat, and also vote for the Special Run-Off election to fill that seat until November. I�ve been told that under California law, Voters can �Decline to State� a party preference and get a Democratic, Republican, American Independent Party, or Non-Partisan (with no Primary Candidates) ballot, but are required to register for other parties (Libertarian or Green for example) if they want to vote in one of these Primaries. Candidates for the Run-Off election had already nominated in a previous April 11th Special election.
This was an election held on the same day, in the same polling places, in which voters could vote in a particular party Primary (Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, or Peace and Freedom) and vote for a candidate for the upcoming November 2006 general election for the seat, and also vote for the Special Run-Off election to fill that seat until November. I�ve been told that under California law, Voters can �Decline to State� a party preference and get a Democratic, Republican, American Independent Party, or Non-Partisan (with no Primary Candidates) ballot, but are required to register for other parties (Libertarian or Green for example) if they want to vote in one of these Primaries. Candidates for the Run-Off election had already nominated in a previous April 11th Special election.