ACT 13 - Nice Name, Right?

But - What It Does. . .  Is Not At All Nice.
by Steven Rosenfeld, Mar. 12, 2012 via Alternet.org

Fracking Democracy:  Why Pennsylvania’s Act 13 May Be
The Nation’s Worst Corporate Giveaway

“Now I know what it feels like to live in Nigeria,” said recently retired Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields.  “You’re basically a resource colony for multi-national corporations to take your natural resources, take them back to wherever they are at, add value to them, and then sell them back to you.”

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I live in the south-central mountains of Pennsylvania, and know that this article is dead on accurate.  It is more than just an article, it is a warning.

Oh - While you are at it - You should also read this related article from Commondreams.org. . .

Peaceful Anti-Fracking Activists Pursued by FBI as ‘Eco-Terrorists’
by the Commandreams.org staff - March 11, 2012

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Wacky... Wacky I Tell You!

An Excellent, And Needed Perspective of a Sane and Honest Man.
By Glenn Greenwald - March 10, 2012

Dennis Kucinich and “wackiness”

“Forced to name the “craziest” policy favored by American politicians, I’d say the multibillion-dollar war on drugs, which no one thinks is winnable.  Asked about the most “extreme,” I’d cite the invasion of Iraq, a war of choice that has cost many billions of dollars and countless innocent lives. . . .

I hardly expect the news media to denigrate the policies I’ve named, nor do I expect their Republican and Democratic supporters to be labeled crazy, kooky, or extreme.  These disparaging descriptors are never applied to America’s policy establishment, even when it is proved ruinously wrong, whereas politicians who don’t fit the mainstream Democratic or Republican mode. . . . are mocked almost reflexively in these terms, if they are covered at all. . . .

[I]s it not just as extreme that President Obama claims an unchecked power to assassinate, without due process, any American living abroad whom he designates as an enemy combatant?  Or that Joe Lieberman wants to strip Americans of their citizenship not when they are convicted of terrorist activities, but upon their being accused and designated as enemy combatants? . . . [C]razy, kooky, extreme actions are perpetrated by establishment centrists far more often than by [those typically derided in mainstream circles as crazy].”

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I hope Mr. Kucinich "never gives up". . .  As we need men of his courage, sanity, and honesty.

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Best Article Of The Week...

Hard To Accept - But - Not Hard To Understand
An Interview with Morris Berman By Nomi Prins - March 7, 2012

“Why the American Empire Was Destined to Collapse”

“...all of the data over the last 20 years show that Americans are not very bright, and not even the bright ones are very bright—it’s not merely a question of IQ.  A Marist poll released on July 4, 2011 showed that 42 percent of American adults are unaware that the U.S. declared its independ- ence in 1776, and this figure increases to 69 percent for the under-30 age group.  Twenty-five percent of Americans don’t know from which country the United States seceded.  A poll taken in the Oklahoma public school system turned up the fact that 77 percent of the students didn’t know who George Washington was, and the Texas Board of Education recently voted to include a unit on Estee Lauder in the history curriculum, when they don’t have one on the first president.  Near- ly 30 percent of the American population thinks the sun revolves around the earth or is unsure of which revolves around which.  Etc.  etc.  How can such a population grasp a structural analysis of American history or politics?  They simply aren’t capable of it.”
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I’ve watched this decline, and posted about it for some time, and like Morris Berman, et al, I know it is past the nation's ability to recover from its own destruction - When the realization finally sunk in, last year, I couldn't post anything, for what turned out to be a full year - The realization of my nation's failure to see the denial of its failure just was too much to handle.

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I Know You Won't Do Anything...

Since You've Done Nothing So Far - But one Can Hope - Right?
By Rachel Tabachnik via Alternet.org

The Religious Right's Plot To Take Control Of Our Public Schools
The people who brought you "Jesus Camp" are moving into your neighborhood school.
And there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

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I have no doubt, with all that you so called citizens have allowed so far, that you'll also allow this to go unchallenged, therefore allowing another part of this once great democracy to be destroyed, simply because you couldn't be bothered, or don't actually believe it.

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