spycurity

No more sleeping
in peace,

only sleeping
while watched.

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WVIA airs Food Inc. – Monsanto is evil

Tonight WVIA television presented the 2004 movie Food Inc as a fundraiser. My wife and I viewed it 18 months ago. It was the last time she ate meat.

Here is the beginning of the movie. It sets the tone and gives you a fairly good sense of what is to come:

While the movie deals with many alarming issues in its three segments, the most disturbing is the documentation of Monsanto Corporation’s systematic attempt to control the world seed and food supply through legal intimidation and ruin.

Monsanto is a very evil company. I will call it Mammonsanto:

Another film, The Future of Food is an excellent treatment of Monanto’s attempt to control the food chain. Here is the trailer (go to the website to see the entire film):

Monsanto has lobbied Congress to pass Senate Bill 510, the Food Safety and Modernization Act. It could potentially outlaw human scale agriculture :

And even Glenn Beck seems alarmed:

With this being the thirtieth anniversary of  John Lennon’s death, it is insulting to note that Mammonsanto has trademarked the word “imagine” as its own:

Imagine no Monsanto, Its easy if you try…

And getting back to WVIA, good job showing Food Inc. Now how about airing Gasland , Bill Kelly!  That is what public broadcasting is supposed to be about. (My wife and I have supported WVIA radio for thirty years.)

If you are afraid of sponsor backlash, you are no better than a commercial enterprise. That is not what public broadcasting is supposed to be.

the threat of democracy

If this evil and blatant usury of our land is not stopped by our elected and sworn representatives by listening to reason, constituents, and the constitution – if they wimp out on their duty to make sure anything done to this state is done right or not at all; if this illegal attack supplants democracy – then democracy will be wrestled back, one way or another.

NoCana

The new Don King

I was on television last night.  I was an audience participant on WVIA’s State of Pennsylvania live broadcast.  I asked a question on camera.  This was not easy for me.  I don’t like the limelight.  Last night’s show was hosted by Suzanne Kapral-Kelly.  Her guests were WILK talk show hosts Nancy Kman, John Webster, Sue Henry, and Steve Corbett.

When it was almost my turn, I was ushered to a spot marked by masking tape, directly in the line of fire.  Then before I could run away, all lights and attention swung to me.  I think I did okay.  It was my first time on the tube.   I kept it simple.  I thanked the WILK radio hosts for providing a platform to discuss the Marcellus Shale issue.  Then, I simply requested that both stations sponsor a debate between EnCana and the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition.  The dreaded GDAC.

I did this without consulting anyone else from GDAC. But I am sure each one would say, “Bring it on”! This gas play is so wrong in so many ways for our communities.

I remember the first and only time I heard representatives from EnCana speak.  They were making a presentation to the Back Mountain Community Partnership.  The Partnership is a group of  local township and state representatives.  EnCana  presented hydraulic fracturing as a benign and safe process.  You have seen the Chesapeake ads.  Makes it look like a park.  During the question period, there were some of us who began to ask reasonable questions about safety and environmental impact.  They became visibly defensive and dismissive.  The EnCana reps could not or would not provide answers to most of our questions and were then asked by the Partnership to report back in writing.  They did eventually submit an inadequate response in writing.  But that is a whole other story for a future date.  The point here is they don’t like questions.  They seem to expect us to be compliant and quiet. Watch the movie Split Estate to get a glimpse of EnCana’s dark side.

On the broadcast, Steve Corbett related how he has been unable to get anyone from EnCana to talk with him. They are about to change our world in a very surreal, industrial, and irreversible way – yet are too arrogant to address any of these potentialities with the public.

Even if you had the perfect company doing all the right things, fracking is still a dirty, radioactive, water wasting, toxin injecting, air polluting, community disrupting, waste producing, land damaging, infrastructure intensive, property devaluing, inefficient way to produce energy. Add on top of that a secretive and entitled corporation – you are begging for trouble.

Come on down EnCana! Name the time and place.

the constitutional play

this is: oil vs solar
marketing vs truth
walmart vs main street
insanity vs sanity
landmen vs farmland
lawyers vs community
lobbyists vs democracy
secrecy vs transparency
the state vs you

GDAC Earth Day Statement

Earth Day Statement

The Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition is here today to protest the drilling for natural gas in Luzerne County. We have studied the impacts of natural gas extraction by deep well drilling and hydraulic fracking in the Marcellus shale and other deposits throughout our country and recognize the inherent risks to our local environment. These risks challenge not only the quality of life for the populated Back Mountain area through disruption of our roads, air and water quality, but this activity poses an unacceptable risk to the fresh drinking water supplies of the people of the Wyoming Valley from West Pittston to West Nanticoke and all of the towns in between. The gas companies have received a permit to drill in Lehman Township, that is only 1.7 miles from the Huntsville reservoir and the county commissioners want to drill in Moon Lake Park that is less than ½ mile from the Ceasetown reservoir. Both of these fresh water dams and aquifers supply drinking water to over 80,000 people in the Valley. The majority of people in our county will not reap the financial benefits from this drilling but will be taking on all of the risks. We want to say to EnCana gas company of North America, and any other gas company seeking to exploit our area, we do not want you disturbing our communities, polluting our air and water, damaging our roads, decreasing our property values, and dividing our people. We ask you to leave. We also want to stand up against the larger issue that communities are told they have no say in what happens in their townships and local ordinances are superseded by the state. We the people, hereby declare our right to decide what types of activities we choose to allow in our communities and how to regulate them. This right to self-govern is inalienable and what American democracy is all about. If you feel that your rights to self-determination are being violated and are against allowing our beautiful county to be turned into an industrial zone littered with hazardous chemicals, our air disturbed by lung damaging fumes, and quality of life all negatively impacted by natural gas drilling, then join us in stopping this activity and asking our legislators to do the same.

Dr. Thomas Jiunta

Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition

EnCana in the Leak News

Here is another leak story out of Colorado.

Remember, these myriad stories from so many places are meant to inform, not frighten. One must consider the universe of possibilities and probabilities when considering hydrofracking gas from shale.

I’ve concluded, it is a stupid and dangerous way of doing things.

New Concerns Over Possible Methane Gas Leak Near Silt

Cabot Speak

This is excerpted from the news article: State: Energy firm contaminated well, spring

Cabot spokesman Ken Komoroski said the company has not confirmed the source of the fluid, but has confirmed that “Cabot activities are not the source.”

Komoroski said Cabot checked with its “independent third-party consultant,” which concluded that “the observance of black water in the well did not and could not have occurred as a result of Cabot activities” based on “observation and extensive analytical testing.” He said the well and spring contained “total and fecal coliform, which is indicative of human or animal waste” and that “the materials that exist in the well in high concentrations don’t exist on Cabot locations.”

Asked if any of the materials Cabot uses were found in the well, Komoroski said the company does not yet have all analytical results from lab tests and a final report is still in draft form. DEP continues to investigate the incident and Cabot will continue to cooperate and support the department’s efforts, he said.

So let’s get this straight.  Cabot denies wrongdoing before  all the reports are in????….Oh I forgot (touch to the forehead) – the Halliburton loophole… sorry … there is really no way for me to ever know…  is there?  You made sure of that.

Not for long though, when democracy has its day.

Dispatch from Dimock

Herb. Sent you an article about another one of my neighbor’s water problems from the Times Leader. Not sure if I sent it right. It is like a war zone up here in Dimock. Helicopters hovering overhead all the time dropping their seismic testing “pods” – spooking my horses. Workers in the fields and woods stringing miles of seismic testing wire – trucks heavy equipment driving by constantly – dust – noise – skies lit up at night from the drilling rigs – constant noise from the drilling and fracking. Drillers park their chemical trucks next door here at work and I walk over sometimes and try to read the names of the chemical containers – can’t understand the names of the chemicals but they all have skull and crossbones next to them – what would one think that means! Sorry for the rant – just have to vent once in a while. Chuck.

WHY THE RUSH?

Why are the Lehman Township supervisors rushing to grant drilling permits BEFORE the monthly meeting of the Back Mountain Community Partnership? The supervisors changed the date of their meeting to Tuesday, April 13th, with gas permits being the agenda of the meeting.

The Back Mountain Community Partnership, a coming together of the local supervisors and elected officials, has scheduled a meeting at Misericordia University on Thursday, April 15th, from 3:00pm to 5:00pm. This group has been listening to the pros and cons of the drilling and is attempting to formulate a plan to deal with it. Hopefully, as a group, members could recommend that NO permits be issued by local governments until state and federal regulations are in place. So, Lehman supervisors, WHY THE RUSH?

Submitted by Molly M
4/9/10