Author Archives: HalleyR55yl

Haunting Photos of the Risky Search for Mexico’s Disappeared

by HalleyR55yl Posted on September 29, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

In September 2014, 43 students from a teachers’ college were abducted in the town of Iguala, in Mexico’s Guerrero state. What exactly happened to them remains uncertain; so far, the remains of only one student have been found. Miguel Angel Jimenez Blanco (below) headed a community effort to scour the countryside around Iguala for the missing students, leading search parties that uncovered grim evidence of dozens of other disappearances and killings. In August, Jimenez was discovered shot to death. “Despite the personal risk he faced in doing the job,” says photographer Chris Gregory, “he felt that somehow it made Mexico a safer place for his children.”

Jimenez stands just steps from the Cocula dump, where the remains of one of the 43 disappeared students was found. In 2013, Miguel Angel Jimenez left his life as a cosmetics salesman to help organize community efforts to identify graves, register disappeared persons, and get government support for victims’ families. Chris Gregory

At a site where 28 people were burned and buried, Jimenez points at a cross etched in a tree trunk that he thought represented a criminal’s attempt at remorse. Chris Gregory

Jimenez and a family member of a missing person search a corn field close to where forensic teams are investigating possible gravesites. Chris Gregory

Family members comb the mountains near Cocula after receiving an anonymous tip that there had been drug cartel activity in the area. Chris Gregory

Searchers received a tip about cartel activity around Butcher’s Hill, an area that’s adjacent to the dump where the 43 students are believed to have been burned. Chris Gregory

Clothing and trash are uncommon sights in the thickly vegetated mountains outside Iguala. Often they are evidence of kidnapping camps. Chris Gregory

This grave was found outside Iguala soon after the 43 students disappeared. DNA confirmed that none of the 28 bodies belonged to the students. Chris Gregory

At a town hall meeting, residents air concerns that the government has not done enough to find their missing family members. The meeting lasted almost eight hours. Chris Gregory

Jimenez holds up a shirt found near the mass grave outside of Iguala. Chris Gregory

Twenty-year-old Jesus Pineda Corona helps with the search effort. His shirt reads, “I will search for you until I find you.” Chris Gregory

Continued – 

Haunting Photos of the Risky Search for Mexico’s Disappeared

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Safer, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Haunting Photos of the Risky Search for Mexico’s Disappeared

Chart of the Day: Republicans Stick Together No Matter What Kind of District They Represent

by HalleyR55yl Posted on March 23, 2014

Mother Jones

Here’s an interesting chart from Ryan O’Donnell. It shows voting patterns for members of Congress based on what kind of district they represent. Among Democrats, as you’d expect, their voting records become more progressive as their districts become more strongly Democratic (blue line). What’s more, there’s a sharp break at zero. When a district becomes even slightly majority-Democratic, voting records become sharply more progressive.

But you see nothing of the kind among Republicans. The red line is nearly flat. There’s virtually no difference in their voting records regardless of how strongly Republican their district is. Even when they represent moderately Democratic districts, it doesn’t matter. They still vote monolithically conservative.

Now, it’s possible that this is merely an artifact of Republicans being the out-of-power party. When you’re faced with a president of the opposite party, maybe it’s just easier to maintain a united front of obstruction. Someone could shed some light on this by creating a similar chart for 2001-06, when it was House Democrats who were facing a president of the opposite party.

But I suspect that’s not it. Or at least, not the whole story. Modern Republicans are both more cohesive and more ideological than Democrats (virtually none have a progressive score above 20, while lots of Democrats have scores below 80). Nor do they pay a price for this. Voters in pinkish districts don’t seem to mind electing members of Congress with strongly red voting records. I guess they figure that as long as they vote against higher taxes, it doesn’t much matter if they waste time on lots of symbolic sops to the tea party.

Could Democrats in light bluish districts act the same way? They sure don’t seem to think so. Comments?

Read more: 

Chart of the Day: Republicans Stick Together No Matter What Kind of District They Represent

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Chart of the Day: Republicans Stick Together No Matter What Kind of District They Represent

Come for the Crooning, Stay for the Wordplay on Lambchop’s "Nixon" Reissue

by HalleyR55yl Posted on February 3, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Lambchop
Nixon
Merge

If you know this Nashville collective mainly for recent albums like Mr. M and OH (Ohio), the most striking thing about the reissue of 2000’s lush Nixon is how different leader Kurt Wagner sounds. Currently a woozy basso crooner, he was a woozy, much-higher crooner back then, with a intriguingly scruffy falsetto suggesting Curtis Mayfield’s degenerate down-home cousin. In any case, Nixon is a fascinating listen that tempers Wagner’s penchant for updating and warping the smooth country-politan sounds of the ’70s with mellow soul influences, all the better to make his sly, tartly dark observations on human nature more appetizing.

Taking its title from the wonderful Wayne White painting of the same name—which is also the cover—Nixon has little or nothing to say about the late, disgraced former president (unless utterly oblique references count), but it does include “The Petrified Florist,” underscoring Wagner’s knack for offbeat wordplay. This two-disc set also includes White Sessions 1998: How I Met Cat Power, a five-song Wagner solo set with its own sleepy charms.

Taken from – 

Come for the Crooning, Stay for the Wordplay on Lambchop’s "Nixon" Reissue

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Come for the Crooning, Stay for the Wordplay on Lambchop’s "Nixon" Reissue

Texans want frackers to stop causing earthquakes

by HalleyR55yl Posted on January 22, 2014

Texans want frackers to stop causing earthquakes

By

Shutterstock

Some North Texans who have been enduring a months-long flurry of earthquakes want the shaking to stop — and they believe that means putting an end to a controversial fracking practice.

“Is somebody going to help us?” one resident asked the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates gas and oil drilling, during a hearing on Tuesday. “I’ve heard of tornado alley. I’ve never heard of earthquake alley.”

The dozens of residents who traveled to Austin for the hearing want frackers barred from injecting their wastewater underground at high pressure. Scientists have linked the practice to earthquakes in other regions.

The commission says operations at one injection well in the area were suspended in November after it was found to be operating at unusually high pressure. But the commission says it doesn’t have the power to stop frackers from operating injection wells just because of earthquake risks. Here’s more from the local CBS affiliate:

[G]eneral counsel for the commission Wendell Fowler said inspectors can only start the two to three month process of shutting down a well if there is polluted water, fluid escaping, a change in conditions or the rules. Seismic activity is not one of the criteria.

RRC Chairman Barry Smitherman said injection activity at the wells in question has been less than it was back in 2010. He also made note of a recent paper where some researchers cast doubt on the connection between injection wells and quakes.

The commission said it would hire a seismologist in the coming weeks to investigate the residents’ complaints. But it appears that any real solution would require new state legislation.


Source
North Texans Protest Fracking, Earthquakes At Railroad Commission Meeting, CBS
Railroad Commission reports injection well near Azle shut down, The Dallas Morning News

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Excerpt from: 

Texans want frackers to stop causing earthquakes

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Texans want frackers to stop causing earthquakes