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Frackers can now frack faster on some public lands

by merinenty Posted on December 15, 2014

Frackers can now frack faster on some public lands

By on 15 Dec 2014commentsShare

As Congress moves to wrap up its year, a lot of important, must-pass legislation is moving quickly through the chambers. That creates the opportunity for politicians to sneak their pet projects into massive bills that most members don’t want to hold up or oppose. This year, that’s meant bad news for the environment — first in the federal budget (aka the Cromnibus bill) and now in the Defense Authorization Act of 2015.

The defense bill — which Congress passed last week and President Obama will soon sign  — is full of this kind of pork. Over at DeSmogBlog, Steve Horn digs into how a seemingly non-defense-related plan to expedite fracking on public lands ended up squirreled away inside the 1,616-page legislation.

Buried on page 1,156 of the bill as Section 3021 and subtitled “Bureau of Land Management Permit Processing,” the bill’s passage has won praise from both the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) …

Streamlined permitting means faster turn-around times for the industry’s application process to drill on public lands, bringing with it all of the air, groundwater and climate change issues that encompass the shale production process.

All that needed to happen to clear the way for this faster permitting was a small tweak to how some already-passed legislation was worded. Congress had already enacted a “pilot” program for permitting fracking on public land in the Bakken Shale region; with a few quick word changes in the Defense Authorization Act, that “pilot” program was expanded to all areas that the Bureau of Land Management oversees nationwide.

(Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan (D) submitted a bill last week to ban fracking from all federal lands, but in a Congress soon to be controlled by frack-happy Republicans, it doesn’t stand a chance.)

The defense bill contains other unpleasant anti-environmental provisions too. For instance: Michael McAuliff writes at The Huffington Post that Arizona Sens. Jeff Flake (R) and John McCain (R) succeeded in adding approval for a foreign-owned copper mine in their state that would not only be on public land but also stands to destroy a Native American burial ground.

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Frackers can now frack faster on some public lands

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4 Stupid Conservative Arguments Against Net Neutrality, Debunked

by RevaChavarria Posted on November 21, 2014

Mother Jones

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Last week, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas set off a firestorm of ridicule when he took to Twitter in an attempt to mock the concept of net neutrality:

The comparison, so stupid on so many levels that it isn’t worth debunking, is not just an isolated example of partisan idiocy. In recent weeks, Republican operatives have trotted out a steaming heap of similar malarkey in an effort to ward off a popular revolt against the cable industry, which wants to charge big companies such as Google or Netflix for faster internet service while slowing it down for the rest of us. Here are four other ludicrous conservative arguments for why the Federal Communications Commission shouldn’t prevent this from happening:

1. You’ll pay more taxes!

The reality: To prevent broadband companies from discriminating against certain types of internet traffic, President Obama’s wants the FCC to regulate them as a public utilities. This is something it already does with telecommunications providers. While it’s true that the Communications Act subjects telecoms to a 16 percent service fee—which helps provide phone service to rural communities—this doesn’t mean broadband providers would automatically have to pay a similar tax.

2) Regulating the internet will stifle innovation and job creation.

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Post by Speaker John Boehner.

The reality: The internet we know and love is already built on the concept of net neutrality. Obama’s proposed “regulation” would simply maintain the status quo by preventing monopolistic broadband providers from charging content providers tiered rates for different speeds of internet service. Far from stifling innovation, net neutrality encourages it by allowing startups to compete on the same footing as giants like Google and Facebook. That’s why it has overwhelming support among Silicon Valley’s “job creators.”

3) Letting big companies hog bandwidth will encourage cable companies to create more bandwidth

The reality: America ranks 31st in the world (behind Estonia) in its average download speeds. But that’s not because we’re preventing Comcast from cutting deals. Quite the opposite: Deregulation of the telecommunications industry has allowed Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner, and AT&T to divide up markets and put themselves in positions where they face no competition.

4) It’s all a secret plot to hype the risks of global warming

This claim made by Andy Kessler in a 2006 Weekly Standard story has been making the rounds recently on conservative blogs:

The answer is not regulations promoting net neutrality. You can already smell the mandates and the loopholes once Congress gets involved. Think special, high-speed priority for campaign commercials or educational videos about global warming. Or roadblocks—like requiring emergency 911 service—to try to kill off free Internet telephone service such as Skype.

The reality: Regulating broadband providers as utilities does not give the FCC more authority to tell them how to treat specific types of content. In fact, preventing discrimination against certain types of content by ISPs is the whole point. That’s why net neutrality is popular with everyone from John Oliver to porn stars.

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4 Stupid Conservative Arguments Against Net Neutrality, Debunked

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SWAT Teams Keep Killing Innocent People in Their Homes

by VirgieBenjafiel Posted on October 23, 2014

Mother Jones

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Today, 85 percent of SWAT operations target private residences. When heavily-armed policemen conduct raids at peoples’ homes, they often go in expecting a fight from hardened criminals—but sometimes they’re wrong. Here are a few cases where botched SWAT raids ended in tragedy:

Bounkham Phonesavanh

Curtis Compton/ZUMA Press

One night last May, 19-month-old Bounkham Phonesavanh (“Bou Bou”) was sleeping in the Atlanta home of relatives. Around 2 a.m., a SWAT team arrived to arrest Bou Bou’s 30-year-old cousin, an alleged drug dealer. Officers threw a flash-bang grenade into the room where Bou Bou was sleeping. It landed in his crib and exploded under his pillow, giving him third-degree burns and injuries so severe he was put in a medically-induced coma. While Bou Bou’s injuries remain severe, he’s expected to survive. The Habersham County Sheriff expressed deep regret but insisted his men were simply following procedure. Earlier this month, a jury cleared them of wrongdoing.

Jose Guerena

On the morning of May 5, 2011, in Tuscon, Arizona, a SWAT team assembled outside the home of 26-year-old Jose Guerena. A former Marine who served in Iraq; Guerena had just come home from working the night shift at the copper mine. Local law enforcement believed Guerena was involved in a drug distribution operation with his brothers. Woken up by his wife, who thought she heard burglars, Guerena went outside with an AR-15 rifle to investigate. He was shot 60 times and died before the SWAT team allowed paramedics to help. After his widow sued, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department agreed to a $3.4 million settlement in 2013.

Eurie Stamps

On the night of January 4, 2011, Eurie Stamps, a 68-year-old grandfather of 12, was watching a basketball game in his Framingham, Massachusetts, home. A SWAT unit was staking out his home and had already arrested his 20-year-old stepson outside. Despite having booked their suspect, the SWAT team raided the house. Officer Paul Duncan forced Stamps to lie face down on the ground. While Stamp was complying, Duncan allegedly tripped, causing his gun to go off and kill Stamps. Duncan was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Tarika Wilson

On January 4, 2008, a SWAT team arrived in the Lima, Ohio, home of 26-year-old Tarika Wilson. The team was looking for her boyfriend, who was suspected of dealing drugs. They broke through the front door and soon opened fire, killing Wilson and injuring her 14-month-old son, whom she was holding. Sgt. Joe Chavalia, who shot and killed her, was placed on paid leave and later cleared of wrongdoing.

Aiyana Stanley-Jones

Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press

On May 16, 2010, a Detroit SWAT crew arrived at the home of seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones, with a TV crew from the A&E network trailing them to film a show. They were looking for Chauncey Owens, who allegedly shot a teenager two days before. He was upstairs, but Aiyana was sleeping on the living room couch. The front door was unlocked, but the team busted open the door. Soon after, Officer Joseph Weekly’s gun went off, sending a bullet through Aiyana’s head. She died shortly afterward. Weekly is currently being tried for felony involuntary manslaughter; he claims it was an accident.

Dogs

In the past few years, SWAT teams have shot and killed dogs in Minnesota, North Carolina, Missouri, and California. In almost every case, officers have insisted that they felt threatened by the dogs. Pet owners have responded that their dogs were simply startled when SWAT teams broke in—often unannounced—to their homes, and denied that the dogs attacked officers. Take the case of Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, a quiet D.C. suburb. On the evening of July 29, 2008, a Prince George’s County SWAT team burst into Calvo’s home, responding to a report of a package of marijuana on the doorstep. Upon entering, the officers shot and killed the family’s two Lab retrievers, handcuffed Calvo, his wife, and his mother-in-law, and then forced them to the ground. Police later found that Calvo had been targeted in a scheme in which drug dealers used the homes of unsuspecting people as pickup points for drugs.

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SWAT Teams Keep Killing Innocent People in Their Homes

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The Walmart Heirs Are Worth More Than Everyone in Your City Combined

by KSYJessika Posted on October 3, 2014

Mother Jones

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Everybody knows that middle-class incomes have stagnated while those of the richest Americans have skyrocketed, but the trend is even more pronounced when you look at the relative fortunes of the super-duper rich. Consider the Walmart heirs: Since 1983, their net worth has increased a staggering 6,700 percent. According to a report released today by the union-backed Economic Policy Institute, here’s how many American families earning the median income it would have taken to match the Waltons’ wealth in a given year:

In 1983, the Walton family’s net worth was $2.15 billion, equivalent to the net worth of 61,992 average American families, about the population* of…

Peoria, Arizona Hanroanu/Flickr

In 1989, the Walton family’s net worth was $9.42 billion, equivalent to the net worth of 200,434 average American families, about the population of…

Albuquerque, New Mexico Len “Doc” Radin/Flickr

In 1992, the Walton family’s net worth was $23.8 billion, equivalent to the net worth of 536,631 average American families, about the population of…

San Antonio. Texas Wells Dunbar/Flickr

In 1998, the Walton family’s net worth was $48 billion, equivalent to the net worth of 796,089 average American families, about the population of…

The State of New Mexico Shoshanah/Flickr

In 2001, the Walton family’s net worth was $92.8 billion, equivalent to the net worth of 1,077,761 average American families, about the population of…

Chicago, Illinois Conway Yao/Flickr

In 2010, the Walton family’s net worth was $89.5 billion, equivalent to the net worth of 1,157,827 average American families, about the population of…

The State of Arkansas (pictured: Walmart visitors center in Bentonville) Walmart/Flickr

In 2013, the Walton family’s net worth was $144.7 billion, equivalent to the net worth of 1,782,020 average American families, about the population of…

The State of Louisiana Jim Hobbs/Flickr

Correction: An earlier version of this article confused families with individuals, causing an under-estimate of how many individuals’ net worth would equal that of the Waltons. Population equivalents in this story are based on the size of the average American family: 2.55 individuals.

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The Walmart Heirs Are Worth More Than Everyone in Your City Combined

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Kris Kobach Wants Immigrants to Self-Deport. Now Voters May Send Him Packing.

by KaiGerowspeox Posted on September 23, 2014

Mother Jones

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Republican Kris Kobach has managed to established an outsized persona for only being a one-term secretary of state in Kansas. Kobach became a national liberal scourge after he won office in 2010. He loaned out his services to help governors in Arizona, Alabama, and Georgia craft anti-immigration legislation, pioneering the idea of self-deportation that Mitt Romney touted in his presidential campaign. In Kansas, he imposed harsh voter ID laws to keep Democrat-inclined voters away from the ballot; just last week, he went to court against Chad Taylor—a Dem who wanted to drop his Senate campaign—in order to keep Taylor’s name on the ballot and improve the Republican candidate’s odds (the state Supreme Court ruled against Kobach last week).

Yet after becoming a hero to the right, Kobach is now struggling to hold onto office, trailing or tied in recent polls. And he can thank Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback for his troubles, since Brownback’s decisions to alienate moderate Republicans ended up driving Kobach’s opponent out of the party and made her determined to take Kobach down.

“We have a secretary of state who has been AWOL from Kansas,” Jean Schodorf, the Democrat challenging Kobach, told me last month. “He would rather be representing Arizona. Because he has been gone and had a personal agenda, the secretary of state’s office is falling apart.”

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Kris Kobach Wants Immigrants to Self-Deport. Now Voters May Send Him Packing.

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News Organizations Battle Pennsylvania Over Secret Source of Its Execution Drugs

by CamilleDickens Posted on September 11, 2014

Mother Jones

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and four news organizations filed an emergency legal motion on Thursday, demanding that Pennsylvania reveal the source of its execution drugs.

Later this month, the state is scheduled to put 57-year-old Hubert Michael to death for the 1993 rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl. While the execution has been stayed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the ACLU fears the hold could be lifted at any time, opening the way for the first execution in Pennsylvania in more than 15 years.

Since 2011, when the European Union banned the export of drugs for use in executions, Pennsylvania and other death penalty states have been forced to rely on untested drug combinations and loosely regulated compounding pharmacies. And most have become secretive about the sources and contents of their execution drugs. Death row inmates around the country have sued to block their executions on the ground that withholding this information is unconstitutional, as untested or poorly prepared drug cocktails could create a level of suffering that violates the Eight Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. So far, they’ve met with little success. Clayton Lockett, who lost his bid to force the state of Oklahoma to reveal the source and purity of the drugs used to put him to death, writhed and moaned in apparent agony after being injected with a secretly acquired drug combinations in April.

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Swirls of Dust and Drama, Punctuating Life in the Southwest

by Myrna Posted on August 29, 2014

Children, drivers and other residents have learned how to prepare for huge dust storms, sometimes called haboobs, that can turn day into night in seconds. From: Swirls of Dust and Drama, Punctuating Life in the Southwest ; ; ;

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Swirls of Dust and Drama, Punctuating Life in the Southwest

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U.N. Draft Report Lists Unchecked Emissions’ Risks

by Myrna Posted on August 26, 2014

The report says that warming has already led to food and climate crises, and that the failure to reduce emissions will lead to worse catastrophes. This article is from:  U.N. Draft Report Lists Unchecked Emissions’ Risks ; ;Related ArticlesObama Pursuing Climate Accord in Lieu of TreatyOpinion: The Climate SwerveDot Earth Blog: A Closer Look at Turbulent Oceans and Greenhouse Heating ;

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U.N. Draft Report Lists Unchecked Emissions’ Risks

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Yet Another Man With a Gun Just Murdered His Wife and Children

by LQVDeangelo Posted on July 30, 2014

Mother Jones

In Saco, Maine on Saturday night, 33-year-old Joel Smith used a pump-action shotgun to kill his 35-year-old wife, Heather Smith, his 12-year-old stepson, and the couple’s two biological children, a 7-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, before turning the gun on himself. The horrific scene was discovered on Sunday morning after a concerned family friend called the apartment complex where the Smith family lived and asked a maintenance worker to check on them. In a statement to the media, a Maine State Police official called the mass shooting “one of the worst cases of domestic violence in Maine’s history.”

As we reported in the wake of a mass shooting in Texas earlier this month, domestic violence and guns are a frightening combination: A woman’s chances of being killed by her abuser increase more than fivefold if he has access to a gun. And most fatal violence between intimate partners across the United States involves firearms. (Here are just a few examples from the past few months.)

A photo of Heather Smith, left, and her sons from one of her Facebook albums Facebook

The night before the shooting, Heather Smith told a friend that her husband had threatened suicide earlier in the week, pointing a gun to his head, according to the Portland Press Herald. Joel Smith’s mother, Jerys Thorpe, told the Herald that she’d long been trying to get her son to see a therapist for his depression. “His mind was just gone, he had to be,” she said, regarding the murder-suicide. Research shows a strong correlation between suicidal thoughts and deadly domestic violence. As Maine Attorney General Janet Mills put it in a statement on Monday: “Recognizing the signs of abuse—and acting upon them—is key to preventing future tragedies like this.”

Police investigators also said that the couple had been struggling with “domestic issues,” including financial problems, but that they were aware of no protective court orders or history of abuse regarding the couple, who moved to Maine from Arizona about three years ago. But even if there had been such a history with the legal system, it’s likely that Smith still would have been able to possess a gun, because state and federal laws generally do a poor job of keeping firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers. Most state laws overlook various groups of men who potentially pose a threat, including misdemeanant stalkers, abusive dating partners, and subjects of temporary restraining orders. And Maine is no exception—its laws are among the more lax, as this chart shows:

Moreover, data suggests that states with weaker gun laws regarding domestic abusers see more murders among intimate partners involving guns.

Three federal bills aimed at addressing these problems—opposed by the National Rifle Association—are currently stalled in Congress. But a handful of states have passed tougher laws this year, in part due to lobbying by groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety, and the issue may now be rising on Washington’s radar: On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee holds its first-ever hearing on domestic violence and guns.

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Yet Another Man With a Gun Just Murdered His Wife and Children

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The NFL Was Harder on These 6 Players for Smoking Pot Than It Was on Ray Rice for His Assault Arrest

by DevonMarden Posted on July 25, 2014

Mother Jones

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The National Football League handed Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice an unexpectedly lenient punishment Thursday following his offseason arrest for assaulting his fiancée back in February: a two-game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. Rice allegedly hit Janay Palmer (now his wife) so hard she lost consciousness—and then security cameras caught him dragging her out of an elevator in Atlantic City. Aggravated assault charges eventually were dropped against both of them (Palmer allegedly hit Rice, too), and the two later held a bizarre joint press conference addressing the whole incident.

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The NFL Was Harder on These 6 Players for Smoking Pot Than It Was on Ray Rice for His Assault Arrest

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