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Connie Wilson - Sat 23 Aug 2008 06:31 PM CDT
altheakims - Tue 19 Aug 2008 04:28 AM CDT
Richard - Sun 17 Aug 2008 06:57 PM CDT
sspl05 - Sat 02 Aug 2008 07:21 AM CDT
ihatehogconfinements - Mon 21 Jul 2008 06:45 PM CDT
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Sunday, September 25
WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW CAN HURT YOU
by
Molly Regan
on Sun 25 Sep 2005 11:00 AM CDT
 "WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW CAN HURT YOU"
This is the title of a flyer being distributed by a group of people who
live close to Reynolds, Illinois. Seems there is someone who
wants to build a HOG CONFINEMENT near their town, and they are not
happy about it.
On Monday, September 26th at 6:30 PM there will be a public meeting
regarding this. ANGIE LITTERST is one of those neighbors.
Angie and 11 others have brought suit against the farmer, arguing that
this confinement will smell up their air and make them sick, pollute
their water, and cause too much traffic for their small area to
handle. Angie has written letters to the editor and has been on
at least one local radio station in the past several weeks.
One of the speakers at the public meeting will be KAREN HUDSON OF THE
GRACE FACTORY FARM PROJECT www.factoryfarm.org. She is also
president of FARMS (FAMILIES AGAINST RURAL MESSES).
Karen, a farmer from Elmwood, Illinois, is also a board member of the
Illinois Stewardship Alliance and is a member of the Illinois
House/Senate Joint Livestock Committee. She happens to live next
to a SMITHFIELD HOG FACTORY IN ADJOINING KNOX COUNTY.
The state of Illinois does not have a MASTER MATRIX implemented by
their Department of Natural Resources like the state of IOWA
does. Even though our Master Matrix is flawed, we do have
something basic to start with.
According to Karen Hudson, neighbors close to a Highlands LLC Murphy
Farms livestock factory have had problems. "Empty promises were
broken. The neighbors continue to suffer from an onslaught of
odors, gases, and particulates. We have even witnessed manure and
urine from its lagoons being pivot irrigated in 40 mph winds.
Neighbors' cars (have) been covered with this effluvium when driving on
nearby roads."
An over-application of manure in 2002 by the Highlands LLC killed at
least 10 species of fish on a 1 ½ mile area of French Creek in Knox
County, Illinois. Also according to Karen, INWOOD DAIRY, of
Elmwood in Peoria County (now called NEW HORIZONS - give me a break)
"deliberately pumped between TWO AND TEN MILLION GALLONS OF WASTE from
its brimming lagoon into dry dams on the property RESULTING IN THE
LARGEST WASTE SPILL IN ILLINOIS HISTORY. Despite its relatively
short existence, the Elmwood milk factory boasts a sorry history of
pollution problems. The milk factory's POOR ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD
EARNED IT NATIONAL EXPOSURE IN SPILLS AND KILLS, A REPORT ISSUED
BY THE ISSAC WALTON LEAGUE AND CLEAN WATER NETWORK IN AUGUST, 2000."
Hopefully this meeting will continue the public discussion that needs
to be going on IN EVERY COUNTY WHERE ANIMALS ARE CRUELY CONFINED FOR
CORPORATE PROFIT. While speaking in front of the Scott County Board of
Supervisors this past summer about 2 requested expansions, I was
reminded of several important things.
One, we need to spend time with lawmakers in IOWA to fix the MASTER
MATRIX. The IOWA DNR has too much control over placement of
confinement buildings. Local public input doesn't seem to matter
yet. It is just a formality, and no matter how your county
officials vote, yea or nay to the permit request, the DNR is still the
final authority.
WE DO NOT HAVE TO KILL OURSELVES LOCALLY TO FEED THE WORLD. Our
economy is important but not if IOWA is going to become like North
Carolina with no clean lakes, rivers, or streams.
So find out in your county where there is discussion about CAFO's
(CONFINED ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATIONS), do your research, and PARTICIPATE.
YOU KNOW THE DRILL…CPR = CONSERVE/PARTICPATE/RECYCLE
Friday, September 23
Rising Gasoline Prices Aren't Wholly Caused by Hurricane Katrina
by
Caroline Vernon
on Fri 23 Sep 2005 04:00 PM CDT
 Rising Gasoline Prices Aren’t Wholly Caused by Hurricane Katrina
by Public Citizen
www.citizen.org
What
is it going to take before the American people start demanding
accountability? Why should the people be the only ones to sacrifice in
tough times? While gas prices continue to soar, Exxon-Mobil is raking
in record profits! It stands to reason that these guys should also be
required to make the necessary sacrifices. If that means sacrificing
some of the billions of dollars in profits they make each quarter in
order to lesson the impact on the rest of the country - so be it!
Instead of doing that, our elected representatives are giving them
additional subsidies to pad their pockets at our expense!
The
word is, as soon as Rita makes landfall, the price at the pump will
double so make it a point to fill your tanks now while you can still
afford it! In the meantime, please, please, take a few minutes out of
your busy days to contact your elected representatives and demand an
end to this rampant price-gouging by the petrochemical industry. We may
live in a capitalist country, but what they are doing to us is immoral!
This is all the more reason to pursue renewable and environmentally
friendly energy sources.
Consumer Group Says Corporate Mergers Are Partly to Blame for Price-Gouging of Consumers at the Pump
WASHINGTON,
D.C. – High gasoline prices cannot be blamed entirely on natural
disasters, but rather on unchecked corporate behavior, Public Citizen
will tell a Senate committee today. At a hearing before the Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Tyson Slocum,
research director, Public Citizen’s energy program, said that recent
oil company mergers are partly responsible for gasoline price spikes.
He listed steps the government should take to alleviate high gasoline
prices. Slocum’s testimony is available at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/SenateOilTestimony.
The
government should restore competitive markets by enforcing antitrust
laws that make it illegal for companies to intentionally withhold an
energy commodity from the market for the sole purpose of creating a
shortage and driving up prices, Slocum said. The government also should
re-regulate energy trading exchanges, boost fuel economy standards and
force the divestiture of assets to remedy the problem of too few
companies controlling too much of the market.
Despite
Hurricane Katrina’s reported impact on gasoline prices, gasoline and
oil prices have been creeping up for two years, in large part because
of a wave of mergers in the oil industry. Last year, the top five U.S.
oil refining companies controlled 56.3 percent of domestic oil refinery
capacity. A decade ago, the 10 largest U.S. oil refining companies
controlled 55.6 percent of refining capacity — which means that, due to
mergers, the five largest oil refiners today control more capacity than
the 10 largest did a decade ago. This consolidation makes it easier for
oil companies to gouge consumers at the pumps. The five largest oil
refiners — ConocoPhillips, Valero, ExxonMobil, Shell and BP — have seen
profits of $228 billion since President Bush took office in 2001.
Despite
government reports issued in 2001 and 2004 that directly link corporate
mergers to high gasoline prices, no action has been taken to aid
consumers who are suffering from a volatile market where prices spike
day by day. Meanwhile, oil industry profits are at record highs,
largely due to record refinery profit margins. While in 1999, U.S. oil
refiners earned 22.8 cents for every gallon of gasoline they refined,
that profit margin increased 80 percent by 2004, to 40.8 cents per
gallon.
"We have
every meteorologist in the country monitoring hurricanes, letting us
know exactly when the next one is going to hit and where. But who is
monitoring the companies that are jacking up gasoline prices for
consumers under the guise of natural disasters?" Slocum said. "We need
the government to protect us from dangerous weather, but we also need
to be protected from price-gouging every day when we heat our homes,
drive our cars or fly somewhere."
(Source)
Tuesday, September 20
Smithfield, Iowa Settle Packer Ban Lawsuit
by
Chad Thompson
on Tue 20 Sep 2005 12:46 PM CDT
 Smithfield, Iowa Settle Packer Ban Lawsuit
In a bit of "end of the week" news last week, Smithfield announced a settlement with the State of Iowa that would lift the ban on Smithfield owning hogs to contract to growers.
Smithfield
Foods, Inc. announced Friday what it termed "a landmark agreement" with
the State of Iowa that allows Smithfield affiliates to contract
directly with Iowa farmers to raise hogs for slaughter at Smithfield
facilities.
The
announcement brings to a close a five-year legislative and legal battle
over an Iowa statute forbidding meat packers from owning or controlling
livestock in Iowa that began when Smithfield, then the nation’s largest
processor of hogs, announced its intention to acquire Murphy Family
Farms, one of the country’s biggest hog growers. Iowa’s Attorney
General interpreted that statute to prohibit Smithfield from continuing
Murphy’s practice of contracting with Iowa farmers to grow hogs to
maturity. Smithfield twice challenged the statute in court and both
times it prevailed.
Background:
In February 2002, a state court rejected the Attorney General’s
interpretation. Later that year, the Iowa legislature amended the
statute to make it more restrictive. Smithfield challenged the 2002
statute in U.S. District Court in Des Moines, which declared the law
unconstitutional. While that case was on appeal, the legislature acted
again, and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case for
reconsideration under the existing statute. The parties reached an
agreement to settle that case and U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt has
signed an order approving the settlement.
The settlement was announced at a news conference in Des Moines, which
was attended by Attorney General Tom Miller, other Iowa officials and
Smithfield executives.
Under
the terms of the settlement, the Iowa Attorney General agrees not to
enforce the statute against Smithfield and its affiliates. This permits
Smithfield’s affiliates to continue to enter into “grower contracts”
with Iowa farmers, similar to those common in other hog producing
states. Farmers entering into grower contracts with Smithfield are
given expanded rights in their relationship with the company.
...
Smithfield also agreed to commit $200,000 a year for 10 years to fund
an environmental education program at Iowa State University and grants
to foster innovative swine production. The company also committed to purchase 25 percent of the hogs slaughtered at its Iowa facilities on the open market.
What
this means: the Smithfield settlement clears the way for
Smithfield to set prices based on contracts, rather than open markets
and sale barns.
It
shouldn't be surprising that this morning Linda posted an article stating the ever
increasing numbers of large confinment facilities - this settlement
will pave the way for even more such facilities. In fact, it may
be necessary for a farmer to build nuisance facilities just to stay in
business, even if it means staying in business on Smithfield's terms.
Iowa Hog Confinements Built at Record Pace
by
Linda Thieman
on Tue 20 Sep 2005 04:54 AM CDT
Iowa Hog Confinements Built at Record Pace
by Perry Beeman, Des Moines Register.com
The number of large sites continues to grow, despite their neighbors' concerns
Iowa
this year set a record for new large-scale livestock confinements, as
neighbors and critics continue to complain about pollution risks and
fight the industry trend toward larger operations.
...The
risks are documented. Studies . . . have associated hog confinements
with neighbors' complaints of nausea, respiratory problems, headaches,
depression and diarrhea. The University of Iowa estimated hog
confinements emit more than 100 chemicals and compounds, including
hydrogen sulfide and ammonia.
(Click here to read the complete article.)
Also, according to the DMReg, the list of dangers from hog confinements includes:
HYDROGEN SULFIDE:
At even low levels, hydrogen sulfide can cause eye irritation,
dizziness, coughing and headaches. At higher levels, most often found
inside or in confined spaces, it can kill, as it did in Des Moines when
two sewer workers were overcome by the fumes in July, 2002.
AMMONIA: It can cause respiratory problems, and death at high levels.
METHANE:
The greenhouse gas contributes to global climate change. It can be
burned for power, if collected, and can smother at high levels.
ENDOTOXINS: The cell walls of these bacteria can lead to
respiratory problems.
TETRACHLOROETHYLENE:
These are associated with cancers, kidney and liver trouble, eye and
lung irritation, headaches and neurological problems at high
concentrations.
Sunday, September 18
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Speaks to Sierra Club on Non-Environmental Issues
by
Trish Nelson
on Sun 18 Sep 2005 08:15 AM CDT
 Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Speaks to Sierra Club on Non-Environmental Issues
DailyKos
Contributed by Ellen Ballas
by muddy paw
Robert Kennedy, Jr., in a speech before the Sierra Club, as reported in a diary on DailyKos -
"And I say that this is an administration that
represents itself as the 'White House of values' but every value that they
claim to represent is just a hollow façade, [that masks] the one value that
they really consider worth fighting for which is corporate profit taking.
"They say that they like free markets but they despise
free market capitalism. What they like - if you look at their feet rather than
their clever, clever mouths - what they really like is corporate welfare and
capitalism for the poor but socialism for the rich.
"They say that they like private property but they
don't like private property except when it's the right of a polluter to use his
private property to destroy his neighbors property and to destroy the public
property.
"And they say that they like law and order but they are
the first ones to let the corporate law breakers off the hook. And they say
that they like local control and states rights but they only like those things
when it means sweeping away the barriers to corporate profit taking at the
local level. And you and the Sierra Club know, and I can give you hundreds of
examples.
It was a wide-ranging speech, touching on many structural
defects of our current politics besides environmental-related issues.
"... we have negligent and indolent media and press
in this country which have absolutely let down American democracy [applause].
All this right-wing propaganda which is planned and organized and [has]
dominated this country [and] the political debate for so many years, talking
about a liberal media. Well, you know and I know there is no such thing as a
liberal media in the United States of America.
"There is a right-wing media and if you look where most
Americans are now getting their news, that's where they're getting it.
According to Pew, 30 percent of Americans now say that their primary news
source is talk radio which is 90 percent dominated by the right.
"Twenty-two percent said their primary news source is
Fox News, MSNBC or CNBC, all dominated by the right and another 10 percent,
Sinclair Network, which is the most right wing of all.
"[Sinclair] is the largest television network in our
country. It's run by a former pornographer who requires all 75 of his affiliate
television stations - and this is where Mid-Westerners get their news, red
state people get their news - all of them have to take a pledge to not report
critically about [Bush] or about the war in Iraq....
RFK Jr. is chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson
Riverkeeper, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and
president of the Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also a clinical professor and
supervising attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University
School of Law in New York.
(click here to read the entire article)
You
can
help fight Sinclair Broadcasting right here in the Hawkeye state!
Click here to find out
more about
Tuesday, September 13
Where There is Hope: The Story of Steve
by
Caroline Vernon
on Tue 13 Sep 2005 04:00 PM CDT
 Where There is Hope: The Story of Steve
by William Rivers Pitt, Truthout.org
Although
we have seen many examples of incompetence and the lack of a much
needed sense of urgency to help those whose lives have been completely
devastated by the hurricane, it is comforting to know that there is
sometimes a rainbow after the storm. This story is beyond compelling...
it is just one example of how even the worst tragedy can bring out the
very best in people.
In cold blood he leapt into burning Etna.
-- Horace
Paging Oprah Winfrey. You're going to want to sit up and take notice of this one.
So
there's this guy named Steve, who grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Steve is what you would describe as an average guy, works construction,
went to a tech/voc high school, a townie with oak leaf clusters. A
solid citizen. A good man.
A little
back story, to set the Steve stage, to tell you about the kind of man
he is. Steve loved this woman once upon a time, and dropped somewhere
in the neighborhood of two grand on an emerald ring for her. As it
turns out, the woman in question was barking-mad insane, and wound up
stabbing him in the back - literally. Steve got the ring back after the
relationship finished its little Hindenburg routine, and took it to a
bridge.
He fully
intended to toss the ring into the river under the bridge. He stood
there with the emerald band in hand, composing his thoughts. Across the
bridge came a very young woman with a couple of babies in tow. Steve
could tell right away that she was not anywhere near the well-to-do
neighborhood. Instead of giving the ring its symbolic drowning, he gave
it to the lady with the babies. He told her how much it was worth, and
told her to pawn it, told her in the best Steve Miller fashion to take
the money and run. She flipped out completely, weeping with gratitude.
This is a Steve theme. Now you know what you need to know about the man.
Anyway,
Steve fell in love with a woman from New Jersey named Linda. Linda at
some point last year got fed up with Jersey and checked out to New
Orleans. New city, new culture, new climate, new everything. Everything
was cool, until Katrina showed up. Steve lost track of Linda, as did
her family, as did the country, once her city got wiped off the map.
Steve
sat and watched CNN like the rest of us, and called Linda repeatedly to
no avail. He called her parents and asked if they had heard from her,
and they hadn't, and were flipping out. Finally, two Sundays ago, he
said enough was enough. He told his boss that he was heading to New
Orleans to find her, and his boss cut him two paychecks to help him. He
called Linda's father and said he was going to find her and bring her
back if it killed him. He hopped a plane to the closest available spot,
and poured himself into the worst, most dangerous place in America, to
find the woman he loved.
Snapshots of Steve in the Big Easy:
He
banged from one shelter to another, to another, doing a loop through
the five of the biggest shelters over several days looking for Linda.
At some
point, Steve got his hands on a flat-bottom boat and rowed around the
city. He found dozens and dozens and dozens of people, and rowed them
to shelters. He saved perhaps a couple hundred lives.
One day, he met Harry Connick Jr. at a shelter, and asked him if he had seen a pretty white girl named Linda.
One day,
he met an Iraq veteran in a shelter who was just back, who was
permanently in a wheelchair from shrapnel wounds, who was desperate to
do what Steve was doing, who had lost his whole family to the storm.
One day, he pounded through a rooftop to pull people out of their attic.
One day,
he heard a baby crying in a house, and went in to find the baby on the
floor in between two dead bodies, and took the baby to a shelter.
He
turned almost yellow at one point from the foul water. He got a fungus
on his feet from the water at one point. Doctors at the shelters he
kept checking, and kept bringing people to, took care of him. He rowed,
and searched, and saved, and looked for Linda. He didn't sleep.
And then, after days of searching, Steve found Linda.
She was
in a shelter, and was well enough given the circumstances. She lost her
mind when she saw him, Steve from Lowell in the midst of the worst
place in America. She didn't want to leave when he said they were
going. "It's martial law," she said. "They're pointing guns at people."
To hell with that, Steve told her, and took her out. They rowed, and
walked, and got on a bus to Baton Rouge.
He got
her new clothes, got her a meal, and got her in touch with her parents.
When Linda called her parents, her father asked to speak to Steve. "I
don't know what to say," said Linda's dad. "I want you to come home. I
want to shake your hand. I want to thank you." The next day, they got
plane tickets home.
I hope
Linda is smart enough to marry this man. I hope Steve didn't catch
anything in that water. I hope everyone he helped rescue in his
flat-bottom boat finds their own personal salvation as best they can. I
hope the baby he rescued from between those bodies grows up to be a
wise President of the United States.
Thanks to Steve, of Lowell, Massachusetts, I hope.
(Source)
Friday, September 9
Katrina Timeline and Why FEMA Failed
by
Caroline Vernon
on Fri 09 Sep 2005 04:00 PM CDT
 Katrina Timeline and Why FEMA Failed
by Caroline Vernon
Timeline excerpts from thinkprogress.org
Why FEMA Failed from Salon.com
I just heard on Air America that FEMA Director Michael Brown has been removed from his position overseeing recovery efforts post-Katrina. Although Brown has finally been demoted, the spin machine has embarked on promulgating their latest sound-bytes also known as the “blame game”. Check out the following audio file at www.salon.com and pay particular attention to what O-Reilly has to say. To further demonstrate this rare brand of compassionate conservatism, according to the progressreport.org and the Wallstreet Journal, Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) of Baton Rouge was overhead telling lobbyists: “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.” These guys have no shame whatsoever!
It is important that the Bush administration not get away with shifting their responsibility to local officials. Here is the timeline of what actually happened. One case in point is the fact that Bush himself was previously warned of levee failure by the National Hurricane Center on August 28th, yet he stated, "no one could have anticipated that the levees would collapse." Liar, liar, pants on fire! Yeah, he’s in the hot seat all right.
Timeline:
Friday, Aug. 26: Gov. Kathleen Blanco declares a state of emergency in Louisiana and requests troop assistance.
Saturday, Aug. 27: Gov. Blanco asks for federal state of emergency. A federal emergency is declared by Bush giving federal officials the authority to get involved.
Sunday, Aug. 28: Mayor Ray Nagin orders mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. Bush warned of Levee failure by National Hurricane Center. National Weather Service predicts area will be uninhabitable after Hurricane arrives. First reports of water toppling over the levee appear in local paper.
Monday, Aug. 29: Levee breaches and New Orleans begins to fill with water, Bush travels to Arizona and California to discuss Medicare. FEMA chief finally responds to federal emergency, dispatching employees but giving them two days to arrive on site.
Tuesday, Aug. 30: Mass looting reported, security shortage cited in New Orleans. Pentagon says that local authorities have adequate National Guard units to handle hurricane needs despite governor's earlier request. Bush returns to Crawford for final day of vacation. TV coverage is around-the-clock Hurricane news.
Wednesday, Aug. 31: Tens of thousands trapped in New Orleans including at Convention Center and Superdome in medieval conditions. Bush finally returns to Washington to establish a task force to coordinate federal response. Local authorities run out of food and water supplies.
Thursday, Sept. 1: New Orleans descends into anarchy. New Orleans Mayor issues a Desperate SOS to federal government. Bush claims nobody predicted the breach of the levees despite multiple warnings and his earlier briefing.
Friday, Sept. 2: Karl Rove begins Bush administration campaign to blame state and local officials — despite their repeated requests for help. Bush stages a photo-op — diverting Coast Guard helicopters and crew to act as backdrop for cameras. Levee repair work orchestrated for Bush's visit and White House press corps.
Saturday, Sept. 3: Bush blames state and local officials. Senior administration official (possibly Rove) caught in a lie claiming Gov. Blanco had not declared a state of emergency or asked for help.
Monday, Sept. 5: New Orleans officials begin to collect their dead.
(Adapted from: Katrina Timeline, http://thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline/)
Those are the facts. State and local officials BEGGED for help as people in their city suffered. The Bush administration didn't get the job done and when their failure became an embarrassment they attacked those asking for help.
The New York Times recently reported that Karl Rove and White House communications director Dan Bartlett rolled out a plan... to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. The core of the strategy is to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana.
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