All posts by carldavidson

Environment, Marcellus Shale

Progressive Dems Start Calling Out Polluters and Their Apologists

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Toxic Sludge from ‘Fracking’

Dems seek EPA Natural Gas Drilling

Controls on Heels of NY Times Exposé

By Ben Geman –
The Hill

02/27/11 – A top House Democrat is urging EPA to quickly toughen regulation of natural gas drilling following a New York Times report on the discharge of dangerous pollutants into rivers that supply drinking water.

The Times – citing internal documents from EPA and elsewhere – claims that chemicals and radioactive elements in wastewater from gas projects are creating “dangers to the environment and health [that] are greater than previously understood.”

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sent EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson a detailed letter Saturday calling for “immediate action.”

“I am outraged that state and federal regulators were evidently well aware of the risks that the wastewater might pose, but instead chose to adopt a ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ approach to regulation by ignoring them,” writes Markey, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee.

Continue reading Progressive Dems Start Calling Out Polluters and Their Apologists →

Environment, Marcellus Shale, Organizing

The Truth Comes Out: The New York Times Bombshell on Natural Gas ‘Fracking’ Everyone’s Talking About

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Drilling Down: Regulation Lax as

Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers

By IAN URBINA
New York Times

Feb. 26, 2011 – The American landscape is dotted with hundreds of thousands of new wells and drilling rigs, as the country scrambles to tap into this century’s gold rush — for natural gas.

The gas has always been there, of course, trapped deep underground in countless tiny bubbles, like frozen spills of seltzer water between thin layers of shale rock. But drilling companies have only in recent years developed techniques to unlock the enormous reserves, thought to be enough to supply the country with gas for heating buildings, generating electricity and powering vehicles for up to a hundred years.

So energy companies are clamoring to drill. And they are getting rare support from their usual sparring partners. Environmentalists say using natural gas will help slow climate change because it burns more cleanly than coal and oil. Lawmakers hail the gas as a source of jobs. They also see it as a way to wean the United States from its dependency on other countries for oil.

But the relatively new drilling method — known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking — carries significant environmental risks. It involves injecting huge amounts of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, at high pressures to break up rock formations and release the gas.

With hydrofracking, a well can produce over a million gallons of wastewater that is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene and radioactive elements like radium, all of which can occur naturally thousands of feet underground. Other carcinogenic materials can be added to the wastewater by the chemicals used in the hydrofracking itself.

Continue reading The Truth Comes Out: The New York Times Bombshell on Natural Gas ‘Fracking’ Everyone’s Talking About →

Economy, Right Wing, trade unions

Worker Solidarity Comes To Harrisburg, Too!

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‘We Are Wisconsin’ Rally on Capitol Steps Draws 1,000

LARA BRENCKLE, The Patriot-News

By LARA BRENCKLE

Harrisburg’s Patriot-News

Feb 26, 2001

We are Wisconsin rally

Carla Crawford of Pittsburgh yells towards protesters during a We Are Wisconsin rally to show support for the state’s workers. Wisconsin’s governor and Republican legislature are seeking to end collective bargaining for state employees.

Tom Banks of Lemoyne (with flag) shows his support during a "We Are Wisconsin" rally to show support for the state’s unionized workers. Wisconsin’s governor and Republican legislature are seeking to end collective bargaining for state employees.

rally 2 0226 sds

Saying they’re sending an SOS for the American Dream, a thousand people gathered on the steps of the State Capitol this afternoon in support of union workers and the middle class.

Organized by Keystone Progress and dozens of other  organizations, the event was part of a nationwide day of action against efforts in Wisconsin and other states to eliminate collective bargaining for unionized state employees.

Continue reading Worker Solidarity Comes To Harrisburg, Too! →

labor, Right Wing, trade unions

Solidarity Rally Thursday, Noon, Feb 24, in Pittsburgh! More to Follow…

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Show Pennsylvania’s

Support for the Fightback!

From Steffi Domike, USW

Dear Pennsylvania USW Friends and Associates:

The billionaire backed Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, has declared all-out war on workers’ freedoms. He’s slashing taxes for the richest residents of his state, and wants to eliminate the rights of workers to organize a union, bargain for fair wages or advocate for decent pay and benefits.

In response, more than 25,000 protesters have converged on the state house in Madison to stage a sit-in that blocks the halls, bars the doors of the Senate and fills the state house lawn with tens of thousand of workers.  They’re fighting for their livelihoods and they’re fighting for ours as well because if workers lose in Wisconsin, the wave to take away our job rights and wages will spread across the country.

Pennsylvania is joining the Fight Back!

PLEASE JOIN US as we rally in support of American working families and the American Dream.

Today, Wednesday, 2/23, Pennsylvanians will be standing up in solidarity with Wisconsin workers in SCRANTON

WHAT:         Solidarity Rally for Wisconsin Workers

WHEN:         12:00 Noon to 12:30, Today, Wednesday, 2/23

WHERE:      Labor Leader John Mitchell Statue, Lackawanna Courthouse (Adams Avenue Side) Scranton, PA

On Thursday, 2/24, working Pennsylvanians will be rallying in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

WHAT:         Solidarity Rally for the Wisconsin Workers

WHEN:         11:30am, Thursday, 2/24

WHERE:      Municipal Services Bldg PlazaAcross from City Hall PHILADELPHIA

WHAT:         Solidarity Rally for the Wisconsin Workers (Lunch will be provided)

WHEN:         12:00 pm Noon, Thursday, 2/24

WHERE:      United Steelworkers Headquarters, 5 Gateway Center, 60 Blvd of the Allies PITTSBURGH

On Saturday, 2/26, working Pennsylvanians will be rallying to save the American Dream in Harrisburg.

SATURDAY, 2/26 IN HARRISBURG

WHAT:         Rally to Save the American Dream

WHEN:         Saturday, 2/26 at NOON

WHERE:      Capitol Steps, Harrisburg

Please do you best to attend these rallies and please spread the word about them.

YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

Right Wing, trade unions

Solidarity Is More Than Shouting Slogans, So Lend a Hand!

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THE BATTLE FOR UNIONS IN WISCONSIN:

HOW YOU CAN HELP

THE BATTLE FOR UNIONS IN WISCONSIN
HOW YOU CAN HELP

Folks from outside Wisconsin are contacting me and asking how to help with the battle to save collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin.   (Additional information on the current status of things here is at the end of this letter.)

YOU CAN PROVIDE FINANCIAL SUPPORT
People of generally modest means, including many college students, are continuing the occupation of the Capitol and the daily picketing in resistance to the Governor’s plans. Most teachers have had to/have chosen to return to their classrooms, but many other union members remain, people from private sector unions and public unions including police and firefighters.  There are many private citizens, often seniors.  Those remaining in the capitol and on the picket lines need food, water, transportation, housing. The Wisconsin AFL-CIO is coordinating much of that support. No matter how small, financial support is welcome:

ONLINE:  The AFL-CIO is accepting donations online through PayPal or any major credit card. Please go to  http://wisaflcio.org  for the link.

Continue reading Solidarity Is More Than Shouting Slogans, So Lend a Hand! →

Organizing, PDA

‘We’re Not the Democratic Party. We’re the Insurgency of the Democratic Party’ –PDA’s Tim Carpenter

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Progressive Democrats of America:

300 Tucsonans ready to fight back

by Pamela Powers on Feb. 22, 2011

Beaver County Blue via TucsonCitizen.com

More than 300 unapologetic progressives packed a local YWCA for the inaugural meeting of Progressive Democrats of America, Tucson Chapter. (Photo Credit: Pamela Powers)

Who said the progressive movement was dead? It is alive and well in Tucson, Arizona.

An estimated 300 activists, liberals, Green Party members, and Democratic Party foot soldiers crammed into a large meeting room at the YWCA on the west side of Tucson Monday night for the inaugural meeting of the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), Tucson Chapter.

Continue reading ‘We’re Not the Democratic Party. We’re the Insurgency of the Democratic Party’ –PDA’s Tim Carpenter →

labor, Right Wing, trade unions, Youth and students

General Strike? Wisconsin Workers Prepare to Up the Ante vs. the Far Right

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Photo: Afl-CIO President Richard Trumka at Madison Protest

Madison Area AFL CIO Votes to Prepare For General Strike

By Mike Elk

Beaver County Blue via michaelmoore.com

This evening in a press release from IBEW Local 2304 President Dave Pokilinski, I received word that the 45,000 member Southern Central Federation of Labor, the local chapter of the AFL-CIO for the Madison and Southern Central Wisconsin area, has voted to make preparations for a general strike.

The press release reads as follows:

Around 10:50PM Wisconsin Time on February 21st the South Central Federation of Labor endorsed the following motions:

Motion 1: The SCFL endorses a general strike, possibly for the day Walker signs his “budget repair bill,” and requests the Education Committee immediately begin educating affiliates and members on the organization and function of a general strike.

Motion 2:  The SCFL goes on record as opposing all provisions contained in Walker’s “budget repair bill,” including but not limited to, curtailed bargaining rights and reduced wages, benefits, pensions, funding for public education, changes to medical assistance programs, and politicization of state government agencies.

Continue reading General Strike? Wisconsin Workers Prepare to Up the Ante vs. the Far Right →

elections

Solidarity! 80,000 Pour into the Streets of Madison, Standing Up against the Banksters and the Right

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On Wisconsin! The Faces and spirit of Solidarity!

Right Wing, trade unions

Battle Against GOP Union Busters Spreads to Ohio

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Ohio: Collective Bargaining Union Protesters Clash at Statehouse with Tea Party Supporter of anti-Union Bill

Vociferous throngs attend hearings on Senate Bill 5

Thursday, February 17, 2011

By Jim Siegel
The Columbus Dispatch

Supporters of Senate Bill 5 rallied today outside the Statehouse . . .

JONATHAN QUILTER | DISPATCH Photos

Supporters of Senate Bill 5 rallied today outside the Statehouse . . .

. . . as the bill's opponents rallied inside.

. . . as the bill’s opponents rallied inside.

Thousands gather for Senate Bill 5 hearing

More than 3,000 enthusiastic supporters and opponents of the Senates proposed collective-bargaining overhaul enveloped the Statehouse this morning with cheers of kill the bill and yes on 5, prior to the latest hearing on Senate Bill 5.

The spacious Statehouse atrium was packed mostly with public union workers outraged at efforts to end collective bargaining for state workers and significantly weaken the ability for local workers to bargain for their pay, benefits and working conditions.

Unions made a strong showing for the bill’s first two hearings, and they were joined today by more than 200 red-shirt clad tea party activists pushing for the bill’s passage. The mix verbally clashed in the Statehouse rotunda, where each side did its best to drown out the other.

Continue reading Battle Against GOP Union Busters Spreads to Ohio →

labor, Right Wing, Youth and students

Our Egypt Beginning? 12,000 Workers & Students Hit the Streets in Madison

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Thousands Gather at Wisconsin Capitol

to Protest Gov.Walker Anti-Union Bill

By CLAY BARBOUR
Beaver county Blue via Wisconsin State Journal

Feb 16, 2011 – In one of the largest protests in recent memory, thousands of angry union supporters gathered at the state Capitol on Tuesday to oppose a bill by Gov. Scott Walker that would greatly weaken organized labor in Wisconsin.

More than 12,000 protesters gathered in two separate rallies outside the Capitol, many of them carrying signs and chanting "Recall Walker" or "Kill this bill." Thousands more crowded inside the rotunda and watched TV monitors broadcasting a public hearing on the governor’s proposal.

Capitol Police officers, Department of Natural Resources wardens, UW police and state troopers provided beefed-up security, but the crowd remained peaceful — if loud.

Cheers erupted every time someone in the hearing voiced opposition to the governor’s bill, aimed at erasing a $137 million deficit in the current budget. Unveiled Friday, Walker’s plan would remove collective bargaining rights for most of the 175,000 state and local government employees, allowing most workers to negotiate only over salary.

Continue reading Our Egypt Beginning? 12,000 Workers & Students Hit the Streets in Madison →