Community, Environment

Why We Need Watchdogs on Politicians AND Regulators!

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Texas politicians knew agency hid the

amount of radiation in drinking water

By Mark Greenblatt
KHOU 11 News – Houston

May 19 – HOUSTON— Newly-released e-mails from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality show the agency’s top commissioners directed staff to continue lowering radiation test results, in defiance of federal EPA rules.

The e-mails and documents, released under order from the Texas Attorney General to KHOU-TV, also show the agency was attempting to help water systems get out of formally violating federal limits for radiation in drinking water. Without a formal violation, the water systems did not have to inform their residents of the increased health risk.

“It’s a conspiracy at the TCEQ of the highest order,” said Tom Smith, of the government watchdog group Public Citizen.  “The documents have indicted the management of this commission in a massive cover-up to convince people that our water is safe to drink when it’s not.”

Smith is talking about what happened to residents who live in communities served by utilities like Harris County Municipal Utility District 105.  For years, tests performed by the Texas Department of State Health Services showed the utility provided water that exceeded the EPA legal limit for exposure to alpha radiation.

However, the TCEQ would consistently subtract off each test’s margin of error from those results, making the actual testing results appear lower than they actually were.  In MUD 105’s case, the utility was able to avoid violations for nearly 20 years, thanks to the TCEQ subtractions.

Continue reading Why We Need Watchdogs on Politicians AND Regulators! →

antiwar, budget crisis

No More Excuses: Bring Our Troops Home!

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Dear Friends,

Bin Laden is dead. The US military killed him. Some people rejoiced in the streets. Others felt relief because the manhunt was finally over. And, still others felt a sense of foreboding. We all wonder, "What will happen next?"

Exit AfghanistanBin Laden was an angry, violent man who reaped what he sowed. Now that we have our pound of flesh, we, too, will reap what we’ve sown in the War on Terror unless we tether the dogs of war now and exit Afghanistan, as soon as humanly possible.

This long-awaited event will, as Martin Luther King said, "bend the arc of history." But in which direction? Let’s do everything in our power to bend the arc away from vengeance and towards peace and environmental, economic, and social justice.

We no longer have a mission in Afghanistan. We can expect the war hounds to bark out new excuses to stay in Afghanistan and even escalate. We must keep reminding Congress that the mission has ended: It’s time to bring our troops and war dollars home. Click here to send a message to your member of Congress.

Please, mark your calendars for the Brown Bag Lunch Vigil (BBLV) on Wednesday, May 18. We are challenging Congress to bring our troops home now and asking them to support:
HR 780: Rep. Barbara Lee’s Responsible End to the War in Afghanistan Act
HR 676: Rep. John Conyers’ Expanded and Improved Medicare For All Act
HR 870: Rep. John Conyers’ Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act

Pro-war voices in Washington are many and well represented. We must be persistent in our demand to get out of Afghanistan. Email your member of Congress, go to a May 18 BBLV, and stay tuned for the next action!

For Healthcare NOT Warfare,

Tim Carpenter
PDA National Director

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budget crisis, Democrats

Budget Debate: Getting Us Headed in a Progressive Direction

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Photo: Progressive Caucus Members announcing their alternative

The People’s Budget:

Quick Summary of a Good Plan

By Kay Kirkpatrick
Beaver County Blue

Among the budgets proposed in Congress recently, one eliminates the deficit in 10 years, puts Americans back to work, and restores our economic competitiveness.

Unlike the GOP proposal from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the People’ Budget does not seek to crush those with a low-income, the elderly or otherwise cripple vital government services.

Instead, it preserves Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and unemployment benefits; expands jobs and job training programs; shifts the tax burden off the backs of the people; eliminates tax credits for the oil and gas industries and subsidies for new nuclear power plants; invests in infrastructure and brings our troops home.

This version of our financial future, proposed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), is not only in keeping with priorities of the majority of the American people, it is viable, reasonable and sustainable.

The CPC plan ends the budget deficit two decades earlier than the Ryan plan. Specifically, the budget offers:

· $5.6 trillion in deficit reduction

· $869 billion in spending cuts

· $856 billion net interest savings

· $3.9 trillion revenue increase

· $1.7 trillion in public investment, and

· $30.7 billion in a budget surplus in 2021.

Continue reading Budget Debate: Getting Us Headed in a Progressive Direction →

Democrats, Organizing

Obama, 2012 and Focusing Hope

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How Do We Bring Obama Home?

How to Respond to Obama

By Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Progressive America Rising via BlackCommentator.com

Rather than dwell on the question of whether we can bring Obama home, whether he ever was home, etc., I want to refocus on this question of how to respond to him, particularly as we start to think about 2012.

First, what do we now say about 2008? Contrary to those who have thrown up their hands and feel betrayed by what the Obama administration has not done, I start in a different place. I continue to assert that Obama was knowable in 2008. He was a charismatic, smart candidate who made the right call on the Iraq War and stepped out on the issue when it was necessary. He was also, as I said at the time, someone who could appear to be different things to different people. The problem was that too many of his supporters saw what they wanted to see rather than what existed.

What existed? Well, from the beginning he was a corporate candidate. We knew that. The question was not whether he was one but the extent to which his views could be shifted in order to take progressive, non-corporate stands. Second, he was a candidate who was going to avoid race as you or I would avoid a plague ship. He went out of his way to prove that he was not an ‘angry black man’ and that race was not going to be an issue that he would harp on. Third, he was clear that he wanted to change the image of the USA around the world, but it was not clear to what extent he wanted to change the substance of the relationship of the USA to the rest of the world.

Continue reading Obama, 2012 and Focusing Hope →

Economy, trade unions

One Graph, One Thousand Words: Why Unions Are Important

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What Happens When Your Don’t Have Enough Trade Unions, and the Lobbyists for the Wealthy Write the Tax Laws

Beaver County Blue via Alternet.org

elections

Spill at Marcellus Shale drilling site in Bradford County prompts evacuation

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Spill at Marcellus Shale drilling site in Bradford County prompts evacuation

Published: Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 1:00 PM     Updated: Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 3:08 PM
DONALD GILLILAND, The Patriot-News By DONALD GILLILAND, The Patriot-News The Patriot-News
 

Seven families in Bradford County have been asked to evacuate following a large spill during fracking operations in the Marcellus Shale at a Chesapeake Energy well west of Towanda, Pa. Earlier reports that there was a blow-out were inaccurate, according to company officials.

A local Emergency Management official said he didn’t believe the families had gone anywhere.

“It’s literally on top of a mountain,” said Francis “Skip” Roupp, deputy director of the Bradford County Emergency Management Agency.

According to Chesapeake spokesman Brian Grove, “At approximately 11:45 p.m. on April 19, an equipment failure occurred during well-completion activities, allowing the release of completion fluids from a well at a location in Leroy Township, Bradford County, Pa.”

Continue reading Spill at Marcellus Shale drilling site in Bradford County prompts evacuation →

elections

Petition Gov. Corbett to Stop Assault on Healthcare

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Tell Corbett: Don’t give away my health to business!

Governor Corbett allowed the adultBasic health insurance program 41,000 Pennsylvanians relied on to die, claiming that the state was just ‘too broke.’ He ignored the record-breaking profits of the non-profit Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies that had been required to contribute due to their tax-exempt status.  Highmark, for example, announced they’ll be shelling out bonuses thanks to the record-breaking year.

And it probably doesn’t hurt that these companies are acquiring even more clients now that adultBasic ended.  The Governor’s ‘solution’ was to give the Blues a lot of business by having those who had been on adultBasic enroll in a Blues plan known as Special Care.  Special Care costs about 300% more than adultBasic and only covers 4 doctor visits a year!  This was only a ‘solution’ for the Big Blues, not real Pennsylvanians.  If it were, then we wouldn’t be looking at only 21% of people who had been on adultBasic actually enrolling in Special Care.

Even more shocking: Corbett now wants to take over 220 million dollars from the Tobacco Settlement fund-a fund that had been going  to adult health programs, like adultBasic- and put it towards a program called Liberty Loans.  He is taking money away from adult health in Pennsylvania and giving it to businesses.

We know where Corbett’s interests lie.  Join us and stand up to these tactics.

Protect Pennsylvania’s Health!  Sign the petition.

elections

Medicare is the Solution – Not the Problem – Hands Off!

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Medicare is the Solution – Not the Problem

Republicans want to privatize Medicare and slash Medicaid to reduce the nation’s deficit. President Obama says he wants to preserve Medicare and Medicaid, but his budget proposal looks to those programs to find savings.

We agree that healthcare costs are a serious problem, but cutting Medicare and Medicaid won’t help.

Instead, we need to take the corporate greed and waste out of our healthcare system, and make healthcare a human right by extending Medicare to everyone.

Join us in sending this message to President Obama and your Congresspeople: Medicare is the solution – not the problem. We need improved Medicare for all NOW!

Send your message by clicking here.