Author: Trish

America’s Most Wanted: Environmentalists

Trish

The Sierra Club is wondering if the Bush Administration’s efforts in the war on terror are impeded by the way they keep focusing on the wrong targets. No, I’m not talking about confusing Saddem Hussein with Osama bin Laden, I’m talking about blowing it here at home.

The FBI has dubbed environmental extremists America’s number one domestic terrorism threat

Jim Bensman, a resident of Alton, IL and environmental activist working with the group Heartwood, innocently suggested at a public hearing in late July that the Army Corps of Engineers destroy one its dams on the Mississippi River to restore fish habitat. When newspaper accounts said that Bensmen wanted to “blow up” the dam, the FBI came calling to interrogate him. Never mind that the Army Corps of Engineers really does use explosives to decommission dams and had itself considered doing so in this case.

The FBI, by the way, never bothered to check with anyone at the Corps of Engineers before harassing Bensman, who is also a Sierra Club volunteer. Had they done that they would have quickly learned there was nothing to fear. The Corps’ Kevin Bluhm gave the New York Times his impression of Bensman, “He’s not malicious, oh no…if [the FBI] would have asked me first, I would have said no, there’s not that kind of risk there.”

On one hand, this could be just an innocent mistake of an agency erring on the side of caution. On the other hand, it could also be a sign of something more ominous. The FBI has dubbed environmental extremists America’s number one domestic terrorism threat.

Are there political motives at work here? One can only speculate. It is disturbing that the FBI made it sound to Bensman like they had started a file on him before he publicly damned the dam.

Tom Cruise Can Always Run for Florida Senate

Trish

Links to the Church of Scientology might work out better for a candidate for the Florida Senate than they are for Tom Cruise.

State Rep. Frank Farkas, whose senate run is based on being term-limited out of the Florida House, is making an issue of the ties rival Kim Berfield has with the church, whose “spiritual headquarters” is Clearwater, Florida. He is mailing flyers to voters warning them of how Berfield is funding her campaign.

In May Gov. Jeb Bush apologized for calling Scientology “some weird little group.”

Farkas said he is not criticizing the church but revealing that a political committee with ties to Scientologists might spend big on Berfield’s behalf.

…The mailing states:

“Key leaders in the controversial Church of Scientology make up the advisory board of this group which also helps directly fund Ms. Berfield’s campaign. Ms. Berfield has a history of visiting and participating in church events and fundraisers, often praising their efforts, so expect them to return her many favors. They are counting on her as a key ally in their current ambitious expansion plans across Tampa Bay.”

Unlike in Hollywood, where Cruise was recently sacked by Paramount for allowing his religion to overshadow his acting, Scientology is gaining acceptance among its former Florida detractors.

Scientology has been a hot-button issue in Clearwater since late 1975 when the church arrived covertly and purchased a city landmark, the Fort Harrison Hotel. Two years later, church documents seized by the FBI revealed plans to “take control” of Clearwater and discredit its “enemies” – political leaders, local police, newspaper editors and reporters.

Strained relations between Scientology and the community began to thaw in recent years. A watershed moment occurred in 2002 at the church’s 75th anniversary party at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater. The guest list was a virtual who’s who of local political, civic and business leaders. Since then, politicians have grown comfortable attending church events and taking Scientologists’ political donations.

And in May Gov. Jeb Bush apologized for calling Scientology “some weird little group.”

And as Jeb goes, so goes the Florida Republican party.

Farkas, a chiropractor by trade, would have greater credibility if he hadn’t been investigated last year for accepting gifts of travel and other favors from a gambling interest trying to set up shop in Florida. Farkas and three state senators were questioned about what amounted to money laundering after the funding was run through the state Republican Party’s treasury.

Across Florida, Republican voters are facing choices like these: a known sleezebag or someone who panders to Scientologists. Win or lose, it just makes me gladder I’m a Democrat.

McDonald’s Hummers a Big Bummer

Trish

McDonald’s is giving away toy Hummers in its “boy” Happy Meals. What’s next? Wal-mart introducing a line of arctic fox stoles?

The Environmental Working Group has put up a parody site that allows you to generate your own golden arches sign on the subject. My favorite: “Would you like a war with that?” Next runner-up: “Global warming…I’m lovin’ it!”

From the site, you can also send McDonald’s an email asking them to end this campaign, which in a world of scare resources sends the wrong message to both kids and their parents. Let them hear from you.

Harris Imploding as Primary Nears

Trish

If a tree fell on Katherine Harris, would anyone be around to see it?

She said a tree fell on the hangar that the rally was scheduled to be in…Airport officials, however, said no trees had fallen and that Harris was in the hangar her campaign had originally booked.

Even by Katherine Harris standards, it was a bad week. First, in her U.S. Senate campaign against Democrat Bill Nelson, she held a rally that no one attended, even the headliners. Next, the campaign worker that she tried to blame for the no-show event quit. And finally, one of Southwest Florida’s biggest newspapers announced their endorsement in the U.S. Senate Republican primary for…no one.

To begin, there was the rally. Harris expected to share the stage at the Orlando Executive Airport with a score of notables, before a teaming crowd of well-wishers. That’s not exactly how it went down.

None of the nine officials listed on her event flier appeared, leaving Harris on her own to address a group of about 40 supporters, reporters and campaign staff members.

Harris spoke in an airplane hangar that seemed to highlight the modest size of the crowd…

Harris spoke for 10 minutes…When she finished, red, white and blue balloons dropped onto an empty stage, rendered unnecessary by the sparse crowd.

Harris expected her fellow Florida Congress-people Mark Foley, Ginny Brown-Waite, Jeff Miller and Cliff Stearns to be at the airport, especially since her campaign web site boasted their support. Instead, right after the disastrous event, each spoke up to say they never endorsed Harris and their names were pulled from her site.

Then yet another campaign worker quit.

Rhyan Metzler, who had been Harris’ political director, is no longer with the campaign, according to Harris spokeswoman Jennifer Marks. Metzler is being blamed for embarrassing comments Harris made after a rally at Orlando Executive Airport.

Only 40 people showed up for the event, and Harris blamed the paltry turnout in part on a last-minute location change. She said a tree fell on the hangar that the rally was scheduled to be in, forcing her campaign to switch to another hangar.

Airport officials, however, said no trees had fallen and that Harris was in the hangar her campaign had originally booked.

Now, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune is clearly stating the Republican case in the Senate race, and it is this:

There is no one worth supporting.

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris’ erratic behavior and her extensive contacts with defense contractor Mitchell Wade have further undermined her tenuous claim to be the Republican best able to represent Florida in the U.S. Senate.

Unfortunately, Republicans who want an alternative to Harris as the GOP nominee don’t have a good option. Harris’ opponents in the Sept. 5 primary — retired Adm. LeRoy Collins Jr., attorney William McBride and developer Peter Monroe — waited until the last possible day to file to run. They’ve done little on the campaign trail since May to dispel the appearance that they were last-minute, seat-of-the-pants candidates….

The party leadership’s misgivings have been underscored by Harris’ Senate campaign. She is incapable of keeping a cohesive congressional or campaign staff, and her behavior has frequently ranged from bizarre to inexplicable…

In light of Harris’ problems and the lack of support from party leaders, and the absence of other candidates who took this race seriously before May, we offer no recommendation in the Republican primary for U.S. senator.

Yepper.

Whose Anniversary?

Trish

Ever since Jamestown, Virginia announced its intention to celebrate its quadricentennial next year as “America’s 400th Anniversary,” residents of my own St. Augustine, Florida have been in a snit. It’s not just the fact that St. Augustine celebrated its 400th anniversary back in 1965, or that the city was the thriving capital of the Spanish colony before Jamestown had a name.

American students often get the impression from history classes that the British got here first, settling in Jamestown, Va., in 1607…The lessons have left out a lot.

We sniff the barest hint of (dare I say it) racism in Jamestown’s pronouncement. The Spanish, after all, were part Moorish by the time they came ashore in Florida, in stark contrast to the lily white English. They were also Catholic, which was just slightly more exotic than what the Pilgrims had in mind.

Juan Ponce de Leon declared Florida to be Florida in 1513. Its mission system had been in place nearly 200 years before the first mission in upper California was built. Florida had flown three flags (Spanish, French, British — and Spanish again) by the time it joined the Union 15 years before the Civil War, and had ended the Third Seminole War just two years earlier, in 1858.

The Spaniards had very different relations than the English did with the people who were already here — and the runaway slaves who had escaped to Florida from the United States to live among the Creek and Miccosukee. It might be a little rosy to say we all lived together in peace and harmony, but it was better than after Spain lost us to the British or when Andrew Jackson launched the first War of Indian Removal, aka the First Seminole War, in 1817 — in which he banned “Negroes” from Pensacola to the Suwannee River.

Now others are starting to notice the same thing St. Augustinians did in Jamestown’s slogan: the implication that British settlement in this country is somehow more noteworthy than any other. The Boston Globe:

American students often get the impression from history classes that the British got here first, settling in Jamestown, Va., in 1607. They hear about how white Northerners freed the black slaves, how Asians came in the mid-1800s to build Western railroads. The lessons have left out a lot.

Forty-two years before Jamestown, Spaniards and American Indians lived in St. Augustine, Fla. At least several thousand Latinos and nearly 200,000 black soldiers fought in the Civil War. And Asian-Americans had been living in California and Louisiana since the 1700s.

Now, more of these and other lesser-known facts about American minorities are getting more attention. The main reason is the nation’s growing diversity.

The Globe story goes on to note there are “hundreds of efforts underway to tell the untold stories” of America’s history. Jamestown telling the truth — and changing its slogan — would be a good start.

Bush Team Finds New Way to Ignore Global Warming

Trish

The Current Occupants have come up with a better way to muzzle NASA scientists who try to tell the truth about global warming, according to the Sierra Club.

Dr. James Hansen appeared on 60 Minutes last year describing how Bush’s team altered scientific reports to falsely make climate change appear a matter of opinion. He defended his actions based on the mission of the agency he served.

Why not use NASA as they do all other government agencies — as a means to advance their brooding and greedy agendas?

Hansen…told New York Times science correspondent Andrew Revkin that it would be irresponsible for him not to speak out on global warming, particularly because NASA’s mission statement includes the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet.”

Hard to get around that…unless you’re a neocon.

As Revkin reported in the Times on July 22nd: “In early February [2006], the [NASA mission] statement was quietly altered, with the phrase ‘to understand and protect our home planet’ deleted. In this year’s budget and planning documents, the agency’s mission is ‘to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.'” A flak-catcher for NASA insisted that the change had nothing to do with Dr. Hansen’s use of the phrase.

But the change is more than skin-deep.

…recent cuts in NASA’s budget also reflect a real shift in priorities, away from science in general and earth science programs in particular. In June — more than a month before the news about the changed mission statement broke — Beth Daley reported in the Boston Globe that NASA had been forced to delay or cancel many satellite programs, including, “almost every planned earth studying mission,” that had some contribution to make to the understanding of (how’d you guess?) global warming.

Bush and his cronies seem to view space much as they do the earth: as a military tableau and potential source of wealth. To them, space is prime real estate for satellite surveillance devices and Star Wars defense shields of questionable utility. And Bush didn’t give a crap about going to the moon or Mars until someone pointed out there are valuable minerals there, just waiting to be extracted. So why not use NASA as they do all other government agencies — as a means to advance their brooding and greedy agendas?

Still Eating Meat? This’ll Put You Off Your Feedlot

Trish

Being a vegetarian, meat headlines always leave me a little unsettled. Still, the news has been particularly bad lately.

The normally poisonous gas keeps red meat red no matter how old it gets, instead of allowing it to turn that rainbow-sheened gray that would normally be part of the decomposing process

First we find out American meat packers are trying to package the stuff in carbon monoxide gas in order to keep it looking � and looking only � fresher longer. The practice was already banned by the European Union.

The normally poisonous gas keeps red meat red no matter how old it gets, instead of allowing it to turn that rainbow-sheened gray that would normally be part of the decomposing process. Consumers, we are told, will indirectly save money because instead of grocery stores having to dispose of animal parts and pieces when they’re edible but revolting, now they can keep right on selling until that cow’s been dead…a real long time. The results aren’t quite as planned.

At issue is the growing practice of spiking sealed packages of meat with small doses of carbon monoxide. The gas…can keep meat looking bright red and fresh even as it spoils…

The July issue of Consumer Reports…took bacterial counts on 10 samples of locally purchased ground beef and steaks that had been treated with the gas. All the meat looked red, but two had spoiled by their “use or freeze by” dates and one “was on the brink of spoilage” one day before its stamped date.

Other studies showed that even if the stuff looked great in the package, you better stand back when you open it up.

[…]

Tony Snow: President Bush 41 Caused 9/11

Trish

Today White House spokesperson Tony Snow said:

Now, when the United States walked away, in the opinion of Osama bin Laden in 1991, bin Laden drew from that the conclusion that Americans were weak and wouldn’t stay the course, and that led to September 11th.

Snow is referring to the fact that after U.S. forces drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991, Pres. George H. W. Bush and his team — including then Sec. of Defense Dick Cheney and then chairmain of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell — decided to cut and run instead of going to Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussein.

This decision by George Herbert Walker Bush in 1991, says the spokesman for the current Pres. Bush, was perceived as a sign of weakness by Osama bin Laden — a flaw in the American character that led him to decide to attack the United States 10 years later.

Gonna be fun at the family get-together at Kennebunkport this fall.

Happy Birthday Jon!

Trish

On this date in one of the years of the last century (it’s not important which), the man who would one day have a cousin named Trish and a college chum named Buck was born.

Today, since it’s three hours earlier in California, he’s probably just getting really sloshed in celebration. I hope so anyway. Happy birthday Jon, and many more!

Prof. Stephen Hawking: Quit Donating Organs from Dead People if Stem Cell Research is Bad

Trish

As other western countries line up to fund or not fund stem cell research, Dr. Stephen Hawking offers some words of sanity.

[Stem cell research] is morally equivalent to taking a heart transplant from a victim of a car accident.

Stephen Hawking, the world’s best-known living scientist, has attacked “reactionary” forces in Europe and America who are trying to ban research into stem cells derived from human embryos…

“I strongly oppose the move to ban stem cell research funding from the European Union,” said Professor Hawking…

“Europe should not follow the reactionary lead of President Bush who recently vetoed a bill passed by Congress and supported by a majority of the American people that would have allowed federal funding for stem cell research,” he said in a statement to The Independent.

He was doing good up to last part. In fact, at least 60% of Americans support the government funding stem cell research.

…President Bush and some religious authorities, notably the Catholic Church, argue that the microscopic four-day-old embryos from which stem cells are derived are potential human lives…

But Professor Hawking dismissed these objections, saying that banning stem cells from human embryos is equivalent to opposing the use of donated organs from dead people…

“Stem cell research is the key to developing cures for degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease from which I and many others suffer,” he said…

“The fact that the cells may come from embryos is not an objection because the embryos are going to die anyway,” Professor Hawking said.

“It is morally equivalent to taking a heart transplant from a victim of a car accident.

Good analogy. Is anyone on the Bush team listening?