Why is Chicago's Air Quality so bad? It must be those strict gun laws!

So if there were no angels, would there be no sin? - Pearl Jam, Push Me, Pull Me (1998)

One of the most disreputable rightwing talking points has always been, 'Chicago has the strictest gun laws in the Nation, but they have murders.  Ergo gun laws don't work.'  Rightwingers adopted this monstrous lie after NRA ghouls and rightwing shills spent decades hammering this and other lies about gun violence into the conservative brain.  

Giant brain-worm, Major Traitor Greene, from her vile perch, most clearly regurgitated this horrific rightwing lie, "Strict gun laws actually create murder."

This is the result of 50 years of rightwing agitprop, the steroids Greene takes, and the Reactionary warped adoption of anarchist ideology, in a junior high school educated brain.  It's an If/Then, syllogism a 13 year would come up with,  If there were no laws against murder, then there would be no murders. Q.E.D.

Push Me, Pull Me...

But, getting back to the air quality issue, it seems everyone has grasped that Chicago's air isn't bad right now because of smokestacks or car exhaust on the ground locally but, because of factors outside the immediate area and thus outside the jurisdiction of "Chicago".

Chicago residents were not responsible for BP Whiting in Indiana repeatedly violating environmental laws and dumping benzene, mercury, and other toxic chemicals directly into Lake Michigan.

Chicago residents were not responsible for the giant choking black tornadoes of coal ash whipped up by the wind from the petcoke deposits the Koch Brothers dumped uncovered alongside the Calumet river in 2012.

So, the abnormal haze, cool temperatures and smokey air coating lower Wisconsin and the Chicago-land area are fallout of the massive once-in-a-century Canadian Wildfires.  These once in a generation wildfires, gigantic tornado clusters, Category 5 hurricanes, massive floods, deadly heat waves are sure coming more and more often. 

Pollution issues affecting people not responsible for creating them is the entire crux of the Climate Change catastrophe afflicting the world.  And one of the reasons, Republicans won't do anything about it.  The massive amount of people who will suffer and die are probably going to be in the underdeveloped Nations around the world and thus overwhelmingly not white.  And the large cities in America which are affected are havens for Democrats, so it's a win-win-win to Republicans to have poor black and brown people suffer and die and for liberals to suffer in the United States.  After all, Republicans are Real Americans living in the Countryside clinging to their guns and religion and will survive the climate disaster. 

Guns Save Lives! Don't Drink the Water. Choose not to get sick. Republicans offer up their Obamacare Alternatives i.e. Die

Granny Straving P90X Ryan has a message for America, "I would not bet against Mitch McConnell". Nor would I.  McConnell's desire to cosign millions of Americans to an early grave is evident on his plump comfortable face.  Paul Ryan's earliest dreams were of denying the poor, sick, and old of healthcare rights.  Now, Paul Aynryan has seized the opportunity to make his dreams of shredding the social safety net to transfer that money to the rich into a nightmare for the poor and sick as Mitch McConnell tries to make Republicans Don't Care a reality.

Conservatives are so desperate to send millions of Americans whom they believe are underserving of basic rights to their deaths they will invent any number of ridiculous arguments;

"What if there are 15 million people who actually don't want to sign up for insurance but they were forced to, and have been counted because they were forced to under Obamacare? Is that part of the number that CBO gave us?" - Rich out-of-touch Plutocrat Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute. 

"How about letting other groups form -- not just employer based," Doctor Alieta Eck opined, "So if a group like the NRA or some other group..." - Guns Save Lives after all.

Since the Orangmanbabyus maladministration occupied America we have seen the strain of evil called conservatism inflicting its' degenerate lack of morals upon the American People.

Republicans hate America.  Conservatives hate the American Dream and want it crushed.  Conservatives are yearning for Trump to signal the go ahead to slaughter liberals, minorities, feminists, and every person in the United States who has the gall to act like an entitled White Person.

Remember, that briefest of moments when conservatives called for an end to the violent rhetoric?  Yeah, that was a ruse.  What conservatives want is for #blacklivesmatter and liberals to lay down and accept death at the hands of Republican bureaucrats and conservative murderers.  Here's right-wing domestic terrorist Dana Loesch calling for bloodshed in an NRA video (yes the same NRA Dr. Eck said would offer medical insurance)

The only difference between conservative "thought" and Republican policies is conservatives want to kill you right now whereas Republicans would like you to die after you've worked yourself to death's door.

But, if Americans have the temerity to live beyond their useful working years, Republicans have a plan for that contingency, gutting EPA regulations so Corporations can wantonly poison Americans.  After all you could always exercise some of the Paul Ryan "Freedom" and choose not to drink water.

Heil Trump! MAGAmericans will be the new people and under MAGA Conservaive Neo-Nazis shall rule

"Hail Trump! Hail Our People! Hail Victory!" Conservative Neo-Nazi Dick B. Spencer declares The Drumpf Reich

In 40 days the Republican Party will begin dismantling the social safety net, eliminating Government, and instituting MAGA across the land. MAGA will replace all other forms of patriotism, governance, and free speech in the country. So what do I mean by MAGA?

No longer will Americans be paid in near worthless federal reserve notes (End The FED!!!), instead MAGA Bux will be available to use in Donald Trump's Food Banks (no Trump Steaks for certain people), or Mike Pence's cultural approved centers (No Hamilton!), or to trade in for vouchers for Paul Ryan's CouponCare or the newly created MAGAcare!

MAGAcare will "quickly" and "efficiently" replace the ACA and the failed policy known as Obamacare. Under MAGAcare, poor Americans will have the option to die quickly but, with out the onerus burden of receiving care under the evil tyranny of Obamacare.

Political Correctness (PC) will be eliminated and will be replaced by Patriotic Correctness (PC). Under the New PC, MAGA Speech will be the only speech code approved by Trump and his inner cabal of Conservative Neo-Nazis and accepted by MAGAmericans. Forms of unacceptable speech shall include criticizing Donald Trump, protesting Republicans, rejecting military control of the Government, watching TV other than Faux News or The Apprentice, reading internet sites unapproved by Breitbart, burning Confederate Flags, and refusing to salute during the new National MAGAnthem, these will be punished by MAGAexecutions.

MAGA Lives Matter will quite naturally replace All Lives Matter as MAGAmericans recognize that only their lives matter. Especially since Director of Homeland Security Sheriff David Clarke will have declared Black Lives Matter are terrorists thus allowing the MAGAparamilitary to unleash peace keeping operations on #blm and all those associated with it. MAGAexecutions will swiftly follow as anyone who supports or identifies with #blm will be automatically be a threat and the MAGA Homeland Security agents will always be in fear for their lives.

The EPA will transition into the MAGAPA, a new federal regulatory body which will ruthlessly track down and eliminate the #NODAPL criminal protesters (more MAGAexecutions), and fast track the pipeline, safeguard the inalienable rights of pollution factories to dump petcoke along the Calumet waterway, mercury (HG) into the Great Lakes, rain down lead dust on nearby towns, and spill any other toxic waste into the air and waterways on their property, which are sometimes erroneously referred to as the commons or America.

The Departments of Education shall henceforth be the Department of MAGAducation and the Department Labor will become the MAGAwork. MAGAducation will focus on the conservative truths about America; how there was no one here in the New World when The White Man arrived and even if there were they weren't strip-mining and deforesting the land so they weren't really using the place. And the new MAGAwork will ensure that all Americans are given the freedom to work for as little as possible, eventually transitioning to free labor in order to achieve 100% employment. MAGAwork will set US free.

The 2nd Amendment shall henceforth be known as MAGAmendment and be the first and last argument, especially when some libtard starts speaking that Old PC garbage and tramples on MAGA speech.

In all seriousness, liberals need to start formulating a plan of action and need to hold the Democratic Party to it. That plan should include all manner of parliamentarian rigamarole, political brinksmanship, and outright chicanery.

Because playing by the norms and rules of the system is a receipe for the furtherance of right-wing fascism. RepublicaNazis began their descent into fascism with Nixon's southern strategy, fully embraced it with the addled Raygun's faux cowboy diplomacy, ignored decorum with the hunting of President Clinton, stole the Presidency in 2000, obstructed and derailed the Government through President Obama's tenure, and are now set to inaugurate the worst Government the world has seen since 1932. All of these have been frowned upon by Democrats as they expected Republicans to uphold some traditions and were reluctant to confront the conservative neo-nazi advance.

As Robert F. Kennedy observed in 1962, "We all agreed in the end that if the Russians were ready to go to nuclear war over Cuba, they were ready to go to nuclear war, and that was that. So we might as well have the showdown then as six months later."

The time for Gentlemanly governance is past. RepublicaNazis have completely abandoned even the semblance of cooperation they will stop at nothing to advance the right-wing dream of Neo-Feudal Wage Slave Nation. The Era of Conservative Neo-Nazi Fascist MAGA is upon us.

A Duke Energy Toxic Spill threatens the lives of thousands of Americans

"Once is chance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action," attributed to Ian Fleming, creator of Bond, James Bond...

A corporation would never, ever do anything wrong, immoral or illegal just to boost profits because of the principle of enlightened self interest they axiomatically look out for the welfare of consumers.

Once again we have a toxic spill a magnitude which if attributed to Tear-A-Wrists would necessitate a full on invasion of an unconnected oil-rich Nation and the Impeachment of President Obama

Yet because it's due to the rampant negligence of a "Romney Person" (i.e. a Corporation) no punishment will occur and no prison time will ever be served.

Late Monday Feb. 03, Duke Energy dumped 82,000 tons of coal ash and 27 million gallons of contaminated water into the Dan River in North Carolina. Like petcoke, coal ash is a toxic mixture of heavy metals and corrosive poisons, but in this case the by-products of coal-fired power plants. (Read the follow-up Ecowatch articles about the levels of Arsenic in the Dan River.)

Duke Energy, of course, waited more than a day to alert the authorities because Fuck the EPA and all regulations!

The town of Danville, VA draws drinking water just 6 miles downstream from the site of the spill.

Duke Energy has been spewing forth the coal sludge and flouting regulations from all its' 14 coal fired power plants for years because Fuck the EPA and all regulations! The site of the Dan River spill has been closed since 2012 but the toxic retention pond hadn't been properly disposed off and even basic maintenance has obviously been neglected. But, it's North Carolina Duke runs the State.

So, once again we are faced with a Corporate Monstrosity which could not care less about people in North Carolina because fuck the poor and Fuck the EPA and all regulations! No Corporation will ever self-regulate. 

Enlightened Self Interest is a myth like the invisible hand and free markets. It has never existed and will never exist but, it's tool to keep people voting themselves into bondage while Corporations exert more and more control over Government until the day when Americans awake to find themselves re-enslaved and it's only too ironic that Duke Energy whose entire existence and fortune were built from Slave Labor will once more be a Slave Master.

GOP plans to kill their Hostages. Will the President sacrifice us?

The Republicans have hijacked the US Government and Budget. The Republicans aren't going to destroy the entire Government, they are just going to destroy the Government which helps Us.

Since, Ronald Reagan's elevation and the adoption of Piss Down Your Back and Tell You It's Raining Economics (Supply Side economics), the Republican Party has been steadily undermining  a Government which helps the Poor and Working Class.

This Government Shutdown was coming all along, Republicans had planned it at least a year ago, and it was so the Republicans could hijack the Budget and use it as a "Forcing Mechanism" to enact their Death to the Poor Budget.

Ah, but the Republicans went of half-cocked thanks to the efforts of Senator Ted Cruz and the anti-Obamacare propaganda they've been spewing for the past 4 years.

Nonetheless, the Shutdown is having ancillary benefits for the crotch-sniffing lapdogs of the Plutocracy.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has currently furloughed 1600 of 1611 workers and almost all case handling including hearings, investigations, inspections, elections and more has come to a halt. This is not a negative to Republicans but a desired outcome.

"There is some good news out of the shutdown, the EPA can't issue new regulations." - Republican Marsha Blackburn.

During the last shutdown, Jonathan Schweitzer, an environmental engineer at the agency, and his team was forced to call off a planned inspection at a sewage treatment plant in the Chicago area.

 "During that time the treatment plant violated its discharge limits," he said. "In the long term if we can't review permits and pre-treatment programms, then states and municipalities will likely tend to slack off if nobody is keeping after them as far as their job is concerned protecting the waterways."

Of course, while Republicans hate the EPA and want it eliminated, Chicagoans and other Americans would rather not drink cholera-laden water, 

"It stinks," said John O'Grady, a union representative at the EPA's Chicago office. "No one is going to be out inspecting water discharges, or wet lands. Nobody is going to be out inspecting waste water treatment plants, drinking water treatment plants, or landfills - nothing. None of that is going to be done. The employees are absolutely devastated."

The Republicans message has always been the Government doesn't work. After being elected Republicans exert all their power and spend all their energy ensuring that statement comes true.

What this Shutdown helps them do is sow discontent and exasperation amongst the American people and speed up the transfer of the Wealth of Nations into the bank accounts of the 1%.

Already they have gotten President Obama to agree to funding the Government at Sequestration levels, which represents a huge reduction in spending and is a major compromise.

But, Sequestration levels of spending isn't good enough for the Republicans and their Plutocratic Masters. The 1% want nothing less than the complete and total destruction of the New Deal, the Great Society and the any parts of the Government which helps the Poor and Working Class.

The most frightening part is not that President Obama has signaled his agreement to sequestration budget spending but that some neo-liberal advisors to the President are telling him it's his time, that President Obama is the One who can make changes to Social Security or Medicare and that by agreeing to cuts to entitlements he'll secure his legacy.

If President Obama agrees to any real cuts to Social Security or Medicare he will hand a bloody shirt which the Republicans will wave for a hundred years. And he'll go a long way towards ushering in the Era of Neo-Feudalist Domination of America.

Republicans will Agree to Bomb Syria in exchange for

Stealing Social Security, Defunding Obamacare and eliminating the EPA.

“…[E]veryone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will never be industrious.” - Arthur Young; 1771

The Anti-American Party (Republicans and Pro-Business Democrats) are ready to give the President the Authority to Bomb Syria into Peace(s) in exchange for taking Social Security and transferring it into the coffers of the Warmongering Plutocracy. As a bonus we can kick some lazy poor people who won't join the military to fight to enrich the 1% off of Medicaid and SNAP. And we will necessarily have to eliminate the EPA because Corporations will need to be able to pollute the air and water in order to ensure our military is fighting with the best equipment.

Hey! It's the Right thing to do for Our Benighted Job Creators. We All have to sacrifice!

• Lower Benefits for the Poor! 
• Lower Rights for the Working Class! 
• Lower Life Expectancy for the Middle Class! 
• Lower Taxes for the Rich! 
• Lower Regulations for Polluters!

It's only fair we all have some skin in the game.

I mean how dare Detroit Mayor David Bing order the Koch Brothers Sovereign Corporation Koch Carbon LLC to clean up the four story tall multi-ton heap of Petroleum refining byproducts left from processing Alberta Tar Sands deposited along the banks of the Detroit River,

"The pet coke, a byproduct of tar sands oil refining, has caused a controversy for months since four-story-high piles appeared along the Detroit River near the Ambassador Bridge. Many local residents protested the eyesore and the potential for the piles to pollute both the air and the river."

Just this week, Koch Carbon apparently moved the petcoke to Ohio, where most likely the high-sulfur toxic pollutant will be burned for electrcitiy and befoul the air of Ohio but, Koch Carbon will not comment on the fate of the pollutants.

Of course, with the USA re-entering the Victorian Little Wars Era the only jobs left in America, outside being a Plutocracy Apologist, will be Cogs in the Machinery of War; Bravely opening up Foreign Markets for the Plutocracy to exploit.

"I don't believe in humanitarian wars. I don't believe in humanitarian bombings," Congressman Alan Grayson (D-Orlando).

The United States has entered a Ultra-Reactionary Period in which the Plutocratic Elites aided by their Media and Government Lapdogs are attacking every Progressive gain. 

"You know, if one day a kid doesn’t have lunch, right, maybe that’s a teaching moment when that kid doesn’t have lunch. That may sound harsh saying that, but we’ve got to get people to start being responsible for themselves." - Thomas Kersting on Fox & Friends

Oh yes, it's a teaching momement. We have to teach the Poor that they are here to toil and suffer to enrich the Plutocracy. Like Republican Congressman Stephen Fincher, who while voting to eliminate SNAP assistance for poor children and do away with subsidized lunches has raked in over $3,500,000 USC in free money from the Federal Government. Much of it for NOT growing certain crops.  

But when the despicable Rich Lowry of NRO is on Faux News stating, 

"[G]overnment has gone out and deliberately eroded the natural sense of stigma Americans feel about being on the dole in any form and that's a disgrace." 

He isn't talking about Stephen Fincher or Michele Bachmann and the millions they've received or the Trillions of Tax Payer Dollars which have been stolen by the 1%. A figure so large its' scope alone make people dismiss the theft because it's easier to believe the 1% aren't robbing Us into servitude and penury. But, Rich Lowry is a paid apologist for Power and Plutocracy. It's his job to defend the 1% and attack the Poor and Working Class.

What's making this so successful for the Plutocrats is the multiple fronts approach they've adopted. Instead of allowing Working Class resistance to build up to fight one battle, the Plutocracy is going after everything ensuring that resistance will be local and or fragmented.

So, while Republicans seek to dominate and subjugate women in Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin other Republicans are going after Social Security and Medicare.

“You want sequester relief? Then let’s talk about a reduction in entitlement spending,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell in July. 

"Now, it’s time to deal with the mandatory side,” Speaker of the House John Boehner told the crowd at a fundraiser for Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) in Boise, Idaho. “I’ve made it clear that we’re not going to increase the debt limit without cuts and reforms that are greater than the increase in the debt limit.”

"What we need to have happen is leadership on the part of this president and the White House to … say we’re going to fix the underlying problem that’s driving our deficit … the entitlement programs and the unfunded liability that they are leaving on this generation and the next.” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said earlier this month.

The 1% are satisfied with just Paying No Taxes, they also want to eliminate programs which aid the Working Class, they want potential opposition (Unions and Collective Bargaining) to their Dominance destroyed and they want all government spending rerouted to the Military-Industrial-Complex.

Scott Walker, The Kochs and Wisconsin are the Vanguard of Fascism

Leading the Way towards Fascist America is Scott Walker the personal valet for the Koch Take Over of the Nation.

At the moment that the "normal" police and military resources of the bourgeois dictatorship, together with their parliamentary screens, no longer suffice to hold society in a state of equilibrium - the turn of the fascist regime arrives. - Leon Trotsky 27 Jan 1932.

Up in Northern Wisconsin, a mining company named Gogebic Taconite was approved by the Republican Wisconsin Legislature to engage in a massive mining operation which will devastate and befoul Lake Superior and the surrounding pristine Northwoods environment. Protests have been staged, so Gogenic Taconite hired Bulletproof Security to stalk the area in pseudo-military vehicles carrying semi-automatic rifles and wearing fully decked out camo uniforms.

Duped Conservatives and apologists for Corporate Malfesance defended the Walker and the Parliamentary Screens when they passed legislation which allowed Plutocrats to buy up Wisconsin's public utilities and public resources for whatever price the Plutocrats wanted as long as the Wisconsin Republican got a nice little kickback.

While everyone is focused on slimy Scott Walker's Independence Day Rape Wand Signature, and rightly so, the Corporate Overlords are ensuring they get to extract money, power, and resources from Wisconsin at rock bottom prices.

The Rich are interested in maximizing their profits, the Great Lakes be damned. Another Wisconsin/Michigan based company Lake Michigan Carferry uses the last coal-fired ship on the lake, the S.S. Badger which as it travels from its home port of Ludington, MI, to Manitowoc, WI, it dumps 509 tons of coal ash into Lake Michigan each year – a quantity greater than the total waste dumped annually by the 125 other largest ships operating on the Great Lakes.

“The S.S. Badger, the filthiest ship on the Great Lakes, has been given two more years to dump hundreds of tons of dangerous coal ash into Lake Michigan.  The millions of people who live, work and play in and around this beautiful Lake should be outraged that this filthy ship will continue to operate,” said Senator Dick Durbin.

But, Senator Durbin the Rich run the US Government. So the flithy owner of the S.S. Badger, Robert Manglitz, used his connections and legalese to bypass and ignore laws. Manglitz got the S.S. Badger originally a barge whose keel was laid in 1953 and was later refitted to transport cars, declared a "historical site" in both Michigan and Wisconsin.

Manglitz has called Coal Ash "Harmless Sand" though I doubt he's ever relaxed on a sunny beach made out of it.

Destroying the Teachers' Union was a step, eliminating Public Service Employees Collective Bargaining powers was a step, selling off public resources to whichever company gives the Corporate Owned Politicians was another step, allowing Companies which rape and despoil the environment, to field paramilitary squads threatening to gun down protesters while defending Corporate Crimes is another step.

The Koch Brothers like to style themselves Libertarians, but you can know them by their true name Fascists. Like their Plutocratic brethern on Wall Street, the Kochs have set up multiple avenues of attack to deter and confuse the American People from identifying their true enemy the Koch Brothers themselves and the Capitalist Bourgeoisie.

Through the fascist agency, capitalism sets in motion the masses of crazed petty bourgeoisie and bands of declassed and demoralized lumpenproletariat - all countless human beings whom finance capital itself has brought to desperation and frenzy. - Leon Trotsky, What is Fascism?

Wall Street, the Rich Plutocrats and the Banking and Finance Industry brought the economy to ruin through their legerdermain, degenerate gambling and rampant criminal theft and then turned around and blamed the Poor and Unions.

Then they unleashed their hordes of duped and battered conservative drones to blame other middle and working class peoples for the devastation wrought by the Banksters.

Exactly, as Trotsky wrote 80 years ago, The fascists find their human material mainly in the petty bourgeoisie.The latter has been entirely ruined by big capital. There is no way out for it in the present social order, but it knows of no other. Its dissatisfaction, indignation, and despair are diverted by the fascists away from big capital and against the workers.

Republicans want to Kill Chicagoans via Lead Poisioning

Yes, Republicans entice their conservative drones to shoot Liberals but this is the more prosaic poisoning.

From the Chicago Tribune story,

EPA researchers tested samples from 29 Chicago area homes and at least 1 liter in the first 12 tested in 15 of the 29 homes exceeded 15 parts per billion of lead. The current procedures require only the first liter out of the pipes be tested. The current procedures, obviously give an inaccurate account of the lead levels as the higher levels were registered in the proceeding water.

The EPA says there is no safe level of lead exposure, especially for vulnerable populations including children, pregnant women and infants who drink formula made from tap water. Miguel Del Toral notes that lead is the only substance other than carcinogens for which the EPA exposure goal is zero.

But, Republicans know that by simply eliminating the EPA the Lead levels will effectively drop to zero because no agency will be measuring for them!

As I related with my post Peter Roskam called me the other day about the Job-Killing EPA in which I asked Representative Roskam why the Republicans overwhelming support the idea of eliminating the EPA and federal clean water standards HR 2018, A Republican House bill in which 223 of 236 (94.5%) of Republicans voted to eliminate the Clean Water Act of 1972. The answer is always that the EPA harms jobs.

"Whether it’s the EPA, the FDA, the FCC, the SEC, the CFTC, you name it, there is an acronym for a federal agency causing harm right now. We’re trying to pull that in." - Eric Cantor, famous Republicon Hit Man for the Plutocracy who demanded disaster relief for Tornado victims in Joplin, MO only be appropriated from cuts to Medicare.

Oh, but don't worry Corporations have your best interest at heart, they certainly will voluntarily reduce their toxic pollution! It's the Myth of Self-Regulation.

As we have seen with every deregulation and privatization scheme Chicago and Cook County residents would face the prospect of tainted water with little to no remedy to face giant Corporate Criminals who regularly violate EPA and State rules now and would pollute and poison Americans with absolute impunity if the Republicons succeed in their efforts to dismantle the EPA.

Frack Baby Frack! The Petroleum Pigs Newest Evil

Fracking, the process of forcing thousands of gallons of water and toxic chemicals at high pressure into Shale beds to extract Natural Gas reserves, is the latest indignity the Petroleum Pigs have unleashed upon people.

Like all problems with Oil Companies, the issue is one of sovereignty, they don't recognize anyone's and simply influence governments at all levels to give them a free hand This map of New York State shows the increasing number of Municipalities fighting to keep Fracking away.

But, Multi-National Oil Conglomerates don't care. They've been destroying ecosystems and people in Nigeria, Ecuador, Azerbaijan for decades why would they think of Americans as any different? For the destruction wrought by fracking is not going to affect them. It's well beyond NIMBY, it's not just the richest members of Oil Corporations, but most involved in the Oil business, who live outside the areas affected and don't come into contact with any of the toxic by products.

“Giving local governments the power to regulate would be the kiss of death for natural-gas development in New York state,” Tom West, an attorney in Albany who represents Denver- based Anschutz Exploration Corp. and other drilling companies, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News. Anschutz Exploration Corporation is owned by Philip Anshutz, a full-fledged member of the 1% the 34th richest person in America, and credited with the George W. Bush White House with killing the 2001 Kyoto Protocol and in 2010 used financial legerdemain to hide his obscene profits, until a U.S. Tax Court judge ruled he owed $94 million in taxes.

A member of the 1% who thinks Regulation is bad, is a tax cheat, and makes money off of Corporate Welfare. Hmmm, seems to fit a pattern.

A recent spate of earthquakes in the Youngstown, Ohio area are the direct result of fracking. But, don't worry because minor earthquakes are the least of your trouble if a fracking operation sets up near your home in Ohio.

The two Allardale Park gas wells were drilled by Wildcat Drilling LLC for Ohio Valley Energy, based in Austintown. The county park is east of the Mangans’ house and near the Bath Township border.

The wells, about 1,500 feet apart, were being drilled to a depth of 3,700 feet and cemented on the outside for environmental protection at the time that the Mangans’ problems surfaced. The vertical wells were then fracked.

On Sept. 29, 2008, Mangan and wife, Sandy, found that their drinking water well had gone dry at the same time that a company was drilling for natural gas at Allardale Park about a half mile away.

When the water returned to the Mangans’ well in five days, it had an unpleasant taste and a rotten-egg scent. It was salty. It bubbled. It contained methane gas and a gray slurry of cement.

Ohio Valley Energy drew headlines in 2007, after a house exploded east of Cleveland in Geauga County.

In Ohio, state lawmakers can overturn local ordinances. So even if you manage to band together within your local community and stave off the fracking wells. Philip Anschutz or some else of his 1% ilk is simply going to jerk the chain on their obedient lap dog Ohio Governor Republicon John Kasich and his slavish guardians in the Republicon dominated Ohio Legislature and get the rights to frack you. Frack Baby Frack!

The wells won't be anywhere near Kasich's Governor's mansion nor will they affect his speaking fees from the Cato Instiutite or Faux News position post-governorship. And Philp Anschutz is safely ensconced far away from water laden with benzene, gas, and any of the other toxic by-products of his evil hand.

Peter Roskam called me the other day about the job-killing EPA

While relaxing at home one evening, my antiquated landline rang. Why whomever could it be calling me on this line? I wondered. It was Republican Illinois House member Peter Roskam conducting a Telephone Town Hall Meeting

Roskam does these phone call "town halls" where the listener can listen to Roskam speak to people or, if they are so inclined, press the pound key to be transferred to a staffer to screen a question for Representative Roskam. I did so and told the nameless staffer I'd like to ask Representative Roskam a question about his yes vote for HR 2018, A Republican House bill in which 223 of 236 (94.5%) of Republicans voted to eliminate the Clean Water Act of 1972.

Representative Roskam took my question. I told him in light of the egregious and on-going dumping problem by the BP plant at Whiting Indiana how did he feel it was a responsible position to vote to eliminate the Federal Government's power to regulate and stop Corporations from polluting and put that power in the hands of the States, when his constituents' drinking water was directly affected by another State Government's decision.

For reference, the Indiana State Government voted to allow BP to ignore the EPA and the Clean Water Act on the amount of Mercury it dumps into Lake Michigan. Mercury is toxic substance to humans that once it enters the human body can not be gotten rid of and leads to heavy metal poisioning*. The reason we Chicagoans can not eat Lake Michigan fish? Too much Mercury. The BP Whiting Indiana plant also dumps a dozen toxic byproducts of oil refining, including benzene, toluene and suspended solids containing mercury, lead, nickel and vanadium

The BP Whiting Indiana plant has a history of flouting EPA regulations and dumping huge amounts of toxic pollutants into our air and drinking water. And while in 2007 the Indiana Government was paid off to state BP would self-regulate and was working within Federal guidelines, the truth is BP was blatantly polluting the Lake.

In 2009, BP acknowledged that for the last six years its Whiting refinery violated federal pollution limits on benzene, a highly toxic chemical linked to leukemia and other health problems.

BP reported that it had processed too much benzene at the refinery's sewage treatment plant, about 15 miles southeast of Chicago.

Last year alone (2008), the company processed more than 95 tons of benzene waste -- about 16 times the amount allowed. BP also violated the 6-ton limit from 2003 to 2007.

Whiting Refinery was cited who violations of U.S. and Indiana EPA regulations in October 2008,

Federal regulators say BP PLC violated the Clean Air Act by beginning to make modifications at its Indiana oil refinery along Lake Michigan to process Canadian crude without the proper permit.

So, faced with the fact that his vote would allow a Corporation based in one state, in this case Indiana, to flout laws and regulations and directly harm the citizens of other states, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan all draw water from Lake Michigan, how could he justify it?

Well, here's how all Republicans justify their actions, by anecdotal analogy. Peter Roskam related to me a story about how some nice small business in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois was hampered in their mechanical engineering designs by the over regulation of the EPA, which demanded they produce an engine type which they could not possibly produce thus causing the small business to fail. If there is one thing the Republicans do well it's stay on message.

The Republicans have been proclaiming the EPA kills jobs, and obviously Roskam's folksy aw shucks small business anecdote was unassailable and proved the Republican message. Plus this being a telephone conference, I was not allowed to ask a follow-up about his vote about the Clean Water bill, but that is to be expected.

Now, Representative Roskam seems like a nice moderate conservative, but it's his type and his willingness to go along with the Michele Bachmann's of the Party and their crazy, fringe, plutocratically controlled views, in this case "The Job-Killing EPA" and vote overwhelmingly for bills which are clearly harming the American people.

* - Sir Isaac Newton most likely suffered from mercury toxicity due to his early alchemical work.

Cholera Water for the Poor, $350-A-Bottle Pinot Noir for Republicans

The Republicans hate the EPA and are wholly owned by Corporations. As such, 223 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to eliminate the power of the EPA and the Clean Water Act of 1972, by passing H.R.2018 The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011. It would eliminate, wholesale, the EPA's power to supersede individual states' water pollution rules. Because as we all learned last year with BP, TransOcean and Haliburton and the Gulf of Mexico Spill companies can be relied upon to regulate themselves and if something does happen Rick Perry or some other Republican Stooge can blame it on god.

This is a Joe Barton before the fact apology to polluting Companies. Quite simply by doing this the Republicans are allowing Corporations more leverage by allowing them to face individual States as oppossed to Federal Power.

BP acknowledged that for the last six years its Whiting refinery violated federal pollution limits on benzene, a highly toxic chemical linked to leukemia and other health problems.

BP reported that it had processed too much benzene at the refinery's sewage treatment plant, about 15 miles southeast of Chicago.

Last year alone (2008), the company processed more than 95 tons of benzene waste -- about 16 times the amount allowed. BP also violated the 6-ton limit from 2003 to 2007.

Whiting Refinery was cited who violations of U.S. and Indiana EPA regulations in October 2008,

Federal regulators say BP PLC violated the Clean Air Act by beginning to make modifications at its Indiana oil refinery along Lake Michigan to process Canadian crude without the proper permit.

The EPA said in November the modifications caused "significant increases" in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and carbon monoxide emitted from the refinery.

Near Charleston West Virginia American families no longer have clean water to drink because the Bush Administration gleefully allowed Coal Companies to violate EPA standards and pollute the water table so badly that families are drinking a toxic sludge which is eating away at their bodies:

Jennifer Hall-Massey knows not to drink the tap water in her home near Charleston, W.Va.

In fact, her entire family tries to avoid any contact with the water. Her youngest son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest where the bathwater — polluted with lead, nickel and other heavy metals — caused painful rashes. Many of his brother’s teeth were capped to replace enamel that was eaten away.

Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system.

In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times.

But, like all things Republicans if you have $$$ you can have Clean Water or even better if you have money and are poised to ensure all Government Spenidng is directed at protecting and transferring wealth to the Rich while undercutting and killing the Poor you can be Pinot Noir swilling Paul Ryan, Serious Budget Wizard!

This is Dastardly stuff the Republicans are pulling. If you aren't not a Hedge Fund Manager or a high ranking official for a Multi-National Oil Company or own your own Private Jet the Republicans do not give a shit about you. And Republican bureaucrats passing this type of legislation don't care about water pollution because they know they'll be rewarded by these same polluting companies with huge dollar amounts.

But conservatives don't care. Republicans and Conservatives love when Americans die, the sound of Americans suffering is music to the Republican ear.

Do you Miss them, yet? Never Forget Republicans were in Charge

On the day America suffered the worst attack in our History, except for when Republican Heroes were killing Americans during the Civil War, what was the focus for the Republican led Congress and President George W. Bush?

Well, Phil Gramm, along with Republicans Jim Leach and Thomas Bliley had successfully repealed the Glass-Steagall Act removing a check on the rapacious Banking Industry and Republicans were figuring out how to shift even more of the Federal Tax burden to the Middle Class and Poor.

And while George Bush would sign any Legislation that would shelter his Base and Moneyed Masters from supporting the Nation, W was busy trying to figure out a way to invade Iraq. On January 30, 2001 George W. Bush directs Rumsfeld and JCS chairman Hugh Shelton to examine military options for Iraq.

America knew this in 2004, when Paul O'Neil spoke out in January 2004.

"From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” says O’Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11. "It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this,’" says O’Neill.

But Republicans of that Time were using the attacks of 9/11 to call anyone who questioned Bush and Cheney Terrorist Supporters and Traitors.

The Bush administration was well along the path to war before the 9/11 attacks. September 11 was not the motivation for the U.S. invasion of Iraq – it was a distraction from it.

9/11 and the Iraq War are enough to make The Bush/Cheney Regime the Worst in American History. But when you add on Torture, the Republican Recession, the blind eye to millions of EPA violations, the never explained nearly $5-a-gallon gas during Bush's Presidency and the Bush Regime pushed through TARP, a Bankers dream, wherein another Trillion in American taxpayer debt was grotesquely funneled directly to aid the Rich as a last Bushian Fuck You to the people... Well, what you have in George Bush and Dick Cheney are, perhaps, the two people who have done the most damage to America with the exception of Conservative Heroes Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis and Emperor Hirohito, Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden.

Related:
Pollution-oution what's the Solution? [Disaffected and it Feels So Good]
Republicans Love when Miners Die [Disaffected and it Feels So Good]
Iraq and September 11 [Disaffected and it Feels So Good]

Pollution-oution what's the Solution?

Drill Baby Drill...

Is the Right Wing attack on Climate Change also an attack on Pollution laws and enforcement?

Most on the Right are utterly convinced that Global Climate Change is some kind of fraud or hoax. I have my doubts about man-made Climate Change but they are always tempered by the knowledge that those who vehemently deny Climate Change also just as vehemently deny Evolution. There is something in the conservative brain which makes them utterly convinced of their positions, doubtless and so stubborn that no amount of evidence is ever enough to change their views. Indeed to a conservative changing one's views and having an mind open to new ideas is anathema. Conservatives prefer slavery and idiocy to new thoughts. Indeed most Conservatives and Republicans think Slavery is a wonderful idea.

But, while the mass of conservatives lap up Sean Hannity's nightly garbage they are also sucking down filthy water, air and food because under the catastrophic Bush/Cheney regime the EPA was bridled, enforcement of pollution laws was curtailed or ignored and Companies felt free to rampantly violate all pollution standards in pursuit of a few extra dollars.

BP acknowledged that for the last six years its Whiting refinery violated federal pollution limits on benzene, a highly toxic chemical linked to leukemia and other health problems.

BP reported that it had processed too much benzene at the refinery's sewage treatment plant, about 15 miles southeast of Chicago.

Last year alone, the company processed more than 95 tons of benzene waste -- about 16 times the amount allowed. BP also violated the 6-ton limit from 2003 to 2007.

Whiting Refinery was cited who violations of U.S. and Indiana EPA regulations in October 2008,

Federal regulators say BP PLC violated the Clean Air Act by beginning to make modifications at its Indiana oil refinery along Lake Michigan to process Canadian crude without the proper permit.

The EPA said in November the modifications caused "significant increases" in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and carbon monoxide emitted from the refinery.

Near Charleston West Virginia American families no longer have clean water to drink because the Bush Administration gleefully allowed Coal Companies to violate EPA standards and pollute the water table so badly that families are drinking a toxic sludge which is eating away at their bodies:

Jennifer Hall-Massey knows not to drink the tap water in her home near Charleston, W.Va.

In fact, her entire family tries to avoid any contact with the water. Her youngest son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest where the bathwater — polluted with lead, nickel and other heavy metals — caused painful rashes. Many of his brother’s teeth were capped to replace enamel that was eaten away.

Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system.

In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times.

But conservatives don't care. Republicans and Conservatives love when Americans die, the sound of Americans suffering is music to the Republican ear.

And when Americans voice their sorrows or concerns Conservatives like Beck, R. Limbaugh, M. Malkin and Laura Ingraham make fun of their suffering or the Right trots out horse mouthed (or is that jack-ass mouthed) Michelle Bachmann with her odd body language, excessive blinking, frozen faced smile, vacant wide-eyed stare and stilted speech patterns punctuated with strange arm and hand gesticulations to declare the planet was saved already!

Other people Suffering is a Conservative Value. Republicans and Conservatives want you to die so they can make money.

Related:
Here is EPA Interactive Enforcement and Violation Database for reference.

Companies keep 17,000 potentially harmful chemicals secret in order to maximize profits [Washington Post]
The law exempts from public disclosure any information that could harm their bottom line. The Obama Administration objects but Republicans love the law because it kills Americans whom Republicans hate and want to die.