The Dirty Truth Behind The New Natural Gas – July 2010 – UPDATE 2012
After viewing the documentary GASLAND, I was mortified and ashamed of what our species is capable of. If you think this is a free country… THINK AGAIN! The Bush/Cheney administration did everything in their power to take away as many freedoms as possible so doors could be opened to allow THE CORPORATE “BEING” to have free reign on getting at any type of resource no matter who or what was in the way. I know it’s hard to believe that they would go so far as to ruin our planet if only to make another buck. But with every dollar, they get a nickel’s worth of power. The Power to Destroy. If you haven’t seen Avatar I recommend you rent it. It is a chilling glimpse into the future of what can happen to Mother Earth when all her natural resources are depleted. Think it a fairytale? (Another… THINK AGAIN!) Watch the trailer Gasland below and The Daily Show featuring the filmmaker of Gasland, Josh Fox. Stay enlightened, information may be the only weapon we have to help save our planet against The Corporate World who will kill every living creature upon it, if they are allowed too.
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UPDATE 2012 – I blogged this page almost 2 years ago, since then we have had Earth tremors and quakes in the Fracking areas that some experts believe are the direct result of Fracking. I know the Republicans want us all to feel that Corporations will do no harm, they care about us and our Earth. To that I say… THE SHIT OF THE BULL! Even in my own hometown there are people who are willing to destroy in order to gain BIG BUCKS for themselves… Go to this link to see how greed is on a steady course of destruction EVERYWHERE. http://www.youtube.com/user/liveoaklandfill
Please watch GASLAND and then watch the propaganda film on HOW WONDERFUL NATURAL GAS IS, brought to you by one of the United Corporations of America. 
thinkingblue
PS: 3 Cheers for Montana!!! Montana Supreme Court upholds election spending limits
GASLAND Trailer 2010
Ohio earthquake was not a natural event, expert says
2012 – CLEVELAND (Reuters) – A 4.0 magnitude earthquake in Ohio on New Year’s Eve did not occur naturally and may have been caused by high-pressure liquid injection related to oil and gas exploration and production, an expert hired by the state of Ohio said on Tuesday.
Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources on Sunday suspended operations at five deep well sites in Youngstown, Ohio, where the injection of water was taking place, while they evaluate seismological data from a rare quake in the area.
The wells are about 9,000 feet deep and are used to dispose of water from oil and gas wells. The process is related to fracking, the controversial injection of chemical-laced water and sand into rock to release oil and gas. Critics say that the high pressure injection of the liquid causes seismic activity.
Won-Young Kim, a research professor of Seismology Geology and Tectonophysics at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that circumstantial evidence suggests a link between the earthquake and the high-pressure well activity.
“We know the depth (of the quake on Saturday) is two miles and that is different from a natural earthquake,” said Kim, who is advising the state of Ohio.
Data collected from four seismographs set up in November in the area confirm a connection between the quakes and water pressure at the well, Kim said.
“There is circumstantial evidence to connect the two — in the past we didn’t have earthquakes in the area and the proximity in the time and space of the earthquakes matches operations at the well,” he said.
A spokesman for Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich, a strong supporter of oil and gas exploration in the state, said Ohio could announce a preliminary decision whether to continue the suspension of the wells as early as Wednesday.
The state was already looking into the cause of earlier seismic activity from 10 previous earthquakes, beginning in March, 2011.
According to Kim, this is not the first time Ohio tremors have been linked to human activities. “We have several examples of earthquakes from deep well disposal in the past,” Kim said.
A quake of 4.2 magnitude in Ashtabula, Ohio, on January 26, 2001, was believed to be due to deep-well injection, he said. And in 1987 there was an incident with a correlation to high pressure deep well injection, he said.
There are 177 so-called “class two” deep wells in Ohio, according to Tom Stewart, executive vice president of Ohio Oil and Gas Association. They all operate under federal guidelines spelled out by the Clean Water Act.
There is no evidence that the wells in Youngstown were operating at higher pressures than allowed, Stewart said.
“We haven’t seen anything from anyone at (the state agency) that would lead us to believe that the well was not operating properly,” he said.
Kim said that even though the wells have stopped pumping water into the rock, the area might not have experienced its last earthquake. “It could take a couple of years for the earthquakes to go away. The migration of the fluid injected into the rock takes a long time to leave,” Kim said.
Ohio’s Democratic Senator, Sherrod Brown, said the quick response by the state shows it is a serious issue.
“There are things we need to know about drilling and earthquakes,” Brown told Reuters on Tuesday.
Brown said he supports new energy exploration that brings jobs to the state but has questions about how companies will handle fracking and wastewater disposal. “They have got to answer the question of what they are going to do with the waste just like nuclear power,” Brown said.
(Editing by Greg McCune and Jim Marshall) MORE HERE – http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-earthquake-not-natural-event-expert-says-002703764.html
Natural Gas: The Energy to Move Forward
A Colossal Fracking Mess The dirty truth behind the new natural gas.
Related: A V.F. video look at a town transformed by fracking. Early on a spring morning in the town of Damascus, in northeastern Pennsylvania, the fog on the Delaware River rises to form a mist that hangs above the tree-covered hills on either side. A buzzard swoops in from the northern hills to join a flock ensconced in an evergreen on the river’s southern bank.
Stretching some 400 miles, the Delaware is one of the cleanest free-flowing rivers in the United States, home to some of the best fly-fishing in the country. More than 15 million people, including residents of New York City and Philadelphia, get their water from its pristine watershed. To regard its unspoiled beauty on a spring morning, you might be led to believe that the river is safely off limits from the destructive effects of industrialization. Unfortunately, you’d be mistaken. The Delaware is now the most endangered river in the country, according to the conservation group American Rivers.
A V.F. video look at a town transformed by fracking.
That’s because large swaths of land—private and public—in the watershed have been leased to energy companies eager to drill for natural gas here using a controversial, poorly understood technique called hydraulic fracturing. “Fracking,” as it’s colloquially known, involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals, many of them toxic, into the earth at high pressures to break up rock formations and release natural gas trapped inside. Sixty miles west of Damascus, the town of Dimock, population 1,400, makes all too clear the dangers posed by hydraulic fracturing. You don’t need to drive around Dimock long to notice how the rolling hills and farmland of this Appalachian town are scarred by barren, square-shaped clearings, jagged, newly constructed roads with 18-wheelers driving up and down them, and colorful freight containers labeled “residual waste.” Although there is a moratorium on drilling new wells for the time being, you can still see the occasional active drill site, manned by figures in hazmat suits and surrounded by klieg lights, trailers, and pits of toxic wastewater, the derricks towering over barns, horses, and cows in their shadows.
The real shock that Dimock has undergone, however, is in the aquifer that residents rely on for their fresh water. Dimock is now known as the place where, over the past two years, people’s water started turning brown and making them sick, one woman’s water well spontaneously combusted, and horses and pets mysteriously began to lose their hair.
Craig and Julie Sautner moved to Dimock from a nearby town in March 2008. They were in the process of renovating their modest but beautifully situated home on tree-canopied Carter Road when land men from Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas, a midsize player in the energy-exploration industry, came knocking on their door to inquire about leasing the mineral rights to their three and a half acres of land. The Sautners say the land men told them that their neighbors had already signed leases and that the drilling would have no impact whatsoever on their land. (Others in Dimock claim they were told that if they refused to sign a lease, gas would be taken out from under their land anyway, since under Pennsylvania law a well drilled on a leased piece of property can capture gas from neighboring, unleased properties.) They signed the lease, for a onetime payout of $2,500 per acre—better than the $250 per acre a neighbor across the street received—plus royalties on each producing well.
Drilling operations near their property commenced in August 2008. Trees were cleared and the ground leveled to make room for a four-acre drilling site less than 1,000 feet away from their land. The Sautners could feel the earth beneath their home shake whenever the well was fracked.
Within a month, their water had turned brown. It was so corrosive that it scarred dishes in their dishwasher and stained their laundry. They complained to Cabot, which eventually installed a water-filtration system in the basement of their home. It seemed to solve the problem, but when the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection came to do further tests, it found that the Sautners’ water still contained high levels of methane. More ad hoc pumps and filtration systems were installed. While the Sautners did not drink the water at this point, they continued to use it for other purposes for a full year.
“It was so bad sometimes that my daughter would be in the shower in the morning, and she’d have to get out of the shower and lay on the floor” because of the dizzying effect the chemicals in the water had on her, recalls Craig Sautner, who has worked as a cable splicer for Frontier Communications his whole life. She didn’t speak up about it for a while, because she wondered whether she was imagining the problem. But she wasn’t the only one in the family suffering. “My son had sores up and down his legs from the water,” Craig says. Craig and Julie also experienced frequent headaches and dizziness.
By October 2009, the D.E.P. had taken all the water wells in the Sautners’ neighborhood offline. It acknowledged that a major contamination of the aquifer had occurred. In addition to methane, dangerously high levels of iron and aluminum were found in the Sautners’ water.
The Sautners now rely on water delivered to them every week by Cabot. The value of their land has been decimated. Their children no longer take showers at home. They desperately want to move but cannot afford to buy a new house on top of their current mortgage.
“Our land is worthless,” says Craig. “Who is going to buy this house?”
Josh Fox was a guest on The Daily Show Monday night,
WATCH Josh Fox on The Daily Show:
RNC Document Mocks Donors, Plays on ‘Fear’
Thom Hartmann on Freespeech TV
Please sign this very important petition “demand question time” (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top… The Republicans have got to be made to realize they can’t hide behind “NO” any longer! thinkingblue
MOVE TO AMEND
NEWS UPDATE: MONTANA
Montana Supreme Court upholds election spending limits
In a 5-2 opinion, the Montana court’s majority concluded that the state’s long history of well-funded natural resource extractors, small population and historically inexpensive political campaigns allow it to demonstrate compelling government interest in regulating corporate financial muscle. Even one of the justices who dissented — saying that the U.S. Supreme Court left no room for states to exempt themselves — argued forcefully against the broad corporate latitude encompassed in the Citizens United decision.
“Corporations are not persons. Human beings are persons, and it is an affront to the inviolable dignity of our species that courts have created a legal fiction which forces people — human beings — to share fundamental, natural rights with soulless creatures of government,” Justice James C. Nelson wrote in his reluctant dissent.
“Worse still, while corporations and human beings share many of the same rights under the law, they clearly are not bound equally to the same codes of good conduct, decency and morality, and they are not held equally accountable for their sins. Indeed, it is truly ironic that the death penalty and hell are reserved only to natural persons,” he wrote.
Let’s keep our heads, while we continue to watch THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!
“A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE.”thinkingblue
OCCUPY WALL STREET – AMERICAN AWAKENING
OCCUPY WALL STREET 4TH WEEK UPDATE
OCCUPY WALL STREET WEEK SIX – We Shall Overcome
OWS – POLICE RAID OVER HEALTH CONCERNS
New Year Thoughts For 2012
Something to ponder on this first day of a New Year.
The 10 Smartest Pot Smokers on the Planet… Cool Enough to Admit It
I 
the beginning description on this piece…
EXCERPT: {{{You’ve probably seen those “Above The Influence” anti-drug commercials in which they show worst scenario outcomes to people smoking weed. Really depressing sh*t. They always make the person out to be an accidental murderer, or homeless, jobless, friendless. No prospects of anything positive on the horizon. Well, we have a list of the smartest people who ever admitted to smoking pot as a nice complement to the most successful people who owned up to puffin’ dope. Suck it, ATI.}}}
When are we as a population going to demand that our government stop pushing their legal (LETHAL) dope on us…
EXAMPLES BELOW:
MIRAPEX – for “Restless Leg Syndrome”
“…hallucinations may occur…”
“…increased gambling, sexual, or other overpowering urges…”
ABILIFY – bipolar disorder, schizophrenia
“coma or death…And trouble swallowing.”
FLOMAX – decreases symptoms from having an enlarged prostate (mainly frequent urination)
* runny nose
* dizziness
* decrease in semen
ALLI – weight loss aid
“These changes may include gas with oily discharge, an increased number of bowel movements, an urgent need to have them, and an inability to control them.”
VERAMYSYT – “treats allergy symptoms with a gentle fine mist that is scent-free.”
“nasal sores, glaucoma, cataracts and nasal fungal infection”
More disturbingly, ads for Veramyst used to say, “The way VERAMYST works is not entirely understood.”
ORTHO-NOVUM – birth control pill
“…benign but dangerous liver tumors. These benign liver tumors can rupture and cause fatal internal bleeding. In addition, some studies report an increased risk of developing liver cancer.”
ADVAIR – asthma treatment
“asthma related death”
CHANTIX – anti-smoking aid
“Nausea, sleep disturbance, constipation, flatulence, and vomiting.”
{{{That doesn’t sound so bad, except “sleep disturbance” is more like psychotic nightmares that persist even after you stop taking the pill.}}} MORE HERE
…and make common-sense drugs LEGAL??? It will be a Happy New Year 2012 when they first legalize medical marijuana (DUH)
and then the recreational kind. thinkingblue
Francis Crick – As a founding member of Soma, a legalize cannabis group, he also experimented pot, which he believed helped to remove the filters of abstract thought. 
The 10 Smartest Pot Smokers on the Planet… Cool Enough to Admit It
Steve Jobs
It’s been reported the Apple co-founder smoked pot and took LSD in his first semester at Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1972. Since dropping out from the school, he’s only gone on to become one of the most successful and wealthiest people in America. In 1984, he received the National Medal of Technology from President Ronald Reagan. In 2007, Fortune Magazine named him the most powerful person in business and then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger inducted him into the California Hall of Fame. Fortune also named him CEO of the Decade in 2009 while Forbes ranked him #57 on their list of the World’s Most Powerful People that same year. The Financial Times named Jobs its person of the year for 2010.
I’m not sure, but I don’t think you can have those kind of accolades being dumb. Plus, the guy’s a Beatles fan, dated Joan Baez, and sold one of his houses to Bono from U2. That’s some hip, hip company, my friend.
Carl Sagan
Astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, pothead.
It’s hard to argue for pot slowing you down when you look at Carl Sagan’s record. Apparently a confirmed and admitted stoner, among his many achievements are a Pulitzer Prize, an Emmy, a best-selling novel, as well as more than 500 science papers and articles. He was a founding member of the Planetary Society, and he won a pipe load of scientific awards. Hardly surprising, he is said to have believed in the validity of stoned insights. I believe in them too, it’s just that Carl’s revolved around the origins of the cosmos, not which bagel store is open at 3 in the morning.
Stephen Jay Gould
Paleontologist, biologist, science historian.
Most famous scientific contribution was the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which says that most evolution is marked by long periods of stability. Kind of like most of us after a good bong hit. One of the most influential and best read writers of popular science, Gould became an advocate for medical marijuana following his diagnosis with cancer. He claimed it had an “important effect” on his recovery. He also testified in court to the benefits of marijuana, and is quoted as saying “it is beyond my comprehension that any humane person would withhold such a beneficial substance from people in such great need simple because others use it for different purposes.”
Gould used pot to help retain his health for twenty years, the same period during which he wrote The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, not what you might call an insignificant work.
Francis Crick
Won a Nobel Prize for figuring out the double-helix structure of DNA. Rumor has it that he was on acid at the time. Crick wasn’t the first to see twin twisted monsters coming at him during an acid plunge, but he was the first to recognize as an important scientific discovery. As a founding member of Soma, a legalize cannabis group, he also experimented pot, which he believed helped to remove the filters of abstract thought.
Margaret Mead
Ok, so it’s probably not totally accurate to describe Margaret Mead as a pothead, but she was a major proponent for marijuana, so we’re going to widen the definition a bit.
When she died in 1978, Mead was possibly the most famous Anthropologist on the planet. Time had named her Mother of the World in 1969. She authored or co-authored around 40 books, received 28 honorary doctorates, and was President of both the American Anthropological Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Most famously, she testified before Congress on the legalization of marijuana. She testified on lots of stuff, but it’s this one everyone remembers. Afterwards, she was called a dirty old lady, crazy, and no doubt many other things.
Andrew Weil
Had a mushroom named after him. Do we need to know any more? Well, yes, we do. Although he looks like he’s been binging on an all-night high, Dr. Weil has medical and biology degrees from Harvard, is a naturopath, as well as a widely acknowledged expert on medicinal herbs, alternative medicines, and mind and body interactions. He was on the cover of Time, has written a bunch of books, and used to write for High Times. He talks about the advantages of stoned thinking, as well as an innate need to alter consciousness. Is that him or us? Whatever, it’s clearly worked for him.
Kary Mullis
Another Nobel Prize winner, another stoner. Mullis tried heavier drugs than just pot. He invented the polymerase chain reaction, which if it’s slipped your mind, is the one that allows duplication of parts of DNA. He says acid helped him to develop it, perhaps along with pot, which he allegedly smoked just before his first trip. While most of us have trouble figuring out how a chair works when we’re high, this guy was working out how to mimic nature.
Oliver Sacks
If you’ve seen “Awakenings” with Robin Williams, you already know something of Oliver Sacks’ work. He’s a neurologist, the film based on his book of the same name. He also wrote The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Sacks is an Oxford graduate and professor of neurology at Columbia Medical Center. He’s been referred to as the poet laureate of medicine, and received numerous awards and honorary doctorates in the field of neurological science. Not bad for a man who’s admitted to using marijuana on a more that recreational level, seeing it as a potential gateway to other minds and other consciousnesses.
Richard Feynman
Physicist who helped design the atomic bomb. Well, nobody said anyone on this list was wise, just smarter than average. Feynman used pot to enhance his out of body experiences while in a sensory deprivation tank. When he came out, he won a Nobel Prize for his theory of quantum electrodynamics.
Sergey Brin
He has a BS from the University of Maryland, a MS from Stanford and took PhD courses at Stanford before putting that on hiatus to co-found Google with Larry Page. His dad’s a math professor at the University of Maryland. His mom’s a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. His wife, Ann Wojcicki, is a biotech analyst who graduated with a B.S. in biology from Yale in 1996. She and Brin are working with leading researchers to help doctors, patients, and researchers analyze the human genome data and try to repair “bugs” as if DNA were HTML. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, which is “among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer” and received the Marconi Foundation Prize, the “Highest Award in Engineering”. Like Jobs (see above), he’s among the wealthiest in the world.
I can only imagine the first time he described DNA as HTML to someone, he/she must’ve been like, “are you high?” To which, he responded, “No! Why? You holdin’?”
MORE HERE -http://coedmagazine.com/2011/02/02/the-10-smartest-pot-smokers-on-the-planet-cool-enough-to-admit-it/
