Fracking: Pennsylvania Gags Physicians, Part 1 by Walter Brasch

by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
March 18, 2012

A new Pennsylvania law endangers public health by forbidding health care professionals from sharing information they learn about certain chemicals and procedures used in high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing. The procedure is commonly known as fracking.

Fracking is the controversial method of forcing water, gases, and chemicals at tremendous pressure of up to 15,000 pounds per square inch into a rock formation as much as 10,000 feet below the earth’s surface to open channels and force out natural gas and fossil fuels.

Chris Hedges: Our True Power Comes From Our Powerlessness

with Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
March 21, 2012

Image by Cocoloco Photography via Flickr

DustyHinz on Mar 20, 2012

On Sunday March 18th, Chris Hedges gave one of the four keynote speeches at the closing plenary of Left Forum. I took this video from where I was sitting. He was concise and to the point, and the audience was focused in. He addresses his controversial article and views on the Black Bloc tactic of protest.

James Bamford: Inside the NSA’s Largest and Most Expansive Secret Domestic Spy Center + Thomas Drake Prevails in Unprecedented Obama Admin Crackdown

Dandelion Salad

democracynow on Mar 21, 2012

Image by Bebopsmile via Flickr

democracynow.org – A new exposé in Wired Magazine reveals details about how the National Security Agency is quietly building the largest spy center in the country in Bluffdale, Utah, as part of a secret NSA surveillance program code-named “Stellar Wind.” We speak with investigative reporter James Bamford who says the NSA has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas. The Utah spy center will contain near-bottomless databases to store all forms of communication collected by the agency. This includes the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails — parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases and other digital “pocket litter.” “The NSA has constantly denied that they’re doing things and then it turns out they are doing things,” Bamford says in response to NSA Director General Keith Alexander’s denial yesterday that the U.S. citizens’ phone calls and emails are being intercepted. “A few years ago, President Bush said before a camera that the United States is not eavesdropping on anybody without a warrant. And then it turns out that we had this exposure to all of the warrantless eavesdropping in the New York Times article. You have this constant denial in terms and parsing of words.”

U.S. plots takeover of Syria and Iran by Joyce Chediac

Dandelion Salad

by Joyce Chediac
www.workers.org
March 20, 2012

The first heavy fighting is taking place in Syria’s capital, Damascus, between alleged “defectors” and the Syrian security forces. Four days earlier, two huge explosions ripped through intelligence and security buildings in Christian areas of Damascus on March 16, killing at least 27 people — both civilians and security personnel.

Details of Talks with IAEA Belie Charge Iran Refused Cooperation by Gareth Porter

by Gareth Porter
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at ISP
March 20, 2012

VIENNA, Mar 20, 2012 (IPS) – The first detailed account of negotiations between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran last month belies earlier statements by unnamed Western officials portraying Iran as refusing to cooperate with the IAEA in allaying concerns about alleged nuclear weaponisation work.