by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
June 30, 2011
July 3 would have been my parents’ 67th Anniversary. 67 years. Maybe it was the triumph of Hope over Reality (still have that Obama 2008 poster?). Or maybe something else, something that those of us who haven’t walked that far down the path can’t imagine.
by Rand Clifford
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
June 5, 2011
Image by tomswift46 (No Groups with Comments) via Flickr
The last year has been especially catastrophic for life on Earth, while at the same time, corporate profits have jumped a staggering 36.8%, setting all-time records. Is this a coincidence, or are the long-term implications as sinister as they might seem?
How many disasters like the massive poisoning of the Gulf of Mexico, or gushing of radiation from multiple reactor-core meltdowns in Japan can the biosphere take? Or, perhaps a more apropos question is: How much more profit will the biosphere survive?
pdxjustice on May 26, 2011
Policy analyst, activist and author, Antonia Juhasz, talks about her latest book, BLACK TIDE: THE DEVASTATING IMPACT OF THE GULF OIL SPILL. Antonia Juhasz spoke at Powell’s Books in Beaverton, Oregon, on April 25th, 2011. Thanks to PC Peri and Flying Focus Video Collective for recording this program!
By Steve Windisch (jibbguy)
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
April 24, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
It was back in 1976 that President Jimmy Carter had Solar Panels installed on the roof of the White House, the type that heated hot water. This event came at the height of arguably the most successful Grass Roots Campaign ever seen in America: The Ecology Movement. This truly “bottom-up” and widely based movement was responsible for more far-reaching legislation passed (in sheer volume), than even the Civil Rights and Womens’ Rights movements; which were also highly important grass roots successes proving the Power of the People when roused. And the Ecology Movement did most of this within a few years; and by uniting many people across the entire political spectrum together on a single issue that broke Party and social barriers. It accomplished wonderful things… Continue reading
by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
Crossposted at Truthout/Buzzflash
April 19, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
Only 17 months before BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig suffered a deadly blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, another BP deepwater oil platform also blew out.
You’ve heard and seen much about the Gulf disaster that killed 11 BP workers. If you have not heard about the earlier blowout, it’s because BP has kept the full story under wraps. Nor did BP inform Congress or US safety regulators, and BP, along with its oil industry partners, have preferred to keep it that way.
The earlier blowout occurred in September 2008 on BP’s Central Azeri platform in the Caspian Sea.
By Steve Windisch (jibbguy)
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
April 8, 2011
The below is a possible Letter to an elected official. We would urge you to please write one and send it, letting them know this subject is both important to us all, and to our planet. Sadly, due to terrible events, NOW is the best time for doing this. Despite the BP Gulf Disaster one year ago, despite the Fukushima fission nuclear disaster… These topics are STILL not being seriously discussed in Congress… Major incentives for PV Solar energy is not even a serious topic, if that bizarre fact can be believed. And these topics will not be discussed, and only the ones that the energy lobbyists want will be discussed… as long as we do not work together. It is time for ALL in the environmental movements, all who seek positive change, to work together now. Continue reading
by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
March 29, 2011
English: Platform supply vessels battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon. A Coast Guard MH-65C dolphin rescue helicopter and crew document the fire aboard the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, while searching for survivors. Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters responded to rescue the Deepwater Horizon’s 126 person crew. Français : Les restes en feu de la plateforme Deepwater Horizon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For two decades, investigator Greg Palast has been on BP’s trail. In BP: In Deep Water, Palast takes Dispatches viewers along on his world-wide investigation of the oil giant. (Broadcast tonight, 8pm. UK only.)
One year after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig blew apart and spewed 170 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP claims victory – that most of the oil is gone.
by Michael Parenti
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.michaelparenti.org
February 26, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
Some years ago in New England, a group of environmentalists asked a corporate executive how his company (a paper mill) could justify dumping its raw industrial effluent into a nearby river. The river—which had taken Mother Nature centuries to create–was used for drinking water, fishing, boating, and swimming. In just a few years, the paper mill had turned it into a highly toxic open sewer.
The executive shrugged and said that river dumping was the most cost-effective way of removing the mill’s wastes. If the company had to absorb the additional expense of having to clean up after itself, it might not be able to maintain its competitive edge and would then have to go out of business or move to a cheaper labor market, resulting in a loss of jobs for the local economy.
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/
by Mike Whitney
Global Research
January 22, 2011
His enemies call him a tyrant and a dictator, but he is neither. Hugo Chavez is a tireless champion of the poor and a committed Christian socialist. The only difference between Chavez’s type of Christianity and Barack Obama’s, is that Chavez walks the walk.
For example, on Tuesday, Chavez used his powers under the new “enabling laws” to enact the “Law for Dignified Refuge” a presidential decree that mandates “dignified and humane” housing for all Venezuelans. The Venezuelan parliament approved the controversial (and temporary) enabling laws because the country faced an unprecedented housing crisis due to the massive floods in December.
by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
January 9, 2011
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.
Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.
Taken from the White House Website – A message from President Obama to his staff.
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/
by Dahr Jamail
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
January 5th, 2011 | Inter Press Service
Doctor attributes widespread sickness to toxic chemicals from the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe.
Despite BP having capped its well in the Gulf of Mexico in July, the health-related after-effects of the disaster subsist.
Gulf Coast residents and BP cleanup workers have linked the source of certain illnesses to chemicals present in BP’s oil and the toxic dispersants used to sink it – illnesses that appear to be both spreading and worsening.
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/
Image by ideum via Flickr
Democracy Now!
Dec. 30, 2010
“Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours:” The Explosion that Killed 11 Workers and Led to the Worst Oil Spill in U.S. History
It has been eight months since the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon set off the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Eleven workers were killed and more than 200 million gallons of oil were dumped into the Gulf of Mexico. A major investigation by the New York Times takes an in-depth look into how explosion occurred. Based on interviews with 21 crew members and testimony from 94 others, the investigation concludes every single one of the rig’s defenses failed. We speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Barstow. [includes rush transcript]
by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
December 19, 2010
This Sunday (December 19th) Cindy welcomes FOUR guests (count them!) in this year-ending blowout, all discussing the ever-spreading BP Plague, still destroying our Gulf Coast. First up is Karen Meyer Hopkins. She is Treasurer of Gulf Change, an environmental group from within the Gulf Seafood Industry. Next is Mac McKensie, founder of NOLA Emergency Response (http://www.nolaer.org/), who purchased 3 lbs. of Gulf Shrimp and had their digestive tracts tested for contaminants. Continue reading
By Steve Windisch (jibbguy)
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
December 9, 2010
There is something very wrong with the independent media. It is unclear if this is somewhat about a failure to understand “priorities”… or if it is mainly something “darker” related to deliberate suppression and misdirection. We do know, that several important and vital stories very damning and damaging to the “status quo” are now not only suppressed by the corporate owned mainstream media (an old story for decades, but a phenomena that greatly increased after the events of “9/11” ); but are also now virtually ignored in the so-called “Independent” Internet media as well: The very people whom we trust to bring us information that the mainstream refuses to. This is a highly disturbing trend that appears to be growing; and what it causes as a result (for whatever reason), is to help maintain the “status quo” and the “hear-no, see-no-evil” mainstream media aura of : “No important questions ever asked, nor answered.”
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/
by Dahr Jamail
Dahr Jamail’s Dispatches
October 27th, 2010
NEW ORLEANS – Massive slicks of weathered oil were clearly visible near Louisiana’s fragile marshlands in both the East and West Bays of the Mississippi River Delta during an overflight that included an IPS reporter on Oct. 23. The problem is that, despite this, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has left much of the area open for fishing.
Four days prior, on Oct. 19, federal on-scene cleanup coordinator for the BP oil disaster, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft, declared there was little recoverable surface oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
