The USA was never a joke as a country. It was never a minor power and it always had powerful allies.

The surrender of Cornwallis closed the military battle for the independence of the USA. The year was 1781. The Declaration of Independence was written in 1776, but, the resistance occurred long before the document became a reality.



The US Constitution would not be signed until 1787.

Timeline of the Revolutionary War (click here)

Once the USA's borders were established numbering 13 colonies, a peace treaty was signed with Great Britain. Remarkably, the two countries would resolve their differences, quite possibly due to the fact the colonists were actually descendents of the Brits. 

Regardless of the peace, there would be a new challenge to the new nation; it would be it's debt to France. The monarchy insisted the USA pay it's debt after the nation was established and building an economy. The USA was no minor economy even then. It was the new world after all. The country was rich with natural resources and very productive southern plantations. The import-export economy was thriving and internally the country was more than comfortable. But, in the face of all the wealth of the country there was still no way to pay the national debt. It sparked a quasi war with France by means of piracy. The French crown would have his merchants and military take what it felt was theirs. That would go on for two years with 25 USA vessels and the assistance of the Royal Navy.

The nation would enact a Whiskey Tax to pay the national debt.

Then there was the Barbary Wars with north Africa along the Mediterranean. The nations of Libya, Tunisia and Algeria demanded payment for use of the waters and ports. When they didn't get it pirates would seek to remove goods from US ships. That went on for something like five years with a naval response. The slogan then was, ""Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." There were two such wars simply because the first was not sincerely settled. The raids on ships with US colors continued until the second war in 1815. These nations were considered a part of the Ottoman Empire. After being pirated and/or paying tribute the US was joined by the UK and the Netherlands to end the practices. They succeeded. The pirating was curtailed and tribute was no longer paid. 

Shortly afterward the British decided the USA was not able to be autonomous and getting more of what they considered their economy. The War of 1812 was born and it was considered the second war for independence. It was a huge war involving native americans as allies along with Canada. With 2,260 killed in action, 4,505 wounded and an estimated 15,000 dead from all causes the war ended in a stalemate and the countries would eventually negotiate a peace. The USA was still autonomous and now establishing borders beyond the 13 colonies.

The next wars were primarily internal and established borders and economy, the Creek War between the USA and Creek Indians from 1813 to 1814. 

The the War for Texas Independence from Mexico in the year 1836. It was the war at the Alamo due to immigrants from the USA into Mexico that wanted slavery. As their sovereignty grew over that of Mexico a war broke out. President James Polk would annex Texas in 1945. That would not settle the issue and a war between Mexico and the USA started in 1946 and would continue until 1948. This was a war fought by the treasury and blood of the entire of the USA, it wasn't just the people of Texas. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo would end it in 1848,

Of course there was the USA Civil War of 1861 through 1965.

The last war by the USA in the 19th century was the Spanish American War of 1898. It began over an explosion of an American ship in a Cuban port. The USA declared war but would later find out the explosion was an accident in reality. The Spanish-American War was a populous war.

A new word would enter into the vocabulary of the USA. "Yellow Journalism." 

During the 1890s, (click here) journalism that sensationalized—and sometimes even manufactured—dramatic events was a powerful force that helped propel the United States into war with Spain. Led by newspaper owners William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, journalism of the 1890s used melodrama, romance, and hyperbole to sell millions of newspapers--a style that became known as yellow journalism. 

The moralizing of Yellow Journalism ended up in a war for independence of Cuba from Spain. Imagine that, the USA is responsible for the independent country of Cuba.

When William McKinley approached Congress to declare war against Spain, they agreed only if Cuba was promised independence. The Teller Amendment was passed with this in mind and helped to justify the war.

The Spanish American war would end with a permanent presence of the USA in Cuba. At the end of the Spanish-American War, the Teller Amendment demanded that the U.S. would give Cuba its independence. The Platt Amendment, however, was passed as part of the Cuban constitution. This gave the U. S. Guantanamo Bay as a permanent military base.

Then there were the wars of the early 20th century, namely World War I and World War II.and the Korean War which was a conflict left over from WWII. The north was primarily a controlled by Stalin and the Soviet Union. The South was viewed as independent much as today with the USA as an ally. The North decided with the assistance of China they would declare the Korean Peninsula independent of any foreign influence and the rest is history with over 54,000 Americans died and well over 1 million Korean and Chinese dead. However, the war did directly lead to a massive military buildup per a secret document NSC-68 that greatly increased defense spending by the USA. The point of this order was the ability to continue to wage the quite expensive Cold War. The Korean War was the impetus to the modern military posture.

Booooooooo. Once upon a time there was a nation.

By Dana Milbank

Thursday, October 20, 2005 

...He said the vice president (click here) and the secretary of defense created a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal" that hijacked U.S. foreign policy. He said of former defense undersecretary Douglas Feith: "Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man." Addressing scholars, journalists and others at the New America Foundation, Wilkerson accused Bush of "cowboyism" and said he had viewed Condoleezza Rice as "extremely weak." Of American diplomacy, he fretted, "I'm not sure the State Department even exists anymore."... 

...The man who was chief of staff at the State Department until early this year continued: "If you're unilaterally declaring Kyoto dead, if you're declaring the Geneva Conventions not operative, if you're doing a host of things that the world doesn't agree with you on and you're doing it blatantly and in their face, without grace, then you've got to pay the consequences."...

...And, on Capitol Hill yesterday, Republicans joined in criticizing the administration about Iraq. When Rice said at a hearing that "we have made significant progress" in Iraq, Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R.I.) replied: "Well, we all wish that were true, but we can't kid ourselves, either."...

...Rather, the colonel objected to the administration's secrecy, which allowed Cheney, Rumsfeld and others to subvert the foreign policy apparatus that has been in place since 1947. 

"What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld," he said. By cutting out the bureaucracy that had to carry out those decisions, "we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, and generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina." If there is a nuclear terrorist attack or a major pandemic, Wilkerson continued, "you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that'll take you back to the Declaration of Independence."...

It's Sunday Night

"Halloween Parade" by Lou Reed (click here)

There's a downtown fairy singing out "Proud Mary"
as she cruises Christopher Street
and some Southern Queen is acting loud and mean
where the docks and the badlands meet

This Halloween is something to be sure
especially to be here without you

There's a Greta Garbo and an Alfred Hitchcock
and some black Jamaican stud
There's five Cinderellas and some leather drags
I almost fell into my mug

There's a Crawford, Davis and a tacky Cary Grant
and some Homeboys lookin' for trouble down here from the Bronx

But there ain't no Hairy and no Virgin Mary
you won't hear those voices again
and Johny Rio and Rotten Rita
you'll never see those faces again

This Halloween is something to be sure
especially to be here without you

There's the Born Again Losers and the Lavender Boozers
and some crack team from Washington Heights
the boys from Avenue B and the girls from Avenue D
Tinkerbell in tights

This celebration somehow gets me down
Especially when I see you're not around

There's no Peter Pedantic saying things romantic
In Latin, Greek or Spic
There's no Three Bananas or Brandy Alexander
Dishing all their tricks

It's a different feeling that I have today
Especially when I know you've gone away

There's a girl from Soho with a teeshirt saying "I Blow"
She's with the "jive five 2 plus 3"
And the girls for pay dates are giving cut rates
Or else doing it for free

The past keeps knock knock knocking on my door
And I don't want to hear it anymore

No consolations please
for feelin' funky
I got to get my head above my knees
But it makes me mad and mad makes me sad
And then I start to freeze

In the back of my mind I was afraid it might be true
In the back of my mind I was afraid that they meant you
The Halloween parade

See you next year---
At the Halloween parade

The Bush Era spying program is the equivalent of J. Edgar Hoover and his ineffective spying on government.

What good did Hoover do us? These men were assassinated and he never had information to stop it because his focus was all "W"rong. Hoover was spying on the USA government, not the enemy of the government.

Why would Bush every spy on a German Chancellor? Because he didn't listen in the first place and needed to control the political backlash? It profoundly sounds like the paranoia of Richard Cheney, the man that would wage war no matter the will of the American people. Sounds exactly like him. This level of spying on allies is to insure there is political leverage against them is unthinkable.

And guess who was director of the NSA while this spying program was developed and instituted?
 
One Guess. 

Mr. Heil and Heel Clicker himself. 

The best Yes Man Bush and Cheney ever had, except for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. If so, then it is a very close second.

Germany is correct in their approach. They can serve the American people while securing their own nation.

The NSA better have a good explanation and stop spying on other nation's head of state. This is nonsense. The NSA is way out of line.

Germany can actually evaluate the directives of the NSA up close and while it cannot change the policies of the agency, it can be educated to the focus and diligence of the program. If allies understand their involuntary involvement, they can protect Americans victimized by a National Security State now out of control.

The German national security has already been compromised by the fact Wall Street has information about the government, otherwise Snowden wouldn't have the information. I am quite confident Germany never authorized Carlyle to inspect their government computer records. 

October 28, 2013, 12:00 am

Bild am Sonntag newspaper quoted US intelligence sources as saying that National Security Agency chief Keith Alexander had briefed Obama on the operation against Merkel in 2010.

"Obama did not halt the operation but rather let it continue," the newspaper quoted a high-ranking NSA official as saying.
News weekly Der Spiegel reported that leaked NSA documents showed that Merkel's phone had appeared on a list of spying targets since 2002, and was still under surveillance shortly before Obama visited Berlin in June.

As a sense of betrayal spread in many world capitals allegedly targeted by the NSA, the spying row prompted European leaders late last week to demand a new deal with Washington on intelligence gathering that would maintain an essential alliance while keeping the fight against terrorism on track.
Germany will send its own spy chiefs to Washington soon to demand answers....

This is pure paranoia. It is one thing to assess data to determine if there is viable terrorist threats, it is quite something else to place the information into huge storage facilities to live in perpetuity.

There needs to be legislation about the length of time our intelligence agencies can hold information beyond any chance it is viably purposeful. 

The National Security Agency (NSA), which will lead operations at the facility, is the executive agent for the Director of National Intelligence. It is located at Camp Williams, near Bluffdale, Utah, between Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake, on the boundary line between Salt Lake County and Utah County to the south.

This level of paranoia is simply dangerous. It allows real threats like Dick Cheney to actually find his next Curveball and/or create it. There is no reason for this facility. It needs to be dismantled from government authority and allow the space to be leased by American companies in need of larger computer facilities.

Germany should make clear all it's information now in USA custody is to removed permanently from any computer storage facility and returned to the people of Germany. German computer experts need to be within the team that removes the data to verify there is no duplication. And, yes, allies are to understand the technology to be sure all information is disabled.

Sequestration has been good for the military. They have to pay attention.

The reduction in the military budget brings about a real focus for them. The defense of the USA may actually become a defense posture rather than an offensive posture. I remind, the military was all to convenient a source of international assault under Bush and Cheney. There is every reason to continue to cut the military and allow programs such as the F-35 to die. 

The process of reduction of the military ungainliness is orderly while painful for those that define the USA as a military superpower. There is no indication the USA is unable to defend itself. I would expect the end of the war presence in Afghanistan will allow monies to be moved to fill in NECESSARY spending. 

This Congressional hearing provides an opportunity for the military to bemoan itself, but, when the sincere content is examined the cuts actually lack impact on our national defense. There are a few machines here and a few machines there that are impacted and I am stating anywhere from one to thirteen. So, what?

The real problem with The Sequester is the military does not have the flexibility to apply their cuts where it is best and reduces impacts on readiness. I think the level of the cuts are appropriate, however, the rigid application to each and every program of the military is unworkable for the leadership. The rigid application of The Sequester has to end, but, the budget reductions don't.

In a statement by a committee member it was brought to the attention of 'The Record' the fact Republicans uphold The Sequester is because they are in fear of backlash of their constituency if taxes are raised to end it. 

Kindly remember one thing, the National Guard no longer has to be battle ready, which should never have occurred in the first place and the Backdoor Draft that occurred under Bush/Cheney has to be closed. The methods used to put boots on the ground during Iraq was not only immoral due to the nature of the war, it assaulted the conscience of the nation. That has end. Either the USA military addresses it's needs within a moral content or we don't need it. All the ruthlessness of the Executive Branch that facilitated the Iraq War needs to be addressed. THE REASON, the military no longer has to address nor should they ever need to address those dynamics ever again. The priorities of the USA military has to return to a 'normal' readiness, not a desperate one as if the sky was falling every minute of every day. 

Members (click here) of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines testified on the impact of defense budget cuts on military acquisition and modernization efforts. 

So, let me get this right. The hunters empathize with the endangered status.

And the hunters have money. But, they don't have available money unless they are allowed to kill an endangered black rhino. Is that right?

Does anyone actually believe there is morality in that? There isn't a gentlemen or gentlewoman among them. Normally, when this type of fundraising occurs the animal is spared while the monies go to the non-profit to protect them.

Any species of rhino are among the oldest living mammals on Earth. They are considered living fossils.

According to the World Wildlife Fund this species is critically endangered. Critically endangered means their genetic diversity is in jeopardy. Now, I want to know which Rhino the Texas hunters are going to kill to be sure it isn't the one with the greatest genetic diversity in contributing to the survival of the species. The WWF and the International Rhino Foundation estimates there are slightly more than 5000 individuals left. The Rhinos were at a total population of 50 in 1962. They have a life span of 30 to 35 years, breed for the first time at the age of five, the gestation time is 15 months, the calf is weaned from the female at the age of 18 months. That means the female is only mating about every 2.5 to 3 years. If the breeding life of a female is 25 years in the wild that means she will at the best produce about 6 to 8 calves if she breeds consecutively to her death.

The population growth of these rhinos is very slow and is compromised by poachers who take their horns for illegal trade.

The rhino in the picture in the upper left is not a black rhino, it is a white rhino. All rhino are actually grey, but, they have a distictive characteristic that separates the species. The black rhino has a pointed upper lip where the white rhinos lip is squared. It is an adaptation to the difference in their diets.

Threats (click here)
Earlier in the 20th Century hunting to clear land for agriculture and human settlement was the main cause for the decline of African rhinos. However, the single most important cause for the catastrophic decline of rhinos in the last quarter of the 20th century was the demand for their horn in the Middle Eastern and Eastern Asian markets. Historically, in medieval Europe, rhino horn was fashioned into chalices believed to have the power of detecting poisons. In the Far East, and in the many East Asian communities elsewhere, the horn is still used as a fever-reducing ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine; and in the Middle East it is carved and polished to make prestigious dagger handles.

Risks
Stockpile management is necessary to ensure horns collected from the field are secured in stockpiles, and therefore reduce the risk of leakage to the illegal market. However, stockpile management has traditionally received relatively little attention. Yet, in many places stockpiles continue to grow. In Africa, TRAFFIC has worked on this issue for over three years and has now documented almost 17 tonnes of horn with some stockpiles growing at 20% every four years. TRAFFIC also continues to assist a number of Parties strengthen horn stockpile management. Whilst TRAFFIC has witnessed marked improvements in levels of management recently, there remains room for improvement in many African range States. Further, quantities of horns and levels of stockpile management in Asian range States (especially India and Nepal) and consumer nations (e.g. China and Yemen) are not fully understood. Weaknesses in stockpile management may provide a loophole for leakage to illegal markets, thus undermining other field conservation efforts.

These animals are priceless. I cannot imagine the amount of money Texas hunters from the Safari Club can raise, but, it isn't enough to kill one of them.

By Kerry Sheridan  

October 25, 2013 3:57 PM

 

...Carter said (click here) in a statement sent to AFP that the Namibian government "selected" his hunting club to auction a black rhino hunting permit for one of its national parks.

The permit is expected "to sell for at least $250,000, possibly up to $1 million. The Conservation Trust Fund for Namibia's Black Rhino will receive 100 percent of the sale price," said the statement.

Namibia has an annual quota to kill up to five black rhinos out of the southern African nation's herd population of 1,795 animals.

A single permit issued to a US hunter in 2009 to kill a black rhino fetched $175,000 for the Namibian Game Products Trust Fund which pays for conservation efforts, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Tim Van Norman, chief of the branch of permits at the FWS said the US government has not yet issued any permit to the Dallas Safari Club to return a rhino's carcass to the United States....

The real question with Christie is; will he turn to right wing extremism after his re-election to entice his nomination in 2016?

In other words, how close to the vest is Chris Christie playing his own re-election to facilitate his future ambitions? Will we see the other side of his personality that feeds his ambition? What is that phrase? Oh, yeah, Political Capital. Will the Governor spend his political capital once re-elected?

In all fairness, he once stated, "I am tired of the crazies." That was in relation to 2012 elections and the strong advocacy for his endorsement as a popular Governor by the Right Wing Tea Party. We'll see.

Something tells me the citizens of New Jersey keep their eye on the ball.

Employees (click here) of the Borough of Cadwell and a Caldwell firefighter listen in as Governor Chris Christie holds a meet and greet with seniors at the Caldwell Fire Department. Caldwell, NJ 10/24/13 (Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger)

Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY  
2:05 p.m. EDT October 17, 2013

In August, (click here) New Jersey Republican Fernando Alonso heard great news at a county fundraiser: Gov. Chris Christie jokingly told the crowd that he would be spending so much time in the district helping Alonso defeat an incumbent Democratic state senator that he'd be charged property tax.

Seven weeks later, Alonso is still waiting for Christie to stump for him. Aside from both attending a seniors picnic last month -- where Christie directed his rhetorical fire at his own opponent -- the two haven't been on the trail together. "He will be here in the next month,'' Alonso spokesman Ira Treuhaft says. "We're very, very thankful for his support.''

Christie, running for his own reelection, may well be the first Republican to win more than 50% of the vote statewide since 1985. Opinion polls show him leading his Democratic challenger, state Sen. Barbara Buono, nearly two to one. But he isn't likely to win Republican control of the state legislature – and it isn't clear that he wants to. For a potential presidential candidate who wants to run as a Republican who can win a blue state, there's more mileage in having opponents in the legislature. And in a season where political intransigence is infuriating voters, Christie is busily sounding a bipartisan theme....

The GOP wants to change the dialogue about 'real' legislation.

The GOP wants to change the legislation process into "Easy to Read." Rather than a novel the GOP wants an abstract describing the purpose and conclusion of legislating.

Ever since "W" introduced the three page treaty, life is suppose to be easy. Look, if a party doesn't believe in education of their own constituents, that same party has to dummy down legislation so their constituents can actually relate to what they vote for.

The American Jobs Act was HACKED. It was hacked apart to decide what the GOP could live with and what they can't. It was hacked apart and destroyed the bipartisan emphasis President Obama wrote into the legislation. The GOP is screaming about bipartisanship and the President wants to be inclusive. Inclusiveness has been his focus since he first announced his candidacy for President. So, the GOP takes the inclusive bipartisan legislation the President and US Senate writes and hacks it into pieces to pass their partisan interests while discarding the bipartisan spirit of the law and trounces inclusiveness.

When the GOP complains The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act should be written by legislating smaller bills, it is nothing politics and their agenda of hate and exclusivity. When the GOP hacks apart the bills and budgets that are inclusive and bipartisan it is their agenda to exclude citizens they have no use for. Oh, the disabled, who needs them? The elderly, who needs them? The poor, who needs them? The uninsured, who needs them? But, the multi-trillion military is more than important even though widows can do without payments to maintain their families and homes when their spouses are killed. 

The exclusivity of the GOP and their demand for 3 page bills is out of the questions. It is discriminatory and reinforces the Exclusively Few Wealth Class.

Published time: October 26, 2013 01:51

Verizon and News Corp. (click here) are among the dozens of companies listed on the Standard & Poor’s 500 that paid a zero percent tax rate in the last year. The so-called effective tax rate is how investors explain the tax a company pays compared to its profit.

While it is not illegal in any way for major companies to pay a zero percent tax rate - or in some cases even less - Friday’s analysis by USA Today does highlight some of the creative methods those corporations use to avoid dipping into their profit margins, and how that may ultimately impact national policy on corporate taxation.

The top federal income tax rate currently sits at 35 percent, a number that has been the source of public frustration for many company executives. Yet Seagate (a data storage manufacturer with a market value of $15.9 billion), Public Storage (the largest self-storage firm in the world with a $29.5 billion market value), and others pay a lower tax rate than most individual middle-class American families.... 

I really don't want to hear how corporations aren't interested in the USA because of the tax rate. I really don't.

Mexican Judge protects the people from Monsanto's GMO corn.

By Devon G. Peña

Seattle, WA

October 11, 2013

An October 10 press release (click here) with Mexico City byline announces the banning of genetically-engineered corn in Mexico. According to the group that issued the press release, La Coperacha, a federal judge has ordered Mexico’s SAGARPA (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca, y Alimentación), which is Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture, and SEMARNAT (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales), which is equivalent of the EPA, to immediately “suspend all activities involving the planting of transgenic corn in the country and end the granting of permission for experimental and pilot commercial plantings”.

The unprecedented ban was granted by the Twelfth Federal District Court for Civil Matters of Mexico City. Judge Jaime Eduardo Verdugo J. wrote the opinion and cited “the risk of imminent harm to the environment” as the basis for the decision. The judge’s ruling also ruled that multinationals like Monsanto and Pioneer are banned from the release of transgenic maize in the Mexican countryside” as long as collective action lawsuits initiated by citizens, farmers, scientists, and civil society organizations are working their way through the judicial system....

...The class action lawsuit is supported by scientific evidence from studies that have – since 2001 – documented the contamination of Mexico’s native corn varieties by transgenes from GMO corn, principally the varieties introduced by Monsanto’s Roundup ready lines and the herbicide-resistant varieties marketed by Pioneer and Bayer CropScience. The collection of the growing body of scientific research on the introgression of transgenes into Mexico’s native corn genome has been a principal goal and activity of the national campaign, Sin Maíz, No Hay Paíz [Without Corn, There Is No Country].

There is an agricultural revolution ongoing in Argentina. The people are upset about more the GMOs, they are worried about the pesticides, too.

Written by Marcela Valente
Wednesday, 31 July 2013 16:24
(IPS) - The debate over the reform (click here)  of Argentina’s seed law has pitted transnational corporations that make transgenic seeds against social and rural organisations and academics opposed to the expansion of monoculture in defence of biodiversity and food security.  Over a year ago, the agriculture ministry said it would present a bill to overhaul a 1973 law on seeds that was modified several times to accommodate the expansion of monoculture and genetically modified seeds since the 1990s. GM soy is now Argentina’s chief export. But the ministry has not yet introduced a bill, although it has two drafts. Argentina’s seeds association, which represents biotech companies, supports the ministry’s efforts to draw up a new law.... ...GM crops threaten native seeds He also said that in the northern province of Salta, the use of GM soy is spreading in small rural communities, threatening the survival of native seeds. “We need a law that promotes respect for the production methods of communities that preserve, improve, breed and trade seeds,” he said. The movement opposed to GM seeds suggests that Argentina could follow the model of the seed laws of Brazil or Bolivia, where GM crops are allowed but native seeds are protected and their use is promoted. Carballo said that with support from government or from international NGOs, in Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru there are “seed guardians” who select and protect seeds in seed banks that are open to the public.... By Gilyn Gibbs on Native Abundance From time immemorial, (click here) indigenous communities in the Western Hemisphere have depended on corn not only as a source of nutrition, but as the center of their cultural traditions and spirituality. This past September, the Yaqui Peoples of Sonora Mexico hosted the inaugural “Indigenous Peoples International Conference on Corn” in the Zapoteca Nation of Oaxaca Mexico. The conference, attended by 48 Indigenous Nations across from North, Central and South America, was created to encourage unity among indigenous communities, restore traditional economies, and ensure the survival of all native varieties of corn....

Now that the people are learning the extent the North Dakota Governor's administration hid from the public...

...I fully expect every environmental organization in the country to demand an investigation to the spills, the negligence and the government involvement in concealing the truth from the people.

Perhaps that, along with the fines these petroleum companies will receive for the spills in North Dakota begins to explain why the Governor never thought it important enough to tell the people of his state. Got it?

...Under the Clean Water Act, BP and its partners could be fined as much as $1,100 for each barrel of oil released into the Gulf if Barbier finds they were negligent in their actions while drilling the well and in limiting the effects of the accident. Barbier also could find that the responsible parties acted with "gross negligence" or "willful misconduct," which could result in maximum fines of $4,300 per barrel of oil....

Additionally, the Clean Water Act is about to be introduced into the investigations by the environmental groups that will insist on any appeals to high courts necessary to hold the petroleum industry responsible.

This is map of North Dakota ground water. Get the picture? 

Not only that, but, the Bakken is the premier oil reserve above reproach. The North Dakota kiss the ground Harold Hamm walks on for giving a so called economy.

...The Company (click here) has a long and successful history of developing its industry-leading leasehold and production in the nation's premier oil play, the Bakken of North Dakota.... 

"The Company" is Continental Resources. One might remotely remember that name as the one owned and operated by Howard Hamm, Romney's so called Energy Secretary in waiting. I am sure everyone remembers Howard, his wife decided to divorce him in 2012.

His second wife Sue Ann, (click here) a lawyer and economist, filed for divorce in 2012. When complete, Hamm, who apparently did not sign a pre-nup, could be worth a lot less. In the meantime, his fortune is up $2.7 billion in the past year, thanks to his more than 70% stake in Oklahoma oil giant Continental Resources....

So, why didn't the Governor tell the public? A million reasons and they mostly greenbacks.

The water resources according to USGS are:

North Dakota have N100ALLUVL -  Alluvial aquifers

North Dakota was also considered one of the four states of S500NGRTPL - Northern Great Plains aquifer system (click here)

The Northern Great Plains aquifer is no longer a legal status because the petroleum industry dissolved the idea that contamination of the aquifer in one of the four states would effect all four states. Well, guess what? Just because the aquifer is now divided into States Rights that doesn't change the geology and geography and the USGS was correct in indicating the aquifer was one body called "Northern Great Plains Aquifer." 

North Dakota has N500PLOZOC -  Paleozoic aquifers

North Dakota has N100GLCIAL - Sand and gravel aquifers (glaciated regions)

North Dakota has N300UPCTCS - Upper Cretaceous aquifers

The aquifers need to be examined for water quality and then lawsuits filed against the State of North Dakota and Continental Resources as well as any drilling companies and CONCRETE companies involved by all the states effected and possibly towns and cities in Canada. In other words, here we go again in an investigation to what caused the MULTIPLE repeating oil spills in North Dakota that could easily have compromised four USA states and Canada. 

Ah, Canada. Why would a friend of Howard Hamm ever report oil spills before the Keystone XL Pipeline was approved, right Gov? 

National Aquifer Code Reference List (click here), in case I forgot any. 

Ground Water Atlas Achive (click here) 

The surrounding states and cities of Canada will need the history of the regional water supplies because I am sure the codification of the country's aquifers have been tampered with during the Bush White House.

Each archive costs $7.00 and can be ordered here (click here).  

Principal Aquifers of the 48 Conterminous United States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (click here) - this webpage holds significant information for any lawyer, citizen organization and concerned citizens involved in water quality and the Clean Water Act.

This map is the primary aquifers in the  USA. They are huge and communicate across land masses and states in the USA.

Get the picture? The petroleum industry doesn't care about the aquifers. They would cause problems with their wealth quotient. And don't tell me the petroleum industry has a conscience and worries about water quality, it is called fracking. Guilty!

The private sector needs to help build economies abroad and not at the expense of the American Middle Class.

Any trade agreement that will allow low wage workers to produce import goods of the USA is a human rights violation. 

The USA needs to concentrate on increasing manufacturing in the USA and higher wages. The idea that the erosion of the American Middle Class can be part of any trade agreement is outrageous. 

Why do Americans have to accept Third World suffering to the tune of American job losses. Our economy cannot sustain itself if there is further loss of good paying jobs. The trade agreements, both past and anticipated, do not improve the quality of life of people in other nations, quite the contrary. People throw themselves out of buildings to their death to produce cheap tele-communications equipment. There is no conscience within the decision to promote more suffering of the Third World to provide cheap labor to Wall Street.

I can't believe President Obama would actually promote any trade agreement that would allow human suffering to benefit exorbitant profits of Wall Street. Certainly, he is mistaken to believe the Trans-Pacific Partnership is nothing more than the same erosion of the world's population at the mercy of poor wages and impoverished quality of life. Ambassador Powers must concern about these trade arrangements in realizing the hardship they cause all peoples and not just that of the American people. 

By David Francis
September 13, 2012

The Census Bureau (click here) announced Wednesday that median household income in the United States had fallen to $50,054, the lowest since 1996 and down 1.5 percent from 2010....

There is no Middle Class in many nations involved in the TPP. That should be a wake up call to the legislature. The USA should not be trading with other nations that do not uphold the growth of a Middle Class. I don't see further trade agreements unless the other countries are upholding Middle Class values within their populations including good wages and a high standard of living.

Survey in China Shows a Wide Gap in Income (click here)

By EDWARD WONG 
Published: July 19, 2013 

...Average annual income for a (Chinese) family in 2012 was 13,000 renminbi, or about $2,100. When broken down by geography, the survey results showed that the average amount in Shanghai, a huge coastal city, was just over 29,000 renminbi, or $4,700, while the average in Gansu Province, far from the coast in northwest China, was 11,400 renminbi, or just under $2,000. Average family income in urban areas was about $2,600, while it was $1,600 in rural areas....

This is outrageous and certainly uncharacteristic of this President and his administration. Selling out to the profits of Wall Street does nothing for the people of any country. There is example after example of failed trade agreements that never delivered on upholding vibrant economies of all countries involved. The ONLY reason these trade agreements exist is to allow companies to conduct business without abiding by labor laws or environmental laws. Dear God, the people of China have the worst Air Quality of any nation moving into the world economy. That is unacceptable. How can the USA hand Wall Street this level of immoral opportunity? Wall Street is killing people while they lavish in luxury.

No more. In order to continue to re-grow the American Middle Class means the countries we trade with have a viable Middle Class to purchase our goods as well. No more Two Wealth Class nations as partners in trade. No more Poor vs Wealthy while allowing continuation of the same. The USA needs to have trade partners that are actually viable partners.

And at no point in time can any trade agreement assail the sovereignty of the USA while undermining the authority of American Courts and agencies such as the NLRB. The American people are not guinea pigs, that seems to be a creeping reality into this country due to sincerely poor trade partners. No more. Absolutely not.

There is no trade agreement that will prove for any sincere exchange in trade. The Chinese people earn 4% of that of the American Middle Class and suffer in poverty in greater numbers than any American can imagine. How are the Chinese going to purchase American goods? They can't. But, yet morally the American people are suppose to accept the living conditions of the Third World in exchange for cheap products. The products aren't that cheap when they reach the USA. The greatest cost to any product imported to the USA is not the labor that produced it, but, the fuel costs of the ships that bring it to Panamax Ports with Chinese manufactured cranes. This is ridiculous. These trade agreements propagate poverty and suffering.
 
June 7, 2013

The Honorable Sander M. Levin
Ranking Member
Ways and Means Committee
1106 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Cc: The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Dear Ranking Member Levin:
We look forward to working with you to establish United States trade policies that promote the creation of American jobs and support our national economic interests while safeguarding Congress’s prerogatives to determine what domestic policies best promote the public interest....

...Unfortunately, (click here) today TPP FTA talks continue in extreme secrecy. The administration has yet to release draft texts after more than three years of negotiations, and the few TPP FT A texts that have leaked reveal serious problems. Thus, we are especially concerned about any action that would transfer Congress’s exclusive constitutional trade authority to the president.

Congress needs to work together to get American trade policy back on track – not give away its authority to do so. Reducing our authority to ensure our trade agreements serve the public interest will undermine our efforts to create American jobs and to reform a misguided trade policy that has devastated our manufacturing base through the offshoring of American production and American jobs....

...Indeed, given the vast scope of today’s ” trade” agreements, we do not believe that a broad delegation of Congress’s constitutional trade authority is generally appropriate. Negotiations on the TPP FT A delve deeply into many non-trade matters under the authority of Congress and state legislatures. If completed, the TPP FTA would lock in policies on these non-trade matters that could not be altered without consent of all other signatory countries. Thus, ensuring Congress has a robust role in the formative aspects of trade agreements is vital.

We are all deeply committed to creating jobs in our communities and across the country. To do so effectively, we believe it is critical that Congress maintains its authority to ensure American trade agreements are a good deal for the American people.

Sincerely,
Mark Pocan
Member of Congress...

Let there be no doubt about the year 2000

If Vice President Gore took his rightful place in the Presidency in the year 2001, the American dialogue today would be, "Koch, who?" and "Frack what?"

No Keystone XL Pipeline

Former Vice President Al Gore is speaking at the Center for American Progress (click here)

I think he is nearly finished.

He stated 2 billion people will be using electricity from photovoltaic cells across the world. He stated it will cost less than the current energies from other forms of fuel. Why worry about nuclear energy if solar is coming into it's maturity. 

These are current emissions, but, the 'historic emissions' belongs primarily to the USA. 

Frequently, Republicans like to dismiss the damage to the troposphere already realized caused by the USA and simply focus on what exists today. The responsibility of the USA to the current Climate Crisis far exceeds that of any other country. The USA continues to discharge far too large amounts of Greenhouse Gases, especially since the Cheney Energy Policy (click here).

The USA energy policy has been based in pure, unadulterated corruption and cronyism. Not what is best for the nation, but, what was good for Cheney.

By Dana Milbank and Justin Blum

Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 16, 2005 

...In a joint hearing (click here) last week of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001 task force. The president of Shell Oil said his company did not participate "to my knowledge," and the chief of BP America Inc. said he did not know.

Chevron was not named in the White House document, but the Government Accountability Office has found that Chevron was one of several companies that "gave detailed energy policy recommendations" to the task force. In addition, Cheney had a separate meeting with John Browne, BP's chief executive, according to a person familiar with the task force's work; that meeting is not noted in the document.... 

Former Vice President Al Gore addressed the atrocity of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

By Elias Isquith
Speaking before an audience (click here) at the Center for American Progress’ 10 year anniversary event in Washington, D.C., former Vice President Al Gore laid down the gauntlet, describing the Keystone XL pipeline as an “atrocity” that “should be vetoed.” “This should be vetoed. It is an atrocity. It is a threat to our future,” Gore said, according to Politico....

The British Isles are in for a soaking.

2013-10-25 

A powerful weather system (click here) developing over the Atlantic could see Britain battered with some of the worst weather conditions since the Great Storm of 1987, forecasters are predicting. The storm is expected to develop south west of Britain tomorrow and reach the south coast of England on Sunday night and into Monday, bringing exceptionally strong winds, forecasters predict. With winds of 80-90mph and up to 30mm of rain forecast the RAC has warned motorists against all but essential travel in torrential rain and floods. The public has also been warned to expect the possibility of power cuts....

The Satellite Image is from the Met Office which is the UK's weather service.

Met Service Satellite
October 25, 2013
1700 utc Infrared Satellite (click here for 24 hour loop - thank you)

Leon Brown, Chief Meteorologist  

Published: Oct 25, 2013, 1:33 PM EDT

...Ahead of the storm (click here) will be a large band of moderate to heavy rain so Sunday night will become very wet across southern and central Britain with as much as 30 to 60mm over SW England and Wales, the highest totals most likely in Wales. The persistent rain will then swing up across northern England during Monday morning.... 

This visual satellite shows the potential of a double landfall, one after the other.