The Minimum Wage is moving in some areas of the country.

BY IAN SIMPSON

WASHINGTON Tue Dec 17, 2013 1:08pm EST

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Washington's city council (click here) on Tuesday approved raising the minimum wage to $11.50 an hour, one of the highest rates among U.S. cities and part of the wealthy region's push to hike base pay.

The minimum wage in the U.S. capital would rise in 2016 from the current $8.25, and then be indexed for inflation. The council gave unanimous final approval to the measure, which it first passed two weeks ago.

Democratic Mayor Vincent Gray has opposed the measure, saying it was not known how it would affect the labor market, and urged an increase to $10 an hour instead. The unanimous vote means the council could pass it over Gray's veto....

The AFL/CIO has been advocating for the increase in minimum wage. This is from their newsletter. They are happy underpaid labor is finally being treated with fairness to provide a better quality of lifel

In Washington, D.C., there is great news for working families. The District of Columbia Council voted to raise the minimum wage to $11.50 and extend paid sick days to tipped workers. 

The measures now go to Mayor Vincent Gray for consideration. 

The minimum wage will increase in three steps to $11.50 by July 2016. Beginning in July 2017, the wage rate will be indexed to inflation, so that as the cost of living increases, so will the minimum wage rate. Prince George's County (Md.) Executive Rushern Baker signed the Prince George’s County minimum wage bill today—the wage rate will rise to $11.50 by 2017. These wage increases in Washington, D.C., Prince George's County and Montgomery County (Md.) are part of an innovative approach to raise wages in a region, with all three areas working together to pass these laws. 

64 to 36

It's that interesting? 64 votes for the budget. I'll be darn.

By Ed O’Keefe and Lori Montgomery

Updated: Wednesday, December 18, 4:57 PM

Congress declared a holiday truce (click here) in a years-long fight over the federal budget, sending President Obama a spending blueprint Wednesday that is designed to ease sharp spending cuts and keep government operations funded through 2015.

Senators voted 64 to 36 to approve the bipartisan budget agreement Wednesday afternoon. Nine Republicans joined with 55 Democrats to approve the legislation, which Obama is expected to sign before departing this weekend for his Christmas vacation in Hawaii....

A big win for the USA economy. GM with the collaboration of the UAW is bringing it home.

General Motors World Headquarters (C) is seen looking south from the midtown area in Detroit, Michigan October 23, 2013.

CREDIT: REUTERS/REBECCA COOK

(Reuters) - General Motors Co (click here) said on Monday it will invest nearly $1.3 billion at five U.S. plants to make a new transmission and boost output for a planned new engine as well as add a vehicle paint shop.

GM, the No. 1 U.S. automaker, said the investment at the plants in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana will create or retain about 1,000 jobs combined, but did not say how many will be new jobs. The five plants employ about 7,500 people.

The investment is part of $8 billion that GM typically spends annually on its global operations and will be used to make a new 10-speed transmission and boost planned output of a new V6 engine, as well as support production of an existing 6-speed transmission, the company said. GM also will add a new paint shop and logistics center....

In 2011, when the UAW negotiated new contracts with the Big Three automakers, the union won commitments from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler to invest more than $27.3 billion in their plants, creating 20,000 new jobs at the three automakers and thousands more in the industries that are part of the auto manufacturing supply chain.   

At the ceremony at GM’s Flint, Mich., truck assembly plant announcing the investment, GM North America President Mark Reuss told the cheering workers:

These investments are a sign of our confidence in our workforce and our UAW partners that have given and tried so hard and in our vehicles and the continued demand for excellence in each one of these products. You earned this.

Looks as though everyone is having a good time.

First Lady Michelle Obama and children of military families participate in a craft project in the State Dining Room during the White House holiday press preview, Dec. 4, 2013. Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses helps children decorate Springerle cookie ornaments. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

How did the White House get involved in this? Can the EU and the USA offer the same help to the Ukraine?

I thought the Cold War was over.

December 18, 2013, 4:58 am
...White House Spokesman Jay Carney (click here) indicated that Washington was unimpressed by the deal, saying it would "not address the concerns" of the thousands of protesters camped out day and night on Independence Square over the last weeks. 

"The Russian government made a decision to invest part of the National Welfare Fund to the amount of $15 billion in Ukrainian government securities." Putin said at a ceremony with Yanukovych....

...Putin also said Russia's state energy giant Gazprom would now sell natural gas to Ukraine at a price of $268.50 for 1,000 cubic metres -- a substantial discount from the current level of around $400....

..."I would like to calm everyone down, today we have not discussed the issue of Ukraine joining the Customs Union at all," Putin said.

On the day she was sworn in for a third term at the helm of Europe's top economy, German Chancellor Angela Markel warned against getting into a "tug-of-war" with Russia over Ukraine. "A confrontation would not lead anywhere," she said in an interview with public television....

The West is still trying to ostracize Russia in a way that would destroy it. As a result, Russia is not attempting to create an independent Customs Union built similarly to the European Union. 

The West always has this idea it has power over Russia. When is the global community going to come to terms with peace and the path to peace? Creating a one world government isn't going to work. Not because a military struggle may secure it, but, because it is idiocy to follow a path of war to benefit Wall Street.

This is Ukraine politics. 

18 December 2013 
Last updated at 00:10 ET

...Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko (click here) told pro-EU protesters in Kiev Mr Yanukovych was betraying Ukraine's independence.

"He has given up Ukraine's national interests, given up independence," Mr Klitschko, a former boxing champion, told the crowd on Tuesday.

"[President] Yanukovych used our country as collateral. According to our sources, he has agreed to a bailout from Russia and put Ukrainian plants, strategic industries, heavy industries, aviation and energy manufacturers up as collateral against it. We want to know what exactly he did put up as collateral, and his reasons for doing it."

He called on the Ukrainian president to hold a snap election....

Soldiers of the UNR Army in front of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kiev.

The Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore and the Ukrainian–Soviet War ended in 1917. War and the destruction of infrastructure doesn't promote economic growth. If the Ukraine is ever going to be a sovereign nation with potential to improve the lives of it's citizens it has start somewhere. 

I realize Yanukovych is not the popular choice and his image laced with fear of oppression and old world hatred, but, where is the Ukraine going to get a better opportunity to grow it's economy and relieve it's debt?

None of these economic plans erase the past or make the world ignorant of any future problem. So, what is the issue, really? Who is in office and what market place is preferred? That political impetus is far different than the region is used to. I think there is room for growth from both Russia and Europe and in time it will occur. 

In the year 2013 with the soon beginning of 2014 the world has come a long way to seek peaceful and economic standards to define nations. If we can proceed with non-proliferation our children might have a real shot at eliminating such threats to life. 

Is there something wrong with that I don't get? 

Because you see, every time the USA has assets in place, it inevitably becomes an issue of tensions and war. "American interests" have been the cause of more war than any other nation on Earth. The West should think about that for a while.

Now, about that enormous unnecessary US Industrial Complex....that chronically threatens war without end and global stability. Not to mention enormous USA National Debt.

Surge Seen in U.S. Oil Output, Lowering Gasoline Prices (click here)

I would think this would be enough reason for oil barons to stop coveting the Russian oil assets. How much power does a nation need? How much money does one person need? When does the 'wanting' of Wall Street come back into the realm of reasonable while the Middle Class flourishes and the Poor have upward movement? Too much to ask?

Ah, the "Evil Russian Empire," will it ever die? I like John McCain and I certainly like him better than some of the other options in Arizona politics. He has a nice wife and a lovely daughter. Can someone please give him a makeover that is modern day and a better byline? Perhaps one that moves him ever so slightly away from threatening war in the Third World at every turn?

“Harry, I’m going to go kick the crap out of you,” (click here) McCain reportedly told Reid minutes before he took to the floor of the upper chamber of Congress to lay into Democrats for ushering in a “black chapter in the history of the Senate.”

One might notice, since the filibuster has been busted, most of the votes in the Senate have carried a greater than 60 vote margin in favor of the measure. Why didn't that happen before? Perhaps, Senator McCain can explain that.

Excuse me? Something wrong with the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church?

PAPAL ENCYCLICAL URGES CAPITALISM TO SHED INJUSTICES (click here)

By PETER STEINFELS
Published: May 03, 1991

In a major encyclical addressing the economic questions raised by the upheaval in Eastern Europe in 1989, Pope John Paul II warned capitalist nations yesterday against letting the collapse of Communism blind them to the need to repair injustices in their own economic system.

The encyclical, "Centesimus Annus" ("The Hundredth Year"), includes the fullest, and in many ways the most positive, treatment of the market economy in any papal document. But praise is typically followed with qualifications and ringing reminders about economic failures in both developing and developed countries.

The point of departure for much of the 25,000-word document is the collapse of Communism in Pope John Paul II's native Poland and other Eastern European countries and the moral and philosophical lessons that those events hold for rebuilding the economies of Eastern Europe and confronting economic inequities throughout the world. 'Human Needs' Beyond Market

"The free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs," the Pope said. "But there are many human needs which find no place on the market," he immediately added, and many people without the purchasing power to meet their needs through the market. [ Excerpts, page A10. ]

What is going on with Russia? Is the nation actually worried about it's image?

Videographer Kieron Bryan of Britain (C), one of the 30 people who were arrested over a Greenpeace protest at the Prirazlomnaya oil rig, reacts as he is released on bail from prison in St. Petersburg, November 22, 2013.

(Reuters) - Thirty people (click here) arrested in Russia over a protest against Arctic oil drilling will avoid trial and the threat of jail under an amnesty set to be approved by parliament, lawyers and Greenpeace said on Wednesday.

Last-minute changes to the amnesty proposed by President Vladimir Putin mean legal proceedings against the 30 are "almost certain" to end and the 26 non-Russians among them should be able to go home, the environmental group said.

The arrest of the men and women whom Greenpeace call the "Arctic 30" drew criticism from the West and was widely seen as a signal that Putin will not tolerate efforts to stop Russia developing the resource-rich region....

...Lawyers say two women from punk protest band Pussy Riot are likely to be freed. They are serving two-year sentences for a protest against Putin in a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Moscow in 2012.

They are due for release in early March. It is not clear how soon they would walk free once the amnesty is approved....

A great idea for gift giving when material gifts seem meaningless.

The National Film Preservation Foundation seeks to preserve some of the most important statements about our popular and classic culture. Making a donation in other's names can be a statement that is meaningful and long lasting.

As an example of the type of cultural statements preserved by this foundation is "Inklings."

Inklings, Issue 12 (1925)

Production Co.: Inkwell Studios/Red Seal Pictures Corp.

Director/Animator: Dave Fleischer

Transfer Note: Copied at 24 frames per second from a 35mm print preserved by the Museum of Modern Art. 


New Music:Original score composed by Fred Steiner. 

Who is Fred Steiner? He is iconic to our culture. These artists are important to remember and their work important to preserve. They are the very foundation of an industry that has added quality of life to Americans and launched our imaginations. They make us smile, cry and ask for more.

Fred Steiner dies at 88; Hollywood composer created 'Perry Mason' theme (click here)

The composer also crafted music for 'Gunsmoke,' 'The Twilight Zone,' 'Star Trek,' 'Have Gun, Will Travel,' 'Rawhide,' 'Hogan's Heroes,' 'The Bullwinkle Show' and other TV series....

Performed by Frederick Harris, Jr (conductor), Dawn Perlner (violin), Elizabeth Connors (clarinet), Jimmy Leach (trumpet), Reid Jorgensen (percussion), and Kyle Hoepner (piano). Running Time: 6 minutes.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! (click here)
For a limited time, choose a Treasures DVD set when you donate.
Why not start the holidays by snuggling up with Dave Fleischer’s The Inklings (1925), one of the 225 films in our award-winning Treasures from American Film Archives DVD sets? Once you see this amazing cartoon, we’re sure you’ll want more from the Treasures series. For film fans, these DVDs make great presents. So choose a set as a gift when you support our work with a donation of $200 or more....

This organization seeks to reach back in our history to preserve the greatest films of our time, including silent films. It is a worth considering as a meaningful gift these holidays.

Poor Wall Street, their welfare is ending.

Hard to Turn Back Once Fed Tapering Begins: Zentner (click here)

Well, they might actually have to work for a living to earn their bonuses now. What a shame.

Merry Christmas, Wall Street says foul play in regard to a charity assisting the poor with their health care plans.

By LOUISE RADNOFSKY and CHRISTOPHER WEAVER 

Dec. 16, 2013 8:19 p.m. ET

A charity's plan (click here) to help people pay for coverage through new health-care exchanges has put it at the center of a high-stakes fight between the insurance and hospital industries that could pose a challenge to the economic underpinnings of President Barack Obama's health law.

A Better LA, a decade-old Los Angeles nonprofit, said last week it was signing up 50 low-income people for health plans in California's health-insurance marketplace. The charity, which said it has the blessing of the state agency overseeing the marketplace, will pay $50 to $100 a month to cover the share of the people's premiums not already financed by federal subsidies.

Those 50 people are at the vanguard of a push that could shift the balance between hospitals and insurers across the nation. Nonprofits, including some hospitals, say paying premiums would ensure coverage for people currently uninsured who can't afford even a small monthly payment for health insurance....

Heroes everyone. Health care insurers are actually upset over assistance to the Poor? This is ridiculous. By stating they don't want the Poor on their exchanges, Wall Street is saying the Poor are sicker and they aren't profitable. Really? I thought the day of "Picking the winners and losers" in the benefit of health was over.

...Hospitals making such payments would be fulfilling the law's mission of extending coverage to millions of Americans, said Melinda Hatton, the American Hospital Association's general counsel. "We thought it was the kind of thing the Affordable Care Act would really support and encourage," she said.

But such plans have drawn criticism. "It is a conflict of interest for hospitals and drug companies to pay patients' premiums and cost-sharing for the sole purpose of increasing utilization of their services and products," said Karen Ignagni, head of America's Health Insurance Plans, the health-insurance industry's trade group....

This level of charity care has existed for a long time. There are actually hospital systems, usually government teaching hospitals, in the USA that extend a full access to the Poor in their states. The insurance companies never had to bear that burden because the government did. The state and federally funded hospitals absorbed the cost of the Poor. NOW. These folks have health care insurance. I'll be darn. So, instead of absorbing the costs of the Poor, the hospitals will finally have the care they provide paid for. Wall Street is crying about it because they never had to provide care for these people before and don't want the cost. Wall Street wants hospitals to continue to fail to continue their exorbitant profits.

...But insurers say they can't make a profit unless the health-insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act draw a balanced mix of healthy and sicker customers. The law's rocky start, many insurers fear, has already skewed the mix toward people in worse health. Help from nonprofits or hospitals could speed the arrival of less healthy customers into the exchanges, outpacing the arrival of younger, healthier people who might not cross paths with hospitals....

In many cases these individuals receiving care through charity care are young and have children and have been the ONLY method of receiving Well Baby Care. 

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act expands on HIPPA and actually insures portability of insurance. Now, the Poor can actually CHOOSE their physicians and take the insurance with them if they find employment and/or are able to attend training for work that is available in the USA. Wall Street needs to shut up and put up, these people are just as mixed in health as any other population. 

So, while the political Right Wing are saying the new health care insurance is unaffordable, Wall Street lawyers are playing with words and phrases in the law to bring about higher profits and depriving people of coverage. That is amazing. Ya know, we need Single Payer. That is the only thing that is going to end this circus. 

One of the problems with the health care of the Poor in lack of continuity. The reason is because they accept care where they can find it. That means they don't necessarily have a primary physician so much as 'clinic care.' In 2011 a private foundation called, "The  Commonwealth Fund" did a survey and found the inconsistent care was CAUSING poor health.

An international survey of adults (click here) living with health problems and complex care needs found that patients in the United States are much more likely than those in 10 other high-income countries to forgo needed care because of costs and to struggle with medical debt. In all the countries surveyed, patients who have a medical home reported better coordination of care, fewer medical errors, and greater satisfaction with 

These are only four of the Board of Directors of the Commonwealth Fund. Something tells me they know what they are doing:

James R. Tallon, Jr., Chairman (click here)
Mr. Tallon, president of the United Hospital Fund of New York, is recognized nationally for his leadership in health care policy.

Cristine Russell, Vice Chairman
Ms. Russell is an award-winning freelance journalist who has written about science, health, and the environment for more than three decades.

Maureen BisognanoMs. Bisognano, a prominent authority on improving health care systems, is president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

David Blumenthal, M.D. Dr. Blumenthal is president of The Commonwealth Fund. Prior to joining the Fund in 2013, he was the Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief Health Information and Innovation Officer at Partners Healthcare System in Boston. From 2009 to 2011, he served as U.S. National Coordinator for Health Information Technology....

What does continuity of care mean? It means a person won't be wandering from doctor to doctor or hospital to hospital starting all over again every time they seek care. Continuity of care also means the Poor will be educated to what health care actually means and how to continue and/or improve their wellness and that of their family. It means IF the Poor are unwell, they won't stay that way. They won't DIE because there isn't a professional overseeing their progression to health from illness. Wall Street can go straight to hell and will not stand in the way of a healthier nation in the USA!

The USA has the highest cost of health care in the world. The insurance companies make plenty of money from the health care of the USA because it is the most expensive in the world. The USA will finally rein in the runaway costs of health care in the nation and find a healthier population which will bring down THE COST to everyone. One would think bring down the cost of health care rather than charity care and emergency room would be something the insurance industry would welcome. But, the fact of the matter is the more chaos a system has the greater the chance of making elicit and illegal money while people die. Why is it the Health Insurance Industry in the USA can't get on board with a nation of over $3.1 million people? Hm?

...Ms. Reaser said she likely still couldn't afford her share of the premiums, in part because she is still paying off $1,900 in hospital bills after two emergency-room visits last year—for an asthma attack and what she was told was a mild stroke.

Rowan Vansleve, the charity's chief executive officer, said the initiative came from a donor who watched news reports on the health law and was struck by how little it would cost to pay some people's premiums....

USA vs State of Texas

Texas congressmen take aim at Affordable Care Act’s navigators (click here)

The State of Texas is obstructing access to The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The State of Texas is endangering lives, especially those of children.

The legislators in Texas are incompetent.

Who Are the Uninsured in Texas? (click here for Texas Medical Association)

According to a summary of national data by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), groups with a high likelihood of lacking health insurance include:

• People in families with income below 200 percent of the poverty level;
• 
  
• Hispanics;
• 
  
• Young adults, age 19 to 34;
• 
  
• People in families in which the adults worked either part-time or only part of the year; or
• 
  
• Individuals in fair or poor health status who are significantly more likely 
• than others to be uninsured for longer periods.

Texas workers are less likely to have employment-based health insurance coverage than those in other states. 60 percent of all companies in the US offer health coverage for their employees.  In 2009, Texas ranked 49th in the nation, with only 50 percent of Texans having employment-based health insurance coverage. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports 78 percent of the uninsured have at least one family member who works either full-time or part-time in 2009 to 2010....

Between 25 to 29.9 percent of the Texas Poor populous is Hispanic. This issue is racial as well as incompetent. 

When nearly a third of the Poor in Texas are of one race and the State refuses to act in their best interest, that is bigotry. It just is.

In the graph below from 2007, it is noted Texas has the largest number of impoverished and the second largest percentage. 

How is it that a state with so many wealthy oil and gas companies have so many poor? I thought Texas was touting an economy above all others. It would seem to be a lie.

I just find it really odd that Texas has a high poverty rate while it continues to victimize them in so many ways, I would think it would be the opposite and the wealthy of Texas would be working hard at improving those in poverty. Odd. It touts so much religion as the backbone of the morality of the state. Strange. It must be incompetency because nothing else makes sense, unless of course it is greed.

2.  Poverty in Texas (click here) 

2007	Mississippi	22.60%	2,921,030	660,153
	Texas	16.50%	23,843,432	3,934,166
	Louisiana	16.10%	4,373,310	704,103
	Kentucky	15.50%	4,236,308	656,628
	North Carolina	15.50%	9,041,594	1,401,447
	Tennessee	14.80%	6,149,116	910,069
	Alabama	14.50%	4,626,595	670,856
	New York	14.50%	19,429,316	2,817,251
	Arizona	14.30%	6,353,421	908,539
	South Carolina	14.10%	4,404,914	621,093

Vatican Radio's Latest News

Vatican Radio's Latest News

Just in case the political Right Wing of the Republican Party actually wants to hear the truth.

Pope Francis lives the doctrine. Charity.

A photo released on December 17, 2013 by the Vatican shows Pope Francis (R) speaking with Monsignor Konrad Krajewski (2ndL) and three homeless whom the pontiff invited for breakfast (Osservatore Romano/AFP)

Vatican City — Pope Francis invited four homeless people to mass and breakfast on his 77th birthday Tuesday, said Vatican radio, which played tango tunes by the Argentinian's favourite singer Carlos Gardel in his honour.

The pope hosted the breakfast at St Martha's Residence, the Vatican hotel where he has stayed since his election in March, spurning the more grandiose Apostolic Palace where leaders of the Catholic Church usually live.

The four homeless people were among the dozens who spend every night camped out around St Peter's Square.

Photographs released by the Vatican showed Francis speaking with three homeless men, including one holding a dog.

Vatican staff and their families also attended, including the newly-appointed Secretary of State Pietro Parolin who wished the pope a happy birthday.

The Vatican said the event was "particularly friendly"....

Karl Marx called religion "opium of the people." How crass can anyone get?

They were all told it would be a disaster and it is; they wanted the money.

The Michigan DNR was recently at the Boardman River at Brown Bridge Quiet Area assessing complaints about the lack of fish and flies, which the fish eat. 

This pond that existed was  because of a small dam that needed nothing but some concrete repairs which is true of all the dams on the Boardman River. The ponds behind these dams were sought after over 60 years of records on and off line about how dynamic the fishing was on the Boardman River. It was awarded a designation of "Blue Ribbon Trout Stream" long, long time ago. It brought recognition to the river for tourists and fisherman and people came. 

But, rather than taking the inexpensive route of repairing the Brown Bridge Dam, the authorities decided to deconstruction the dam while draining the pond. In doing so they disturbed a lot of sediment in the river containing toxins. The toxins were sequestered at the bottom of the pond for decades. There was virtually no trace of toxins in the water column as per assessments over the years by the Army Corp. 

To make a long story short the local residents demanded the dam to be repaired rather than destroyed and no one listened to them, not even the local government. The dam at Brown Bridge could have been repaired for $1.3 million, it is in the Environmental Assessment. Instead, they spent at least $4.9 million to deconstruct the dam and destroy the river.

In a recent visit by Michigan DNR, the Brown Bridge Advisory Board was told it would be at least two generations before the water would support any fishing.

That isn't the worst of it. The worst of it is that the temporary coffer dam built to dewater the pond fell apart. It sent millions and millions of gallons of water into the lower Boardman carrying toxic sediment along with it. The residents along the Boardman River (Some homes previously assessed at over $300,000.) below where the old dam was doing just fine, now suffer from illness and flooding because of the very faulty choices the governments made all along the way. There are lawsuits, but, those lawsuits don't remove the emotional loss these people feel. Many of them grew up along this river and the land was a family heirloom. 

Snyder doesn't care about the people and I am sure the ones that speak up are considered insurgents. He wants what wants and to allow dams to exist in Michigan would mean the Gas Industry wasn't needed. He ordered all the small dams capable of producing hydroelectric to local cites and towns be deconstructed. 

Now. 

The Gas Industry is in Northern Michigan. Like I said, Snyder is corrupt to the core and doesn't care about anything except money and his Wall Street friends.

FACT. 

FACT.

FACT.

"Oh, yeah, the record keepers haven't caught up with the fact the Boardman River is dead, but, when they do they'll remove that designation of "Blue River Trout Stream." It will prevent fisherman from having a bad day at the river.

And yes, these dams throughout Michigan are/were capable of hydroelectric power.

In the rest of the nation, these small dams are coveted as treasures and provide a vital source of local energy, but, in Michigan they are basically outlawed. This is Snyder's Michigan. He calls this an economy? At what cost?

The Michigan DNR is destroying the waters of northern Michigan. Northern Michigan relies heavily on tourism and fishing is part of that.

Thanks to the ice age (click here) and the incalculable grinding power of glaciers, Michigan has the largest coastline of any state excluding Alaska, more than 11,000 lakes, and over 36,000 miles of streams and rivers. More than 20 percent of the world's fresh water supply flows through Michigan and there is no geographical point in the state that is more than six miles from a stream, river or lake. And it snows and snows and rains - and then it rains some more. We Michiganders are a soggy bunch....

Besides the Au Sable River no endangered by hydrofracking because the surface will be disturbed once the subterranean land are destroyed. But, beside the Au Sable River, the Boardman River is not dead because the government looked the other way when citizens complained about the toxins in the water and the toxins in the sediment with the disturbance of the dams that formed unique ecosystems abundant with fish.

Snyder is corrupt to the core and this is more of the same. Those waters will not remain fishable once the drilling starts. The tourism industry in Northern Michigan was healthy and vital long before Snyder became Governor, they don't gas wells here.

By Cole Waterman | cwaterma@mlive.com 
on December 12, 2013 at 5:30 PM, updated December 13, 2013 at 9:56 AM

LANSING, MI — The controversial leasing of 2,800 (click here) acres near the Au Sable River to a Canadian gas and oil company has been approved, but with the caveat that no above-ground techniques be implemented to access the subterranean resources.

A Thursday, Dec. 12, meeting of the Natural Resources Commission in Lansing saw 

Michigan Department of Natural Resources Director Keith Creagh approve the results of an Oct. 28, oil and gas lease auction to Encana Corp., with the stipulation that the acres along the Au Sable River Holy Waters corridor are nondevelopmental.

A nondevelopment lease does not allow the use of the surface for oil and gas exploration or development, DNR officials explained.

The Holy Waters corridor is an 8.7-mile stretch of land  that begins just east of the city of Grayling in Crawford County and meanders east from Burton's Landing to Wakeley Bridge. It's known for its wadable water, dependable insect hatches and quality trout fishing, according to the DNR....

Will the World Courts act on this information?

I appreciate the statement from Former Senator Bob Graham (click here) , but, the likelihood of a change in the relationship with Saudi Arabia will change soon is unclear. 

Saudi Arabia purchases huge amounts of military equipment from the USA.(click here)

I do believe Secretary Kerry has his hands full with this addition to the Mideast instability. I am confident the Senate will take this up and the House Democrats will seek to understand this issue better, but, the immediate chance things will change between Saudi Arabia and the USA is remote. 

Not that this isn't significant and the American people won't simply allow this to disappear as if gossip, there are many dead including our soldiers; but, the way forward with Saudi Arabia at this point is murky. It is a major power in the Mideast and a declared ally of Israel.

By Reuters, Published: December 16

The United States (click here) has sent two detainees from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility back to their native Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said Monday, the latest push in a slow-moving effort toward eventually closing the prison.

The transfers of Saad Muhammad Hufsayn Qahtani and Hamood Abdulla Hamood lower the prisoner population to 160 and follow the repatriation of two prisoners to Algeria this month....

Logistically, if the relationship changes radically between the USA and Saudi Arabia the operational base of the USA will be limited and cause concern to other nations.

The Red Sea, Suez Canal and Persian Gulf to say the least. The USA has an operational base in Qatar and it isn't as though that nation can simply thumb their nose at Saudi Arabia.

Things are heating up in Africa as well. The Central African Republic has the promise of being the next Rwanda. 

Dec. 15, 2013
...One vignette (click here) from a recent report by Human Rights Watch: In April, a funeral procession crossed the Ngaragba Bridge toward a local cemetery. A unit of Seleka soldiers fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the crowd and began cutting down those who tried to flee. A priest appealing for calm was killed. “After the Seleka convoy started shooting at the crowd,” reported an eyewitness, “a woman with a baby on her back was on the street past the bridge when she was shot by a Seleka fighter and left dead in the street with the baby crying on her back.”...

By ERIC SCHMITT

Published: January 28, 2013 

WASHINGTON — The United States military (click here) is preparing to establish a drone base in northwest Africa so that it can increase surveillance missions on the local affiliate of Al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups that American and other Western officials say pose a growing menace to the region....

Now, whether or not the USA military knew all this information while proceeding as though it didn't exist is still yet another question. If the USA military does not demand accountability by the Executive Branch when there is very wrongful use of it's purpose; ie: Iraq; then the USA has to decide how autonomous the military is acting without the permission of the people. 

There is a huge military industrial complex that feeds off the idea the USA has enormous responsibilities globally that cannot be interrupted. That level of spending leading to enormous power and more than any other nation on Earth has created a military that is basically unstoppable. It is unstoppable at the level of the UN and now it would seem as though it is unstoppable when lies and deceptions are known to exist. 

The American people don't lend their young men and women (average age in military under 35 years old) to a military purpose without it being a sovereign national interest. So, besides the lies of the Bush/Cheney Administration and the cover up, there is the culpability of the USA military itself.

If the military is confronted with some sincere reduction in it's current status in the USA and it's global reach, will they move forward with their robotic army? The American people need to rein in this military machine; the question is can it? I believe the Sequester cuts to the military needs to stand while allowing the Joint Chiefs the ability to reduce spending without completely eroding it's mission to protect the nation. In other words, don't use an ax to the military budget so much as remove hideous projects and spending that are completely unnecessary or unwisely spent. We certainly don't need to escalate the spending, but, return to a military that actually works without projects such as the F-35. This entire robotic mission is ridiculous and dangerous and needs to be abandoned.

Will this Congress have the guts to take this on or simply attempt to sweep it under the rug to prevent controversy? This can't occur again. Ignoring it will assure it will.