The Republicans are practicing politics not governance, so let me put the KXL into it's proper place.

The KXL is not needed. It has never been needed. This is about power, politics and pure greed. So, if I may.

"Tar Sands Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent" by andrew Nikifonuk. (click here)

Upon taking office, then Vice President Richard Cheney convened an "energy committee." We have all heard about the closed meetings with the petroleum industry and how one sided it all was. That was 2001. In the policy book that followed every corner of Earth that Richard Cheney and Halliburton was interested was a part of that policy.

Let's start with this:

November 14, 2014

HOUSTON Oilfield-services (click here) company Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that rival Halliburton Co. plans to nominate candidates to replace the entire board of directors of Baker Hughes after negotiations about a possible acquisition stalled.

Baker Hughes said that Halliburton has refused to raise its first and only offer to buy it, which the Baker Hughes board determined was not "adequate." Baker Hughes didn't disclose the offer's value.

Baker Hughes said it considers Halliburton's move to replace its directors an attempt to pressure its board into accepting the offer. A combination of the two would create a company slightly larger in revenue than Schlumberger Ltd., currently the world's biggest oil services company....

I was surprised to hear the deal between the two oil field service companies had gone through. Only last week the SEC told Halliburton in order to acquire Baker Hughes they had to sell off billions in assets. The reason was to avoid any antitrust lawsuits. Either Halliburton threw caution to the wind, or there was a garage sale at Halliburton over the weekend.

Halliburton sold off KBR due to antics in Iraq, but, maintained itself as a premier oil field service company. It is now engaged in eliminating it's competition. Things are good at Halliburton since Cheney was Vice President.

When I say the KXL was never needed I mean it. The USA doesn't need foreign oil. This is a report from the USGS that outlines all the gas and oil pockets/vats in the entire world.

Link: http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2005/5294/pdf/sir5294_508.pdf

There is no shortage of gas and oil. To that end there is no need to worry about anything other than the growth of alternative energy. Why? Because global warming is real, causing droughts, massive fires and changing the face of Earth into an uninhabitable rock.

Why doesn't the USA have to worry about the future of oil? Well, there is the Bakkan, but, to be completely honest there is a vat of oil and gas within the continental borders of the USA called the Green River deposits. It isn't as though the public wasn't aware of it either.

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/american-oil-find-holds-oil-opec/story?id=17536852

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/11/14/5316515/baker-hughes-halliburton-aims.html#.VGqC4vnF9c4#storylink=cpy

The Green River Deposits are estimated to be at least 1.4 trillion barrels. Some estimates by private industry state 4 trillion. That seems too high to me. But, the 'idea' the KXL is the best alternative for USA energy is among the most hyped and stupid things ever stated. It, however, makes for great politics (OBVIOUSLY) noting the right with their "Drill, Babe, Drill" and "Mine, Babe, Mine" rant.

The USA has a lot of gas and oil. The USA is not alone in having a lot of gas and oil. What would happen to the petroleum industry if all of a sudden 1.4 trillion barrels were dumped on the world markets right now? It would collapse under the sheer glut of oil available as a commodity.

Peak Oil did happen in 2005. Basically, all the cheap oil has been drilled and there are now declining supplies of oil from that TRADITIONAL source. It is far cheaper for Saudi Arabia to extract their oil than it is for the USA to extract it's using horizontal drilling. 

I guarantee you any small operator that has been drilling because of the high price of the COMMODITY 'oil' is now scaling back. The cost of running those small operations simply doesn't justify the return on investment at this point. That is also true of the Canadian tar sands.

While the Canadian tar sands and the KXL makes for great politics, it is all hot air. There is nothing to this. The USA is making precious land available for a highly dangerous form of oil that will absolutely end up polluting the aquifer and destroying farm land.

When I reflect on this profound reality I have to wonder what kind of mind Richard Cheney actually has considering he has absolutely no respect for anyone besides himself. He sure as heck doesn't value the people of this country and it's land and agricultural production that daunts most other agriculture in the world. 

The American people have to make their choices to bring about a reduction in Greenhouse Gases. They simply have to. The USA and China have to make that reduction without compromise. There has to be a return to Earth's balance of it's gaseous layers we live in. The part of Earth that provides for life. President Obama with his alliance with China is a great and hopeful sign we are finally going to be turning the corner on droughts, wild weather that kills, floods and furious fires of the land.

Global warming is a scientific fact. It isn't a political ideology, but, the petroleum industry made it so. The petroleum industry created the myth there is no such thing as global warming and CO2 could never be a toxic gas. That was their profit and they didn't care of the world's atmosphere collapsed tomorrow. 

The scientists of the world never politicized the fact there was anthropogenic global warming. They never disrespected the American people in their findings for the idea they were earning money not otherwise available. I am intricately involved with the conservation community and movement and there is no one becoming a million-billionaire because they are pulling in government monies from research of global warming. That simply doesn't happen. The people I know have their research as a side line to their teaching credentials. 

The USA is not in need of any Canadian tar sands EVEN IF it was being sent into the country from the Texas refineries. The Texas refineries were always going to export the CANADIAN oil to other countries. 

Why should the USA completely compromise it's land for the sake of a pipeline that doesn't even serve it's needs and tar sands oil (that is very dangerous because it is 50% nathpha)? Why? There is absolutely no reason. Dick Cheney provided 'the talking points' and the GOP has been running with it ever since.

Now, the US Senate can spend time passing an oil bill that is only necessary to assist one of it's members dealing with the propaganda of the right wing. But, it is President's Obama's OBLIGATION to veto the bill if ever making it to his desk. When he does, the GOP will scream and cry that thousands of jobs have been destroyed and the country needs a fine Republican president like Jeb Bush and a Vice President like Rubio. Then the GOP will be off to the races and any lawsuit and/or impeachment proceedings will be nothing but politics for the next two years.

The USA has plenty of oil and gas and if the country ever needed it for a military emergency the Army Corp Engineers along with soldiers could drill it and bring it to refineries to process it for the battlefield even for as expensive as it might be. 

It is a great idea to send the USA to war if you are an oil man, by the way. It drives the demand and the price up, and well what could be better. 

The country is fine. There is nothing happening to the USA because of oil and gas. The USA has to roll back it's EMISSIONS of Greenhouse Gases and it has to do it now. The oil isn't going anywhere. But, a habitable and productive planet is.

So young Caucasian men ever do stupid things?

You betcha. 

My youngest son was among the most stupid of the two boys.

First I get a phone call from a police officer stating my son was the intersection of Smith and Jones and needed transportation. When I arrived he was standing in the rain with the police car on the opposite corner with lights flashing. The car he was driving was in a ditch and unable to be retrieved without the assist of a wrecker. I was grateful no one else was involved. The police officer did not issue a warrant because it was raining. The car needed body work. It was not a minor issue.

His excuse? His would be girlfriend, whom's father was a police officer and didn't like him, called and said her parents were out of the house. It was not a minor issue.

Two days later I paid a visit to the prospective girlfriend's home when I saw her father's cruiser parked out front. I spoke with the father and asked if the relationship between his daughter and my son had changed recently as there was a rendezvous planned recently. He stated he didn't approve of the idea of his daughter having a regular boyfriend, she was 15, while my son was 17. I told him I understood completely and there would be no more problem. I wanted to put an adult face on the idea my son was out of control and endangering his daughter. The father thanked me for the information and visit.

It was getting closer to the end of my son's senior year and I received a phone call from one of his principles as he took an advanced course in Marine Biology at a different high school. When I answered the phone the principle stated this was very important and I must come to the office. 

I was alarmed and worried. I didn't usually get that kind of phone call from authorities. I went to the school and stood at the desk while the Vice Principle called me into his office. Outside of his office were four young men and the only one I recognized was my son.

I went into the office and he called my son in to have a seat. He closed the door. He took a seat behind his desk opened the top drawer and pulled out a ten inch Bowie knife. My chin nearly hit the floor and it must have appeared as though I was going to pass out. The VP asked if I needed a drink of water. My son at the very same instant began to apologize profusely for this dilemma now facing me.

When the shock was over I looked at the VP and asked if there were any deaths or injuries associated with said knife. He stated no, but, this was found in the pocket of my son's jacket. I had never seen the lousy weapon before and immediately asked my son where he got it. He stated he wasn't sure, but, he thought one of the other three put it in his pocket when they were discovered drinking alcohol in the grove of trees in the back parking lot during a study hall.

Now, I was angry.

No one wants me to be angry. Promise.

I turned toward face my son directly and forget all I said to him, but, when I was finished he was in tears and the VP was simply wide eyed and almost apologetic. 

My son had been accepted into his first choice of college and I was completely devastated to what this might mean to his future, immediately and in the coming years. The VP stated since my son had never had this type of incident before he would be given three days in school suspension where work would be demanded of him and it would not directly effect his school record or his prospect of higher education. I thank the man who seemed relieved to have a parent that sincerely cared as he did. I promise him it would never happen again. With that my son was never to be involved with alcohol or his dangerous friends ever again. 

As I left the VP's office with son in tow I passed the other three Caucasian young men. Without me saying a word, the three of them stood and apologized to me and was very sorry for my state of upset and promised never to allow such episodes to happen again. I didn't reply, but, was taken seriously through what they had heard coming from inside the VP's office. 

As I left I realized I was the only parent in the office and I had already been there over 20 minutes in the presence of the VP. 

So, do white boys get in trouble as they are becoming young men? They most certainly do. Do white boys take their discipline more seriously than black boys? I wouldn't think so. I have witnessed many a wonderful African American parent and families and at the time of my son's graduation he had taken a beautiful Black girl to the prom and had his African American young man friend at his graduation party along with all the relatives, too.

Why do these young Black men die? They are no worse nor any better than my son and yet they are met with death every time a police officer enters their lives.

IT MUST STOP. Michael Brown, Jr. should be at his university today and he is not.

A brilliant doctor has died because he came to treatment too late.

November 17, 2014
By John Bacon

Salia's wife, Isatu, (click here) says her husband tested negative for the virus in the early days of his illness. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said "false negative" test results are possible in the first days of symptoms when the viral load is relatively low. The tests do not represent a health risk to others, he said, because people with low levels of the virus are not very contagious....

There are many diseases and medical conditions that test false when indeed there is a change in the internal environment of the body. Women know that pregnancy tests are not always accurate and will result negative. Walking stress tests will result negative for men when indeed they have a heart condition. 

There is nothing new here. One of the earlier physicians, a woman whom's name escapes me, tested negative for Ebola and was first treated for malaria. This is not new.

The BEST indicator of SUSPICION are symptoms, moderately high fever (within what is considered a cardinal sign of infection, but, the fever is not deadly itself) accompanied by fatigue.

This virus remains to be consistent in it's manifestation. It is the symptoms in the early stages of infection that results in emergent treatment that saves lives. In the picture he looks in very good health. Had he come to treatment earlier there is a far greater chance he would be alive today. We cannot afford to lose physicians, surgeons, nurses or anyone affiliated with the health care system. Without them we all fail.

This is a profound tragedy for the lives he will no longer save.

There is something odd about the coverage of the Michael Brown, Jr.'s death.

It seems to me there are people expecting to arrive at an end point in regard to this death whereby it is clear the deceased was indeed involved in criminal acts and therefore his death is justified.

That 'end point' will never arrive. Even after 'the system' decides Darren Wilson (what ever his name is) cannot be charged there will be demonstrations in reaction to the death of Michael Brown, Jr.

The death of this young man is egregious regardless of how the system wants to make Wilson appear exonerated. 

The question is how can those TWO REALITIES exist at one time?

These two realities exist in the same space and time because Michael Brown, Jr. is dead due to very poor police work and social stereotypes. Make no mistake there exists a rash of deaths of young Black men at the hand of police officers in the USA. Those deaths are unjustified and exist because of poor police work (although technically correct) and stereotypes. That is a fact.

Why is it the police officers that do the killing never have their lives in danger?
__________________

In the tapes whereby Wilson asks coworkers over the radio if they needed any help, translates into "Do you need another gun on the scene?"
_________________

The suspect is a large, black male about 19 years old and has escaped from the assault of an officer. In other words, this kid is dangerous beyond belief and the only method of controlling him is by inflicting gun wounds at the very least.

In reality, was a gun ever needed in this case? 

Absolutely not. Ever hear of chasing a suspect? Well. I'll be darn.

Guilty as charged, Wilson used poor police judgement of overwhelming force that resulted in the unnecessary death of another young African American male.
_______________

These young men are very important young men. They have moved through a system of education in a low middle class environment, are attending college and going on to improve the brain trust of the USA with deep understood values of 'the struggle' to succeed while shunning racial discrimination. They are the country's accomplishment to remove prejudice and bring success where none existed before, quiet likely with their father and grandfather. 

I don't care what kind of background they have or came from or how advantaged they may or may not have been, they are being gunned down when they are just beginning their lives. THIS is STILL another chapter of American racism. We are still there hanging them in the gallows.