Women Born Transsexual

I ask this question based on several reasons.

1. I am seeing the exact same wording from the “Radical Feminists” that I am seeing from the Christo-Fascist Organizations that have words like Family and Concerned in their title.
2. I’ve seen this before back during the right wing  Schlafly et.al. campaign against ERA, which passed itself off as a grassroots organizing effort, when it was actually a well financed campaign.
3. ALEC and the Tea Party.
4. The hijacking of “Susan B. Anthony” a feminist icon by the rabid anti-abortion/anti-contraception right wing religious fanatics.
5. The hijacking of abolitionist, Frederick Douglass for the same sort of usage as well.  Ultra right wingers are turning him into someone they can use to promote an anti-African American agenda.
6. The hijacking of “Pandagon.net” in order to use the brand to mask “Radical Feminist” anti transsexual/transgender bigotry.
7. It appears as though the owner of the hijacked and rebranded domain is actually a male.
8. One of the “Radical Feminists” leading the attacks on transsexual/transgender people is a partner in a law firm that represents Wall Street, while she has been an advocate for the Payday Loan Sharking Industry.

Could “Radical Feminist” itself have been hijacked.  As a brand I thought it had pretty much died out in the 1980s after having played a major role in killing Second Wave Feminism.

Let’s face it Radical Feminism is pretty much a caricature of feminism.  It is as though some one took Rush Limbaugh’s term “Feminazi” and created a packaged movement that embodied that label.  This movement doesn’t appear to support women’s rights.  Doesn’t appear to campaign for reproductive rights.  Indeed the the much derided “Equity Feminists” seem to have much more focus on both the rights of women and gender equality than do the “Radical Feminists”.

Biology is Destiny

In the early days of Second Wave Feminism there was a button that read: “Biology is not Destiny!”  I know.  I had one.

Like many highly condensed memes, it was a catch phrase that could be unpacked in numerous ways and could be subjected to a multitude of subtextual readings.

Fast forward a bit and you have the so called “Radical Feminist” pretty much proclaiming biology is destiny with chromosomes and assignment at birth trumping all else.  this is at the core of biological essentialism.

Radical Feminists are absolute essentialists.  For them biology is destiny.  They may disguise their essentialism in blitherings about socialization but at the core their “womyn born womyn” ideology is essentialist.  Their idea of “socialization’ is about as based upon the actual process of socialization as “creation science” is based upon science.

They have a laser like aptitude for focusing on one particular definition of either the word sex or the word gender when both words have numerous dictionary approved definitions and/or readings.

The War on Women: Where are the “Radical Feminists”?

Women are currently undergoing a massive assault on their reproductive rights, they are having to fight the war against rape all over again and where are the so called “Radical Feminists”?

They are spending an inordinate amount of time attacking TS/TG people, a tiny minority group that is somehow undermining all womankind along with the foundations of society.

On the one hand TS/TG people are accused of destroying the differences between genders and on the other of being the main foundation of a binary gender structure that oppresses women.

The logical question would be, “How can TS/TG people be both the foundation and the destruction of some supposed gender binary that is itself somewhat of a social construct?”

Ahh… Janice Raymond, former Catholic nun and “Radical Feminist” put forth that basic dialectic nearly forty years ago when feminine trans-women were the supposed pillars of traditional sex roles, fembots being created to replace women who were becoming the feminist army.  While trans-women who were part of the feminist and often times lesbian feminist movements were spawns of Satan sent by the male overlords as a Fifth Column to destroy the feminist movement.

Attributing evil to a minority group and making scapegoats out of those who are relatively powerless is an old fascist trick.  Some of the other forms are racism, antisemitism, homophobia and yes misogyny.

In the mean time send messages of support to Amanda Marcotte.  She is good people and has a long history of standing against trans-hating bigotry.

From Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelangelo-signorile/targeting-glenn-greenwald_b_3779117.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices

Michelangelo Signorile
08/19/2013

In one sense Glenn Greenwald’s being gay has nothing to do with the work he’s done as a journalist and commentator, including the revelations of government surveillance he’s helped bring to light in recent months. On the other hand, as he’s stated himself, growing up gay has given him a keen awareness of injustice, and certainly that’s true with regard to a government collecting personal information about its citizens. More than that, Glenn’s being gay seems to have been used against him in recent months. One lurid report in June about his past involvement in an LLC that had a business interest in a gay porn company seemed like a ridiculously feeble attempt to dirty him up by using homophobia as a weapon.

Now Glenn’s relationship is being drawn into the spotlight, as his partner David Miranda, a Brazilian citizen, was detained for nine hours over the weekend at London’s Heathrow airport on his way from Berlin back to Rio, where he and Glenn live together. David was detained under Britain’s Terrorism Act and had his laptop, phone and all of his data confiscated and not returned, after he was held for almost half a day with the possibility of arrest. That’s an attack on every one of us who are journalists, and frankly, every one of us who are in relationships, gay or otherwise.

David is the partner of a journalist, not a journalist himself. The British government clearly believes it’s perfectly fine to target and intimidate journalists and their families and associates — their partners, husbands, wives, children, friends, colleagues — if it’s in the interest of its surveillance partner, the United States. More than 97 percent of those detained under this law are held less than an hour, while David was held for the maximum allowable time under the law and while he was clearly no terrorist threat of any kind.

I’ve known Glenn Greenwald for several years, having had him on my radio program regularly, including recently, discussing the NSA story and media coverage of it, and I once met his partner David. As Andrew Sullivan similarly notes, I can only imagine what it would be like to have my partner (yes, I recently got married but we haven’t quite settled on “husband” yet — more on that in a future blog post) detained by a government because of work I’ve done exposing wrongdoing on the part of that government or an ally.

Glenn is right in describing it as “designed to send a message of intimidation.” Some have already sloughed that off, claiming this action was too stupid to be a blatant attempt to threaten Glenn. That’s naive or just plain disingenuous. At this point, the governments involved are desperate to shut things down and don’t seem to care how arrogant, over-reaching or unbelievable they come off. If that were not true, President Obama wouldn’t have given a press conference in which he laughably argued that he was intent on stemming the NSA abuses anyway, before Edward Snowden came on the scene, and that he really, truly loves that we are having this debate.

Continue reading at:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelangelo-signorile/targeting-glenn-greenwald_b_3779117.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices

From Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-university-of-central-florida-forum/she-he-and-ze-all-have-th_b_3719380.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay%20Voices

By Leandra Preston-Sidler
UCF Forum columnist
08/07/2013

As a Women’s Studies instructor, I spend much of my professional life reading about, thinking about and discussing gender issues. As a feminist, I also devote much of my personal life to such endeavors.

And then this came up recently in the first online discussion of my summer “Introduction to Women’s Studies” course: A student proclaimed that in this day and age “gender does not matter anymore because androgyny and transgender issues are more visible and socially acceptable than ever.”

While I hated to burst her bubble of optimism about the state of gender today, my soon-to-arrive baby girl and the load of pink clothes I already have halfway through my pregnancy were just some of the reasons I intercepted her proclamations.

Visibility and social acceptability are not mutually exclusive. I see more discussions about transgender issues than ever on social media, in popular culture, in journal articles, and, thankfully, in the textbooks I use in my courses. We integrate such important issues around gender into our work and classrooms, not only in gender-based courses, but (I like to think) across the board. However, it is flat wrong to say that gender is a non-issue or that transgender as an identity is socially acceptable by the mainstream.

Gender is a primary determinate of who we are perceived to be, whether we agree with it and whether we identify with our preconceived gender determination. Class and race, among other categories, are also powerful determinates but those intersect with gender in specific ways so gender is always an issue.

From the time we are born, our sex and correlating gender expectations drive our paths through life. This is not to say we cannot disrupt or challenge those paths, but folks will try to get us back on the “right” one with all their might – and with varying consequences if we resist.

Issues around sex and gender have been heatedly floating around my social networking circles recently. An uncomfortable divide seems to be brewing among those who see feminist assertions around gender as a challenge to transgender identities, and vice-versa. Both feminist and trans issues call into question the notion of nature versus nurture regarding gender, and rightfully so. If individuals do not, cannot or will not fit into a distinct, predefined gender category or, as in some cases, feel they are “born into the wrong body,” gender as a social construct is further complicated.

This is a much larger issue but is one worthy of addressing on at least a cursory level and part of the response I gave my student about why gender as an issue still matters.

Continue reading at:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-university-of-central-florida-forum/she-he-and-ze-all-have-th_b_3719380.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay%20Voices

From Right Wing Watch:  http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/klingenschmitt-if-you-are-gay-then-you-should-be-discriminated-against

On his most recent “Pray In Jesus Name” program, “Dr. Chaps” Gordon Klingenschmitt added his voice to the never-ending Religious Right outrage over a proposed San Antonio anti-discrimination ordinance that would supposedly ban Christians for serving in public office or in any way working for the city.

From The Advocate:  http://www.advocate.com/society/people/2013/08/19/legendary-drag-queen-jos%C3%A9-julia-sarria-dead-91

Sarria was one of the first openly gay candidates to run for public office, and he founded the International Court System.

BY Sunnivie Brydum
August 19 2013

Legendary gay rights activist and founder of the Imperial Court System José Julia Sarria died this morning in his home in New Mexico, reports GLAAD. Sarria was 91.

Sarria was a World War II veteran who after being discharged in 1945 became the best-known drag queen in San Francisco, according to GLAAD’s retrospective. After winning first place at a drag competition in 1965, Sarria declared himself “Empress José I, The Widow Norton,” launching what would become the International Court System of the United States, one of the longest-standing LGBT philanthropic endeavors in the country. Today, there are Imperial Court Chapters in 68 cities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

But while Sarria was most famous for his drag performances and founding role in the International Court System, the out veteran also had a penchant for political activism. In 1961, Sarria helped form one of the first gay rights organizations in the country, the League for Civil Education, which was the first gay nonprofit registered in California. That same year, Sarria announced his candidacy for San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, making him the first openly gay man to seek public office and, advocates say, raising visibility and paving the way for Harvey Milk to eventually get elected as a San Francisco supervisor in 1977.

Milk’s nephew, who today leads the Harvey Milk Foundation, spoke fondly of his late uncle’s dear friend.

“José Sarria, founder of the International Court System showed us how to turn a night into a grand occasion and a grand occasion into a means of providing support,” said Stuart Milk in a statement today. “That support led so many who did not ‘fit in’ to actually proudly stand out, together, creating a local sense of community and an international network that would raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for local and major charities. He paved the way for my uncle Harvey Milk to run for public office by being the first openly gay man to put his name on the 1961 ballot and was right there to support Harvey’s first campaign in 1973. José’s extraordinary life on this earth has come to an end. And the extraordinary good that he did lives on. For the International Court System he was a guardian and an inspiration. For anyone who felt like they were different he was a defender of our dreams. He taught us how to turn an idea into action, how to wear a tiara, and how to laugh, and ultimately he taught us how to lift up and nourish a marginalized community. We will forever keep José in our history books and in our hearts.”

Continue reading at:  http://www.advocate.com/society/people/2013/08/19/legendary-drag-queen-jos%C3%A9-julia-sarria-dead-91

From The Guardian UK:  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/white-house-david-miranda-heads-up

US says it did not sanction holding Glenn Greenwald’s partner at Heathrow, but was told his name was on passenger list

Nicholas Watt, and Adam Gabbatt in New York
theguardian.com, Monday 19 August 2013

Britain was facing intense pressure on Monday to give a detailed explanation of the decision to detain the partner of the Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald after the White House confirmed that it was given a “heads-up” before David Miranda was taken into custody for nine hours at Heathrow.

As the UK’s anti-terror legislation watchdog called for a radical overhaul of the laws that allowed police to confiscate Miranda’s electronic equipment, the US distanced itself from the action by saying that British authorities took the decision to detain him.

The detailed intervention by the White House will put pressure on Downing Street which declined to comment on the detention of Miranda on the grounds that it was an operational matter, adding that the Metropolitan police would decide whether its officers had acted in a proportionate manner.

The No 10 position was immediately challenged by David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, who described the detention as unusual, and said that decisions about the proportionality were not ultimately for the police.

He told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One: “The police, I’m sure, do their best. But at the end of the day there is the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which can look into the exercise of this power, there are the courts and there is my function.”

The prospect of an investigation by the IPCC is likely to have been enhanced by the disclosure that the US authorities were given advanced notice of Miranda’s detention after his name appeared on a passenger manifest. Miranda was detained at Heathrow airport on Sunday morning as he flew home from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro where he lives with his partner Greenwald.

During his trip to Berlin, Miranda visited Laura Poitras, the US film-maker who has been working with Greenwald and the Guardian. The Guardian paid for Miranda’s flights. Miranda is not a Guardian employee but often assists Greenwald in his work.

Continue reading at:  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/white-house-david-miranda-heads-up

From Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/jimmy-carter-edward-snowden_n_3616930.html

By Nick Wing Posted: 07/18/2013

Former President Jimmy Carter announced support for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden this week, saying that his uncovering of the agency’s massive surveillance programs had proven “beneficial.”

Speaking at a closed-door event in Atlanta covered by German newspaper Der Spiegel, Carter also criticized the NSA’s domestic spying as damaging to the core of the nation’s principles.

“America does not have a functioning democracy at this point in time,” Carter said, according to a translation by Inquisitr.

No American outlets covered Carter’s speech, given at an Atlantic Bridge meeting, which has reportedly led to some skepticism over Der Spiegel’s quotes. But Carter’s stance would be in line with remarks he’s made on Snowden and the issue of civil liberties in the past.

In June, while Snowden was scrambling to send out asylum requests from an airport in Russia, Carter appeared to back the former NSA contractor’s efforts to remain out of U.S. custody.

“He’s obviously violated the laws of America, for which he’s responsible, but I think the invasion of human rights and American privacy has gone too far,” he told CNN, saying that nations were within their right to offer asylum to Snowden. “I think that the secrecy that has been surrounding this invasion of privacy has been excessive, so I think that the bringing of it to the public notice has probably been, in the long term, beneficial.”

Snowden has been hard-pressed to find support among U.S. politicians. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have declared Snowden a traitor who deserves to be prosecuted for his leaks. The White House has also been persistent in its attempts to bring him into custody. Last week, the administration criticized Russia for facilitating a meeting between Snowden and human rights activists. Snowden has since applied for temporary asylum in the nation, following complications surrounding transit to the Latin American nations that he’d been considering.

Continue reading at:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/jimmy-carter-edward-snowden_n_3616930.html

From The Guardian UK:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-schedule7-danger-reporters

As the events in a Heathrow transit lounge – and the Guardian offices – have shown, the threat to journalism is real and growing

Alan Rusbridger
The Guardian, Monday 19 August 2013

In a private viewing cinema in Soho last week I caught myself letting fly with a four-letter expletive at Bill Keller, the former executive editor of the New York Times. It was a confusing moment. The man who was pretending to be me – thanking Keller for “not giving a shit” – used to be Malcolm Tucker, a foul-mouthed Scottish spin doctor who will soon be a 1,000-year-old time lord. And Keller will correct me, but I don’t remember ever swearing at him. I do remember saying something to the effect of “we have the thumb drive, you have the first amendment”.

The fictional moment occurs at the beginning of the DreamWorks film about WikiLeaks, The Fifth Estate, due for release next month. Peter Capaldi is, I can report, a very plausible Guardian editor.

This real-life exchange with Keller happened just after we took possession of the first tranche of WikiLeaks documents in 2010. I strongly suspected that our ability to research and publish anything to do with this trove of secret material would be severely constrained in the UK. America, for all its own problems with media laws and whistleblowers, at least has press freedom enshrined in a written constitution. It is also, I hope, unthinkable that any US government would attempt prior restraint against a news organisation planning to publish material that informed an important public debate, however troublesome or embarrassing.

On Sunday morning David Miranda, the partner of Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald, was detained as he was passing through Heathrow airport on his way back to Rio de Janeiro, where the couple live. Greenwald is the reporter who has broken most of the stories about state surveillance based on the leaks from the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Greenwald’s work has undoubtedly been troublesome and embarrassing for western governments. But, as the debate in America and Europe has shown, there is considerable public interest in what his stories have revealed about the right balance between security, civil liberties, freedom of speech and privacy. He has raised acutely disturbing questions about the oversight of intelligence; about the use of closed courts; about the cosy and secret relationship between government and vast corporations; and about the extent to which millions of citizens now routinely have their communications intercepted, collected, analysed and stored.

In this work he is regularly helped by David Miranda. Miranda is not a journalist, but he still plays a valuable role in helping his partner do his journalistic work. Greenwald has his plate full reading and analysing the Snowden material, writing, and handling media and social media requests from around the world. He can certainly use this back-up. That work is immensely complicated by the certainty that it would be highly unadvisable for Greenwald (or any other journalist) to regard any electronic means of communication as safe. The Guardian’s work on the Snowden story has involved many individuals taking a huge number of flights in order to have face-to-face meetings. Not good for the environment, but increasingly the only way to operate. Soon we will be back to pen and paper.

Continue reading at:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-schedule7-danger-reporters

From Informed Comment:  http://www.juancole.com/2013/08/greenwald-terrorist-dictatorship.html

by Juan Cole
08/19/2013

How to turn a democracy into a STASI authoritarian state in 10 easy steps:

1. Misuse the concept of a Top Secret government document (say, the date of D-Day) and extend classification to trillions of mundane documents a year.

2. Classify all government crimes and violations of the Constitution as secret

3. Create a class of 4.5 million privileged individuals, many of them corporate employees, with access to classified documents but allege it is illegal for public to see leaked classified documents

4. Spy on the public in violation of the Constitution

5. Classify environmental activists as terrorists while allowing Big Coal and Big Oil to pollute and destroy the planet

6. Share info gained from NSA spying on public with DEA, FBI, local law enforcement to protect pharmaceuticals & liquor industry from competition from pot, or to protect polluters from activists

7. Falsify to judges and defense attorneys how allegedly incriminating info was discovered

8. Lie and deny to Congress you are spying on the public.

9. Criminalize the revelation of government crimes and spying as Espionage

10. Further criminalize whistleblowing as “Terrorism”, have compradors arrest innocent people, detain them, and confiscate personal effects with no cause or warrant (i.e. David Miranda, partner of Glenn Greenwald)

Presto, what looks like a democracy is really an authoritarian state ruling on its own behalf and that of 2000 corporations, databasing the activities of 312 million innocent citizens and actively helping destroy the planet while forestalling climate activism

From Truth Out: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18221-contradictions-of-global-neoliberalism

By Cliff DuRand
Monday, 19 August 2013

A world without democracy, ruled by a technocratic elite serving the interests of US and global capital – protecting “investor rights” against national laws and regulations – is now being created in secret negotiations over free-trade treaties, one of which, the TransPacific Parnership (TPP), may be sewn up this fall. Can popular will stop it?

For four decades now, we have seen corporate-led neoliberal globalization transforming nation-states into globalized states that serve the interests of transnational capital above the interests of national populations. This tendency has been strong in states both of the global North and of the global South. Everywhere sovereignty is being compromised. The ideal political system most suitable for such globalized states is polyarchy, since it legitimates relatively autonomous elite rule. However, even in such a managed “democracy,” there are moments when elites can be made accountable to national populations through the struggles of social movements. Occupy Wall Street was the beginning of such a social movement.

As philosopher Milton Fisk has argued in The State and Justice: An Essay in Political Theory, in the class-divided societies of capitalist countries, the function of the state is to maintain the social order. This means the political elite promotes the interests of the economically dominant class. This is due to what István Mészáros calls “the metabolic reproductive process” of capitalist society. However, to maintain governability, it is sometimes necessary to limit the benefits going to capital and to increase the benefits going to the popular classes. How far the elite moves in the direction of social justice depends on the level of the subject classes’ political activity. The elite’s default position is to favor the interests of capital, if only because the interests of the dominated classes depend on them.

A state is a democratic nation-state insofar as it represents the interests of the peoples it governs. That nation includes both the dominant class of capitalists and the dependent popular classes. The constellation of class forces within the nation at any given time directs the nation-state. The state mediates class relations, as, for instance, in constructing the class compromise of the capital-labor accord represented in the Fordist regime of production, a model of economic expansion named after Henry Ford.

Popular Sovereignty Gone with Globalization

However, with globalization, transnational corporate capital has leaped over the territorial and legal boundaries of the nation, and the state is following it. In so doing, the nation-state is morphing into a globalized state that serves the interests of transnational capital rather than any “own” national population. Contrary to what some have claimed, globalization has not weakened the state. In some respects, it has even strengthened it, particularly the executive branch. But globalization has weakened the state’s connection with its own citizens as the state follows capital into a new global economic system.

Continue reading at: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18221-contradictions-of-global-neoliberalism

From Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-chu/poisoning-the-well-at-wor_b_3779798.html?utm_hp_ref=green

Dan Chu
08/19/2013

This past weekend, my family and I camped at World’s End State Park in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Nestled at the bottom of a heavily forested canyon, the state park is a wonderland of streams, salamanders, trout, ruffed grouse, and ferns. I brought my family to World’s End to join a weekend convening of Sierra Club chapter and forest volunteers gathering to strategize about how to save the neighboring Loyalsock State Forest from proposals to drill hundreds of new gas wells in the heart of the forest. The Marcellus Shale Formation, rich in natural gas, lies below the forest at World’s End and much of Pennsylvania. The state is experiencing an unprecedented boom in new gas wells, driven by aggressive hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Climbing up to a high vista after a three-mile hike with some local Sierra Club members, we looked over verdant rolling hills of trees… and a new water containment pond, lined with white plastic. This pond holds over 20 million gallons of water that is transported by truck or pipeline to frack new gas wells. Fracking a new gas well requires that five million gallons of water — the equivalent of eight Olympic-sized swimming pools — mixed with chemicals, is pumped into the ground at high pressure to crack rock and release gas and oil. Most of this toxic soup remains in the ground, with a small amount coming back to the surface where it is collected and put into chemical waste ponds. In short, once-clean streams, pristine wetlands, productive farm land, and tranquil forests are being converted overnight into industrial dirty energy zones.

In 1859 the first oil well in the nation was drilled in Pennsylvania. Over the past 150 years, hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells have been drilled across the state, and today close to 10,000 wells sit abandoned as rusting holes in the ground seeping oil and gas. In some cases, these wells were drilled right in the middle of streams. Since the companies that drilled these wells have walked away, the mess is left for Pennsylvania’s taxpayers to clean up. Each abandoned well costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to plug with concrete. Most of these wells will likely never be plugged due to the cost and inaccessibility, leaving them to ooze oil and gas in perpetuity. Despite this nasty legacy, today, dirty energy companies are allowed to drill new wells with inadequate safeguards, and insufficient bonding for plugging wells and cleaning up after the life of the well is over.

While watching a film about the damage to human and ecological health from rampant drilling and fracking, I was shocked by the blatant disregard for homeowner property rights and health. Promises from dirty energy companies to homeowners of easy money are quickly replaced by a nightmare of drinking water contaminated with toxic fracking chemicals and giant gas flares spewing toxins into the air next to houses and schools. Complaints about headaches and undrinkable water are met with denial by state and industry leaders. Hiding the composition of fracking fluids from the public allows Halliburton and other drilling companies to deny any responsibility for toxins, such as benzene, found in people’s drinking water.

Continue reading at:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-chu/poisoning-the-well-at-wor_b_3779798.html?utm_hp_ref=green

From Food and Water Watch:  http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/protect-the-wayne-protect-our-planet-say-no-to-new-blm-fracking-rules/

By Heather Cantino
August 19th, 2013

My heart breaks when I think of the growing assaults on our commons –– on our air, our water and our public lands. In southeast Ohio, Wayne National Forest, Ohio’s only national forest, has been abused for decades. Extensive logging takes place under false pretenses as “ecological management.” The area has been assaulted by “prescribed” burns, which are not even appropriate in eastern forests. ATV trails increasingly riddle the land. Non-native species invade wherever there is a disturbance.

Recently, the Wayne National Forest faced an imminent gas and oil lease sale of over 3,000 acres, most of it in the Hocking River Valley. Maps of the parcels to be sold revealed all to be riddled with abandoned coalmines. Two cities in the watershed, Nelsonville and Athens, rely on the Hocking River aquifer as their sole-source drinking water supply.  The sale would threaten the drinking water of more than 70,000 people.

Thanks to legal expertise provided by Nathan Johnson of the Buckeye Forest Council and to public alerts by community activists, dozens of formal protests, including letters from local officials and Ohio University, were submitted to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency in charge of the sales process, in the final week before the October 7, 2011, public comment period deadline. The sale was canceled.

Despite further legal appeals by the Buckeye Forest Council and its state and national allies and by a dozen regional and national environmental groups, as well as thousands of petition signatures, rallies attended by hundreds of people and voluminous research and visits by community members and leaders, Wayne Supervisor Anne Carey concluded that a future lease sale could be conducted without an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This decision flew in the face of legal arguments that an EIS was necessary to evaluate risks of deep-shale drilling and high-volume horizontal fracturing. No new sale has been scheduled.

Our region, long a sacrifice zone, was heavily affected by nineteenth and twentieth century coal mining and is just beginning to recover with an attractive university, healthy tourism and a nationally recognized farmers’ market and local food economy. The fate of this newly flourishing community now lies with the BLM and President Obama, putting it in grave danger.

The BLM’s proposed rules for fracking on federal lands will not protect our water supplies from tens of thousands of pounds of undisclosed toxic chemicals, many of them known carcinogens or neurotoxins, used per frack. Casings inevitably leak, and acidic mine water makes well failure likely sooner rather than later.

Continue reading:  http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/protect-the-wayne-protect-our-planet-say-no-to-new-blm-fracking-rules/

From Grist:  http://grist.org/news/democrats-will-soon-have-a-big-fat-fight-over-fracking/

By Lisa Hymas
19 Aug 2013

Most Democratic politicians say nice things about renewable energy and less-nice things about coal and earnest things about the need for climate action. But when it comes to fracking for natural gas, Dems and enviros are increasingly at odds.

Exhibit A: President Obama. He’s provided unprecedented support for clean energy. He’s making moves to curb pollution from coal-fired power plants. He’s saying climate change is a top priority for his second term. But he’s just fine with fracking. His administration has yet to impose any regulations on the process; it’s only offered weak draft rules so far. It recently approved plans for a third project to export fracked natural gas. Obama thinks natural gas is part of the climate solution, a bridge fuel that will help us make the transition from coal and oil to renewables, as he made clear in his big climate speech in June:

We should strengthen our position as the top natural gas producer because, in the medium term at least, it not only can provide safe, cheap power, but it can also help reduce our carbon emissions. …

The bottom line is natural gas is creating jobs. It’s lowering many families’ heat and power bills. And it’s the transition fuel that can power our economy with less carbon pollution even as our businesses work to develop and then deploy more of the technology required for the even cleaner energy economy of the future.

Even California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), a long-time booster of clean energy and climate action, is open to fracking.

Continue reading at:  http://grist.org/news/democrats-will-soon-have-a-big-fat-fight-over-fracking/