September 11th
How We Got From 9/11 To A $52.6 Billion Intelligence “Black Budget”: September 11th’s sobering and historical significance is complicated by the troubling domestic policy developments that have followed it. Both the Bush and Obama administrations have used the attacks as a touchstone from which to launch an unprecedented catalogue surveillance programs that journalists have only recently begun to get a handle on. Mother Jones has a concise timeline on how the attacks were causal to what appears to be an increasingly invasive federal government. Read more here.
Instead Of College, You Should Have Bought 27 Shetland Ponies: The average working stiff fresh out of today’s four-year college has $27,200 in student debt. What could you have bought instead of that humanities degree, which you are now pulling espresso shots to pay off? How about three crystal-encrusted Hello Kitty figures. Or two smart cars. Stoke your guilt here. On a related note, the right-wing group ALEC just lost the student loan servicer Sallie Mae, so yes maybe there is hope for the plight of college debt.
Banned Toxin Found In 98 Shampoos: What is cocamide diethanolamine? It’s a chemically modified form of coconut oil used as a thickener or foaming agent. But really all you need to know that it causes cancer. And that it’s found in shampoos, soaps and other hygiene products commonly sold by Walgreens, Trader Joe’s and Kohls. As a result, the Center for Environmental Health is suing the four companies that make or sell these products that could potentially you know kill you. Read more here.
September 10th
Randy Thompson Quoted in The Globe and Mail: “The Harper government wants to have its cake and eat it too,” said pipeline opponent and comrade Randy Thompson. He was one of the many voices against the Keystone XL pipeline left out of a meeting between Canadian and American officials called to discuss TransCanada’s embattled project. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver met with Obama’s Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to talk join greenhouse-gas emissions and follow up with a letter from Prime Minister Stephen Harper to POTUS pushing for an advance on the project. Though the appearance was sanitized by shutting out KXL protesters — who have been reliably visible and vocal at such hearings — opponents managed to get their voices heard through The Globe and Mail’s coverage, which you can find here.
Neil Young Joins KXL Opposition: One of the most iconic voices in music also appeared in the Globe and Mail saying “Fort McMurray(, Alberta) looks like Hiroshima” adding the tar sands extraction site “is a wasteland. The Indians up there and the natives are dying.” Ladies and gentlemen, Neil Young. Watch a video of the interview here.
Draw The Line with 350.org, BOLD: Saturday, Sept. 21, we’re holding a rally at the barn we parked on top of the KXL near York as part of 350.org’s “Draw the Line” national protest day. We’re one of 150 meetings registered in 45 states. Tom Steyer — a philanthropist responsible for the anti-KXL media blitz — and Julia Trigg-Crawford — a landowner taking TransCanada to the Texas Supreme Court — will be among our guests Saturday. Join us.
September 9th
TransCanada Pays Big To Screw Up Your Roads: Texas county officials sound unusually happy about damages done to their roads building the Keystone XL. Ruts and breaks in the road are prompting TransCanada to pay out over $400,000 for damage on 11 county roads. “It’s a rather large check,” one county official said. “It was nice to get.” TransCanada’s largesse at work, boys and girls. Read more here.
KXL TV Spots Win Sunday Morning Spots: “Here’s the truth: Keystone oil will travel through America not to America,” says philanthropist and pipeline fighter Tom Steyer in one of the four 90-second spot running for the the next four weeks during the infamous Sunday morning political programs (when did Sunday mornings get so political?). The ads go with NextGen Climate Action’s online video series “People in the Path” (of the pipeline, that is). Read more here and check out the first spot here.
WE MADE SO MUCH MONEY: But mainly we had lots of fun at the Pies Against the Pipeline Bake Sale. Overall, we raised $817. We’re hoping CREDO will match our sales to, duh, get us more money and less pipeline. Check out the photos from the event here.
