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An issue of political vocabulary

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Since the beginning of awareness among decent people that the largest financial fraud in world history was occurring, Gretchen Morgenson at the New York Times and Gilian Tett at the Financial Times have been covering the story as honestly and fearlessly as Semour Hersh with New Yorker Magazine has covered Iraq and Afghanistan; and, as Hersh once remarked about his work, it looks like "an alternative history" compared with the constant bombardment of propaganda dished out by mainstream media ("real estate prices set to rise" in the near future, etc. etc.)

Immoral, unacceptable

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sunday, 17 April 2011

 
We've long known that the industrial chemists that create our pesticides test for one thing and one thing alone: how effective is the poison for the targeted pest. We know another thing: no pesticide ever annihilated any pests. Pests develop resistance which keeps the poisonmakers in business. A third thing we know is that the poisonmakers do not test for collateral damage to the environment or other species.

"If we compared our lives to the rich, we would die of heartbreak" -- Cabbie Wu, Zheng Zhou, China

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Friday, 15 April 2011

A story about China's bullet trains reminds us of what they are all about -- one more segregation by income group. Affluent Americans would much prefer to ride by flashy new bullet trains so that they too can be a part of solving the energy crisis. But we the people will of course have to build a separate train for them in the same way that we keep giving them unconsionable tax breaks.

Despite regulations, irrigators are still polluting ground and surface water

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, 5 April 2011

Below is a letter to Katherine Hart, Chair of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Region, concerning the failure of the present Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program Framework.
One of the more than 100 signatories to the letter summarized it by saying:

A new warning about genetically modified crops

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sunday, 3 April 2011

A stark and terrifying warning has been made by a reputable source concerning the health of RoundUp Ready crops -- corn, soybeans, and now alfalfa. Monsanto, manufacturer of the genetically modified seed, has of course launched its counter-attack against the warning, an effort involving political contributions, lobbying, and propaganda rather than scientific investigation.
The biotech corporate science has been good enough to modify the genetic structure of food crops but has not shown the same enthusiasm for investigating consequences of the radical biotechnology.

Spriggsy and the out-of-town demons

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Monday, 28 March 2011

Below lies an annotated version of our Mayor Spriggsy's attempt to boost Merced to the bunch of frat boys in the editorial offices at Forbes Magazine. It is pathetic because Spriggsy is caught in the very painful position of having to argue with his rightwing ideological betters, who have nominated Merced for the title of third most miserable city in America. It is an example of flak v. flak. Badlands comments are in italics.
Badlands Journal editorial board
 
3-22-11
Merced Sun-Star
William Spriggs: Opportunity, not misery

Revenge of the Ceres mayors

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Monday, 28 March 2011

When former Rep. Gary Condit went to Sacramento as an assemblyman, he formed with four other state assemblymen the "Gang of 5" that tried to oust Willie Brown from the speakership of the state Assembly. When former Rep. Tony Coelho resigned due to exposure for accepting a loan from Michael Milken, who served a prison sentence for high financial derring-do, Condit went to the House of Representatives, where he served a dozen years.

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