And, in our interconnectedness...

...shall we all flourish or die.

From Defenders of Wildlife:

Today, the Bush/Cheney Administration is stripping these amazing animals of vital federal protections, officially opening the door to the shooting, trapping, and killing of up to 1,200 wolves.

Under existing state management plans -- plans approved by the Bush Administration -- all but 300 hundred wolves could be killed. That’s 80% of the wild wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies!

As I wrote last month, federal officials already made it easier to kill wolves while they were still protected under the Endangered Species Act. Now they’re taking the final step, and eliminating these federal protections altogether.

Idaho officials want to use aerial gunning to kill wolves in their state. Wyoming agencies have left the door open to the use of traps and poison to eliminate wolves. And officials in both states -- and Montana -- have proposed wolf hunts.

States could start the killing by the end of March.

Please make a tax-deductible emergency donation right now and help support our work to save these wolves.

Mother, it is time for the 2-leggeds to reap what they have sown.

Every thing is connected...Elder's Meditation

Elder's Meditation of the Day - February 21,2008

"Every thing or living being that exists in this world, be it trees, flowers, birds, grasses, rocks, soil of the earth, or human beings, has its unique manner of existence --its essence, its spirit that makes it what it is. That is what is meant by connectedness."
--Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA

Scientists are finally realizing what the Elders have taught for thousands of years-every- thing is connected. Because everything is interconnected, whatever you do to any one thing, you do to everything. If you poison any part of the earth, the poison eventually affects everything else. If you poison the plants, the birds will eat the plants, which poisons the birds. The birds are eaten by humans which poisons the humans. The humans will have babies who could be deformed because the plants were poisoned. We must learn to live in harmony with the earth. We must learn to think good things. Every good thought is felt by everything, which causes everything to be happy.

Creator, let my thoughts only be good thoughts.

"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving
the Constitution of the United States as our
Fathers made it inviolate. The people of the
United States are the rightful masters of
both Congress and the Courts, not to
overthrow the Constitution, but to
overthrow the men who pervert
the Constitution."

- - Abraham Lincoln

True Costs of Shipping

According to the article in the Guardian, the true costs of shipping are much worse than previously suspected. They include not only the damage to the environment from the massive pollution they cause with oil spills and other toxic leaks, but also an immense addition to global warming, much more than most folks knew or guessed. Well, I sort of guessed.

snippet:

The true scale of climate change emissions from shipping is almost three times higher than previously believed, according to a leaked UN study seen by the Guardian.

It calculates that annual emissions from the world's merchant fleet have already reached 1.12bn tonnes of CO₂, or nearly 4.5% of all global emissions of the main greenhouse gas.

The report suggests that shipping emissions - which are not taken into account by European targets for cutting global warming - will become one of the largest single sources of man made CO₂after cars, housing, agriculture and industry. By comparison, the aviation industry, which has been under heavy pressure to clean up, is responsible for about 650m tonnes of CO₂emissions a year, just over half that from shipping.

For the rest of this rather damming article, go here.

How many hints does it take till we know that too many creatures have died?

"When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?"

Taxi To The Darkside

Looks to be an excellent documentary, one which lifts the veil on some of the many secrets this administration loves to keep from us. The theme is torture, one of my especial hatreds. Anyway, since it is a good film, up for all sorts of awards, and really should be seen by everyone, naturally, it will not be seen or heard of by many. Discovery channel is not helping, having just canceled the scheduled airing. Why? Because it is too "controversial." Bush always gets his way. Here is the link to the trailer:

Taxi To The Darkside

Re the Torture "Experiment"

Found an excellent article/argument on torture and the lovely kids who espouse its use on CommonDreams.org today. Written by Caroline Arnold and labeled "The Ticking Time Bomb Thought-Experiment," it is well worth a thorough read. I dearly love that Attorney General Mukasey is included in the experiment.

One of my favorite paragraphs goes as follows:

We need to ask ourselves why so many of us indulge in these brutal thought-experiments and engage with their underlying illogic, counterproductiveness and inhumanity. We need to understand how human weakness for bullying, hurting, power, revenge, and anger can be so easily exploited for power, profit and pleasure.

As anyone with half a brain surely realizes, waterboarding does not simulate drowning, it is drowning. Your lungs fill with water. That is drowning. I have posted, previously, a detailed article on what actually happens in waterboarding, which is a dying process, stopped just short of death when it works, or, not. Sometimes the victim has to be resuscitated. Sometimes, more than once. It is extremely painful, and, I, for one, would say anything to avoid or stop the process were it directed at me. What would you do? Hum?

You May Shoot To Kill

Every time I think I have heard the scariest news yet, I hear something scarier.
From Alternet:

FBI Deputizes Private Contractors With Extraordinary Powers, Including 'Shoot to Kill'
By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive. Posted February 8, 2008

Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does -- and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to "shoot to kill" in the event of martial law. InfraGard is "a child of the FBI," says Michael Hershman, the chairman of the advisory board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance and CEO of the Fairfax Group, an international consulting firm.

InfraGard started in Cleveland back in 1996, when the private sector there cooperated with the FBI to investigate cyber threats.

"Then the FBI cloned it," says Phyllis Schneck, chairman of the board of directors of the InfraGard National Members Alliance, and the prime mover behind the growth of InfraGard over the last several years.

re info given to Infragard member at meeting:

"The meeting started off innocuously enough, with the speakers talking about corporate espionage," he says. "From there, it just progressed. All of a sudden we were knee deep in what was expected of us when martial law is declared. We were expected to share all our resources, but in return we'd be given specific benefits." These included, he says, the ability to travel in restricted areas and to get people out. But that's not all.

"Then they said when -- not if -- martial law is declared, it was our responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn't be prosecuted," he says.

For the rest of this frightening article, go here.

Another US & World Water Crisis Report

From Alternet, one of my daily news sources, comes this report:

How Global Warming Will Affect the Water Crisis

Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet at 3:50 PM on February 7, 2008.

Here's an important heads up: Things are going to get more bleak in the U.S. when it comes to available fresh water.

Here's what the UK's Telegraph had to say:

An impending crisis in America's water supply is signalled by a study that concludes more than half of the recent decline seen in the west can be linked to human activities. Scientists have been documenting significant changes in water flow in the western United States for the past 50 years. Now it has been found that to 60 percent of the changes in river flow, snow pack and winter air temperatures in the region during this period can be attributed to human-caused climate change.

Dr Tim Barnett of the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues conclude that for the inhabitants, from Seattle to Los Angeles, the results "are not good news" and call for immediate action to secure future supplies.

The report came from the journal, Science, and it also said there would be shifts in water supply worldwide. That's the funny thing about climate change. The winners would likely be "Eurasia, Alaska, Canada, and some tropical regions," with more water. Losers, where there would be substantial decline in water availabity, would be "southern Europe, the Middle East, southern Africa and southwestern North America."

For the rest of the article, go to the above link.

Not a surprise, I would say, to those of us following the global warming/world water supply situation. Still, it is another piece of news for the USA and the world to digest. It also helps to explain to me why Maine has become the new England(or Oregon),with milder wet weather dominating the daily weather scene yet again this winter. Keeps getting weirder every day, every season, every year.

Way to go, Vermont!

Maybe I should move there? Just love those independent, brave, and zesty Vermonters.
From Alternet:
Vermont Town Heavily Backs Proposal to Issue Arrest Warrants for Bush, Cheney
Posted by Adam Howard, AlterNet at 9:10 AM on February 6, 2008.

Since Pelosi, Reid and the other Democratic leaders in Congress appear to be too afraid to hold Bush and Cheney responsible for their numerous crimes, the Vermont town of Brattleboro has taken matters into its own hands:

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. - The tone has changed in e-mails this Vermont town has been receiving on its proposal to issue warrants for the arrests of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Now, more people are supporting the resolution.

Brattleboro's town offices have been flooded with 7,000 e-mails since its selectboard voted Jan. 25 to include the item on its Town Meeting Day agenda.

For the rest of the article, go to the above link.
Would it not be wonderful if all the states, or, at least, a majority of the states, were to follow in kind? We could say "goodbye" and "good riddance" to the 2 biggest crooks/scoundrels in the world.

Urgent Alert re Polar Bears

From World Wildlife Conservation Action Network, this:

In only three days, on February 6, the Department of the Interior plans to move ahead with leasing nearly 30 million acres in Alaska's pristine Chukchi Sea for oil and gas activities.
Together, the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas support an estimated one-fifth of the world's polar bear population. The polar bear's existence is already threatened by the impact of climate change-induced loss of sea ice. Its chances for survival will be greatly diminished if much of its remaining critical habitat is turned into a vast oil and gas field. The Chukchi Sea lease must be halted until protective measures are in place for the polar bear.

Go to this site and TAKE ACTION! This must be done immediately.

Do it for the bears, do it for Mother, do it for survival.

Low numbers for Salmon run

San Francisco Chronicle
Salmon arriving in record low numbers
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Central Valley fall run of chinook salmon apparently has collapsed, portending sharp fishing restrictions and rising prices for consumers while providing further evidence that the state's water demands are causing widespread ecological damage.

The bad news for commercial and sport fishermen and the salmon-consuming public surfaced Tuesday when a fisheries-management group warned that the numbers of the bay's biggest wild salmon run had plummeted to near record lows.

In April, the Pacific Fishery Management Council will set restrictions on the salmon season, which typically starts in May. A shortage could drive up the price of West Coast wild salmon. The council's leaders said the news is troubling because normally healthy runs of Central Valley chinook salmon are heavily relied upon by fishermen. Runs on the other river systems historically have been smaller.

"The low returns are particularly distressing since this stock has consistently been the healthy 'workhorse' for salmon fisheries off California and most of Oregon," the council's executive director, Donald McIsaac, said in a statement Tuesday."

Rest of article here.


And so it goes. Poor fish, poor humans, poor Mother.