Do any of the Tea Baggers wonder why the Koch Brothers fund the Tea Party???
Banana Republic anyone?
Have Americans lost the ability to THINK?
Monday, December 31, 2012
VooDoo Economics or Progress? Koch's Tea Baggers...?
Do any of the Tea Baggers wonder why the Koch Brothers fund the Tea Party???
Banana Republic anyone?
Have Americans lost the ability to THINK?
MA DEP's Skewed Priorities
Lynne Pledger, solid waste director for Clean Water Action, one of the many environmental groups against the state’s plan: “Of course if we didn’t put banned material in landfills, there would be more room. . . . The fact is these [new incineration] technologies are going to compete with recycling for paper, cardboard, and plastics.”
Massachusetts proposes loosening moratorium on incinerators
Plan to burn waste opposed; state disputed on safeguards for environment
By Beth Daley
Globe Staff / December 30, 2012
A state plan to loosen a nearly quarter-century moratorium on new waste incinerators is reigniting a long-simmering trash war in Massachusetts over how to deal with the vast amounts of garbage that residents and businesses generate each day.
State officials say landfill space is already so tight that Massachusetts is forced to export significant amounts of trash. By the end of the decade, space will be so scarce that the state could export as much as 18 percent of the garbage it generates.
To ease the landfill crunch, officials want to allow new technologies on a limited scale that would turn waste into energy and not emit as many harmful air pollutants as traditional incinerators.
Yet environmentalists are ardently opposed, arguing that the state could find more space for garbage if it stopped allowing banned materials such as recyclables, yard debris, and wood into landfills and incinerators. At the South Hadley Landfill in October, for example, there were at least 50 truckloads of banned material dumped in the landfill, according to town officials.
Environmentalists maintain that the new technologies are unproved and environmentally unsound and that loosening the incinerator moratorium will mean the state will not work harder to reduce waste.
“New technologies are proposed all the time, but thus far none of them have been proven safe and effective in removing harmful air pollution,’’ said Sue Reid, director of the Massachusetts office of
Conservation Law Foundation, a Boston-based legal environmental advocacy group.
State officials will probably decide whether to ease the moratorium within 30 to 60 days after receiving public comment through Feb. 15 as part of finalizing a solid-waste master plan for the state. Taunton officials are already hoping to bring such a facility to their community.
Garbage woes are nothing new in Massachusetts, which boasts some of the country’s most ambitious efforts to reduce garbage. The state, for instance, will begin banning some commercial food waste from landfills and the seven existing incinerators in 2014. But Massachusetts has experienced problems achieving those reduction goals.
The state lifted a moratorium on landfills in 2000 because of a growing realization that more space was needed for garbage, but no new landfills have been built because of a lack of space and opposition from local communities. The state has periodically reviewed its 1990 incinerator moratorium, most recently in 2009, when officials decided to keep the moratorium in part because new technologies to burn garbage in an environmentally safe way remained unproved.
Instead of traditional incineration that emits copious pollutants into the air, technologies called gasification or pyrolysis convert garbage into liquid fuels or gas that is clean and renewable and with less air pollution, he said. No such commercial technology operates in the United States, environmentalists say, which is why they are skeptical.
Kimmell said loosening the rules would allow a trial of the technology and only consume up to 350,000 tons of garbage a year out of 10 million to 11 million tons Massachusetts residents and businesses generate each year. Recyclables or banned material would not be allowed, and the facilities would have to adhere to strict air-quality rules.
Although Kimmell acknowledged a problem with enforcement of banned and recyclable material being dumped in landfills, he said the issue was unrelated to needing more ways to get rid of garbage.
Still, he pledged to expand a pilot program to require third-party independent “spotters” paid for by the state’s 230 transfer stations, landfills, and incinerators to document trucks that dump significant amounts of banned material. State environmental officials will follow up with enforcement, he said.
But environmentalists — and even a former state inspector — say they do not know how the state will guarantee that recyclables and banned materials will not be fed into new facilities, or even old landfills, if so much is getting in now.Continued...
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/12/31/massachusetts-proposes-loosening-moratorium-incinerators/OQq5vWwWKzmGXBJ6NVkOTP/story.html
State officials say landfill space is already so tight that Massachusetts is forced to export significant amounts of trash. By the end of the decade, space will be so scarce that the state could export as much as 18 percent of the garbage it generates.
To ease the landfill crunch, officials want to allow new technologies on a limited scale that would turn waste into energy and not emit as many harmful air pollutants as traditional incinerators.
Yet environmentalists are ardently opposed, arguing that the state could find more space for garbage if it stopped allowing banned materials such as recyclables, yard debris, and wood into landfills and incinerators. At the South Hadley Landfill in October, for example, there were at least 50 truckloads of banned material dumped in the landfill, according to town officials.
Environmentalists maintain that the new technologies are unproved and environmentally unsound and that loosening the incinerator moratorium will mean the state will not work harder to reduce waste.
“New technologies are proposed all the time, but thus far none of them have been proven safe and effective in removing harmful air pollution,’’ said Sue Reid, director of the Massachusetts office of
Conservation Law Foundation, a Boston-based legal environmental advocacy group.
State officials will probably decide whether to ease the moratorium within 30 to 60 days after receiving public comment through Feb. 15 as part of finalizing a solid-waste master plan for the state. Taunton officials are already hoping to bring such a facility to their community.
Garbage woes are nothing new in Massachusetts, which boasts some of the country’s most ambitious efforts to reduce garbage. The state, for instance, will begin banning some commercial food waste from landfills and the seven existing incinerators in 2014. But Massachusetts has experienced problems achieving those reduction goals.
The state lifted a moratorium on landfills in 2000 because of a growing realization that more space was needed for garbage, but no new landfills have been built because of a lack of space and opposition from local communities. The state has periodically reviewed its 1990 incinerator moratorium, most recently in 2009, when officials decided to keep the moratorium in part because new technologies to burn garbage in an environmentally safe way remained unproved.
Now, state officials say the situation is dire. In 2010, Massachusetts landfills had space left for about 2 million tons of garbage. By 2020, landfills will have room remaining for less than 600,000 tons. Without increased recycling, waste reduction, composting, or more space in Massachusetts landfills, garbage exports are projected to rise to 2 million tons a year by 2020.
“Even if we hit these extremely aggressive recycling targets, we would have still have a capacity problem,” said Kenneth Kimmell, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection. He said emerging technologies could help the state get rid of garbage that cannot be recycled.
Instead of traditional incineration that emits copious pollutants into the air, technologies called gasification or pyrolysis convert garbage into liquid fuels or gas that is clean and renewable and with less air pollution, he said. No such commercial technology operates in the United States, environmentalists say, which is why they are skeptical.
Kimmell said loosening the rules would allow a trial of the technology and only consume up to 350,000 tons of garbage a year out of 10 million to 11 million tons Massachusetts residents and businesses generate each year. Recyclables or banned material would not be allowed, and the facilities would have to adhere to strict air-quality rules.
Although Kimmell acknowledged a problem with enforcement of banned and recyclable material being dumped in landfills, he said the issue was unrelated to needing more ways to get rid of garbage.
Still, he pledged to expand a pilot program to require third-party independent “spotters” paid for by the state’s 230 transfer stations, landfills, and incinerators to document trucks that dump significant amounts of banned material. State environmental officials will follow up with enforcement, he said.
But environmentalists — and even a former state inspector — say they do not know how the state will guarantee that recyclables and banned materials will not be fed into new facilities, or even old landfills, if so much is getting in now.Continued...
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/12/31/massachusetts-proposes-loosening-moratorium-incinerators/OQq5vWwWKzmGXBJ6NVkOTP/story.html
Austerity
When you fail to learn from history, you are destined to repeat it.
UK austerity policies a cautionary tale
By Megan Woolhouse
Globe Staff / December 29, 2012
SALISBURY, England — Trussell Trust was founded here more than a decade ago to help starving children in Bulgaria, but in recent years the nonprofit has expanded its mission dramatically in a once-unthinkable direction, opening more than 200 food banks across the United Kingdom.
This year alone, the centers have distributed free groceries to about 130,000 British families, more than double the number in 2011.
“The fact that people need food in 21st-century Britain is certainly shocking,” said Molly Hodson, a spokeswoman for the trust, as she sorted canned beans at the Trussell Trust clearinghouse recently.
“This is a time of crisis in the UK.”
As US political leaders debate tax increases and spending cuts to close the nation’s budget deficit, England is implementing deep cuts in government spending as part of a multiyear plan to halt a widening budget gap and and preserve the country’s AAA credit rating. But two years of austerity have backfired as a struggling economy slipped back into recession and a plan that was supposed to bring deficits under control within five years will take longer than predicted.
“An austerity drive now would raise our already painfully high unemployment rate and might trigger another recession,” said economist Peter Diamond, a Nobel laureate and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If the cuts are big enough, it can derail the economy and set it back, which is what we are seeing in Britain.”
The government estimated 66,000 public jobs would be lost in the first two years of austerity, but so far about 372,000 have been eliminated, according to Lombard Street Research, a London forecasting firm.
“It’s a hard road, but we are getting there,” Osborne told the House of Commons. “Britain is on the right track — and turning back now would be a disaster.”
The British economy had appeared to be recovering from its own housing bust and financial crisis, but spending cuts enacted in 2010 began to take a toll by the end of that year, and Britain slipped into a double-dip recession.
“The consumer died, and at the same time, Europe, the UK’s biggest trading partner, went into a tailspin,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics a forecasting firm in Valhalla, N.Y.Continued...
http://www.boston.com/business/news/2012/12/30/austerity-policies-cautionary-tale/FK8sLfyeywNfX1O7sliReN/story.html
This year alone, the centers have distributed free groceries to about 130,000 British families, more than double the number in 2011.
“The fact that people need food in 21st-century Britain is certainly shocking,” said Molly Hodson, a spokeswoman for the trust, as she sorted canned beans at the Trussell Trust clearinghouse recently.
“This is a time of crisis in the UK.”
As US political leaders debate tax increases and spending cuts to close the nation’s budget deficit, England is implementing deep cuts in government spending as part of a multiyear plan to halt a widening budget gap and and preserve the country’s AAA credit rating. But two years of austerity have backfired as a struggling economy slipped back into recession and a plan that was supposed to bring deficits under control within five years will take longer than predicted.
In many ways, it is a cautionary tale for political leaders in Washington who face a Jan. 1 deadline to reach a budget compromise before a series of automatic spending cuts and tax increases take effect. About $500 billion in US government spending cuts will take effect unless President Obama and Congress reach an agreement.
Some economists, noting England’s malaise, said such measures would defy generally accepted economic views that cutting spending at a time of economic weakness only hurts the economy more.
“An austerity drive now would raise our already painfully high unemployment rate and might trigger another recession,” said economist Peter Diamond, a Nobel laureate and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If the cuts are big enough, it can derail the economy and set it back, which is what we are seeing in Britain.”
Britain’s Parliament, led by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, enacted steep spending reductions when his coalition government took office in 2010. Most departments were required to slash at least 25 percent from their budgets, shaving $180 billion from the nation’s $1.4 trillion debt.
The government estimated 66,000 public jobs would be lost in the first two years of austerity, but so far about 372,000 have been eliminated, according to Lombard Street Research, a London forecasting firm.
The Cameron government also imposed a wage freeze for all but the lowest tiers of government workers, tougher requirements to qualify for public housing and disability payments, and massive cuts to the welfare system.
At the same time, the sales tax on most goods and services was raised to 20 percent from 17.5 percent and capital gains taxes on investments increased to 28 percent. Corporate taxes were reduced to 24 percent from 28 percent over five years to encourage business growth and hiring.
Cameron said the measures were necessary for a nation facing its largest-ever peacetime debt, a financial abyss that grew deeper after a massive taxpayer bailout of the nation’s banking industry in 2008 and 2009.
The government and its supporters concede that these steps are painful in the short term, but argue they will maintain the confidence of financial markets, attract business and investment, and lead to prosperity, much as the austerity policies of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s revived a moribund British economy.
Earlier this month, George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer, the government’s top financial official, announced that austerity measures would need to be extended into 2018 because of a slower recovery than forecast, which he blamed on the broader economic slowdown in Europe. But Osborne asserted that the bitter economic medicine was beginning to show results, as evidenced by the flow of investment into British government bonds, a sign of increasing confidence in the UK economy.
“It’s a hard road, but we are getting there,” Osborne told the House of Commons. “Britain is on the right track — and turning back now would be a disaster.”
The British economy had appeared to be recovering from its own housing bust and financial crisis, but spending cuts enacted in 2010 began to take a toll by the end of that year, and Britain slipped into a double-dip recession.
“The consumer died, and at the same time, Europe, the UK’s biggest trading partner, went into a tailspin,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics a forecasting firm in Valhalla, N.Y.Continued...
http://www.boston.com/business/news/2012/12/30/austerity-policies-cautionary-tale/FK8sLfyeywNfX1O7sliReN/story.html
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Suck it up!
The Dirty Energy Movers and Shakers and Financial Backers of the Tea Baggers have spoken!
See where this is going?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/24/1173589/-David-Koch-fights-Sandy-nbsp-relief?detail=email#
See where this is going?
Mon Dec 24, 2012
David Koch fights Sandy relief
attribution: Dreamstime
Billionaire David Koch’s prime political organization, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), having failed in its$125 million quest to oust President Barack Obama, is now aiming at a slightly less sophisticated political target: victims of Hurricane Sandy. [...]Earlier this week, AFP, which is chaired by Koch and believed to be financed by several other plutocrats from the New York City region, released a letter warning members of Congress not to vote for the proposed federal aid package for victims of the storm that swept New Jersey, New York City and much of the surrounding area in October. An announcement on the group’s website says that the vote next week for the Sandy aid package will be a “key vote”—meaning senators who support sending money for reconstruction could face an avalanche of attack ads in their next election. Already, opposition to the bill is growing, although it passed one procedural hurdle last [Friday] night. [...]Fight David Koch. Tell you senator to pass Sandy relief.
Koch’s top deputy in New Jersey, a surly gentleman named Steve Lonegan, who heads the local AFP state chapter, called the aid package a “disgrace.” “This is not a federal government responsibility,” Lonegan told reporters. “We need to suck it up and be responsible for taking care of ourselves.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/24/1173589/-David-Koch-fights-Sandy-nbsp-relief?detail=email#
National Rifle Association moves to block UN treaty on gun control
Will Americans ever tire of following like sheep?
National Rifle Association moves to block UN treaty on gun control
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/28/nra-block-un-treaty-gun-control
National Rifle Association moves to block UN treaty on gun control
Not content with blocking gun safety laws to prevent US shooting massacres, the NRA is working to thwart international action
Medea Benjamin of Code Pink is removed by a security guard during a speech by Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association during a news conference in Washington. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters
While the final funerals for the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut school massacre have been held, gun violence continues apace, most notably with the Christmas Eve murder of two volunteer firefighters in rural Webster, New York, at the hands of an ex-convict who was armed, as was the Newtown shooter Adam Lanza, with a Bushmaster .223 caliber AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. James Holmes, the alleged perpetrator of the massacre last July in Aurora, Colorado, stands accused of using, among other weapons, a Smith & Wesson AR-15 with a 100-round drum in place of a standard magazine clip.
Standing stalwartly against any regulation of these weapons and high-capacity magazines, the National Rifle Association continues to block any gun control laws whatsoever, and even trumpets its efforts to block the global arms trade treaty, slated for negotiations at the United Nations this March.
On Christmas Eve, the same day as the attack in Webster, the UN general assembly voted to move ahead with 10 days of negotiations on the arms trade treaty, to commence 18 March. Recall it was last July that the Obama administration said it "needed more time" to review the proposed treaty, effectively killing any hope of getting a treaty passed and sent back to member nations for ratification. This was just one week after the Aurora massacre, and in the heat of a close presidential election campaign.
The NRA succeeded in helping to scuttle the global arms trade treaty, delivering to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a letter opposing the treaty signed by 50 US senators, including eight Democrats, and 130 members of the House of Representatives.
The global treaty shouldn't be controversial. By signing on, governments agree not to export weapons to countries that are under an arms embargo, or to export weapons that would facilitate "the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes" or other violations of international humanitarian law. Exports of arms are banned if they will facilitate "gender-based violence or violence against children" or be used for "transnational organized crime".
The treaty deals with international exports of weapons and ammunition, not any nation's internal, domestic laws that govern the sale or use of guns.
Amnesty International last week called on the NRA to "immediately drop its campaign of distortions and lies about the pending United Nations' global arms trade treaty". Amnesty USA's Michelle Ringuette elaborated:
The first banner, held by Tighe Barry, read "NRA Killing Our Kids". Barry held the banner in front of the podium, silently, as LaPierre tried to continue his speech. Barry was then pulled out. After LaPierre resumed his speech, Medea Benjamin rose, holding a banner reading, "NRA: Blood on your hands", after which she was hauled away.
Two days later, on NBC's Meet the Press, LaPierre denied that regulating semiautomatic weapons or high-capacity magazines would help stem the epidemic of mass shootings in this country.
The NRA exerts enormous influence over state and federal gun regulation. Andrew Feinstein, who wrote the book The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade, told me:
• Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
Standing stalwartly against any regulation of these weapons and high-capacity magazines, the National Rifle Association continues to block any gun control laws whatsoever, and even trumpets its efforts to block the global arms trade treaty, slated for negotiations at the United Nations this March.
On Christmas Eve, the same day as the attack in Webster, the UN general assembly voted to move ahead with 10 days of negotiations on the arms trade treaty, to commence 18 March. Recall it was last July that the Obama administration said it "needed more time" to review the proposed treaty, effectively killing any hope of getting a treaty passed and sent back to member nations for ratification. This was just one week after the Aurora massacre, and in the heat of a close presidential election campaign.
The NRA succeeded in helping to scuttle the global arms trade treaty, delivering to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a letter opposing the treaty signed by 50 US senators, including eight Democrats, and 130 members of the House of Representatives.
The global treaty shouldn't be controversial. By signing on, governments agree not to export weapons to countries that are under an arms embargo, or to export weapons that would facilitate "the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes" or other violations of international humanitarian law. Exports of arms are banned if they will facilitate "gender-based violence or violence against children" or be used for "transnational organized crime".
The treaty deals with international exports of weapons and ammunition, not any nation's internal, domestic laws that govern the sale or use of guns.
Amnesty International last week called on the NRA to "immediately drop its campaign of distortions and lies about the pending United Nations' global arms trade treaty". Amnesty USA's Michelle Ringuette elaborated:
"Every day, 1,500 people die in armed conflicts around the world – one person every minute. These unregulated weapons are used to force tens of thousands of children into armed conflict and to rape women and girls in conflict zones. More than 26 million people around the globe are forced from their homes, and their livelihoods destroyed, by armed conflict.NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre rolled out his public response to the Newtown massacre one week after it happened, blaming the violence on "monsters" and everything from video games to hurricanes, but not allowing that guns and their ready availability in the US might have something to do with it. At his press conference, LaPierre was twice dramatically interrupted by peace activists from the group Code Pink.
"The NRA must immediately stand down on its campaign to block a global arms trade treaty."
The first banner, held by Tighe Barry, read "NRA Killing Our Kids". Barry held the banner in front of the podium, silently, as LaPierre tried to continue his speech. Barry was then pulled out. After LaPierre resumed his speech, Medea Benjamin rose, holding a banner reading, "NRA: Blood on your hands", after which she was hauled away.
Two days later, on NBC's Meet the Press, LaPierre denied that regulating semiautomatic weapons or high-capacity magazines would help stem the epidemic of mass shootings in this country.
The NRA exerts enormous influence over state and federal gun regulation. Andrew Feinstein, who wrote the book The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade, told me:
"I have not seen anywhere else in the world a gun lobby that has the same level of influence on its own government as the NRA does in the United States …From the hallways of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, to Afghanistan, to Somalia, the flood of US weapons and ammunition fuels violence, death and injury. President Obama and Congress need to take action, now.
"The US buys and sells almost as much weaponry as the rest of the world combined. So what happens in the U.S. is going to have enormous impact on the rest of the world."
• Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/28/nra-block-un-treaty-gun-control
“Gun Deaths in America Since Newtown.”
Pathetic commentary on what America has become!
By Chris Kirk and Dan Kois
Posted Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012
Read more on Slate about gun control.
Since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, we at Slate have been wondering how many people are dying from guns in America every day.
That information is surprisingly hard to come by. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, for example, has a tally atop its website of “people shot in America.” That number, though, is an estimate, based on the number of gun injuries and deaths recorded by the CDC in 2008 and 2009, the most recent years for which statistics are available. It seems shocking that when guns are in the headlines every day, there’s no one attempting to create a real-time chronicle of the deaths attributable to guns in the United States.
Well, someone is. Since this summer, the anonymous creator of the Twitter feed @GunDeaths has been doing his best to compile those statistics, tweeting every reported death he can find. He was inspired, he told us in a phone interview, by the Aurora, Colo., shootings and simply wanted to call daily attention to the toll that guns take. Now Slate is partnering with @GunDeaths to create this interactive feature, “Gun Deaths in America Since Newtown.”
[Sad graphics available on the link below.]
Each victim under 13 years of age is designated "child"; from 13 to 17: "teen"; 18 and older: "adult."
Of course, this data is incomplete. Not all reports get caught by @GunDeaths’ news alerts or his followers. Suicides, which are estimated to make up as much as 60 percent of gun deaths, typically go unreported. Nevertheless, we at Slate want to assemble this data as best we can.
And the more people who are paying attention, the better the data will be. You can help us draw a more complete picture of gun violence in America. If you know about a gun death in your community that isn’t represented here, please tweet @GunDeaths with a citation, and he’ll add it to his feed. (If you’re not on Twitter, you can email slatedata@gmail.com.) His data feeds our interactive feature.
And if you’d like to use this data yourself for your own projects, it’s open. You can download it here.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html
How Many People Have Been Killed by Guns Since Newtown?
Slate partners with @GunDeaths for an interactive, crowdsourced tally of the toll firearms have taken since Dec. 14.
By Chris Kirk and Dan Kois
Posted Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012
Read more on Slate about gun control.
Since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, we at Slate have been wondering how many people are dying from guns in America every day.
That information is surprisingly hard to come by. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, for example, has a tally atop its website of “people shot in America.” That number, though, is an estimate, based on the number of gun injuries and deaths recorded by the CDC in 2008 and 2009, the most recent years for which statistics are available. It seems shocking that when guns are in the headlines every day, there’s no one attempting to create a real-time chronicle of the deaths attributable to guns in the United States.
Well, someone is. Since this summer, the anonymous creator of the Twitter feed @GunDeaths has been doing his best to compile those statistics, tweeting every reported death he can find. He was inspired, he told us in a phone interview, by the Aurora, Colo., shootings and simply wanted to call daily attention to the toll that guns take. Now Slate is partnering with @GunDeaths to create this interactive feature, “Gun Deaths in America Since Newtown.”
[Sad graphics available on the link below.]
Each victim under 13 years of age is designated "child"; from 13 to 17: "teen"; 18 and older: "adult."
Of course, this data is incomplete. Not all reports get caught by @GunDeaths’ news alerts or his followers. Suicides, which are estimated to make up as much as 60 percent of gun deaths, typically go unreported. Nevertheless, we at Slate want to assemble this data as best we can.
And the more people who are paying attention, the better the data will be. You can help us draw a more complete picture of gun violence in America. If you know about a gun death in your community that isn’t represented here, please tweet @GunDeaths with a citation, and he’ll add it to his feed. (If you’re not on Twitter, you can email slatedata@gmail.com.) His data feeds our interactive feature.
And if you’d like to use this data yourself for your own projects, it’s open. You can download it here.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html
NYC: Perpetuating Hate
If history was not taught so poorly, Americans would recognize the technigues of hatred and intolerance perfected by the Nazis.
History merely repeats itself when we fail to learn.
A horrific crime if we've ever seen one--and a reminder that Islamophobia affects many communities outside Muslim ones.
From the AP:
After this news broke, Twitter was aflutter with people pointing to Pamela Geller as one culprit pushing anti-Muslim sentiment in the city. Geller's organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, recently put up a new crop of ads that features the World Trade Center burning with a Qu'ran verse printed to the right of the towers.
Geller's role in promoting anti-Muslim sentiment of the sort that leads to Islamophobic hate crimes should not be in dispute. But what should also be highlighted is how New York City's own police force has promoted anti-Muslim bigotry time and time again, from surveillance of Muslims that places the whole community under suspicion to training officers with an Islamophobic flick.
Friend of Mondoweiss Lizzy Ratner made this point in her excellent piece on Geller in The Nation:
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/after-islamophobic-perspective.html
History merely repeats itself when we fail to learn.
After Islamophobic hate crime in New York City, mayor wants public to ‘keep death in perspective’
The Passport photo of 46-year-old Sunando Sen, pushed to his death because a woman thought he was Muslim (Photo: Christie M. Farriella for New York Daily News)
A horrific crime if we've ever seen one--and a reminder that Islamophobia affects many communities outside Muslim ones.From the AP:
A woman who told police she shoved a man to his death off a subway platform into the path of a train because she hates Muslims and thought he was one was charged Saturday with murder as a hate crime, prosecutors said.What kind of perspective is Bloomberg referencing? If someone said "I shoved a Jew in front of a train because I hate Jews," would Bloomberg be touting drops in the city's annual homicide and shooting totals? Quite an insensitive comment, at the very least.
.....
"I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up," Menendez told police, according to the district attorney's office.
......
Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday urged residents to keep Sen's death in perspective as he touted new historic lows in the city's annual homicide and shooting totals.
"It's a very tragic case, but what we want to focus on today is the overall safety in New York," Bloomberg told reporters following a police academy graduation.
After this news broke, Twitter was aflutter with people pointing to Pamela Geller as one culprit pushing anti-Muslim sentiment in the city. Geller's organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, recently put up a new crop of ads that features the World Trade Center burning with a Qu'ran verse printed to the right of the towers.
Geller's role in promoting anti-Muslim sentiment of the sort that leads to Islamophobic hate crimes should not be in dispute. But what should also be highlighted is how New York City's own police force has promoted anti-Muslim bigotry time and time again, from surveillance of Muslims that places the whole community under suspicion to training officers with an Islamophobic flick.
Friend of Mondoweiss Lizzy Ratner made this point in her excellent piece on Geller in The Nation:
Though Geller and her crew are fringe elements, they are not random or spontaneous, idiopathic lesions on the healthier whole. They are, quite sadly, part of this country, outcroppings of something big and ugly that has been seeping and creeping through the body politic for years. In the decade since September 11, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry has become an entrenched feature of our political and social landscape. It lurks in the hidden corners of everyday life—in classrooms and offices and housing complexes—as well as in the ugly scenes that occasionally explode into public consciousness. In the special registration of Middle Eastern men after 9/11. In the vicious campaign against Debbie Almontaser, the American Muslim school teacher who tried to open the Arabic-language Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) and was tarred as an extremist. In the attack on the Park51 Islamic center, more commonly (if less accurately) known as the Ground Zero mosque. In the New York Police Department’s selective surveillance of Muslim communities. And that’s just New York City. All of these instances should have called on our horror and outrage, and in all too many of them, society hasn’t lived up.This crime appears to be the latest manifestation of New York City's Islamophobia. This time, it cost a life.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/after-islamophobic-perspective.html
It Is Easier Than You Think
Ralph Nader offered sensible and simple solutions to protect our future. Well worth reading and putting into action!
It Is Easier Than You Think
By Ralph Nader
It’s easier than you think. That’s the way I start discussions and interviews about my new book titled, “Seventeen Solutions.”
The “solutions” were selected for their long-overdue practicality, fairness, efficiency, safety, employment potential and respect for future generations. A majority of the people, sometimes a large majority, support such redirections. The effects of many of the “solutions” start being seen immediately.
http://nader.org/2012/12/28/it-is-easier-than-you-think/
It’s easier than you think. That’s the way I start discussions and interviews about my new book titled, “Seventeen Solutions.”
The “solutions” were selected for their long-overdue practicality, fairness, efficiency, safety, employment potential and respect for future generations. A majority of the people, sometimes a large majority, support such redirections. The effects of many of the “solutions” start being seen immediately.
http://nader.org/2012/12/28/it-is-easier-than-you-think/
Corporate-State Repression of Dissent
Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy
New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissent
Police used teargas to drive back protesters following an attempt by the Occupy supporters to shut down the city of Oakland. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP
NH's Economic Development
One of the false arguments used to support Predatory Gambling is the revenue flowing across state borders, ignoring all other revenues flowing for other reasons, such as airport development.
In Massachusetts, many are flocking across the border because Boston-centric politicians have allowed Logan to become an inaccessible disaster.
Lebanon is offering a great deal that will provide a foundation for their economic development.
Helps a small regional airport to get a million dollar grant
But the $12 flights to Boston and New York are not from Cape Cod, but from small regional, Lebanon Airport in New Hampshire where Cape Air is the only airline service available.
Click above image to see the Cape Air offerlarger.The efforts and price chop is aimed at helping the NH airport qualify for a million dollar grant.
The promotion is in time for a little post-Christmas shopping in two big cities. Cape Air and the airport in New Hampshire are promoting flights to Boston and New York for $12.
It's an attempt to qualify for federal grant money by flying out at least 10,000 passengers this year, the airport and Cape Air is helping by offering holiday travelers the last-minute steal of a deal - $12 each way.
Yahoo News reports that the Cape Air promotion was introduced on Christmas Eve, and it is an attempt to reach 10,o00 enplanements - the number of passengers boarding an airplane.
Once the airport hits the 10,000 mark, the FAA will give $1 million in grant money to help fund projects for the community airport.
Read the Yahoo News story here.
http://www.capecodtoday.com/news/EXTRA/2012/12/30/blind-oceanographer-sails-away
In Massachusetts, many are flocking across the border because Boston-centric politicians have allowed Logan to become an inaccessible disaster.
Lebanon is offering a great deal that will provide a foundation for their economic development.
Cape Air lowers flights to Boston and New York to $12
Cape Air is the only airline flying out of the But the $12 flights to Boston and New York are not from Cape Cod, but from small regional, Lebanon Airport in New Hampshire where Cape Air is the only airline service available.
Click above image to see the Cape Air offerlarger.The efforts and price chop is aimed at helping the NH airport qualify for a million dollar grant.
The promotion is in time for a little post-Christmas shopping in two big cities. Cape Air and the airport in New Hampshire are promoting flights to Boston and New York for $12.
It's an attempt to qualify for federal grant money by flying out at least 10,000 passengers this year, the airport and Cape Air is helping by offering holiday travelers the last-minute steal of a deal - $12 each way.
Yahoo News reports that the Cape Air promotion was introduced on Christmas Eve, and it is an attempt to reach 10,o00 enplanements - the number of passengers boarding an airplane.
Once the airport hits the 10,000 mark, the FAA will give $1 million in grant money to help fund projects for the community airport.
Read the Yahoo News story here.
http://www.capecodtoday.com/news/EXTRA/2012/12/30/blind-oceanographer-sails-away
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Toyota Table of Contents
Below is a 'Table of Contents' providing some of the available information about Toyota's Failures that have injured or killed innocent victims.
Toyota KNEW!
This is not Driver Error or Floor Mats!
As additional articles are discovered, we'll try to keep this up-to-date.
WASHINGTON, March 23 (UPI) -- Toyota warned U.S. dealerships in 2002 that Camry owners complained of throttle surges and recommended adjusting the computer, documents indicted. [sic]
A lawyer with the non-profit Center for Auto Safety in Washington said the technical service bulletin discusses electronics issues -- not mechanical issues raised in the massive recall -- and how the condition was corrected, CNN reported Tuesday.
"If you look at this document, it says electronics," attorney Clarence Ditlow said. "It says the fix is reprogrammed in the computer. It doesn't say anything about floor mats."
....repair bulletin proves the manufacturer misled the public about the causes of sudden acceleration.
From: Toyota allowed people to die
Toyota: .....put the blame where it belongs....
Toyota's Death Toll
Toyota ignored killing people
Toyota Settlement
Toyota Prius Crash
Runaway Toyotas?
Toyota: Driver Error? Don't believe it!
There is no indication that they studied the software from any of the vehicles that crashed.
Toyota KNEW!
This is not Driver Error or Floor Mats!
As additional articles are discovered, we'll try to keep this up-to-date.
WASHINGTON, March 23 (UPI) -- Toyota warned U.S. dealerships in 2002 that Camry owners complained of throttle surges and recommended adjusting the computer, documents indicted. [sic]
A lawyer with the non-profit Center for Auto Safety in Washington said the technical service bulletin discusses electronics issues -- not mechanical issues raised in the massive recall -- and how the condition was corrected, CNN reported Tuesday.
"If you look at this document, it says electronics," attorney Clarence Ditlow said. "It says the fix is reprogrammed in the computer. It doesn't say anything about floor mats."
....repair bulletin proves the manufacturer misled the public about the causes of sudden acceleration.
From: Toyota allowed people to die
Toyota: .....put the blame where it belongs....
Toyota's Death Toll
Toyota ignored killing people
Toyota Settlement
Toyota Prius Crash
Runaway Toyotas?
Toyota: Driver Error? Don't believe it!
Toyota:
Blame Someone Else for Deaths
Toyota: Trust Me????
Toyota accused of 'pattern of' coverups
Toyota allowed people to die
More Prius C Problems
Toyota: Trust Me????
Toyota accused of 'pattern of' coverups
Toyota allowed people to die
More Prius C Problems
Toyota's Brake Recall
There is no indication that they studied the software from any of the vehicles that crashed.
There's more to this!
Toyota: Poppycock!
2011 NHTSA Toyota Prius Complaints
2012 NHTSA Toyota Complaints
Ahh...Computer Geeks!
Route 44 Toyota named in RipOff Report
Thank you, Arlene Reiss for complaining about Toyota's safety flaws!
Route 44 Toyota....the Love Story #1
Another Route 44 Toyota Failure
2010 NHTSA Toyota Prius Complaints & SUA
Prius Sudden Unitended Acceleration Ignored
Toyota Prius C: Buyer Beware!
Hertz,
Raynham, MA
Attorney
Daniel Viera and the U.S. Constitution
Route
44 Toyota: Arrogance Means Never Having to S...
"No Computer Error Message"
The Russian Roulette of Toyota
Toyota: Don't Believe It!
Another Toyota Recall
Toyota Pretense
CAUTION: Route 44 Toyota
What about my brakes?
Toyota
and the Tea Baggers: Did you ever notice......
Your child.....? SPLAT! What if.......?
Toyota and the Tea Baggers: Did you ever notice......
Let's Go Place Just Don't Count On Stopping!
A Massachusetts woman....
The Cost of Not Regulating
Defective Vehicles Jeopardize Your Family's Safety...
Defective Vehicles Jeopardizing Safety
Route 44 Toyota Threatens SLAPP Suit!
Route 44 Toyota: In Response....
Route 44 Toyota: RipOff Report
Toyota
PTC [Pre-Trial Conference]
Dilly,
Dally Dan
ATTENTION:
Disgruntled Toyota & Route 44 Toyota Cu...
Thank
you, Route 44 Toyota!
SLAPP and the First Amendment
Amazingly kind!
Toyota
Recall Testimony
Toyota
Owner: "A Near Death Experience"
Betsy
Spills Toyota’s Beans
Is
Toyota Telling the Truth About Sudden Accelerat...
Toyota Recalls
Toyota Recalls
Victims' Family's Plea to Toyota
Toyota Safety Recall
Toyota Prius Complaints
Dilly, Dally Dan Nervous About Freedom of Speech
Toyota: Flim Flam and Pretense
Route
44 Toyota and FCRA [Fair Credit Reporting Act]
The Arrogance of Route 44 Toyota
Has
Toyota really corrected the problem?
Documents
Contradict Toyota
Your child.....? SPLAT! What if.......?
Toyota and the Tea Baggers: Did you ever notice......
Let's Go Place Just Don't Count On Stopping!
A Massachusetts woman....
The Cost of Not Regulating
Defective Vehicles Jeopardize Your Family's Safety...
Defective Vehicles Jeopardizing Safety
Route 44 Toyota Threatens SLAPP Suit!
Route 44 Toyota: In Response....
Route 44 Toyota: RipOff Report
SLAPP and the First Amendment
Amazingly kind!
Toyota Recalls
Toyota Recalls
Victims' Family's Plea to Toyota
Toyota Safety Recall
Toyota Prius Complaints
Dilly, Dally Dan Nervous About Freedom of Speech
Toyota: Flim Flam and Pretense
The Arrogance of Route 44 Toyota
Complaining....
Friday, December 28, 2012
NY woman arrested in connection with slaying of 2
The claim is that 4 years ago, Spengler stole a gun from a 20 year old woman???
Additional details will surely emerge.
Sorry, folks! I can't wait for the NRA's campaign that reminds us 'Guns don't kill people.....'
NY woman arrested in connection with slaying of 2 [firefighters]
Sewell said the state charge is connected to the purchase of an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun that William Spengler had with him Monday when firefighters Michael Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka were gunned down. Three other people were wounded before the 62-year-old Spengler killed himself. He also had a .38-caliber revolver, but Nguyen is not connected to that gun, Sewell said.
The .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, which had a combat-style flash suppressor, is similar to the one used by the gunman who massacred 20 children and six women in a Newtown, Conn., elementary school earlier this month.
Nguyen and her mother, Dawn Welsher, lived next door to Spengler in 2008. On Wednesday and again on Friday, shortly before her arrest, she answered her cellphone and told The Associated Press that she didn't want to talk about Spengler. Her brother, Steven Nguyen, told the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper of Rochester that Spengler stole the guns from Dawn Nguyen.
http://news.yahoo.com/ny-woman-arrested-connection-slaying-2-195532926.html
Additional details will surely emerge.
Sorry, folks! I can't wait for the NRA's campaign that reminds us 'Guns don't kill people.....'
NY woman arrested in connection with slaying of 2 [firefighters]
WEBSTER, N.Y. (AP) — A 24-year-old woman was arrested Friday and charged in connection with the Christmas Eve ambush slaying of two volunteer firefighters responding to a house fire in upstate New York.
Dawn Nguyen of Rochester faces a state charge of filing a falsified business record, State Police Senior Investigator James Sewell said. Nguyen also faces a federal charge; a news conference with the U.S. attorney in western New York was scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday.
http://news.yahoo.com/ny-woman-arrested-connection-slaying-2-195532926.html
Toyota: .....put the blame where it belongs....
Like most, we believed the Toyota propaganda about having corrected their SUA [Sudden Unintended Acceleration] problem, unsecured rugs, driver error, blah, blah blah.
Until we purchased a Toyota with NO BRAKES!
We chose to park the defective Toyota of the property of Route 44 Toyota rather than risk killing your child or family member.
Not so Toyota or Route 44 Toyota!
This article is from the NYT:
Toyota Agrees to Settle Lawsuit Tied to Accelerations
Please note the comments. There are the usual shills that pretend attorneys are getting rich, drivers are making up these issues, yet there are some informed, insightful comments.
http://www.rightinginjustice.com/news/2011/08/30/electronic-causes-for-sudden-acceleration-in-toyotas-likely-new-study-finds/
Toyota's Sudden Acceleration Problem May Have Been Triggered ...
Until we purchased a Toyota with NO BRAKES!
Not so Toyota or Route 44 Toyota!
This article is from the NYT:
Toyota Agrees to Settle Lawsuit Tied to Accelerations
Please note the comments. There are the usual shills that pretend attorneys are getting rich, drivers are making up these issues, yet there are some informed, insightful comments.
Electronic causes for sudden acceleration in Toyotas likely, new study finds
Posted: August 30, 2011
In conducting their analysis of Toyota’s engine control systems, CALCE researchers Bhanu Sood, Michael Osterman, and Michael Pecht did agree with NASA scientists who found that “tin whiskers” were present in the accelerator pedal units of every potentiometer they examined. But whereas NASA relied on an analysis of warranty data provided by Toyota’s defense expert Exponent to conclude that the tin whiskers did not present a safety hazard, the CALCE scientists found them to be “a cause for concern.”
Tin whiskers are crystalline structures, many times thinner than a human hair, that often form on the tin solder and emanate on the surface of printed circuit boards, causing shorts / current leakage paths and electronic malfunction.
While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration exonerated Toyota’s electronics after the NASA report, CALCE researchers found as many as six tin whiskers on one potentiometer type accelerator pedal position sensors (APPSs), and concluded “the potential for a tin whisker shorting failure was 140/1 million. Considering the number of vehicles on the road, it is expected that this would present a significant safety hazard.”
Moreover, the CALCE researchers also found that tin whiskers could form in the Engine Control Modules (ECM) of Toyota vehicles, because Toyota used tin-lead solder and tin plating where devices were connected to the circuit, which operates various automotive components much like a computer.
“As previously discussed, tin-fnished leads can grow tin whiskers which can lead to unintended electrical shorts,” Osterman wrote. “We know whiskers can form on tin finished terminalshe said.
“In this case, Toyota has tin plating in a rather sensitive area, where the system relies on changes in resistance to provide a signal for acceleration.”
The findings contradict the report NHTSA released in February concerning the electronic throttle control systems in Toyota, in which Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asserted, “There is no electronic-based cause for unintended, high-speed acceleration in Toyotas.”
According to the CALCE scientists, “It is highly likely that tin whiskers could induce a failure that is later undetected. For this reason, best practices for electronics design stipulate that tin not be used as a plating material.”
Based on their findings, the CALCE panel found NHTSA’s conclusions irresponsible. “It is very questionable why the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with a stated mission to ‘save lives, prevent injuries and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes, through education, research, safety standards, and enforcement activity,’ has not come out with a requirement that no electronics use pure tin as a material component, since the potential for tin whiskers presents an unreasonable and unnecessary risk.”
Sources:
Independent Scientists Find More Trouble in Toyotas
NASA’s Toyota sudden-acceleration report flawed, researchers find
CALCE Finds Toyota Tin Whiskers a ‘Significant’ Threat
NASA’s Toyota sudden-acceleration report flawed, researchers find
CALCE Finds Toyota Tin Whiskers a ‘Significant’ Threat
Related posts:
- NASA’s Toyota sudden-acceleration report flawed, researchers find
- NHTSA calls on NASA rocket scientists to study Toyota’s electronics
- Lawyers plan to prove NASA’s sudden acceleration report wrong
- Toyota probe turns from sudden acceleration to sudden stalling
- Toyota investigates new sudden acceleration crash in Wisconsin
http://www.rightinginjustice.com/news/2011/08/30/electronic-causes-for-sudden-acceleration-in-toyotas-likely-new-study-finds/
Toyota's Sudden Acceleration Problem May Have Been Triggered ...
As a Scientist and engineer, I'm surprised about the spin that this subject has taken, or more properly, that has been given to, in order to favor or protect someone interests. There is at least one high quality,rigorous and properly formatted study of the known (for decades) phenomena of Tin Whisker growth in circuits. This study concludes that there is a possibility of 140/1,000,000 of these whiskers to produce a failure, which is significant given the quantity of vehicles.
The study is titled: Tin whisker analysis of Toyota’s electronic throttle controls by Bhanu Sood, Michael Osterman and Michael Pecht,
Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
Why the government agencies have concluded this failure mechanism was not the root of the uncommanded acelerations is simply not clear to me. the study shows very clear microphotographs of the tin whiskers, and its redaction and methodology is impeccable. I've heard comments on two different groups of scientists of NASA giving their opinions on this subject, but I haven't read them yet. Regardless, this NYT article don't even mention this possibility with the appropriate importance and significance it has.
So... before ruling out electronic failures (both hardware and sofware related) government officials should work more professionally to find the thruth. Amclaussen.
Your point is valid, but if had another make of car, you would be saying exactly the same, just to that make. The industry produces a lot of defective designs, most of them minor go unnoticed; from time to time, a big one attracts the attention of the media. Remember the Ford-Firestone case: people lost lives and these companies battled each other for years, ending a previous relation. You correctly saythe information is not as quick to find. Sometime it is not freely available, but can be found talking to shops that see these errors daily. Manufacturers have their own "Code of Un-ethics", more or less the same across all them: first; deny any knowledge that a problem exists, make the owner believe his problem is not common, make him responible for it (was its fault for not following a maintenance program at the dealer-expensive). If the defect IS real, reduce the image that it is widespread. Try to charge the repair, making it appear as an "out of warranty". If all fails, make a deal & pretend it never happened. I'm a DIY person that enjoys auto repair as a hobby, I've above average knowledge of autos and a number of tools. I've heard many complaints from friends and people about design failures, material failures, factory goofes etc. I've seen MANY from ALL makes of cars. They are showing weaknesses and their ways to save money, they all fail, ones more than others, but all of them. Owners need to find the problem, and put the blame where it belongs.