Is Rupert Murdoch a Fascist?

I can't believe this... There is no question whether this is racist or not. How else could it be interpreted?

It looks to me like this New York Post political “cartoonist” is saying that our popularly elected president is a monkey who deserves to be shot. Where the hell is Homeland Security? This is a real threat – though it sounds more like a cheap script from one of Fox's mindless TV shows. How about a Manchurian Candidate meets Taxi Driver plot?

And this isn't the first time... Remember when a Fox News guest joked wistfully about someone killing Obama?

Rupert Murdoch's “news” organizations have repeatedly gone way over the line. They are as far from “fair and balanced” as I have ever seen in my lifetime. They even lie (the video “the Corporation” points out that it is perfectly legal for them to lie). Where the hell is the FCC?

Rupert Murdoch has consistently hired and promoted “newscasters” who verbally attack and denigrate our president at every opportunity. That is legal (whether it is fair or not). But, now they've reached the point where they're actually joking about someone killing the President of our Country.

Allow me to speculate for a moment. By allowing, even promoting racist attacks like this cartoon; it looks to me like Rupert Murdoch wants someone to kill Obama and set up a police state. It looks to me like Rupert Murdoch could be a Fascist trying to manipulate some disturbed American into killing President Obama so that Mr. Murdoch's Fascist buddies can take over.

Now I realize that Rupert Murdoch doesn't approve every thing that his publishing empire prints or airs. Rupert Murdoch just dictates the working environment. Well, Mr. Murdoch's dictates have resulted in calls for President Obama's assassination.

Whether it was intended or not (it was), this is a threat to our National Security. And we can do something about it. Boycott Fox News and all other news publications that Rupert Murdoch owns. Better yet, let's boycott Rupert Murdoch's advertisers.

Go ahead and watch Fox News and read the New York Post just enough to find out who their sponsors are. A few emails to the sponsors of these news/propaganda shows from a number of us will likely be far more effective than Homeland Security ever has been.

Nothing But Blue Skies... From Now On.

Good News, More Good News, And Even More...

NV Energy has decided to postpone the construction of the coal fired power plant in White Pine County until carbon sequestration becomes practical – which, in all this limestone, is never.

NV Energy still wants to build a big power line through White Pine County. Its quite apparent that they realize our potential for solar, wind, and geothermal power generation.

The last minute Bush Administration give away to the oil companies of leasing “rights” to Southern Utah public lands was stopped.

The new Secretary of the Interior sounds like he might be more in favor of ocean current, wave, and offshore wind power than “drill baby, drill.”

The 50 billion dollar give away to the coal and nuclear industry was excluded from the Stimulus Package.

It's looking more and more like SNWA won't be able to afford the watergrab pipeline anytime soon.

...Even this recession has a silver lining. People are starting to pay attention. Those who have paid attention are angry. We want the change we've been promised. And we'll continue to push, because we realize no-one is going to just give us a better world.

Desalination Is Cheaper Than Defoliation

Investigative reporter George Knapp has reported that desalination is not only cheaper than the watergrab, but that California is NOT resistant to the idea.



The Las Vegas CBS I-Team report states:

"SNWA says California's water plans are what they look at when deciding the viability of desalination. The Golden State has formed a desalination task force within it's water department and there are two dozen desalination plants operating there, with at least another 30 in some phase of design and construction. Worldwide there are more than 7,500 desal plants in operation. But in Nevada, nothing.

"It's political and lack of will, and maybe the fact that Nevadans invested these hundreds of millions of dollars on the ranches, so they feel compelled to continue this scheme that was developed over a decade ago," said Byrd. "The fact that Arizona, California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and a dozen countries around the world are investing in desalting tells us something.""

The Time Has Come...

The time has come for us to change our power structure.

The time has come to for us to generate our own power.

The time has come for us to save some money!

This may be the very best time to invest in sustainable energy for your home. Many people are deciding to buy now. The rebates and incentives have really brought our effective costs down. I was quite surprised.

Of course, you could wait to see what incentives the Obama administration might add. But, if demand goes up, near-term prices are bound to go up too. And the longer you wait, the more CO2 gets emitted into the atmosphere.

Of course, you could wait a few years for new technology to bring the price of some of these components down. But remember, the longer you wait, the more monthly payments you keep sending away. Many of us have put this off for up to 30 years. Imagine how many power bills you could have saved on already.

With your own power generation comes

• independence (wouldn't it be great to not care about energy policy)

• self sufficiency (wouldn't it be great not care about fuel prices)

• sustainability (wouldn't it be great to know you're doing the right thing)

We want all these – as soon as possible.

Besides, your own power generators are a very tangible and practical investment. For example; home wind and solar are far better investments than stocks right now.

US currency isn't stable now either. Market Watch reports, in their article; Fault Lines Emerge At The Fed “they believe an inflation storm is already in train” and “the danger of inflation is very high.” Inflation robs your savings. At 3% inflation – your money's worth half as much in 24 years. At 6% inflation – your money's worth half as much in 12 years. And at 12% inflation – your money's worth half as much in 6 years! The 1970's saw inflation rates over 14%. (We presently have some of the same economic conditions that caused the inflation of the 1970's. Most notably; a long, protracted, expensive war financed by deficit spending. Hyper-inflation could happen again – maybe even worse.) Translation; the price of energy independence may never be cheaper!

But (of course) the price of fossil fuels are down. Why would you want to buy now?

I think we all know that the price of fossil fuels will rise again and again. Somebody's playing us... again.

60 minutes has pointed out that the speculation tactics that Enron used during the 2001 rolling blackouts (in California) were used during the run-up in gas prices in 2008. Sadly, with deregulation, 7 years later, our government still hasn't put in place laws to protect us from another Enron.

However, we saw something even more frightening this winter. In the CNN article; Freezing Europeans Suffer As Gas Dispute Drags On Russia shut down whole economies in Bulgaria and Slovakia, during the dead of winter – because they couldn't afford to pay. Let's hope this doesn't happen here in America... But when you think about it, this happens every day here – to individuals. (Good news; with your own generator, you'll still be warm, no matter how broke you are.)

But hey, with global warming, in a few years we won't need to heat our homes!

Seriously though, Wired Magazine reports that scientists have found that “our atmosphere has 28 percent more carbon dioxide now than any time in the past 800,000 years.”

You'd think that fact, in itself, would be enough to make any reasonable person want to do whatever they can to fix this. But there's more...

Guess what? The coal industry has been lying to us about “clean coal.” Time magazine reports, in their article Exposing The Myth Of Clean Coal that the toxic coal ash spill in Tennessee contained “100 times more waste than the Exxon Valdez disaster.” ... “This is hazardous waste, and it should be classified as such.” But it isn't. ... “Though the EPA in the past has come close to imposing stricter rules on the treatment of coal ash, the agency has repeatedly backed down in the face of opposition from utilities and the coal industry.”

Government is definitely the problem now. Our government has been privatized. And just when we thought things might change. The Wall Street Journal reports in the January 15 article; Coal industry (miraculously) Digs Itself Out Of A Hole In The Capitol that “Big Coal is on a roll in the nation's capitol.”

What???

Didn't America vote against Big Coal. We voted for that other guy. Didn't he win?

We can't allow him to back down now.

It looks like we have to vote again.

But this time with our check books.

This is the only vote they really understand...

They won't build the coal-fired power plants when they realize they don't have the customers...

I don't hate the power companies. I just want them to do the right thing. And until they see us leaving in mass, their customers' health won't be the priority.

We can make a big difference. And I hope to accomplish this for even less money than we would expect purchasing these systems ourselves.

I would like to get together with others and buy sustainable energy components at volume discounts. If this works out locally, I would like to organize a nationwide buying cooperative.

Email me at rickspils@excite.com

If you live in rural Nevada, Utah, or Idaho; we can buy together and negotiate a better price.

If you live elsewhere, email me anyway so that I can gage how big the demand is for a cooperative.

No Excuses Left

Yale University spin-out company Oasys has developed a desalination technology that uses ONE TENTH the energy of conventional desalination systems.

The paradigm has changed...

SNWA now has no excuses left for the watergrab.

Toxic Sludge from "Clean Coal"

Democracy Now! has reported a huge spill of toxic sludge that has buried a part of Tennessee in as much as six feet of coal-fired power plant toxic coal ash. CNN has reported that the toxic spill was over a billion gallons – “enough to fill 1,660 Olympic-sized swimming pools.”

The toxic spill is more than fifty times larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. “Coal ash typically contains high concentrations of toxic chemicals like mercury, cadmium, (arsenic, lead, selenium, uranium, thorium,) and other heavy metals.” The New York Times has reported the EPA found that “concentrations of arsenic to which people might be exposed through drinking water contaminated by fly ash could increase cancer risks several hundredfold.”

“The sludge has flowed into the Emory River, a tributary of the Tennessee River, which provides drinking water to millions of people downstream in Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky.”

And this isn't the first time. Toxic sludge floods also happened in Martin County, KY in 2000 and in Buffalo Creek, WV in 1972.

Moreover; “The toxic sludge we are seeing pollute Tennessee today is actually from air pollution control devices.” That's right. The cleaner the air is from a coal-fired power plant, the dirtier the toxic sludge. And this disaster shows us again that a real threat exists that coal-ash toxic sludge will not be contained. The regulations for landfills are far more lax than regulations for air quality. High Country News has reported extensive health problems near coal-fired power plant toxic landfills in Arizona. In Arizona, however, there have been no huge breaches. The toxins just blow in the wind.

This disaster in Tennessee is just a catastrophic example of what we already know. There is no such thing as clean coal.

Environmental disasters such as these continue to remind us of how important it is for us to utilize safer technology to generate power. Unfortunately, the coal industry won't do this FOR us... For them, it costs too much to do the right thing. For us, it costs too much not to.