Via What’s Up…

WHAT: Fracking Waste and Ohio’s Injection Wells
WHERE: West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church
WHEN: Saturday, 15 September at 3:30 p.m.

Teresa Mills, representative from the Buckeye Forest Council and CHEJ, will give a free (with free parking) presentation titled, “What You Need to Know About Toxic Fracking Waste and Ohio’s Injection Wells,” at the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, 20401 Hilliard Blvd. in Rocky River.

Ohio is receiving the toxic fracking waste of Pennsylvannia, West Virginia and Texas. Other states may send us their waste as well. Why is this? What does it mean for our future if fracking will continue for the next 100 years as the industry and politicians are often heard saying?

This event is sponsored by Cuyahoga County Concerned Citizens, Concerned Citizens of Medina County, West Shore FaCT Group, NEO Sierra Club, and NEOGAP.

Free to the public.

Russell Simmons writes:

If we look back at the accomplishments thus far of Occupy Wall Street, there are many. For one, the national conversation that preceded September 17th, 2011 was dominated by a manufactured political fight in Washington to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a credit default. Within the first weeks of OWS, the conversation had been changed to the real issue that is eroding America; economic inequality, a topic that hasn’t been discussed for decades. Within the first few months of OWS, the conversation evolved into an examination of how Wall Street’s money has destroyed our political system and took control of our democracy. The prison industrial complex, lower taxes for the rich, the outsourcing of jobs, Wall Street running rampant, poisonous foods for our children, even some wars and almost everything that disempowers the poor, is a result of money passing from lobbyists and corporations to our politicians. And that is what Occupy Wall Street is fighting against. It is a sad state that the politicians work for the people who pay them, not for the people who elect them. That is not democracy.

Driving home Wednesday evening I listened to an interview with Michael Lewis on Fresh Air and had this skidmark moment:

My whole goal was to create a very natural environment so I could observe him without lots of people worrying about how it was going to be made to look in print. So the agreement I had with him was, ‘Don’t worry about me. I don’t mind you vetting his quotes, and if you set me up with an interview with someone else in the White House and I want to quote that person, I’ll show you those quotes, too’, and that ended up happening….

I knew, just then, that if he was listening, Glenn Greenwald and I were sharing that moment.

He was (or at least he was alerted to the interview by others like myself).

The comments on Greenwald’s piece are worth reading as well if you believe what George Orwell wrote is true.

[Update No. 3 @ 1042 on 13 September: His real name is Nakoula Basseley Nakoula]

[Update No. 2 @ 1944: Bacile’s a fake; not a Jew or an Israeli, who the fuck is he?]

[Update No. 1 @ 1626: Glenn Greenwald wades in…]

Shaya Tayefe Mohajer (for the Associated Press) writes:

An Israeli filmmaker based in California went into hiding Tuesday after his movie attacking Islam’s prophet Muhammad sparked angry assaults by ultra-conservative Muslims on U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya, where one American was killed.

Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, writer and director Sam Bacile remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that the 56-year-old intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.

Protesters angered over Bacile’s film opened fire on and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing an American diplomat on Tuesday. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner.

“This is a political movie,” said Bacile. “The U.S. lost a lot of money and a lot of people in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we’re fighting with ideas.”

Bacile, a California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew, said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing Islam’s flaws to the world.

Mark Oppenheimer writes:

What if the revelation that a partner is thinking about others creates a shift, one that plagues the marriage? Words have consequences, and most couples, knowing that jealousy is real and can beset any of us, opt for a tacit code of reticence. Not just about sex but about all sorts of things: there are couples who can express opinions about each other’s clothing choices or cooking or taste in movies, and there are couples who cannot. I don’t mind if my wife tells me another man is hot, but it took me a long time to accept her criticism of my writing. We all have many sensitive spots, but one of the most universal is the fear of not being everything to your partner — the fear, in other words, that she might find somebody worthier. It is the fear of being alone.

From my hometown newspaper:

No doubt state and local government officials in Ohio were rubbing their hands together in glee earlier this summer, when the money started rolling in from two new gambling casinos. After several years of belt tightening due to budget crunches, the future suddenly looked brighter.

During June, casinos in Cleveland and Toledo raked in nearly $418 million, with some of that earmarked for local and state governments.

But the “take” fell off in July and dropped dramatically last month, to about $350 million. While still a significant source of revenue for government in the Buckeye State, casino gambling has lost a bit of the jackpot appearance it had in the beginning.

Knowledgeable analysts probably were not surprised. The novelty effect of brand-new casinos, with a type of gambling not previously legal in Ohio, has worn off. Quite a few patrons may have tried the wagering tables once, then decided for any number of reasons not to return.

At some point revenue from the Cleveland and Toledo casinos – and from new ones planned for Columbus and Cincinnati – will stabilize. They should be reliable sources of revenue for years to come.

Still, as other states have found, banking on gambling in the long run is risky. Local and state officials should not become addicted to casino revenue by establishing expensive new government programs.

0659: Are You Listening Ohio? It’s Me, Washington

Glenn Greenwald writes:

In the hierarchy of evil, consigning someone who has been convicted of nothing to a cage year after year after year, until they die, is high up on the list. And in that regard, this latest episode demonstrates not only the ongoing travesty of the US’s war on terror policies, but also the dishonesty of the attempt to exonerate Obama for those policies.

1135: Share your bookself

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

An FBI sting operation promised “martyrdom payments” of up to $1,000 a month to a Moroccan immigrant who eventually volunteered to kill himself in a plot to bomb the U.S. Capitol, according to court papers.

Amine El-Khalifi, 29, who was living in Alexandria as an illegal immigrant until the time of his arrest in February, will be sentenced Friday in federal court in Alexandria. He pleaded guilty in June.

In court papers, El-Khalifi’s lawyers said their client received more than $5,700 in living expenses from undercover FBI agents during the six-month investigation. He was also promised that his parents would receive what the lawyers describe as “martyrdom payments” of up to $1,000 a month after he completed the attack.

From The New York Post:

Among the many falsehoods pushed at last week’s Democratic Convention is that this is the party of the people, unafraid to hold Corporate America responsible for its many ills.

Judging by the records of the last two Democratic administrations, just the opposite appears to be true. Certainly, President Obama and, to some extent, Bill Clinton like to talk a good game in terms of class warfare, but under both men, real corporate crime-fighting has been at best a side issue — despite the immense amounts of white-collar fraud their administrations faced.

In fact, neither Obama nor Clinton can hold a candle to the corporate crime-fighting record of George W. Bush, that supposed lapdog for large corporate interests.

Elect Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala…

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Elect Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala…

Tim Russo writes:

President Obama is going to be re-elected, that much is now apparent. For this to be a true victory, though, the coattails need to be made longer every single chance we get, so that the Republican Party is utterly decimated at every electoral level across the country. It’s sitting there for the taking, if Democrats don’t ride a historic tsunami this year, we will look back and wonder how America missed this opportunity to turn a very important page.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan could not be more perfect standard bearers for the coming obliteration of the Republican ticket. The 1% angle is obvious. The “lying douchebag prickish little twerp Paul Ryan utter FRAUD” angle is merely the velvety icing on the cake. These two so exactly represent what the Republican Party has become, their sorry asses ought to feel honored to be the ones to captain this stinking Titanic down to the bottom. Enjoy the ride, you two, you sure as hell built that.

Now all that remains is to PUSH the rot further DOWN THE BALLOT so a once great political party finally gets the fucking message by having its ASS handed to it, by a BLACK man whose middle name is HUSSEIN who gets BEAR HUGS from PIZZA GUYS, and at last wakes up, and decides to STOP being a bizarre CULT of fictitious jihad against their own psychological insecurities, like some giant Freudian experiment gone mad and turned into a B-movie whose lead roles are clowns like Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, Glenn Beck, Newt FUCKING GINGRICH, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, are you people fucking kidding me you god damned fools, LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO YOUR COUNTRY IN THESE PEOPLE’S NAMES.

Oh no. No wait. You didn’t do this to America in THEIR name. No, you did this damage in the name of your Savior, didn’t you. My bad. No wonder you’re always red with rage and shaking and sweating and your eyes bulging out about fucking birth certificates and the holiness of the prophet “job creator” billionaires you bend over for while you vote for a guy who believes Jesus is coming back to Missouri from the planet Kolob. Lord. Be. Praised. It was in His name you people lost your god damned minds.

That’s how fucked up the Republican Party is in 2012, and this election, we can clean that shit up good. Mysterious ways indeed.

So let’s get out there and do it. This election year will probably be the most fun, and most rapidly satisfying, that real, lasting, non-violent political change can ever possibly be. It’s sitting there right in front of you, and you don’t even need to risk arrest.

The rout is on. Get it while you can. And don’t forget, a lot of you reading this are in Ohio.

0950 Dad-Dad

(I went lookin’ myself, but the googles didn’t have a clue…)

The First Noble Truth is ill-being. The Second Noble Truth is the causes of ill-being, the thoughts and actions that put us on the path leading to ill-being. The Third Noble Truth is well-being, the cessation of ill-being. The Fourth Noble Truth is the path leading to well-being, the Noble Eightfold Path. p. 11

From Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society by Thich Nhat Hanh

Previously…

Found in my electronic chapbook.

Sherry Chandler writes:

Apollo, not Dionysos
you might say, if you say
that kind of thing.
My Daddy served both gods.
I chose one. Do I
regret that choice? Only
when the moonlight dapples
through midsummer trees, foxes
dart in the shadows,
and Daddy dances through my dreams.

Glenn Greenwald writes:

Bolivia then demanded his extradition from the US for him to stand trial. That demand, ironically, was made pursuant to an extradition treaty signed by Sánchez de Lozada himself with the US. Civil lawsuits have also been filed against him in the US on behalf of the surviving victims.

The view that Sánchez de Lozada must be extradited from the US to stand trial is a political consensus in Bolivia, shared by the government and the main opposition party alike. But on Friday night, the Bolivian government revealed that it had just been notified by the Obama administration that the US government has refused Bolivia’s extradition request.

No, not even David Foster Wallace wrote that fast, but rather a writing challenge to write 600 words that can be read in approximately three minutes.

Go!

Last month I noted with pleasant anticipation that Andrea Seabrook had left NPR out of frustration and was beginning a new project she was calling DecodeDC.

I went so far as to add the effort to my bloglist and have checked it daily since.

Today I deleted the listing.

Not because I disagree with anything Seabrook had written, but because she has not posted to site in after putting up an almost-done note back in mid-August.

My chief reaction is that, barring news of hospitalization or a serious family health crisis, such unprofessional behavior is not to be tolerated.