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"The Plan is to Take You Over by Force"
As the economy implodes, the social fabric frays and nutball groups organize for Armageddon. Pam Martens describes the national game-plan of the “Free State Project”. He was the richest man on the planet and in 1973 he pledged to shut down the illegal drug industry in New York. Thousands, mostly blacks and Hispanics were pitch-forked into prison for decades. This year New York State will repeal its drug laws. Read Bruce Jackson on Nelson Rockefeller’s curse. Half a million new jobless every month and the salesmen of “free trade” still hawk their credo. Paul Craig Roberts describes what offshoring has done to America. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
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Today's Stories April 23, 2009 Ray McGovern April 22, 2009 Chris Floyd Joanne Mariner Vijay Prashad Gareth Porter Dean Baker Peter Morici Winslow T. Wheeler Barucha Calamity Peller Harvey Wasserman Aisha Brown / Teo Ballvé Website of the Day April 21, 2009 Randy Rowland Dave Lindorff Fidel Castro George McGovern Greg Moses Benjamin Dangl Sonia Nettnin Frank Barat Binoy Kampmark John V. Walsh David Macaray Website of the Day April 20, 2009 Mike Whitney Andrea Peacock Henry A. Giroux Liaquat Ali Khan Fred Gardner Stephen Soldz Nadia Hijab Dave Lindorff P. Sainath Nelson P Valdés Mark Engler Belén Fernández Website of the Day April 17-19, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Saul Landau Franklin Lamb Ralph Nader Fred Gardner Dean Baker Rannie Amiri George Wuerthner Dave Lindorff David Swanson Jim Goodman Kathy Sanborn Don Monkerud Manuel Garcia, Jr. David Michael Green Nelson P Valdés Manuel Gomez Dr. Susan Block Ramzy Baroud Christopher Brauchli Stephen Martin Ron Jacobs David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend April 16, 2009 Mike Whitney Russell Mokhiber Ronald Teska Gareth Porter Paul Fitzgerald / Benjamin Dangl Kevin Pina Robert Bryce George Wuerthner Paul Garon, David Roediger and Kate Khatib The Surreal Life of Franklin Rosemont Website of the Day April 15, 2009 Kathleen and Bill Christison Ray McGovern Robert Sandels Heather Williams / Jack Willoughby David Swanson Paul Craig Roberts Sara Mann Kenneth Couesbouc Binoy Kampmark Kekuni Blaisdell, Lynette Hi'llani Cruz, George Kahumoku Flores, et al.: An Urgent Letter to Obama on the Rights of Native Hawaiians Website of the Day April 14, 2009 Conn Hallinan Mike Whitney Peter Morici Greg Moses Fidel Castro Robert Weissman Rebecca Macaux / Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero Dave Lindorff Walter Brasch Benjamin Day Website of the Day April 13, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Uri Avnery Jeremy Scahill Martha Rosenberg Karl Grossman Nadia Hijab Sam Smith James McEnteer Sean McMahon Namihei Odaira John V. Walsh Website of the Day April 10 / 12, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Chris Floyd Mike Whitney Saul Landau M. Reza Pirbhai Franklin Spinney Rannie Amiri William Blum Matt Vidal Jeff Howison Jeff Leys Dave Lindorff Ramzy Baroud Missy Beattie Fred Gardner Harvey Wasserman Another $50 Billion for Rust Bucket Nukes? Suzan Mazur Bernard Umbrecht David Macaray Janet Kauffman Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Michael Winship Richard Rhames Wanda Fucha David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Ben Sonnenberg Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend April 9, 2009 Mike Whitney Patrick Cockburn Stephen Soldz P. Sainath Ellen Cantarow Gareth Porter / Jeremy Scahill Jerry Kroth Binoy Kampmark Fidel Castro Website of the Day April 8, 2009 John Prados Bill Moyers / Winslow T. Wheeler Russell Mokhiber Kathy Sanborn Rev. William E. Alberts James McEnteer Rashomon and the Binghamton Shooter: the Rush to Interpret Jiverly Wong's "Statement" Nadia Hijab Adam Turl Kevin Zeese Website of the Day April 7, 2009 David Price Uri Avnery Chris Floyd Winslow T. Wheeler Defense Cuts: Gates and the System Marjorie Cohn Dean Baker Diana Johnstone Dave Lindorff Martha Rosenberg Evelyn Pringle Website of the Day April 6, 2009 Michael Hudson Andy Worthington Bagram: Guantánamo's Dark Mirror Ray McGovern Deepak Tripathi Mike Whitney Norman Solomon Jonathan Cook Judith Bello Deena Metzger Blackwater in Liberia Dr. M. Kamiar Website of the Day April 3-5, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Kathy Kelly / Peter Morici Kathy Sanborn Andy Worthington Rob Larson Saul Landau Steve Early John Goekler Rannie Amiri Dave Lindorff Lee Ballinger Ron Jacobs David Macaray John Wight Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Mychal Bell Missy Beattie Reza Fiyouzat Michael Boldin Christopher Brauchli Charles R. Larson Susie Day Stephen Martin Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Phyllis Pollack Poets' Basement Website of the Day
April 2, 2009 Robert Weissman Eric Toussaint / George Bisharat Russell Mokhiber Franklin Lamb Gareth Porter David Macaray Chris Genovali Sam Smith Suzan Mazur Website of the Day
April 1, 2009 Chris Floyd Stanley Heller Mark Brenner, Mischa Gaus and Jane Slaughter Obama's Perilous Plan for Detroit: Restructure the Big 3, But Not With Bankruptcy Jonathan Cook Eric Walberg Richard Morse Don Fitz Laray Polk Belén Fernández Harvey Wasserman Website of the Day March 31, 2009 Uri Avnery Peter Lee Nicholas Dearden Dave Lindorff Joanne Mariner Ron Jacobs Wiliam S. Lind David Michael Green Benjamin Dangl Johnny Barber Dedrick Muhammad Website of the Day March 30, 2009 Michael Hudson Patrick Cockburn Henry A. Giroux Mike Whitney Ralph Nader Paul Craig Roberts Jeremy Scahill Robert Bryce Jonathan Cook Ray McGovern Website of the Day
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April 23, 2009 Will There be Blood?The Battle Over New York's Marcellus ShaleBy ADAM FEDERMAN In an age of diminishing resources, the discovery of an untapped oil or natural gas reserve can stir messianic visions. Salvation is to be found in tar sands and what were once prohibitively expensive methods of extracting crude oil or natural gas from the earth. ‘Drill, baby, drill,’ 21st century scripture in some quarters of the United States, reflects the sort of devil may care attitude that, remarkably, in an age of scarcity still drives much of our energy policy. Last summer, when oil was fetching $140 a barrel and the price of natural gas reached record highs hundreds of landmen descended on the Catskills and Poconos in New York and Pennsylvania. They crisscrossed the Delaware basin holding meetings with local residents in an attempt to persuade them to lease their land. They want what’s underneath that land—trillions of cubic feet of natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale, a formation that stretches from Ohio to New York and runs through West Virginia and Pennsylvania. There were tales of deception, of fraud, and of large sums promised. The frenzy has been described as a modern day gold rush. In New York, even though the drilling hasn’t begun, the battle lines have been drawn. Environmental organizations have been forced to play catch up; to educate the public about a drilling process that has not been widely used in this part of the country; and to argue against drilling, at a time of unparalleled economic distress and budget shortfalls, in what may be the largest natural gas reservoir in the nation. And they’re also up against the oil and gas companies. “We’ve never seen the circus come to town before,” says Bruce Ferguson, a member of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy who lives in Sullivan County. As the landmen made their rounds, the New York State legislature passed a bill (A10526), at the eleventh hour on the final day of the legislative session, that made it easier to issue permits for horizontal drilling by establishing uniform standards for well spacing and effectively streamlining the process. The Governor, in a press release, said that the new legislation would “lead to greater administrative efficiency, result in more effective recovery of oil and natural gas, and reduce unnecessary land disturbance.” Previously, public hearings for each well and a more cumbersome permitting process would have been required for horizontal drilling, significantly slowing down the potential number of wells that could be exploited. According to a summary of the bill, “The vast majority of proposals that are expected for oil wells and horizontal wells would not conform to current statewide spacing sizes, and would therefore require notice, public comment and possibly a hearing on an individual well basis. With hundreds of such wells likely to be proposed in the near future, the potential burden on the DEC and the industry would be substantial, with no commensurate benefit in ensuring that the policy objectives of ECL S23-0301 are met. [italics added]” The environmental community and even some legislators were caught off guard. “We in the environmental community didn’t wake up until very close to the vote,” says Kate Sinding a Senior Attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Many had been told that the bill would not pass, that it needed work, and that there was nothing to worry about. About a month before the bill passed, State Assembly Member Aileen Gunther (who voted against the measure), in a letter to one of her constituents said that, “My understanding from Mr. Parment [the bill’s sponsor] is that the bill is not in its final form and will, in all likelihood, not be voted on this session.” Queens assemblywoman Toby Ann Stavisky told WNYC Radio that she and most of her colleagues learned of the DEC sponsored bill just hours before they were asked to vote on it. “Why didn’t I have more information was my first reaction because it’s very detailed scientific language. What’s going to happen to the environment, to the air quality, noise pollution, what about pipelines?” Information it seems has been in short supply. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have not exactly been the subject of dinner table conversations until very recently (on the East Coast anyway). And the industry would like to keep it that way. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a controversial method of capturing natural gas by injecting a long list of chemicals and millions of gallons of water and sand at high pressure into the ground to break open or fracture the bedrock. The prized gas is released from the shale and then recovered. The chemicals used in the process, developed by Halliburton in the 1950s, are considered an industry trade secret and have not been fully disclosed. Some of the known additives include hydrochloric acid, nitrogen, biocides, surfactants, friction reducers, benzene and other hazardous chemicals. It is believed that fracking fluids have contaminated water supplies in Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming--all places where hydraulic fracturing has been widely used. In Pennsylvania, where drilling in the Marcellus Shale began last year, there have been numerous reports of contaminated wells. “If these chemicals reach our drinking water supply,” the City’s Council on Environmental Protection wrote in a briefing paper, “they can potentially have significant adverse health effects.” A small part of the Marcellus Shale lies within the New York City watershed, which supplies water to more than fourteen million people in New York City, upstate New York, Philadelphia and northern New Jersey, the largest unfiltered drinking water supply in the United States. Since the spacing bill was passed, environmental organizations have moved quickly to make sure that if drilling begins—and there are few who think it will be stopped al together—it is done with strict regulatory oversight and adherence to the highest environmental standards. Catskill Mountain Keeper, an environmental organization in Youngsville, NY, and seven other groups, national and local, drafted a letter to Governor Paterson calling on him to “institute a moratorium on all new gas drilling permits” until an environmental impact statement is completed. They met soon after with the Governor’s office and the DEC and, groups that until then had been working largely on their own, started to come together. A compromise was reached and when the governor signed the bill he also required the DEC to issue a Scope Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) that responds to concerns of citizens and environmental organizations (the document will likely be released this summer). It was an important reprieve and, combined with a steep drop in the price of natural gas and oil and evidence of contaminated wells in nearby Pennsylvania, there is hope that the rush to drill has been tempered at least for now. “One thing that’s happened,” says Wes Gillingham, Program Director of Catskill Mountain Keeper, “is that this whole issue has awakened people to the complexity of hydro fracking and the whole issue of regulatory oversight and whether it’s adequate or not. And to the basic question of whether it can be done safely at all.” Adam Federman can be reached at: adamfederman@gmail.com This article originally ran on Earth Island's EnvironmentaList blog.
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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Spell Albuquerque: Waiting for
Lightning
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