One of the under appreciated hazards of fracking is its effect on democracy. Fracking is a big, intrusive process - one that sucks up lots of water, creates enormous amounts of traffic and an ungodly amount of noise, etc. Setting aside the environmental dangers and health effects (!), the heavy industrialization involved in fracking guarantees that communities will be abundantly aware of it.

Auckland anti-TPP protest (3News)

(This is the second of two posts about a “classified” free trade treaty called the Transpacific Partnership and a Chinese-friendly alternative the Regional Comprehensive Economic plan. As I outlined in my last post Will the RCEP Kill the TPP?, the TPP will virtually obliterate the right of member countries to protect labor rights, enforce environmental and food safety standards and otherwise protect their citizens from amoral and rapacious corporate profit-seeking.)

Athenae has the latest on how our worthless politicians are failing those in the path of Sandy.

I want to pour a special measure of scorn for Schumer. He is a very powerful Senator. He has access to microphones. He has the ability to get in front of a camera. He is in a position to do something. But he does nothing. What a FAIL.

Julia? cd? Anyone from Michigan who could enlighten us?

Police Lock Public Out of Michigan Senate

Unions protestors shouting “Hell no! We won’t go!”

Right-to-work protestors flood Capitol

Golly. This “Freedom” bill is sure requiring a lot of pepper spray and locks to pass.

about 2 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@emptywheel

emptywheel

Shit just got real at the Michigan Capital. Union protesters are getting pepper sprayed! #RightToMooch #Michigan #MIUnion

about 2 hours ago via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@Hesiod2k11

Hesiod Theogeny

No citizens shall watch GOP grant “freedom” RT @RashidaTlaib: House Repuiblicans VOTING NO on opening the Capitol Building to the public!

about 2 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@emptywheel

emptywheel

He bought @onetoughnerd, why not the Capitol building? RT @BarbByrum: I guess you have to be Dick DeVos to get into the building. #NoRTWMi

about 2 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@emptywheel

emptywheel

Michigan Republicans issued a declaration if war. OK. If that’s what they want … #MIUnion #rtw #RightToMooch

about 2 hours ago via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@Hesiod2k11

Hesiod Theogeny

Facing many of the same issues Corrente faces.

We have a question on Orwellian language:

U.S. Special Operations Forces have a brand new home in Afghanistan. It’s owned and operated by the security company formerly known as Blackwater, thanks to a no-bid deal worth $22 million.

You might think that Blackwater, now called Academi, was banished into some bureaucratic exile after its operatives in Afghanistan stole guns from U.S. weapons depots and killed Afghan civilians. Wrong. Academi’s private 10-acre compound outside Kabul, called Camp Integrity, is the new headquarters for perhaps the most important special operations unit in Afghanistan.

"Camp Integrity"...

Good question, even if it is asked by Al Sharpton, Obama superfan. Matt Stoller:

The Swimmers - The Christmas Sound

A few more forty degree days. Back in the day, when oil was ten cents a gallon, the thermostat was right by the door, so the furnace could kick on whenever anybody entered the house! Those days are long gone, aren't they?

NATO ministers met in Brussels today, December 5th, to approve Turkey’s request for Patriot missiles and for foreign and US troops to be deployed to their border with Syria.

The US/NATO War-machine plows onward in the attempted illegitimate overthrow of Syria, much as it did with its successful illegitimate overthrow of Libya.

Turkey has offered geographical strategic assistance to the US- and NATO-backed so-called “rebels” trying to overthrow Assad’s Syrian regime. Turkey now offers itself as a flimsy fig-leaf for craven powerful western intervention into Syria.

The latest “sky-is-falling” propaganda is that the Syrian regime is threatening surface-to-surface missiles armed with chemical weapons.

You remember Liz; the Wellpoint VP who drafted ObamaCare after Max Baucus hired her as his chief of staff? Well, she's left the White House to cash in.

What the heck ever happened to wooden kitchen matches?!

Funny except not:

A conservative scholar [paid propagandist] at the Heritage Foundation, Edmund F. Haislmaier, attacked a nonprofit employee Tuesday morning in a hotel where both men were attending an event sponsored by the Campaign to Fix the Debt.

Since the United States can never go broke*, don't "fix" the debt!

The incident, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel downtown, occurred after Burke Stansbury, of the Seattle-based nonprofit Campaign for Community Change, and about 20 other progressive activists interrupted a speech by Republican Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio) to encourage the senator to protect Social Security and Medicare in fiscal cliff negotiations.

We're already getting 2016 stories, fer Chrissake. It's sick!

This just takes a second, promise. While playing around with the new site, I created a very short post asking for reactions to a new knitting project. Check it out if you have a minute, and tell me what you think. You can comment at either site (I think).

If we are to take our country back we need a place to discuss what is being done and what needs to be done. lambert, at enormous personal cost, both in terms of money and opportunity cost, has built a public square where that discussion can take place. He has created a public square where everyone is a front pager; a place where each of us can post about those things we know and care about, thus creating a treasure trove of expert commentary. But there is a limit to what sweat equity can do for our movement. lambert needs your help, please donate. [The PayPal and WePay buttons are to your right. And Okanagen has followed CoyoteCreek in offering to match contributions; please write "OK" on the PayPal/WePay forms or lambert_strether [dot] corrente [at] yahoo [dot] com (mail me) so I can match the gifts up. --lambert, blushing modestly]

Today's insectidote is another butterfly. I like the light touches of blue on this one... very subtle.

Being not so flush as Coyote, I would like to put up a matching contribution of $150. So please give so we can get another $300 to the blog that everybody hates and nobody reads, or everybody reads and nobody hates or inside out/vice versa or however that formula goes.

Come on and hurt me people! You know you want to! [And please put OK somewhere in the WePay/PayPal forms, or mail me at lambert_strether [dot] corrente [at] yahoo [dot] com, so I know who's putting the screws to Okanagen! --lambert]

Caithlin De Marrais - Seasonal Persuasion

Guy gets injured. Docs tell him he won't be able to walk again without canes.
15 years later, takes up yoga, loses 140 pounds, and can walk again unassisted.

Video

Fox News Is Taking Karl Rove Off The Air

The Hill. Nice to know Obama thinks we're animals.