Woman battles infection from dangerous Gulf bacteria

Online story can be found here:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/article/327928/8/Woman-battles-infection-from-dangerous-Gulf-bacteria

"Secret" Florida Energy Pipeline Association Conference Being Held in Sarasota NOW! What Are They HIDING?

This secret conference is being held at the Hyatt Regency in Sarasota, Florida right now and the final day is August 2nd, 2013. 

Our questions consist of the following:

So why are the XL Pipeline Transcanada people holding a conference IN SARASOTA at the Hyatt THIS WEEK to address problem issues they have on the Gulfcoast of FL (read SARASOTA AREA-TAMPA BAY AREA-NAPLES AREA)? 

The Grand Ballroom was reserved for this conference, it holds 750 people.Why so many people if this is not something they are planning on doing? Contrary to the wishes of the people?

Why is this pipeline group in Sarasota with Florida companies and corporations? 

Why has there been NO media coverage of this? 

Why are no protests planned?

From the Florida Energy Pipeline Association's website:

"More than 4,000 miles of interstate transmission pipeline traverse the state quietly, reliably and efficiently, delivering natural gas to electric utilities, industry and local distribution companies. In addition, petroleum products such as gasoline, home heating oil, jet fuel, and diesel are transported through approximately 200 miles of FEPA-member intrastate systems."

A good reference article about the future of Fracking in Florida:

http://www.thebradentontimes.com/news/2013/01/02/opinion/does_fracking_have_a_growing_future_in_florida/

WISE WOMEN MEDIA for 7/19/13--A Discussion of Race and Diversity with Maria Agosto

Maria Agosto with Occupy

Tonight we will have an OPEN MIC CHECK and the topic will be a DISCUSSION ON RACE in the aftermath of the George Zimmerman verdict. We will also pass on info about the direct actions happening across the country to increase awareness about JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON. 

Maria Agosto from MOVE TO AMEND NATIONAL, the Green Party and the Poor People's Economic Rights Campaign will join us as a special guest. We will discuss why Race and Diversity is interrelated in so many issues and efforts.

See more on Twitter: #Justice4Trayvon #dreamdefenders

Join us for the LIVE BROADCAST by calling in, logging into the CHAT ROOM or listen to the archives of the show later on. Don't forget to visit us on the web! And hit is up on the GOFUNDME link to help keep us on the air every week. Every little bit helps!

Show begins at 10PM EST. 
Call in to speak with the host (213) 816-0357.
CLICK HERE to get to the show and the chat room.

WISE WOMEN MEDIA for 7/12/13--LET'S TALK ABOUT TRAYVON OPEN MIC CHECK

Tonight's show is an OPEN MIC CHECK about the Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman case that played out over all media outlets this week. The case is over for the Defense and the Prosecution and the jury is deliberating. And many lives are basically holding their breaths for the dramatic outcome.

Thoughts, opinions, ideas? Let's hear what you have to say. Call in, join us in the CHAT ROOM or listen to the archive later if you can't join us for the LIVE BROADCAST.

Call in to speak with the host (213) 816-0357.

Join us in the CHAT ROOM here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/here-be-monsters/2013/07/13/wise-woman-media--anita-stewart during the LIVE BROADCAST at 10PM EST.

We don’t have corporate sponsors, so be sure to hit us up on the GOFUNDME badge on this page to DONATE so we can stay on the air every week. We want to continue to bring you independent media, great shows and guests. 

See you on the RADIO!

MORE LEAKING OIL IN THE GULF OF MEXICO...

Weather complicates effort to permanently kill leaking Gulf well

Posted on  July 12, 2013 at 8:52 am by Jennifer A. Dlouhy in Accidents, Gulf of Mexico

Stormy weather is complicating efforts to permanently kill a leaking gas well in the Gulf of Mexico, after workers temporarily sealed it off.

Specialists plugged the leak by pumping drilling mud into the 40-year-old Energy Resource Technology well late Thursday, roughly four days after it first started discharging a briny mix of gas, light condensate and salt water.

“The flow from the well was completely stopped yesterday evening before dark,” said David Blackmon, a spokesman for ERT, a newly acquired subsidiary of Houston-based Talos Energy. “They’ve been monitoring the well overnight, per guidance from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.”

The next phase in the operation may begin later today, if regulators at the Interior Department bureau approve plans to pump cement into the shallow-water well, permanently sealing it off. But thunderstorms and lightning in the area may slow operations.

The damage from the episode is likely to be minimal, chiefly because the old, slow-flowing gas well was already on the verge of retirement. It last produced gas commercially more than a decade ago, and Talos Energy was in the process of permanently plugging and abandoning the well when fluid first started escaping on Sunday. Although it was briefly brought back under control, the leak began again Monday morning.

See more at the following link:
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/07/12/leaking-gulf-well-brought-under-control/

BOOK REVIEW: MY CHEMICAL MOUNTAIN by Corina Vacco

My Chemical Mountain

A review by Culture’s Child

“We live by the best landfill ever.  I flipped my dirt bike there once.
Plus I’ve got a sketchbook full of uranium monsters.
My friend Cornpup likes to show off the weird bumps on his back for a dollar.
And Charlie, he’ll drink red creek water on a dare.”

— from My Chemical Mountain by Corina Vacco

Frustration and fear are afoot in the nation, and all over the world, as people and planet face the results of corporate greed.  My Chemical Mountain (Random House 2013) is the first novel from prize-winning young Green author Corina Vacco, weaving together environmental and social issues in a novel that reaches beyond its Young Adult classification to all readers.  The journalistic reviews have been impressive.

She tells the story from the viewpoint of Jason, a teenage artist.  Jason and his two best friends from childhood share a love of their roots and their turf, as they discover that all is not well in their hometown.  During that transitional summer just before the Freshman year of high school, we learn how a rogue corporation can get away with literal murder, holding a dependent town in its grasp.  People suspect that they’re being poisoned, but where do they go?  To whom do they go?

This blue collar town’s livelihood is centered on the chemical plant where so many of them work, but housing values have plummeted due to the company’s secretive toxic dumping.  Having grown up living next to their “playground” landfill, each of the three boys chooses a different path of resistance, and a different way of coping.  Jason, the artist, channels his anger about his father’s “accidental” death by drawing toxic monsters and creating a mythology around their landfill.  William, nicknamed, Cornpup, is a tech genius who deals with his ill health by trying to reason logically with authorities.  Charlie, coming from a tumultuous home life, is the thrill seeking Golden Boy who takes a path of vigilante justice that comes with a price.

The characters are well developed, each with their foibles, as power players over shadow the kinder more gentle folk of the town, but the book steers clear of the usual cliches.  It reminds us that our world is a finite place with only so much fresh water, and such a fragile climate balance.  We’re reminded that we all must play our part in defending it.  “The truth will set you free” (Jesus of Nazareth) is probably the most valuable quotation ever and it’s been used in many circumstances.  As we carry on in this world, the best leaders, artists and authors give us that truth along with insight and hope.  The part that we can play, after reading this particular novel, is to share it and its truths with others.

Corina Vacco felt compelled to write about toxic towns after reading an article alleging that hundreds of thousands of children and teens throughout the United States attend schools built on or near dangerously polluted sites. She found the inspiration for this book while living in Western New York, where she heard teachers speak out against a landfill adjacent to an elementary school. A city girl, world traveler, and activist, Corina enjoys playing guitar, listening to the blues, and exploring the great outdoors. She lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband, who is a member of the Coast Guard, and their magnificent puddle-splashing, car-loving little boy. They share their home with one slightly  neurotic but very lovable Italian greyhound and a growing collection of books.

***Also see this post on FLORIDA'S GREEN PERSPECTIVE!

WISE WOMEN MEDIA Radio Show for 7/5/13--DARK FOR TONIGHT!

Taking some personal moments to breathe and GOING DARK for tonight's show. It has been a heavy news week and trying to process it all. The storms have been fierce and they have been rolling through this part of Florida (in the Green Swamp) every single day.

We have also not been without the influences of Mercury Retrograde with phones that are not working well, bad reception when we CAN connect and dropped calls with spotty internet access. 

So looking forward to next week where we can make our connections and have some cooperation with our electronic devices! That way we can put it all together for an engaging show and some news you can use. 

STAY TUNED for info on next week's show.

To see us on BLOGTALKRADIO--CLICK HERE! 

General Honoré Talks About Sinkhole in Assumption Parish, Louisiana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJXy4Svc5gg&list=UUT4exFd3m3llZv5AduNNBcg
The general speaks to citizens about Assumption Parish sinkhole in Louisiana

Also see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5RqVz0ljcg

From PRESERVEOURPARADISE.ORG! RALLY AND PICKET in Naples, FL on 7/4/13 against NO FRACKING IN FLORIDA!

Here are some oily facts behind the oil boondoggle in Golden Gate Estates:

1. There's not much oil there. There's just enough to make a mess. All the oil that's ever been pumped out of South Florida over the past 70 years scarcely amounts to one day of current global oil production. So all this local drilling will likely bring no jobs to speak of andno relief at the gas pump.

2. The taxpayers will pay for the roads. Even if there's no mess, over 10 years a 40-ton oil truck every day will make a mess of DeSoto Boulevard. It's just a two-lane country road. At over $1 million per mile, taxpayers will pay big time--at least $10 million according to Florida Department of Transportation estimates (ftp://ftp.dot.state.fl.us/LTS/CO/Estimates/CPM/summary.pdf).

3. The oil companies won't pay for the roads they destroy. They're taking a tax handout from the Socialist Florida legislature. That's right. All those drill-baby-drill, Florida legislators who say they're "anti-socialist" just gave a big welfare check to the oil companies:they just cut the oil companies' tax by up to 87.5%. Did they cut your tax by 87.5%?? This means you, the dumb-shmuck taxpayer will have to pay for repaving DeSoto Boulevard so the oil companies can drive their tanker trucks to the bank. Collier County gets a measly 12.5% of this cut-rate tax, so while taxpayers shell out some $10 million to rebuild DeSoto Boulevard, over 10 years the oil companies could pay as little as $264,620. Even with oil at $90 per barrel, it will take about 150 years for Collier County to break even on this deal.

4. Somebody might get rich, but it's not likely to be you, Mr. Taxpayer.

PICKET OPPOSING OIL DRILLING IN GOLDEN GATE ESTATES, 7pm JULY 4

Let's turn up the heat! Join us with signs for a picket opposing oil drilling on the Fourth of July as hundreds drive to the beach to watch the fireworks. Our aim is to stand at the crossroad of 41 and 5th Ave. South in Naples to educate and inform the public with signs and flyers. In the meantime, the Florida Department of Protection stands at their crossroad, considering whether to deny or permit the oil drilling application for Golden Gate Estates.

Help us save our communities, water, wildlife, and wetlands. Help us spend our taxes wisely.

SEE MORE AT HTTP://WWW.PRESERVEOURPARADISE.ORG

FLORIDA ON TRIAL by Jeff and Rose Roby

Florida on Trial

Trayvon Martin.

The George Zimmerman murder trial has begun, and Florida simmers.  From the very beginning of the testimony against Zimmerman for the murder of African-American 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, defense attorney Don West went on the attack, trying to make this case not about murder but about race.

After Trayvon’s friend Rachel Jeantel related to the court the horrifying details of her last conversation with Martin during the final minutes of Trayvon’s life, West pounced on her statement that, when Trayvon realized he was being stalked, “He told me that [Zimmerman] looked like a creepy ass cracker.”

This was enough for West to try to portray the unarmed Martin as the racist aggressor in the fatal confrontation that followed.  The fact that the 17-year-old was stalked and menaced by a local armed vigilante who had just angrily declared in a 911 call to police that young men like Trayvon “always get away!” no longer mattered.

But the defense was also pounded by the testimony of Lindzee Folgate, the physician’s assistant who examined Zimmerman the day following Trayvon’s murder.  She recalled that Zimmerman had not come to her office on his own accord, but rather had been compelled to see her in order to get an authorized medical note allowing his immediate return to work.  She described the two cuts on his head as being miniscule and were not in need of any stitches, and she stated that his answers during her examination of him gave no indication that he was suffering from any symptoms of a concussion.

Florida on Trial

As the trial moves on, the State of Florida braces itself in this, only the latest episode in its dark “stand your ground” history.  Indeed, the Sunshine State has a horrendous history of racial violence, and once again the forces of racism are gearing up.  Zimmerman’s father Robert has written an e-book that claims, among other things, that the Congressional Black Caucus is a “pathetic, self-serving group of racists… advancing their purely racist agenda,” and that racism is “flourishing at the insistence of some in the African American Community.”  And the white supremacist movement has turned Robert Zimmerman and his son into some kind of heroes.

As commenters state on Stormfront.Org, a neo-Nazi site, “The minorities have the white population so scared all they have to do is talk about rioting and everyone hides under their desk. We need them to riot!  Let them riot when the riot starts we can put these animals down for good!”  And, “If it takes the Nigs getting so inflamed that a riot happens, then so be it. As long as the government realizes what happened, maybe all the death and mayhem they’ll cause will be worth it.”

The prestigious Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) ranks Florida number three in the number of hate groups (with 59, behind Texas and California), mainly Klan, neo-Nazis, Skinheads and White Nationalists.  The Florida press paints a portrait of conspiracies, paramilitary training centers, Sovereign Citizens in shootouts with police, overt racial murders, cross burnings, death threats against judges and elected officials, attacks on abortion centers, and preparations for race war.

Per the SPLC, Neo-Nazis Plan Patrols in Florida in Wake of Trayvon Martin Shooting, “The National Socialist Movement says it is prepared for ‘racial violence’ in the Sanford [Florida] area, where the Martin shooting occurred, and that it has been ‘contacted by dozens of local citizens’ supposedly seeking protection.”

Stand Whose Ground?

“state leaders feared negative effects on the state’s tourist industry.”

Florida’s proud history includes the Ocoee Massacre in 1920, which saw the “single bloodiest day in modern American political history.”  Mose Norman, an African American, wanted to vote on election day, but the good people of Ocoee decided to “stand their ground,” and drove him away.  Norman returned with a shotgun but was again forced to flee.  Then the good white citizens ran amok, with Klan militia burning down every African-American church, schoolhouse and lodge room in the vicinity.  After an evening-long gunfight the residents were driven into the nearby orange groves and swamps, never to return.  Witnesses reported stepping over heaps of dead, both white and Black, as dozens of Black bodies were shoved into mass graves.

Then there was the infamous 1923 Rosewood Massacre, in which moonshine-crazed white paramilitary forces — falsely claiming a white woman had been raped (her white boyfriend had done it) — marched on the Black community seeking vengeance.  Murdering as they went, the mob was met by fierce gunfire, and after days of battle, dozens Black and white lay dead, the town was burned to the ground, and the survivors either fled through the swamps or were able to escape on a train sent by a friendly white businessman.

In neither case did the African-American community go down without a fight.  And racial turmoil and resistance have continued to this day.  Tampa saw riots in 1967, the year they burned down Detroit, in 1987 over the police murder of Black mentally-handicapped man, in 1989 over another killing at the hands of the police, and again in 1992 during the so-called Rodney King riots.

Miami burned in 1980, with 3,500 National Guardsmen restoring order after 17 had died.  In 1982 and 1989, Miami burned again and again.

The Community Stands Its Ground!

St. Petersburg saw serious rioting in 1996 when officer James Knight shot and killed a Black teenager, Tyron Lewis, who failed to exit his car fast enough during a traffic stop.  This was followed by a night of resistance.

According to UhuruNews, on November 13, 1996, it was expected that the white officer would be acquitted, “In order to ‘brace itself’ for the African community’s response to the verdict, the city government decided to launch a preemptive strike against the Uhuru Movement and the masses of people.  Prior to the November 13 meeting, police arrested leading members of the Uhuru Movement in anticipation of the verdict to prevent their leadership presence on the streets.

“As the meeting unfolded, people discussed the community’s political response to the verdict. That process was interrupted by an announcement from police who had assembled a battle group of 300 troops outside the doors of the Uhuru House. Over a loudspeaker, a commanding officer declared that the regular meeting of the organization was now an unlawful assembly and that the occupants — which included men, women and children of all ages — had five minutes to leave the building.  Thirty seconds later, police began to launch every canister of tear gas they held in the city armory at the Uhuru House. The canisters were also used as incendiary devices to set fires in trees close to the building in an effort to burn the two story structure to the ground.”

UhuruNews continues, “As the police began to move in, members of the community could be seen running out of their homes with buckets of water to extinguish the fires that the police set around the Uhuru House. At the same time, from unknown positions, Africans began to open fire at police troops in an effort to force their retreat.”

A Bipartisan Team

A frequent question from folks up North is, “When there’s really weird stuff in the news, why is it always happening in Florida?”

That’s a very good question.  The people of Florida are decent people, a mixture of good and bad, like everywhere else.  In fact, a majority voted for Barack Obama in 2012, an indication that they are not as a whole driven by racism.  Still, the politics of the state are savage, right wing, murderous in their meager funding of social services, vicious in the suppression of voting rights.  Governor Rick Scott brazenly flouts the nation’s own election laws.  Yet Florida should be at least a liberal state, so why are its politics so reactionary?  Why?

Well, it’s been a thoroughly bipartisan effort.  While the Democrats solemnly tut-tut about racism, they divvy up the state legislature between themselves and the Republicans.  Over half the seats in the Florida House of Representatives featured either a Democrat unopposed by a Republican or vice versa, and 15 of the 40 Florida Senate seats were similarly unopposed by a major party candidate.  This is the state where in 2000 the Democrats let mobs of white-collar thugs literally steal the presidency of the United States.  Characters like Democratic Senator Bill Nelson collaborate across the aisle and the Republicans hack away unopposed against essential services.  And poor people, in the slums of Miami and the trailer parks of Pasco County and the blueberry fields of Alachua — Black and white alike — live their lives of quiet desperation.

Culture.

It was a source of amusement when a Florida House member introduced a bill to have the state put out license plates adorned with the Confederate flag, the proceeds to benefit “educational programs run by Sons of Confederate Veterans.”  But these pranks are serious business.  As the Hernando Heckler writes, “Our weapon of choice in this ‘Culture War’ will not be a musket, assault rifle, cannon, or cavalry, and will instead be money, heritage, history, culture, and with our youth … Instead of hand to hand combat we will fight the Yankees on the roads by proudly displaying Southern symbols on our vehicles for all to see, we will wear Southern flags on our lapels while in church or at the office.”

So everyone respects our “rich southern heritage,” and the “Stars and Bars” fly proudly from the antennas of pickup trucks and front porches.  And this rich southern culture provides the sea in which the white supremacists can safely swim.  It tells the Klan and the Nazis and the skinheads that, as long as they don’t go around shooting too many people in public, they have free reign to strut their stuff.  We get the message.  For as long as this far right wing is able to operate out in the open, all progressive activity in the state lives in fear.

That will not change without there being an independent alternative.

The Green Party Answers

Now St. Petersburg awaits the Zimmerman verdict.  “Race relations here were horrible then, and they are horrible now,” stated Bruce Wright, long-time St. Petersburg activist, member of Green Party 2012 presidential candidate Jill Stein’s Green Shadow Cabinet, and the Pinellas County Green Party Shadow Sheriff.  “The Trayvon Martin case is only the latest incident in a long line of racist attacks, and the least we can do is repeal Stand Your Ground.  But official policy is still to contain the Black community with aggressive force.  The police don’t live in the communities they police, they aren’t part of the neighborhoods.  Instead, they are a militarized army of occupation.  They don’t protect and serve, they harass and harangue.  But what we really need is community building.”

Wright charges, “Our officials are not interested in removing the causes of violence.  All they offer is police containment, while our people are crying out for economic development.  And that development has to include, and in fact be led by, the very people impacted.  It’s the only answer.  On this, the Green Party will stand its ground.”

– submitted by Rose Roby and Jeff Roby