FEAR…

“Why Can’t We All Get Along?”

I can not get over the Tea Party mantra…” I want my country back!”  What do they mean?  Well, it’s the FEAR of the minority becoming the majority and the fact that President Obama represents that new America. Two front page stories in the NYT today connect that FEAR to the GOP’s possible radical racist  strategy to bring President Obama down— so they can continue to keep power in the hands of corporations and the mega wealthy. Let’s see how the Moral Mormon Mitt Romney deals with this?

WHITES ACCOUNT FOR UNDER HALF THE BIRTHS IN THE US—NYT…

After years of speculation, estimates and projections, the Census Bureau has made it official: White births are no longer a majority in the United States…

GOP ‘SUPER-PAC” WEIGHS HARD LINE ATTACK ON OBAMA—NYT…

A group of high-profile Republican strategists is working with a conservative billionaire on a proposal to mount one of the most provocative campaigns of the “super PAC” era and attack President Obama in ways that Republicans have so far shied away from.

Lamenting that voters “still aren’t ready to hate this president,” the document concludes that the campaign should “explain how forces out of Obama’s control, that shaped the man, have made him completely the wrong choice as president in these days and times.”

Americans Like President Obama…Romney Not So Much

Through out the financial crisis, the shooting of Gabby Giffords, the Congressional gridlock, the impatience over the repeal of DADT and Gay Marriage acceptance, blatant racism, the Tea Party “I want my country” back sillies—President Obama has been a rock. Working in a steady methodical way to better the lives of all  Americans.  I predict that this quality will ensure President Obama’s reelection.

Charles Blow   Believing In Obama …

You gotta have faith.

Democrats have it. Republicans don’t. That is the finding of a USA Today/Gallup poll that was released on Tuesday.

The poll found that:

Fifty-six percent of Americans think Barack Obama will win the 2012 presidential election, compared with 36 percent who think Mitt Romney will win. Democrats are more likely to believe that Obama will win than Republicans are to believe Romney will. Independents are nearly twice as likely to think that Obama, rather than Romney, will prevail.

This is utterly unsurprising. Romney is the most awkward, clumsy Republican nominee since Bob Dole in 1996.

Why does all this matter? Because, as Gallup points out, “Americans’ predictions of the four prior presidential elections were also generally accurate.” Rather surprisingly, “Americans are a bit more likely now to say Obama has a better chance of winning than they were at a similar point in 2008.”

Mitt Romney…Compulsive Liar

Yes, the word on the street is that all politicians lie, but Mitt Romney seems to lie every single day.

This is a huge character flaw.

His latest whopper is that he does not remember holding down a young man and cutting off his hair—no way! can that be believed. Another is his insistence that marriage has been between one man and one woman for 3000 years —omitting the fact  his great- grandfather had 5 wives and his great- great- grandfather had 12!  And how about the one regarding Obamacare?  He’s going to repeal it on day one of his presidency  (which he can not do)  and that it is nothing like the health care plan he passed in Massachusetts.  Believe that and he’ll tell you another one—and he does…

He saved the auto industry not President Obama!

President Obama is weak on national defense.

President Obama made the recession worse.

My dog loved riding on the roof of the car!

Follow Romney Lies at the Daily Kos

Environmental Justice and Ringwood Borough…Never Happen

Sludge being removed from a yard in Upper Ringwood—notice the protective gear being worn by the person digging up the sludge. Photo Chapin Engineering

Ringwood is in the New Jersey Highlands surrounded by the Wyanokie and Ramapo Mountains less than 40 miles outside NYC.  It is home to the Wanaque Reservoir (serving millions) and the Ringwood/Mines Landfill Superfund Site.  It is the only superfund site in history where people lived at the site while the dumping was taking place and also the only site to be re-listed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Ford Motor Co. dumped millions of gallons of sludge in Upper Ringwood, home to the Ramapough Indians for over 400 years, from 1964 to 1975 with the blessings of the local government.

After years of reinvestigation, the time for a decision concerning remediation is approaching.  The EPA Community Advisory Group is advocating for a total clean up and removal of the toxic sludge.

Last night I sat through the dog and pony show presented by the Borough of Ringwood’s professionals concerning the Ringwood/Mines Landfill Superfund Site and it’s clean up. Never mentioned once were the approximately 400 people that live ON the superfund site or the lead contamination children have lived with for over 40 years!  The meeting’s main purpose was to scare the other residents of Ringwood about the cost of a complete clean up.  Ringwood has $87M in indemnity insurance to cover the town,  which they are tapping into right now to pay for these “professionals”.  But, the other point which was soft peddled last night, is that Ford is and should be paying for the clean up. What  was obvious last night, is that Ford and Ringwood Borough are in this together, just as they have been since the beginning of the dumping.  Their mantra is—do it the cheapest way possible, the heck with the people and the Wanaque Reservoir— which is less that a mile down gradient of the superfund site. This outrageous reasoning is exactly why we are where we are today—reinvestigating a site that was deemed clean over 20 years ago.

This meeting was extremely disturbing ( there were two police officers at the door) because it was the same old guard sitting on the dais that originally agreed to the de-listing of the site—even though there was toxic sludge visible all through out the community. I don’t know how these people sleep at night.

There should be nothing less than a total clean up  and remediation of the site. Finally, bringing justice to the Ramapough’s who have suffered needlessly for over 40 years—living on a chemical wasteland.

The HBO documentary Mann vs. Ford is about this human tragedy as is Toxic Legacy by the Record.  But, unfortunately, there is a major omission in both stories—which is the complicity of the local government.