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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (605919)	3/31/2011 11:49:02 AM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579214

The Promise and Risks of Natural Gas To the Editor: nytimes.com Re “Natural Gas and Clean Water” (editorial, March 23): In this time of energy uncertainty, it is essential that New York and the country not forgo the opportunity presented by natural gas from shale. It is the cleanest of the fossil fuels, and an affordable and abundant domestic resource. Given the incredible uncertainty in the oil-rich Middle East (and our dependence on imported oil), and the tragedy in Japan (and our dependence on aging nuclear plants), we cannot close that door. That said, the industry has not helped itself with its inadequate performance standards, transparency and communication. Some of the best geoscientists in the world are in our top-rated research universities and institutions. They can provide an independent analysis supported by rigorous field testing. It is essential that the industry and the New York State government collaborate to provide the financial resources and regulatory environment that will ensure that natural gas can be produced in an environmentally safe manner. With rigorous standards and best available technology, we can get it right. We can fuel an economic recovery, employ thousands, preserve the land and water resources, improve the air and lessen our dependence on unstable regions, while providing for a fundamentally sound energy policy. ROBERT B. CATELL New York, March 24, 2011 The writer is chairman of the advisory board of the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center at Stony Brook University. • To the Editor: Your editorial “Natural Gas and Clean Water” is on target, but lacks a solid rationale for banning hydraulic fracturing in two of New York’s watersheds but not all. The implication that a high population should exclude an area from risks associated with new energy development is poor policy, since it is those very millions who represent the demand for more energy. Even your urban readers might agree that it would be difficult to justify a policy in which rural New Yorkers assume all the risks of new energy development in order to meet the energy demands of population centers like New York City. STEPHANIE WEISS Clayton, N.Y., March 24, 2011 • To the Editor: You argue that the issue is not whether the country should be drilling for natural gas, but rather whether it can be done safely using hydraulic fracturing. We agree, but we also believe that more than one million wells that have been drilled using hydraulic fracturing over the past six decades offer an emphatic answer to that question. Yes, it can. Under state regulation, which we support, hydraulic fracturing can continue to provide American consumers with the clean-burning natural gas they will need for decades to come. And it can continue doing so without harming drinking water supplies. Our environment is important, and that’s why we support vigorous state regulation and disclosure of the materials used in fracturing. But we cannot let unfounded fears about hydraulic fracturing deprive us of the domestic natural gas production that would be lost if hydraulic fracturing were to be banned or severely restricted — particularly in light of recent developments in Japan and the Middle East. Nor can we let exaggerated suspicions deprive the people of New York, Pennsylvania and other states of the hundreds of thousands of jobs that drilling in the Marcellus Shale is expected to generate. MIKE DOYLE Executive Director New York State Petroleum Council Albany, March 24, 2011 • To the Editor: The Maryland House of Delegates recently passed what would be the country’s strictest law regulating hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. The bill needs Senate approval, and the governor has expressed his support. The comprehensive bill requires a scientific finding that hydraulic fracturing is not harmful to humans or the environment before any drilling takes place. It sets a reasonable time frame (two years) for completion of a state study; the federal Environmental Protection Agency is also studying the issue. It takes time to determine whether an invasive process with the potential to destroy drinking water resources is not only profitable for industry and the large landowners it relies on but also safe. Wouldn’t it be foolish to do it any other way? PAUL ROBERTS Friendsville, Md., March 24, 2011

To: i-node who wrote (605919)	3/31/2011 12:04:18 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579214

Mike Huckabee Says He Wants Americans To Be Indoctrinated At Gunpoint blogs.alternet.org Did Mike Huckabee just flush his presidential aspirations down the proverbial toilet? Well, if American mainstream media has an ounce of journalistic gumption remaining the answer most certainly would be “yes”. Huckabee has just been caught on video, at a Christian supremacist conference, stating that Americans should be forcibly indoctrinated at gunpoint. The organization which hosted the “Rediscover God In America” conference, United in Purpose, has edited Huckabee’s comment from footage of his speech, but not before People For The American Way’s Kyle Mantyla captured the unedited footage, in which Mike Huckabee states, “I almost wish that there would be, like, a simultaneous telecast, and all Americans would be forced–forced at gunpoint no less–to listen to every David Barton message, and I think our country would be better for it.” David Barton is the leading promoter of a brand of falsified American history altered to support the claim that America was founded as a Christian, rather than a secular, nation. As Chris Rodda, who has authored an entire book debunking Barton’s brand of pseudo-history, writes, I was quite surprised… to come across a video clip from this conference on the People for the American Way (PFAW) Right Wing Watch blog with the headline “Huckabee: Americans Should Be Forced, At Gunpoint, To Learn From David Barton.” I had watched Huckabee’s speech. How on earth could I have missed a statement like that? Well, I didn’t. It had been edited out of the webcast that I had watched. Kyle Mantyla over at PFAW’s Right Wing Watch had recorded Huckabee’s speech when it was streamed live on Thursday, and posted the ‘forced at gunpoint’ clip on Friday. By Saturday, when I watched the webcast on the United in Purpose website, that part of Huckabee’s speech had been edited out. The webcast that I saw showed Barton leaving the stage as he ended his presentation, then the screen going black for a moment, and then what appeared to be the beginning of Huckabee’s speech. What was edited out was Barton returning to the stage to introduce Huckabee, and the first two minutes and forty-five seconds of Huckabee’s speech, during which Huckabee made his ‘gunpoint’ comment and praised David Lane, the man behind all of the American “Renewal” and “Restoration” projects that have popped up across the country during the past few elections. [below: the unedited footage from Huckabee's speech, with the "joke" about indoctrinating Americans at gunpoint to be found at at 1:06. Footage courtesy of Kyle Mantyla of Rightwing Watch, who might have almost single-handedly consigned Huckabee's presidential hopes to the dustbin of history.] I should also note that what Chris Rodda has to say about this has especial weight given that she’s arguably been the most indefatigable author to challenge David Barton’s sprawling falsified American history oeuvre, as a Talk To Action site search on Rodda’s extensive posts debunking Barton would suggest. Chris Rodda is author of the book Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right’s Alternate Version of American History which prominently features David Barton, head of Wallbuilders and arguably king of the “liars for Jesus”. Rodda is also Head Researcher for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.