Standing by Vermont!

Working together works - as community people, Vermont State Guard, Vermont government, and FEMA all pull together!

Amplify’d from climate-connections.org

Vermont: The Recovery from Hurricane Irene Begins

In all, over 200 roads across the state were closed due to wash outs from the heavy rains that pelted the state for nearly twenty-four hours on Sunday, August 28.

Before the sun was up on Tuesday morning, thirty FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) tractor-trailers had arrived at the National Guard’s Camp Johnson with water, ready to eat meals, blankets, cots and other supplies.

Waterbury was submerged under 10 feet or more of water when the Winooski River rose to record flood levels in minutes. Read more at climate-connections.org

 

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Gunrunner/Fast and Furious: Bush/Cheney Fail?

Seems that Project Gunrunner which turned into Fast and Furious all began as a Bush/Cheney sloppy attempt to control drug guns.

Amplify’d from bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Project Gunrunner explodes: Lies from Arizona

Brenda Norrell

Project Gunrunner, and then “Fast and Furious,” were supposedly ATF sting operations to track weapons used by drug cartels in Mexico. Thousands of weapons were purchased by "straw" buyers in the US, then allowed to "walk" across the border into Mexico, walk into the hands of drug cartels.

An e-mail from a Flagstaff police officer about Project Gunrunner is dated March 17, 2008

“ATF Southwest Border Strategy Project Gunrunner Weapons of Choice," with the date stated as revised in Feb. 2008.

Project Gunrunner began as a pilot project in Laredo, Texas, in 2005 and was expanded as a national initiative in 2006 Read more at bsnorrell.blogspot.com

 

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Are we killing ourselves - not so softly?

You get sick in the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s - go home, soup, sleep and get better; wash wound regularly, bandage daily, get better.



You get sick in 1950s to 2011 and increasingly you get antibiotics prescribed for being sick or hurt and you get well in about the same amount of time.



1950s til now - Industry starts putting/using antibiotic in and on everything: Drugs for animals, rinses for food, and on and on and on.



Oops! 2001 and on we discover some things getting seriously out of whack. Did we/have we overdosed on antibacterials with the best of intentions and perhaps set a course that will facilitate a worldwide pandemic worse than fabled black plague and 1918 flu?



¿How do we figure out what we have done and how we can straighten things out? Or is it too late?

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Antibiotics: Killing Off Beneficial Bacteria… For Good?

Maryn McKenna

Martin Blaser of New York University’s Langone Medical Center argues that antibiotics’ impact on gut bacteria is permanent — and so serious in its long-term consequences that medicine should consider whether to restrict antibiotic prescribing to pregnant women and young children.

Early evidence

our friendly flora never fully recover

Overuse of antibiotics could be fuelling the dramatic increase in conditions such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma, which have more than doubled in many populations. Read more at www.wired.com

 

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Glenn Beck, Crossroads, People for the American Way, Van Jones, Jane Hamsher, and Russ Feingold have all figured out they have a common purpose and have formed a marketing group called WNU Inc. (Wingnuts United) to serve their common need - to make a living by getting gullible Americans to listen to them for advice and give them money through donations or advertising.



Think I will stick with supporting my party and candidates/representatives directly.



There are many more who fill up cyberspace and the airwaves with shouts of their truths you know who they are. You know who they are. There are also many groups that focus on specific issues and work hard on them, as opposed to some NGOs who are now just in the business of supporting their leader and staff. You also know that those NGOs that start supporting and advocating on everything are slipping into being just about themselves. EOR = end of rant - smile. http://amplify.com/u/a1bs0s

Who Gets Credit for Jobs? Those hiring

A. Gov. Perry responsible for job growth in Texas? Former Governator and Gov. Brown responsible for jobs gains in California?

or

B. How about the companies that did the hiring because they needed more workers and their customers are happy with them or want their product/service!



If you chose A. you are ready to move into the state of self-denial of facts to satisfy what you want to be true.



If you chose B., welcome back to reality or congratulations on not being sucked in by folks who want to sell you futures and pasts that will and have never existed so they can pick you pocket while they are getting you to take eye off of reality? Grin.



Good for employers in California - you still got a ways to go but you are getting there!

Amplify’d from feeds.bizjournals.com via Google Reader

California posts six-figure job gains

In the last 12 months, California has added 189,600 jobs, according to On Numbers. Since July 2010, California's job growth was second only to Texas, which added 269,500 jobs, according to seasonally adjusted figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also added jobs in 9 of those 12 months. Read more at feeds.bizjournals.com

 

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Future Payoff Price for Dropping Charges

Latest news is that the Prosecutors have recommended that the charges be dropped against the former head of the IMF. I suspect that we will find out in the future that DA Vance will profit greatly from his mishandling of the case. The message? Don't mess with powerful men, take any offered payoff, if offended or harmed - deal with it. Scum win this time or at least briefly. This type of behavior of attacking women who have been attacked has to end!

Amplify’d from feministing.com via Google Reader

Breaking: DSK case to likely be dismissed; Rally in NYC today

Regardless of Diallo’s past and any changed versions of stories she may have made about what she did after the alleged assault, it does not mean she wasn’t raped. The fact that there is DNA evidence, the fact new medical reports state Diallo’s injuries were those of sexual assault, and the fact that Strauss-Kahn is currently being accused of attempted rape by his daughter’s friend, is a hell of a lot of evidence that this should not end here. Read more at feministing.com

 

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Old Scourge Battering Vietnam Death Toll - 81

Hand, foot and mouth disease - many think in an old disease but it has spread over much of Vietnam and has infected many more thousands and caused even more deaths of late in China. A by-product of industrialized and globalized agriculture and too great a focus on profit over safety?

Amplify’d from www.thanhniennews.com

Hand, foot and mouth disease spreads to pandemic levels

The Ministry of Health is considering declaring hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) a pandemic, as more than 32,000 cases of the illness have killed 81 across the country so far this year.

“During any given day, we have 7,000 patients in hospital being examined at HCMC Children’s Hospital 1,” said Dr. Tang Chi Thuong, the hospital’s director. “Of those, around 2,000 must stay at the hospital for treatment.” Read more at www.thanhniennews.com

 

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A Superbug may be ready to go global

How so? If the bug (bacteria) talked about in the attached article, manages to figure out how to bypass the last remaining drug that can treat it - then an advance from hospital to hospital and country to country could be rather rapid because of air travel patterns. What does that mean - a number of people who might otherwise survive treatment for another life threatening disease will die from a bacterial infection they contract while in treatment.



The natural system is working its way to overcome our overuse of anti-bacterial drugs in food, water, and in industrialized mammal, avian, and marine agriculture.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Ringing the Warning Bell: Colistin-Resistant Klebsiella

Maryn McKenna

In all the latest bad news about bacteria becoming highly resistant — through carbapenem resistance, or the “Indian supergene” NDM-1 — there has been one hopeful thread: All of the organisms have remained susceptible to one very old, little-used drug called colistin. That might be about to change. Which would be very, very bad news.

To recap: A resistance factor is spreading that leaves very serious infections treatable by only a single remaining drug, one which is acknowledged not to be perfect. The more a drug is used, the faster resistance against it develops. Especially for Gram-negative infections, there are no new drugs in the pipeline. Read more at www.wired.com

 

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Kill their spirit, wolves, land, water til when?

Why is it that we still honor and admire First Nations people while we continue to allow companies and governments to try and steal their land, appropriate their culture? I do not know the answer, I do know it is wrong. How to fix it? No sure but we should try a lot harder than we have.

Amplify’d from buffy-sainte-marie.blogspot.com

My Country Tis of Thy People You're Dying: Video-Lyrics

Now that the pride of the sires receives charity. Now that we're harmless and safe behind laws. Now that my life's to be known as your heritage. Now that even the graves have been robbed. Now that our own chosen way is your novelty. Hands on our hearts We salute you your victory: Choke on your blue white and scarlet hypocrisy. Pitying your blindness; How you never see - that the eagles of war whose wings lent you glory, Were never no more than buzzards & crows: Pushed some wrens from their nest; Stole their eggs; changed their story. The mockingbird sings it; It's all that she knows. "Oh what can I do?", say a powerless few. With a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye: Can't you see how their poverty's profiting you? My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

See more at buffy-sainte-marie.blogspot.com

 

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Good Practice+Too Many Drugs=Planet/People Killers

In short - integrated agriculture supports self-sustaining use of all organic materials. Industrialize the process to maximize profit/yield by adding massive amounts anti-bacterial drugs to the process and you grow drug resistant bacteria and superbugs that - well read on how good intentions and bad science in service to profit could end up killing us. Chinese shrimp on the barbie or at Red Lobster - those shrimp are grown are grown in ponds fertilized by untreated chicken manure - bird flu anyone?

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Drug Resistance in Food — Coming from Aquaculture?

Maryn McKenna

Salmonella Kentucky ST198, it is much more drug-resistant than the US Heidelberg outbreak, and it has been spreading since 2002 from Egypt and north Africa through Europe, and has now been identified in the United States. Its primary vector appears to be chicken meat.

The authors are especially concerned about farms that practice what’s called “integrated aquaculture,” in which chicken litter and manure are used to fertilize ponds in which fish are grown, and waste from the ponds is harvested and used as poultry feed. Read more at www.wired.com

 

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USPS Managers - Disloyal/Unethical?

The term "going Postal" came from violence committed by people who had been managed by folks who thought "whack a postal employee" was a great game.



Management signed contracts they now want to ignore/tear up. Management managed the USPS into a hole. Postal workers - letter carriers did not manage the business into the hole it is in.



1. Fire all the managers and put a committee of postal workers in charge of the system, or

2. Managers actually work with employees on how to save money and create more business.



My gut favors choice #1. My head says give #2 a try. Past experience tells me that the workers could actually save the system but managers are too stuck on being "bosses" rather than leaders who want their organization to succeed.



Be strong union and speak out for uncommon good sense!

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

USPS proposes cutting 120,000 jobs, pulling out of health-care plan

In an attempt to stem its financial hemorrhaging, the U.S. Postal Service is seeking to reduce its workforce by 20 percent, including through layoffs now prohibited by union contracts. USPS also wants to withdraw its employees from the health and retirement plans that cover federal staffers and create its own benefit programs for postal employees. Read more at www.washingtonpost.com

 

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Thoughtless Thursday - Bank of America

Bank of America is convinced it does not have to follow laws that require it to be a good neighbor and to just be accountable for its actions or inaction. And it does not believe that it needs to honor 1st Amendment, freedom of speech, laws against false imprisonment and... It gets the thoughtless and no heart award for this thursday!

Amplify’d from chicagoist.com

Woman Lists Bank of America's Vacant Property Violations; Bank of America Has Woman Arrested

Bank of America had a customer arrested yesterday after she tried to deliver complaints of code violations at properties the bank owns. Read more at chicagoist.com

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If you do not blog for peace; who will?

When good people say nothing, evil triumphs - speak up!

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

BlogBlast4Peace 2011

For more information or to join this cause please visit founder and creator of Blog Blast For Peace, Mimi Lenox @ mimilenox.com Read more at www.youtube.com

 

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1. This is not a game - playing with our lives to gain an "edge" for your belief or political party has to stop.

2. Standard and Poor's has made so many bad calls over the past few years, that it is difficult to take seriously and I don't think people should take them seriously any longer - S&P you are downgraded for good!

3. Media and "pundits" - you are as much to blame as those attempting to gain a political edge. You are just spinning your own coverage to gain attention and gain your own edge. You time is nearly up as well.

4. We - the public - can all see that you are playing a "naked" game and while at times amusing - it has to end.



We need each other and need to work together - now! http://amplify.com/u/a1abxr

1946 Cold Case in Mojave

Murdered woman finally identified - never, never, never give up when seeking justice, mercy, or peace!

Amplify’d from laist.com

Woman Murdered in 1946 Identified

It's never too late to solve a murder mystery, and in the case of a woman who was killed 65 years ago and whose remains were left in a California desert, investigators have finally found answers. Read more at laist.com

 

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Salmonella - Deadly but illegal? Not so much

Is it against the law to ship out 35 MILLION pounds of ground turkey that can sicken thousands and kill some? Is someone considering classifying the company as a 2nd or 3rd degree terrorist? Raise you hand if you are willing to pay taxes to protect your children and yourselves from being killed or sickened for profit! Nothing you can do? Pay attention to state and federal safety laws and inspections - tell your legislators you want that first level of safety enforced!



Ask Representative Boehner how much turkey he is buying?

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Resistant Salmonella: Deadly Yet Somehow Not Illegal

Maryn McKenna

confirmation, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that the Salmonella samples recovered from patients are resistant to several antibiotics — ampicillin, tetracycline and streptomycin — that are commonly used not only in human medicine, but in agriculture as well. (The strain still responds to Cipro, a fluoroquinolone; ceftriaxone, a cephalosporin; and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, a drug combination best known under the name Bactrim.)

But the biggest revelation may have been that, in strict legal terms, there may have been no wrongdoing in the  distribution via turkey of the drug-resistant strain that has killed one person and sickened 78 — because Salmonella, the organism in question, is not classified by the federal government as something that is illegal to distribute. Read more at www.wired.com

 

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Superbugs 2: Humans 0 Bottom of the 7th

Meaning that if fighting the spread of superbugs was a game like baseball, we are in big danger of losing soon, if we do not change our ways!

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Highly Resistant Salmonella: Poultry, Antibiotics, Borders, Risk

Maryn McKenna

If you’re a strain of Salmonella, it’s a very good week. If you’re a human, not so much.

There are two stories occurring simultaneously that underline the rising danger of drug-resistant organisms in the food supply, and the porousness of networks for detecting the dangerous bugs in time.

Salmonella Heidelberg

“resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics,” according to the CDC

traveling on ground turkey

Salmonella Kentucky

has become resistant to fluoroquinolones such as Cipro, the drug usually used to treat Salmonella infections. Read more at www.wired.com

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