My Views On Fracking

     Fracking does indeed cause environmental damage. Local water tables are contaminated. Up to 600 chemicals are used in fracking fluid, including known carcinogens and toxins. The chemicals in the water forced into the earth are dangerous to human and animal health. Why else would NC go so far as to forbid the public from knowing what is in the fracking water they are using?
     Hydraulic fracturing is the process of drilling and injecting fluid, containing water, chemicals, and sand, into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside to get to a larger area and get more natural gas the wells are often drilled horizontal. Each fracking site requires around four hundred tanker trucks of water to be shipped to the drilling site. Around 1 to 8 million gallons of water are used for each well.
      50% or less of the fracking fluid is recovered and is left in open pits to evaporate, this puts volatile organic compounds into the air creating contaminated air, acid rain, and ground level ozone.
    Here are a few facts that are usually undisputed on both sides. The level of methane in water wells near fracking sires are 17% higher than average water wells. contaminated water doesn't always get into the drinking water. This depends on several factors; the depth of the water well, the geographical features of the rock beds between the fracking site and the area surrounding the sites, and the adherence to proper procedures by the industry doing the fracking.
     Exposure to these chemicals does cause serious health problems. There have been many cases of the water table in a specific areas being permanently contaminated so that the property owners can’t continue to live on the property and can’t sell the property, though not as many as have been claimed in some documentaries. The fact that it does happen needs to be addressed by the industry and as much as possible made right with the people effected.
     Fracking as well as drilling for oil is not the best long term solution for energy needs. Obtaining fossil fuels is damaging to the environment. There will have to be a shift into renewable energy, though I do understand that it can’t happen overnight, It will happen.
     In the meantime a few things need to happen. The Frack Act, (fracturing responsibility and awareness of chemicals act), which would require industry to disclose all chemicals used in fracking. This should not be a problem if, as the industry claims, it is not harmful. 
    The second is to repeal the exemption from the safe drinking water act. This should have never have been allowed in the first place and has bred the mistrust of the industry.
     Neither side is telling the whole truth. An informed opinion can only be reached with research and facts from sources that have nothing to gain from either side.

Glen Beck Has lost his mind....again

     Glen Beck has once again went around the bend. He said today that President Obama was about to snap and round up the conservatives into internment camps. He said that President Obama has been coddled all of his life and treated like a god and wouldn't react well when the press turns on him.

      President Obama has been insulted and challenged in the press more than any other president, at least in my life time. When President Obama was elected the first time there was a multitude of conspiracy theories that he would round people up and put them in internment camps. If that was his intent then he sure is taking his own sweet time about it. The same can be said about the lies that He was coming after every ones guns. He has supported the slightest of common sense gun control bills and has been blocked at every turn by the conservative right.

      If there is a ligament  complaint to be made about the President is that he has been far too soft on the people spewing lies and hate in the guise of news. President Obama tried for way to long to compromise with the republican party to no avail. No matter how detrimental to the country, their stated goal was to block the president, period. 

      There was the so called scandal about President Obama birth certificate, which he did produce. Even though he proved that he was born in the United States of America, some in the republican party and the right wing media started what would become the norm. Completely ignoring the truth. President Obama didn't snap.

      There was the intentional misconception about the presidents religion. Hateful ignorant people across the country were spoon fed lies insisting that then Mr. Obama was Muslim. He is not Muslim, but in this supposed land of religious freedom, would it really matter what his religion was as long as he didn't base his polices on his personal religious beliefs? Sadly yes, but that doesn't make it right. President Obama didn't snap. 

      The racial slurs and verbal attacks on the President and first Lady Michelle Obama that still go on. Adults saying horrible racist things that no mature adult should ever say. Cartoons depicting the President as a monkey. President Obama didn't snap. 

      Getting the affordable care act passed was an uphill struggle. Congress voted six times to repeal the affordable care act. There were forty or more attempts to refund the act that has given millions of American citizens access to health care that they couldn't get in the previous healthcare system, forcing many people to seek care at emergency rooms. People died waiting for help or because they couldn't get the care they needed, meanwhile costing tax payers millions. President Obama didn't snap.

      The so called Benghazi scandal/witch hunt is a great example. The real scandal is that the very people screaming for information that they already had were the same people who had voted to cut funding for embassy security that seemingly led to tragedy in the first place. They knew this and still spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours pursuing a boogy man that doesn't exist. President Obama didn't 'snap'.

      There was the failure to pass a budget and the subsequent shut down of the government. This was largely due to the republicans refusal to negotiate. Even though the right ring news ( fox so called news, for one) reported over and over again that it was the democrats that wouldn't negotiate, even though it was public knowledge and easily verified that it was the republicans who wouldn't show up to meetings to work out the budget. Then had a ridiculous photo taken showing the cookie cutter republicans sitting on one side of a conference table with the other side of the table empty. They thought that the American people were to stupid to remember what they said and did from day to day. Unfortunately in some cases they were correct. President Obama didn't snap.

     Last but by no means least is the Bowe Bergdahl story that is still ongoing.

      Barack Obama was not coddled all of his life. He  was raised by a single mother and was lucky to have a supportive family. He achieved all that he has because he is an uncommonly intelligent man devoted to trying to make the country a better place. He is not perfect by any means. Though I support our President and have respect for the office, I have real misgivings about the NSAs spying on United States citizens. I have serious concerns about drone warfare. The fact is that the most anti-American behavior is being perpetrated by same people that are freaking out, hair on fire, war mongering, hate spewing far right.   

Srg Bowe Bergdahl

     A Time magazine cover, other media, and some republicans, posed the question " Was bringing Srg Bowe Bergdahl home worth it? " The answer is a resounding YES!
    We are still Americans. There should be no doubt, ever,  that any member of the United States military will ever be behind. Ever. We just don't abandon our people in foreign lands. Period.
     The outrage with which many members of the republican party have reacted to the release Srg Bergdahl is ridiculous. The very people who were in a patriotic fervor and  had demanded that Srg Bergdahl be brought home in the recent past are now in an uproar because he was rescued. The President is being accused of negotiating with terrorist and condemned for releasing five prisoners from  Guantanamo bay.
     The war in Afghanistan is drawing to a close. The procedure at the end of hostilities normally involves the release of prisoners of war back to their homelands.
     President Obamas administration has stated that the deal had to be done quickly because of Srg Bergdahls failing health and the fact that those holding Srg Bergdahl had threatened to kill him if any word of the proposed swap was released The statement has also been made that failure to notify congress of the prisoner swap was illegal. The congress was aware of the plans to secure the release of this last prisoner of war in Afghanistan, many endorsed the plan.
      It seems to me that they only cry foul because it is the Obama administration that accomplished this release. Had it Been former President Bush I believe there would have been understanding of the need for speed and secrecy and there would now be celebrating the victory of the last prisoner of war coming home from this long conflict.
      In an example of the dangerous direction our government seems to be going, Tom Coburn, Republican from Oklahoma,told one news organization that he believes that Sgt. Bergdahl was drugged in the proof of life video provided in a closed briefing last Wednesday. Mr. Coburn is an OBGYN, an Obstetrician and gynecologist. The fact that Mr. Coburn feels comfortable diagnosing any one in the circumstances that Srg Bergdahl was in from a short video concerns me. The fact that many representatives who are supposed to represent all of us are barking at the moon and demanding information on topics in shows of outrage before the press,  when they would have the information they so vehemently demand if they did their jobs and attended the briefings designed to keep them informed. But that is a rant for another  day.   
     The negotiations to effect the release of Srg Bergdahl are the same procedures that have been done to secure the release of prisoners of war since the beginning of our countries history.
     The mass deleting of the initial celebratory statements, posts, and tweets demonstrates the hypocrisy of many politicians. Damn the country. Loyalty to the party and their financial backers. This is not "1984" and Big brother can not rewrite history.
     The people already screaming for Srg Bergdahls trial and even his execution should be ashamed of themselves. Innocent until proven guilty has to remain the standard of the American legal system and a right of all citizens. The fact that so many people have already tried and convicted this man with out even the most cursory of investigations should disturb Any person who still believes in the rule of law and the constitutional rights of American citizens.