Contributed by Capn John
posted @ September 24, 2007 1:53 am in [ Local News - Life - Opinion - Health ]

I returned to Kent Island News for the first time since 3 June and was stunned to see the last post was mine. A sad commentary on the state of public discourse in our country. Every person on Kent Island should exercise his God given and constitutional right to enter the arena of public discourse, reason with intellect, and solve the problems of our age.

The corner stone of our Democracy is a well-informed populous. The Founders knew this and built the Constitution with us in mind. Thomas Jefferson said, “An informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will.”

Jefferson wrote, “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right.”

Our citizenry is not well-informed, and has not set things right. It vegetates in the flickering glow of the telly, downing beers to drown troubles only they can know, and can see no further than a home run or a field goal. Television is a one-way medium; comment cannot be proffered, and in most cases would not be welcomed.

Life is so much more than a cozy couch in front of a big-screen TV, and it fosters ignorance. A recent study showed that those who watched “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart knew more about current events than those who watched Fox News. From personal experience, I can tell you that shows like Hannity and Colmes do not foster intellectual and independent thought.

I challenge you to pull the plug on those brightly moving objects for two hours every night and talk with your family, read the words of larger than life men like Jefferson, Washington, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and read about what is happening in the world from responsible sources.

Plato said, “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” And so it is that we have been ruled by evil men since 2000. We have seen the Constitution torn asunder and our rights trampled. In the name of oil these evil men broke international law and attacked a sovereign nation, resulting in the deaths of almost 4000 of our children and thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.

The evil empire of Bush/Cheney has degraded our nation’s image, strained relationships with friendly nations, and increased hostility with opposing factions. In another time, men who did these same things were taken to Nuremburg for trial and hanging.

These evil men have muzzled scientists and removed judges from office who disagreed with their ideology. The Founders must be turning over in their graves.

And what may the worst of the Bush/Cheney infamy is the blind eye to the welfare of the people. The people of the world are suffering and will suffer even further because of our addiction to oil and conveniences. The catastrophic events of climate change are upon us, and only an ill-informed citizen could deny the truth of it. The scientists are right. Ideologies, rhetoric, and propaganda are at best, malicious. The people of the Earth are in trouble.

The people of our country suffer as well. More than 30,000 die and 76,000 are hospitalized each year from pollution related diseases. Childhood emphysema and allergies are on the rise. Chesapeake Bay area residents have the highest levels of arsenic and mercury in their blood. The fisheries are not safe, but some restaurants pass out the poison with total disregard for anyone’s well being.

These are the hard, undeniable, self-evidents truths. The truths the administration does not want you to hear. As citizens, I challenge you to join the arena of public discourse, with civility, reason, intellect and deliberate thought. Though “debate the truth” is an oxymoron; the truth is not debatable.

Facts: The Earth’s temperature is rising rapidly. Ice is melting rapidly. Tropical climate is moving northward (in our case) at the rate of 30 miles per year bringing pest carrying diseases unknown to this area, like Dengue Fever and Malaria. Lyme disease alone will cost Maryland $2.5 trillion in the next five years. And if that is not enough, we can realistically expect seal levels in the Bay to rise about 10 inches every decade, if melting stays linear, which it won’t.

The facts are not debatable. The science is undeniable. But the solutions are there for us to use.

Please, enter the arena of public discourse, your ideas may be ones that save us.

John Cleveland
Global Warming Action Alliance

Contributed by Capn John
posted @ 12:55 am in [ Local News - Life - Events - Health - Business ]

Commissioner Carol Fordonski and John Cleveland, President of the Global Warming Action Alliance, recently participated in the National Association of Counties (NACo) first-ever County Climate Protection Forum in Washington, D.C.

This two-day dialogue and peer-to-peer networking forum provided county officials from across the country the opportunity to discuss and learn more about best practices, tools and resources to assist counties in developing and implementing successful climate change programs at home.

“Counties are in a unique position of leadership and anything we as county officials can do to foster the development of climate protection initiatives in our communities is a big plus for the nation as a whole,” Fordonski said.

“Following Louisiana and Florida, the Eastern Shore will be hardest hit by the effects of climate change in the U.S.,” said Cleveland. “It is with great pride that Queen Anne’s County will lead the way on the Shore in mitigating and adapting to climate change.”

The forum, held Sept. 20-21, was part of NACo’s County Climate Protection Program, which provides counties with best practices, tools and resources to assist them in developing and implementing successful climate change programs at home. Special guests included representatives from the Pew Center on Global Warming, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Green Building Council among others.

Earlier this year, the NACo Board of Directors adopted policy calling on Congress and the Administration to take practical actions to reduce the risks of global warming. The policy states that: “NACo supports immediate and long-range efforts by the federal government to involve all levels of stakeholders to mitigate possible sources of climate change now through a series of practical incentives and through more federal funding for all means of emissions reductions. NACo will provide a leadership role in the education, discussion, evaluation, and decision making processes regarding issues of global climate change affecting counties.”

In March 2007, NACo also launched its Green Government Initiative to serve as a catalyst between local governments and the private sector to facilitate green government practices, products and policies that result in financial and environmental savings. The initiative is a comprehensive resource on all things green for counties including energy efficiency, renewable and alternative energy, green building, water quality, land use, purchasing, and recycling.

For more information about the Queen Anne’s County Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies and the participation of businesses and residents, please contact Commissioner Fordonski at 410-739-8406, cfordonski@qac.org, or John Cleveland at 410-827-0276, jcleveland@globalwarmingactionalliance.org

Contributed by Capn John
posted @ June 3, 2007 2:13 pm in [ Local News - Life - Opinion - Health - Business ]

To cure what ails humanity, we must excise the root causes, much like exhuming the roots of the pernicious dandelion. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence did just that, but like the dandelion, corporations found a crack in which to flourish.

The Declaration of Independence freed men from the oppression of the crown and the tyranny of the corporations. For 100 years, Americans remained deeply suspicious of corporate power and were very careful about granting corporate charters and the powers therein. The corporation played an important but subordinate role. The people — not the corporations — were in control. So what happened?

In 1886, in the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that a corporation is a person and entitled to the legal rights and protections afforded any person by the Constitution. Because it makes no mention of corporations, it was a fairly clear case of the Court’s taking it upon itself to rewrite the Constitution.

Far more remarkable, however, is that the doctrine of corporate personhood, which subsequently became a cornerstone of corporate law, was introduced into this 1886 decision without argument. According to the official case record, Supreme Court Justice Morrison Remick Waite simply pronounced before the beginning of argument in the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company that, “The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of opinion that it does.”

The court reporter duly entered into the summary record of the Court’s findings that, “The defendant Corporations are persons within the intent of the clause in section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
And so it is that a two-sentence assertion by a single judge elevated corporations to the status of persons under the law, prepared the way for the rise of global corporate rule, and thereby changed the course of history. Corporations now rule the world, especially the United States, where they sit in the Oval Office and the Halls of Justice making policy and writing legislation, to the detriment of all peoples.

Global warming, world hunger, destruction of the environment, and the atrocities of war all stem from the corporate thirst for profits and power by any means.

Further, those who participate with and promote corporations must be godless beings, for no spiritual persons would ever violate the sacred tenets of their religion to kill and main in the name of profits, a false god before Him.

Our world can change for the better when a courageous attorney seeks to overturn Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company and files a class action law suit against the oil and coal companies for, at the very least, depraved indifference. Realistically, the corporations are guilty of manslaughter for knowingly causing the deaths of more than 30,000 people per year in this country alone by pumping harmful toxins into our air, water and food, poisoning all living things, and reducing our world to ruin.

The Constitution reads, “We the People of the United States, . . .” not we the Corporations of the United States.

The corporation is the serpent in the Garden of Eden. The apple: avarice. Humanity can cleanse itself of shame and return to the Garden simply by stripping the rights of personhood from the corporation and putting people back in charge.

No wonder Adam and Eve felt ashamed. We should all feel ashamed for what corporations have inflicted upon humanity.

John Cleveland
03 June 2007

References:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Corporations/Hx_Corporations_US.html
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood/
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/SCvSPR1886.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org/Politics/persons091205.cfm
http://www.natlogic.com/resources/nbl/v05/n11.html

Contributed by Capn John
posted @ May 8, 2007 6:00 pm in [ Local News - Life - Health - Business ]

John’s note: This is the best news we could have right now. The debate is really over, and the multi-nationals have realized it’s better to part of the solution than part of the problem.

By H. JOSEF HEBERT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON — General Motors Corp., and nearly a dozen other major companies, have joined the growing number of businesses calling for limits on greenhouse gases to combat global warming.

General Motors on Tuesday became the first automobile manufacturer to join the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of corporate executives that wants Congress to enact an economy-wide mandatory cap on carbon dioxide emissions.

The group announced the addition of 14 new members including General Motors, PepsiCo, Royal Dutch Shell’s U.S. subsidiary and two environmental organizations. Shell, which became the third oil company to join the group, had made its decision known last week.

“With this lineup of companies and environmental groups endorsing it, a carbon cap is clearly the consensus solution to climate change,” said Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, one of the original coalition members.

General Motors said in a statement that the automaker views “the need to promote energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions as both a business necessity and an obligation to society.”

“We especially applaud (the coalition) for recognizing the important role that technology can play in achieving an economy-wide solution” to climate change, said GM Chairman Rick Wagoner.

Wagoner in March had said at a congressional hearing that GM was ready to discuss carbon constraints “as part of a broader climate change strategy.”

Also joining the industry coalition, known as USCAP, were: Alcan Inc., the Canadian-based aluminum company; American International Group; Boston Scientific; ConocoPhillips; tractor manufacturer Deere & Co.; Dow Chemical Co.; Johnson & Johnson; the technology conglomerate Siemens Corp.; Marsh Inc., and two environmental groups, the National Wildlife Federation and the Nature Conservancy.

The coalition announced in January its intention to press Congress for so-called cap-and-trade legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Its original 10 members included BP America, Duke Energy Corp., General Electric Co., and DuPont Co.

There have been a number of climate bills introduced in Congress, calling for mandatory limits on greenhouse gases which scientists fear will cause a warming of the Earth if atmospheric concentrations are not stabilized by mid-century.

Contributed by Dan Worth
posted @ May 2, 2007 12:27 am in [ Local News ]

I’ll be sending my articles to qacbuzz.com from now on. They have been reliably posting whatever I have sent them and feel confident that they will continue to do so. It’s so much easier for me too.

All yours Capt John

Contributed by Dan Worth
posted @ April 20, 2007 11:15 am in [ Local News ]

WMDT

Almost Two Years Later, Landfill Still Causes Controversy By KIRA KANITRA - "It’s been almost two years since the Maryland Department of the Environment closed a Hurlock landfill. But residents of Dorchester County are still fired up. They say the landfill polluted the area and the county was left with a $3 million clean up bill. In February of 2007, Bay Organics was hired to clean up the site. According to Lonnie Heflan, President of Bay Organics, it has been going well."

WBAL-TV

County Blamed for Clear-Cutting Wetland Site - Just nine days after WBAL TV 11 News exposed an illegal wetland clear-cutting operation, an entirely new wetland destruction is uncovered.

Contributed by Dan Worth
posted @ April 19, 2007 12:01 pm in [ Local News ]

WBAL-TV

State Brings Suit In Wetlands Clear-Cutting Case - "Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler announced Wednesday that the state is suing to have wetlands on the Eastern Shore restored after WBAL TV 11 News reporter John Sherman exposed an illegal wetland clear-cutting operation in Caroline County. Gansler said the state is also seeking what could be more than $7 million in penalties."

The Baltimore Sun

State files lawsuit to restore wetlands - "Maryland officials filed suit yesterday to require an Eastern Shore race horse breeder to pay millions of dollars in fines and restore a 50-acre wetland that officials say was illegally cleared and filled to create a pasture. Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler and the state Department of the Environment are seeking an order to require restoration of the site and fines of $10,000 a day since Feb. 16 last year, when environmental inspectors first issued a complaint."

Bay is still hurting, 2 reports say Quality of water called poor; loss of grasses noted By Rona Kobell - "The Chesapeake Bay remains in terrible shape by virtually every measure used to assess its health, according to two reports released yesterday. There was little good news in the 2006 Health and Restoration Assessment put out by the Chesapeake Bay Program, a partnership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and states in the bay watershed. The report found degraded water quality, a decline in the blue crab population, contaminated rivers and huge losses in bay grasses."  HERE IS A COPY of theUniversity of Maryland Report Card

Low-cost housing plan moves toward OK. Proposal would spread such residences to all city neighborhoods By Jill Rosen - "After months of political push and pull between developers and affordable-housing advocates, a revised version of a bill that would mix lower-cost housing into all Baltimore neighborhoods seems to be on the approval track. Yet no one is truly happy with the bill, which goes before the Planning Commission tonight. The politically connected coalition fighting for the initiative worries that there is not enough money behind it, while homebuilders say it is misguided to force developers to include affordable units."

State board OKs purchase of land near Blackwater - "The state Board of Public Works agreed yesterday to spend $10.3 million to purchase 728 acres near the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge to preserve forests and farmland that had been threatened by a proposed golf resort."

The Washington Post

Immigrants Keep State Growing, if Only by a Bit ‘Inner-Ring’ Residents Lead the Way Out By Dan Morse - "Maryland’s population in the Washington region grew by only 0.5 percent from 2005 to 2006, the lowest rate in at least 15 years, according to Census Bureau figures released last month. The flat figures underscore opposing trends. More residents are moving to the area from other countries, and more Marylanders are born than die. But at the same time, more are moving from inner-ring suburban counties — spreading throughout the state or leaving it."

Contributed by Dan Worth
posted @ April 12, 2007 10:47 am in [ Local News ]

The Washington Times

Base plan may cause Maryland urban sprawl By Kristen Chick - "Restrictions on development in crowded Maryland communities could result in urban sprawl as thousands of new workers flock to the state’s expanding military bases in coming years, reports say."

Sowing the seeds By Bryce Baschuk - "Every day, 1,200 tons of human waste from D.C. residents is spread over rural farmlands in Maryland and Virginia. The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority sterilizes 370 million gallons of wastewater daily and refines it into a fertilizer containing ‘biosolids,’ or human waste."

Contributed by Dan Worth
posted @ April 9, 2007 12:37 pm in [ Local News ]

The Baltimore Sun

School pressures grow. Plans for new facilities joust with desire to preserve rural lands By Justin Fenton - "There was consensus among County Council members last week that Harford’s rural landscape is threatened, that its schools are crowded and that current policies have failed. How that would translate into votes on a bill tightening the link between elementary school capacity and new development, however, was tough to predict."

Foreclosures on the rise in suburbs of Baltimore. Mortgage deals from housing boom blow up in owners’ faces By Jamie Smith Hopkins - "An Edgewater house with a new siding-and-stone facade. A five-bedroom in Hanover, two-car garage attached. A West Friendship mansion on nearly an acre of gently sloping land. A million-dollar Colonial in a Columbia development so new, the sales office is still open. Suburban. Symbols of affluence. And - as recently as the past few weeks - all in foreclosure."

The Daily Times

Berlin urged to draft plan for growth By Charlene Polk - "The town’s planning commission said Berlin would be better served if it had a master plan as well as a comprehensive plan to guide its growth. At a public hearing on the Berlin Comprehensive Plan, Planning Commission Chairman Pete Cosby said a master plan would be a very precise vision of how residents want the town to appear in the future. ‘A comprehensive plan is a comprehensive road map, where you want to be in 20 years,’ he said. ‘A master plan would be much more concrete. We need one so we’re not shotgunning everything.’"

 

Contributed by Dan Worth
posted @ April 8, 2007 12:07 pm in [ Local News ]

The Baltimore Sun

Court backs Allegany project. Terrapin Run foes say 4,300-home plan defies Smart Growth By Timothy B. Wheeler - "Maryland’s second-highest court gave its go-ahead yesterday to a contested 4,300-home development on a scenic stretch of highway in mountainous Allegany County, renewing debate about whether the project represents the best or worst of the state’s Smart Growth policy. The Court of Special Appeals declared that the Allegany Board of Zoning Appeals acted appropriately in approving Terrapin Run, which a Columbia-based developer wants to build on 1,000 partly wooded acres off Scenic Route 40 near Green Ridge State Forest."  [Here is a copy of the Court of Special Appeals ruling.]

The Daily Times

Development takes toll on river Rising population found to have negative effect on the Wicomico’s water quality By Earl Holland - "The Maryland Department of Natural Resources released its 2006 Water Quality Assessment Newsletter for the Wicomico River, but the findings did not seem to be that good. According to the report, the river had both the highest average of nitrogen concentration and the fourth-highest average phosphorus concentration among the surrounding lower Eastern Shore tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay."

The Cecil Whig

Mayors seek to strengthen county’s growth buffer plan. Ordinance designed to ensure neighborhood has sufficient infrastructure to handle development By Eugene Paik - "Officials from the county and municipalities will re-form a subcommittee to iron out details on a plan that would keep residential growth in lock-step with county infrastructure. Local leaders decided at Thursday’s Council of Governments meeting to return to a previous draft of the adequate public facilities ordinance crafted by the group."

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