Photo United Native Americans helps shut down Monsanto

United Native Americans was among those who shut down Monsanto in Davis, Calif. for the day on Monday, Sept. 20, 2012.
UNA Shutting Down Monsanto Decolonizing The USDA Demanding Labeling of All Genetically Modified Foods. We Support "Yes" on Prop 37 .

Much Love & Respect to All The People Who Came Out & Helped Us Shut Down Monsanto & to Support "Yes" to Prop 37.

List of Endorsers: By date of endorsement

The Anti-Monsanto Project
Occupy Davis
Occupy Woodland
Occupy Sacramento
Peace & Freedom Party Yolo County
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement AFL-CIO Sacramento Chapter
Organizacion de Trabajadores Agricolas de California (OTAC)
Freedom Socialist Party
PSL Sacramento
United Native Americans INC
SEIU - Justice for Janitors
Genetic Crimes Unit
Bay Area Radical Women
Occupy Stockton

 

Monument Valley Film and Blues Festival Sept 21-23 2012

Film schedule for Saturday and Sunday
http://www.monumentvalleyfilmfest.com/

Al Jazeera: Epidemic of violence against Native American women

Justice denied for Native American women

Can legislation help end violence against indigenous women in the US?

The Stream Al Jazeera
http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/justice-denied-native-american-women-0022344

In the US, Native American women are facing an epidemic of sexual assault and violence. One in three reports being the victim of a rape or attempted rape and Native American women are also 10 times more likely to be murdered than other groups of women in the US. Most of the attacks are also reported to be perpetrated by a person of another race.

Why is this happening? According to advocates for Native women, it's largely due to poor policing and a failed legal system that allows offenders, who are non-Native Americans, to get away with crimes committed on reservation land. Unfortunately, this has led to many unprosecuted cases and little justice.

In this episode of The Stream, we speak to Sarah Deer, assistant professor at William Mitchell Law School; Andrea Smith, co-founder of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence; and Rebecca St. George of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition.

Read more http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/justice-denied-native-american-women-0022344

Watch program below:

 

Tarsands Keystone blockaders lockdown arrested in Winnsboro, Texas Sept. 19 2012

BREAKING: Three Blockaders Lock Themselves to Keystone XL Machinery

Categories:

Tar Sands Blockade, Uncategorized

 

 

Reposted from http://tarsandsblockade.org/4th-action/
Sept. 19, 2012
UPDATE: 11:30AM – Five arrests made at Keystone XL construction site outside Winnsboro, Texas. Three brave blockaders locked to tree clear-cutting machinery delayed operations at the site for the morning.
Join us in celebrating our latest crew of brave blockaders: Doug is a former Exxon employee turned climate justice activist, Sam is an author of a pending book on Keystone XL, and R.C. is a proud mother who was arrestted today even though it means being away from her children for the day.
Show these blockaders your support! Please consider a generous donation to their jail support. Bail for five will likely be costly!
UPDATE: 11:30AM – David Hightower’s vineyard will not be cleared for the Keystone XL today, according to crews working there.
UPDATE: 10:40AM – Police have left the scene at David Hightower’s home.
UPDATE: 10:30AM – Police harassment and intimidation of protesters at David Hightower’s home. Three protesters holding signs on the public right of way next to Hightower’s home were threatened with arrest repeatedly, but are within their legal right to demonstrate.
UPDATE: 9:45AM – Police have taken signs from Tar Sands Blockade supporters standing vigil in David Hightower’s front yard. They are threatening arrests.
UPDATE: 9:30AM – While three blockaders are shutting down a Keystone XL construction site others are defending David Hightower’s home. Construction crews have arrived at Mr. Hightower’s to begin clear-cutting his trees and home vineyard. Tar Sands Blockade supporters are in David’s front yard continuing our vigil
UPDATE 9AM – Franklin County Sheriff and County Constable are on the scene at the construction yard. The sheriff tried to use hacksaw on blockader’s locking device and gave up in frustration.
BREAKING: Three Blockaders Lock Themselves to Keystone XL Machinery
Tar Sand Blockade again halts construction on the toxic Keystone XL pipeline in its sustained campaign of civil disobedience

WINNSBORO, TEXAS – September 19, 2012, 8:00AM – Three landowner advocates and climate justice organizers have locked themselves to a piece of machinery critical for Keystone XL construction.
Blockaders have locked themselves to a massive wood chipper and a skidder, both used in clear cutting trees in the path of the toxic pipeline. Tar Sands Blockade has again delayed construction on a segment of TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Today’s action marks the third time that blockaders have halted construction in recent weeks.
Four blockaders total entered a construction yard risking arrest. Three are locked to the Keystone XL construction machinery. Texas-born blockaders have united with neighbors from other states to support rural and neighboring communities threatened by the toxic pipeline’s diluted bitumen slurry.
Doug Grant, 65 from San Francisco, CA, says, “Having worked for years for Exxon, I know how enticing it is to want to develop the Alberta Tar Sands, but it’s just wrong; wrong for the folks who live near the surface mines and toxic ponds, wrong for the landowners who are coerced under duress into contracts or taken to court to have their homes stolen from them, and just wrong for the climate.” Doug is [doing this].
“As a mother and step-grandmother, I want to be able to tell my children that I did something when the time came,” explains Amarillo-born R.C. Saldaña-Flores, 36. “I’m willing to take risks today to raise awareness of this horrible situation – even if that means being away from my children in jail for a day.”
Kentucky-based solar installation expert and author of the forthcoming book The Pipeline and the Paradigm: Keystone XL and the Rise of Global Consciousness, Sam Avery, 63, suggests that sometime you must create an obstruction in order to facilitate necessary discussion. “I don’t believe it’s too late. We have time,” he shares. “We simply must continue to stand with landowners who are having their homes and farms ruined. We must continue to press for dialogue amongst all people victimized by TransCanada’s ruthless harm. Civil disobedience allows for that space to develop.”
Tar Sands Blockade is a coalition of Texas and Oklahoma landowners and climate organizers using peaceful and sustained civil disobedience to stop the construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
“People from all walks of life are banding together to defend their homes in the face of TransCanada’s fraudulent bullying,” suggests Ron Seifert, a spokesperson for the Tar Sands Blockade. “Their Keystone XL pipeline serves no legitimate public interest, and people are waking up to the fact that this multinational corporation is stealing land and poisoning water supplies illegitimately. For that reason, we are proactively defending homes through nonviolent civil disobedience.”
One thing is clear from our recent victories that stopped Keystone XL construction for the entire day in both Saltillo and Livingston, Texas– people power works.
Sign up now to join one of our upcoming actions.
Share this story on Facebook and Twitter.
Press Contact:
Ron Seifert, 843-814-2796, ronseif@gmail.com
Ramsey Sprague, 682-556-0553, profe.ramsey@gmail.com

Green Mafia: Anonymous hacks Monsanto, exposes World Wildlife Foundation

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Anonymous has hacked Monsanto again. This time the World Wildlife Foundation is exposed for certifying the areas where genetically modified products are grown.
Here's an excerpt from Operation Green Rights:

With this operation we want to put on the same level Monsanto and a world organization that we were taught to appreciate: the World Wildlife Foundation. STOP the World Wildlife Foundation!!! The World Wildlife Foundation certifies all the genetically modified products of Monsanto, the World Wildlife Foundation certifies that the areas where the genetically modified products of Monsanto are grown, in south America and Asia, are subjected to "sustainable deforestation", the same areas ripped from the forest for the building of Highway RS163 (a way to transport the biggest traffics of the planet, from cocaine to Niobium), or for the construction of tens of power plants arising in the Amazon, like the dam of Belo Monte which we harshly fight. STOP to the "green Mafia", to this facade ecology, aimed to make pleasant to the public opinion the biggest filthiness of the planet. STOP making believe the whole world that an alternative does not exist. We are coming, We are anonymous We are Legion We do not forgive We do not forget Expect us!
Read more: http://privatepaste.com/5ec43bc888

Also see
World Wildlife Fund salaries
http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/World-Wildlife-Fund-Salaries-E16152.htm

Cook Inlet groups press Alaska on oil spills to protect Beluga whales

COOK INLET GROUPS TELL ALASKA TO DENY APPROVAL  OF BUCANNEER OIL SPILL PLAN

Center for Water Advocacy
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Beluga whale

ANCHORAGE -- Last week, Center for Water Advocacy (CWA) asked the Director of the Alaska Division of Spill Prevention and Response to reconsider and deny the Division’s approval of the Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan for Buccaneer Alaska, Inc.
“The State of Alaska failed to notify traditional hunters and fisherman in Cook Inlet," says Jess Lanman of Cook Inlet Marine Mammal Council.  “The critical habitat and cumulative impacts of oil and gas activities to Endangered Cook Inlet Beluga Whales have not been adequately addressed by the increased oil and gas activities sanctioned by the State of Alaska.”
The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have special provisions for consultation with Alaska Native marine mammal subsistence hunters and fisher peoples.  Delice Calcote,Executive Director of Alaska Inter-Tribal Council (AITC), says“indigenous peoples and tribal communities must be notified with Free, Prior, and Informed Consent before any oil and gas plans are approved by the State of Alaska that impact our subsistence resources.”
The Request for Informal Review was based on concern that the State is ignoring it’s own standards requiring that such plans include“Best Available Technology.”
Harold Shepherd, President of CWA, says “Buccaneer's plan fails to address the appropriate application of relief wells as the primary means of avoiding the disastrous impacts that a major oil spill or blow-out would have on Cook Inlet’s valuable fisheries and marine resources”
“The Cook Inlet is home to a multitude of fish and wildlife species, including beluga whales, which are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act,” says Carl Wassilie, Biologist with Alaska's Big Village Network. He also says that “Cook Inlet is an important marine and aquatic environment for subsistence uses by Alaska Native peoples and indigenous communities.” He adds, “thecommercial and sport uses of Cook Inlet fisheries are not only important for the local, regional and state economies; but the bio-productivity and sustainability of Alaska's resources for future generations.”
The potential impact of a blowout and oil spill is increased because the EPA and the state of Alaska do not require Zero Discharge standards in renewing Clean Water Act permits for Cook Inlet oil and gas development.
 CWA, therefore, ,recommends that DEC “not approve” the Buccaneer's Plan. This is the best means of insuring that Buccaneer”s development of oil and gas resources in Cook Inlet is safe and environmentally sensitive. 
Alaska Division of Spill Prevention and Response Director, Larry Dietrick, must respond by Friday on whether to grant a review or not on the groups'request.  If so, he has another week to make a final decision on CWA's request for review of the Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan for Buccaneer Alaska, Inc.
“If the review is not granted, it would be another example of the State of Alaska to exclude the public on decisions impacting fish, wildlife and human health,” says Walter Parker, former chairman of the State of Alaska's investigation on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.