The Watercooler for 10/29/09 1:00 AM

My View: Chromium 6 still threatens California's drinking water

Polluters who contaminate drinking water and make people sick shouldn't get off easy. That has been the focus of my work for two decades, and I'm not planning to stop now.

My work focused the attention of the world on a carcinogen called hexavalent chromium (hex chrome). In 1996, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. – a multibillion-dollar corporation – paid $333 million in damages to the people of Hinkley for contaminating their drinking water and covering up the problem for decades while people got sick and died. This victory was immortalized in film. But the story doesn't end there.

http://www.sacbee.com/1190/story/2281048.html

h/t globalcitizenlinda at Daily Kos:

AP is reporting that earlier tonight, President Obama headed to Dover Air Force Base to  welceom home and honor fallen soldiers

Per AP

"Obama flew by Marine One helicopter directly to Delaware to greet the flag-draped caskets of 18 Americans killed in action this week".

POTUS is there now to receive their remains.

see full story on AP wire

http://www.commondreams.org/

Oh God You People Leave Us Alone

From the U.K.'s Guardian, a heartbreaking, extended video by photojournalist Sean Smith, who spent a month embedded with American forces in Afghanistan. The old man's face, the women shrieking, the soldiers weary, angry and uncomprehending - what else needs to be said about the U.S. venture there?

"My fucking town wouldn't stand for that shit. They'd be, like, fuck you. Dead." - an American soldier frustrated by villagers' fear of the Taliban.

Discuss...

feel if foreign gov'ts did this to our cities or even our countryside, lakes, mountains.

Previous Image | Pause | Next Image

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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local_state/story/1614...

First, they learned their rates will rise by an average of 11 percent next year.

Next, they opened a slick flier from the insurer urging them to send an enclosed pre-printed, postage-paid note to Sen. Kay Hagan denouncing what the company says is unfair competition that would be imposed by a government-backed insurance plan. The so-called public option is likely to be considered by Congress in the health-care overhaul debate.

"No matter what you call it, if the federal government intervenes in the private health insurance market, it's a slippery slope to a single-payer system," the BCBS flier read. "Who wants that?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/24/leaderless-senate-pushes_n_332844.html

President Barack Obama is actively discouraging Senate Democrats in their effort to include a public insurance option with a state opt-out clause as part of health care reform. In its place, say multiple Democratic sources, Obama has indicated a preference for an alternative policy, favored by the insurance industry, which would see a public plan "triggered" into effect in the future by a failure of the industry to meet certain benchmarks.

The administration retreat runs counter to the letter and the spirit of Obama's presidential campaign. The man who ran on the "Audacity of Hope" has now taken a more conservative stand than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), leaving progressives with a mix of confusion and outrage. A signal from the president could be enough to put us over the top," said one Senate Democratic leadership aide. Such pleading is exceedingly rare on Capitol Hill and comes only after Senate leaders exhausted every effort to encourage Obama to engage.

snip

"Everybody knows we're close enough that these guys could be rolled. They just don't want to do it because it makes the politics harder," said a senior Democratic source, saying that Obama is worried about the political fate of Blue Dogs and conservative Senate Democrats if the bill isn't seen as bipartisan. "These last couple folks, they could get them if Obama leaned on them."

Howard has promised us "more change." 

It would be sold as a HC reform bill with a little 'ol trigger and it would be pure BS.

I wonder how the citizens of this country would

By seashell on Oct 29, 2009 2:58 AM EDT