Showing posts with label Penokee Hills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Penokee Hills. Show all posts

Dec 4, 2013

GTac Mine Pres Gives Mixed Signals Now on Wisconsin Mine

 A crude but revealing cross polarized light microscope
image of a sample of asbestiform grunerite,
one of the most dangerous forms of asbestos,
collected at the GTac mine site by Dr. Skulan
Image first published at:
Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative Authentic News
From The Guardian - "Activists have pointed to environmental damages as potentially devastating to Wisconsin's forests and waters" -

From Dr. Joseph Skulan's Open Letter: Presence of dangerous  asbestiform grunerite has been proven by multiple independent analyses
The president of the company seeking to open an iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin said on Friday that he didn't know whether an ongoing investigation into a mine he previously managed will affect the new project. The investigation is looking into whether a mine he previously managed contaminated a Spanish aquifer with arsenic.

Bill Williams was director of mining and technical resources for Cobre Las Cruces, which opened a major copper mine in southern Spain in 2009. He left the company in 2011 and became president of Gogebic Taconite, which is based in Florida but has an office in Hurley, Wisconsin. Gogebic Taconite has proposed opening a $1.5bn iron ore mine near Lake Superior in Ashland and Iron counties.

Williams and company officials are in the process of submitting a formal application to state regulators for the mine, which would cover a four-mile area. The plan has generated opposition from environmentalists, members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, who live in the area, and others who fear the mine will pollute one of Wisconsin's last pristine regions. Gogebic's interest in the project began in 2010, before Williams joined the company. ...

Cobre Las Cruces, which has a major copper mine in southern Spain, has been accused of contaminating a nearby aquifer with arsenic. It's not unusual to have problematic levels of arsenic in water when mining, but it's not known whether that would be an issue with the Wisconsin mine, said Tom Evans, a retired geologist from the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. Problems, whether related to arsenic or other potential contaminants, can be properly mitigated, Evans said.

"You have to design a project that will deal with that one way or another," he said. "There is no mining of these kind of deposits that are inherently safe. They all are inherently problematic, or dangerous, whatever word you want to use, because you are disrupting things."

Opponents of the Wisconsin mine have seized on news of the probe, circulating reports of it on social media and websites.

---
From Dr. Joseph Skulan's Open Letter to the Press Regarding GTac:

The following passage appears in GTac’s revised bulk sample plan, released on the DNR website today:

The grunerite [asbestos] issue has been the subject of a media debate and the removal of these areas leaves the debate to be resolved by the systematic and scientific study of the issue that will be required within the permit application. Our position remains that asbestiform material is unlikely to be present in the reserve, but will defer to a proven and methodical approach to address the potential of asbestiform materials in the future mining permit application.

My question is this: why has the press continued to report that the presence of grunerite asbestos within the GTac mine site is a matter of debate? It is not.

The presence of asbestiform grunerite has been proven by multiple independent analyses, and can be documented by anyone who takes to trouble to walk the Penokee ridge. This is not a “he said, she said” story. It is not a story with two sides, at least not if those two sides are questioning if asbestos is or is not present. That is a scientific question, a question of objective fact, and it is a question that has been settled. The debate should be about the severity of the danger posed by the asbestos, which is not a settled question.

The GTac statement is not credible. It is either an outright lie or an expression of astounding ignorance and incompetence. Will the press report it as such, or will it continue to report it as one side in a controversy, and thereby help to maintain the muddled and confused state of public debate over the mining issue, a confusion that largely springs from the portrayal of objective reality as a matter of opinion? If GTac claimed that the Penokees were 6,000 years old, they would be no more unscientific than when they claim that the presence of asbestos is still an open question. In fact, their denial of asbestos is worse than creationism, because unlike the age of the earth, the presence of asbestos at the GTac mine site can be directly observed by anyone who takes the effort to carefully examine the rocks.
I repeat my offer to you or any other journalist: Let me take you up to the asbestos-bearing outcrops in the Penokees. Take your own sample, and send it off to an independent lab for analysis.

GTac is entitled to argue in favor of a mine. No reasonable person would expect them to do anything else. But GTac’s continued denial of the objective facts prevents any rational debate about the mine, and is frankly insulting to the scientists who have looked at the issue.

Kind Regards
Dr. Joseph Skulan

Video of a one-on-one meeting with GTac at the Ashland Library on November 13, 2013. GTac claims the confirmed presence of asbestos and sulfides are "media issues" and urged people not to listen to the "witchy" information given by several credentialed scientists. Video by Danielle Kaeding

Sep 8, 2013

USA Today Piece on GTac Is Uncritical Mining Company PR

Carol Pogash in her piece for USA TODAY goes out of her way to accept Gogebic Taconite's (GTac) PR as fact, and presents a superficial piece of journalism typical of the corporate press.

A couple of examples:

"In March, the governor signed the law, written with GTac's help."

Right, GTac helped alright. They wrote the bill, even the GOP admits this.

"The mine would be built by Gogebic Taconite (GTac), creating 700 jobs and indirectly, several thousand more."

Wow!

But this is according to GTac's Northstar Study, "The Economic Impact of the Gogebic Taconite Mine," which was commissioned by GTac; thus reported as fact by Pogash.

Maybe Christopher Cline and GTac are secretly full-employment activists, environmental conservationists who are only marginally concerned with making money.

One can go on.

Aug 16, 2013

Three Wisconsin Movements Converge to Fight Fascism

Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske protects corporate
militia from prosecution though it illegally acted without a
license in two Wisconsin counties
"This flavor of Dairyland fascism comes with heaping helpings of stupidity, arrogance, and insult."
- Blue Cheddar 

Pollution, bullets and jail have become the defining features of Wisconsin.

A confluence of movements is flowering in Wisconsin, spreading fast as police overkill and Scott Walker stand ready to call out the national guard to quell lawful, anti-GOP political activity.

How I wish this were an exaggeration.

One citizen movement calls for the rule of law to be observed for the preservation of the habitat and environment that would be contaminated by the proposed open-pit Gogebic Taconite mine.

The Gogebic Taconite mine's private and illegal militia is protected by Scott Walker and Iron County DA Martin Lipske, amid anti-Native American racism among Republicans in northern Wisconsin, some of whom are part of a greater anti-Native American movement nationally such as the hate groups, the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) and Citizen's Equal Rights Foundation (CERF).

Such groups as CERA and CERF make common cause with Wisconsin Republicans.

Said Barbara With at this week's public hearing on the Gogebic Taconite’s bulk sampling permit application in Hurley, Wisconsin, as reported by Rebecca Kemble and Blue Cheddar

"When corporations collude with legislators by paying them and legislators vote for the corporations and abandon the people of this state it’s called 'fascism' and that’s what happened to this state. And even as we speak right now, 12:15 in the capitol of Wisconsin there are jack boot capitol policemen arresting innocent protesters who are singing because this administration wants to quash dissent. They want to quash the voice of the people."
- Video from Rebecca Kemble

Scott Walker, mining companies and their corrupt public officials such as DA Martin Lipske may be itching for a military-police solution, but the rule of law demand these forces contend with settled federal law such as United States v State of Washington (Case No. 03-35145 (1974)) and its progeny cases; United States v State of Washington. (Case NO. CV 70-9213. Suproceeding 01-01. Memorandum and Decision. March 29, 2013) protecting the habitats upon which Native Americans have, by federal law, the guaranteed right to hunt and fish.

As Professor Charles Wilkinson wrote:

"This iron mine complex cannot go ahead without a full analysis of the treaty rights of the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) band. More than a century and a half ago, the LCO negotiated treaties that guaranteed tribal members the right to hunt and fish on their former lands. The transfer of those lands by the tribes has been of great benefit to the non-Indians of northern Wisconsin but the courts have squarely recognized that, in return, those promises must be honored. Earlier this year a federal judge in Washington State ruled, under similar circumstances, that the treaties require more than just allowing tribal members to hunt and fish—the treaties also require healthy habitat so that the species can thrive. And, so, the question is: 'Will this mining complex adversely affect the habitat of treaty-protected species?' If so, the proposed mining project will have to be revised or abandoned."

That Native Americans are human beings, protected by the rule of law—including of course federal Indian Treaty law—presents a problem for the energy extraction industry.

No matter that Wisconsin Republicans such as Wisconsin State Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, said, "The (mining) bill reflects the reality of mining. There are going to be some impacts to the environment above the iron ore body. If the law is challenged and ends up in court, the judge needs to know it was the Legislature's intent to allow adverse (environmental) impacts. That way, a judge can't find fault if the environment is impact." (Pierce. Esquire; March 8. 2013)

Actually, a federal judge will find much fault. Because one Tom Tiffany, and one political party, declares Wisconsin free from the obligations of federal law to despoil the environment does not make it so.

State law in Wisconsin, even under Republican Party rule, can also force the Gogebic (G-Tec) mine to stop the toxic effect from sulfuric acid and asbestos of its operations, as the mining company and GOP brand conservationist as "terrorists."

Said Bob Gollubske, a farmer in the Town of Kimball in Iron County at a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources public hearing on G-Tac's bulk sampling on August 15, 2013: "I'm that terrorist that's going to save your life, your life from a mining company. ... Government here doesn't like me. They don't like men that protect their home and family; they put you in jail."

Mr. Gollubske's right, the corrupt people in government like Scott Walker and Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske want to protect blasting asbestos particles into the atmosphere, the water, the forests and farms like Gollubske's.

---

---

A second movement also springs from Iron County and is the sought-after affirmation of the rule of law so far denied: The movement to free an innocent man, Don Miller, a cause with support across the nation and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School's Innocence Project staff, also in Hurley, Wisconsin this week gathering depositions, affidavits and other exculpatory evidence.

 DA Martin Lipske taunts an innocent man in prison in letter
Miller was railroaded 16 years ago and remains in prison through the efforts of the corrupt Iron County Judge, Patrick J. Madden, and Madden's political ally, the same corrupt and inept Iron County District Attorney, Martin Lipske who fronts for the mining company and Walker.

The innocent Miller was accused of all manner of crimes after he decided to leave his live-in girlfriend and serial liar, Connie Vargovich.

Material now being gathered by the Innocence Project will prove Vargoich lied in an vulgar act of vengeance against Miller while Vargovich was engaged in a secret affair with Judge Patrick J. Madden before, during and after Miller's trial over which Madden presided.

This multi-year liaison is an egregious career-ending, conflict-of-interest move by Madden.

As recently as 2012 Madden ordered Miller to remain in prison despite the District Attorney and the Innocence Project's joint agreement to immediately free Miller.

Lipske in a spasm of conscience, or perhaps self preservation of his legal career had told Miller's attorneys Miller was to be freed with Lipske's stipulation.

Lipske had reported to the Court that exculpatory DNA evidence was inexplicably destroyed while in Lipske's custody, after assuring the Court he would preserve this very evidence. The evidence was destroyed with no explanation from Lipske.

Thr agreement to free Miller was shot down by Madden in a bizarre hearing before Madden (who still had not recused himself) in which Madden rejected the deal that would have freed Miller.

Last month, incredibly, Lipske upset over publication of the fact his license to practice law was suspended for misconduct for almost four years wrote Miller a letter last month taunting Miller who still is serving a 42-year sentence.

Lipske's letter reads in part: "My intentions were to send a copy of the stipulation in which I agreed to your release. However, between the time that I received the form and the due date, I received another letter through the actions of your parents challenging my license to practice law. Therefore, nothing was sent as I intended."

Lipske, in this bizarre letter sent by a sitting district attorney, says in his letter to Miller that because the State Bar of Wisconsin keeps publicly available information on attorneys licensed to practice law in Wisconsin and that such information was noted by Miller's parents, Lipske had to renege on his agreement to recommend immediate parole for Miller last month.

Yes, the text of the letter is incoherent. I have a copy of Lipske's letter dated July 11, 2013 at this link.

The case is State of Wisconsin v. Donald R. Miller [Case Number: 97 CF 60].

But no matter how isolated and corrupt notorious Iron County Wisconsin (population 5,900) is, it can not hide forever from the rule of law, or the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation.

Nor can Scott Walker's Capitol police, and nor can Gogebic Taconite’s mining operation which will face federal law.

From the Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction:

This is Part II which provides additional information, details and facts demonstrating the inconsistencies, false swearing, perjury, and many lies told by Don Miller's false-accuser, Connie Vargovich, and proves felony misconduct and an obstruction of justice by the officials involved in this case: Circuit court judge for Iron County, Patrick J. Madden; District Attorney for Iron County, Martin J. Lipske; Former Iron County Sheriff Robert Bruneau; Former Iron County sheriff’s deputy, Joe Robinson; and Current Iron County sheriff, Tony Furyk.

The facts provided here are also published on the Internet and have been provided to the above named persons and none of the following has ever been refuted, proven false, or in any way undermined as being anything but true. There are more than enough facts and evidence hereto cause the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of all named persons.

There is much documentation supporting all the following facts as true, which includes certified court transcripts, certified phone records, witness statements, police reports, sworn affidavits, professional investigator reports and tape recordings, court records, information provided by persons having firsthand knowledge, and admissions made by several of the above named persons. This comprises powerful and conclusive evidence of crimes having been committed by Connie Vargovich and the above named officials.
---

Officer Syphard and two new hires. What are they afraid of?
Officer Michael J. Syphard grabbed a photographer and threw
him to the ground this week
. Syphard was not on duty shortly after.Sloey, reached by phone said he cannot
comment on Syphard or related matters.
Photo by Craig Spaulding
Finally, another citizen movement is subject to  mass arrests, as they continue singing and  walking at the Wisconsin State Capitol, where Scott Walker's cops are arresting veterans, seniors, journalists, Madison alders and virtually anyone.

This week includes another surreal scene in which a Walker cop arrested The Progressive Magazine's Matt Rothschild for "obstructing," as Rothschild took notes and photographed some one of some 200 protesters who were participating in the Sing Along on the grounds of the capitol.

See Rothschild's Wis. Policeman Rebukes Walker’s Cops.

Said Tom Alisankus, a Wisconsin police officer, lawyer and a teacher of criminal justice at Rock Valley College in Rockford:

"I’m really angered at my brethren police officers who are arresting people who pose no threat to public safety. They swore to uphold the Constitution, and by arresting people here they are being more beholden to Scott Walker than to the Constitution, which is very distasteful for me as an officer of 31 years"

Scott Walker's cops arrest elderly women - Photo: Craig Spaulding
I’m trying to get my head around why this is a priority for law enforcement. There are so many accidents on I-90 (Highway). So why are the state troopers arresting 80-year-olds? That’s crazy for me as a cop."

All three movements advocate for the rule of law.

I have personally spoken with many of the 1,000s of citizen activists; all are dedicated to the good will and determination for freedom enshrined in the anthems, We Shall Overcome and Down By the Riverside.

Before the end of  World War II, the great jurist, Robert H. Jackson said, "Our Constitution and our philosophy of law have been characterized by a regard for the broadest possible liberty of the individual."

John Nichols writes in The Nation:
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is no John Adams (of the "Alien and Sedition Acts" infamy). But prospective Republican presidential candidate’s delusions of imperial grandeur have led him to cobble together a set of rules that he is using to have dozens of dissenters (including veterans, grandmothers and grandfathers, mothers with children and top teachers) arrested for assembling in the rotunda of the state capitol and singing labor songs.

Never mind that the “Solidarity Sing Alongs” were held peacefully, and without significant incident, before the governor’s crackdown began this summer.

The arrests escalated on Thursday. And, though Walker plays on a small stage, those familiar with the basic outlines of American constitutional history will note a certain historical irony in the drama the governor has scripted.

First, an elected official, Madison Alder Mark Clear, the former president of the city council, was arrested for joining in the singing of “This Land Is Your Land.”

Then, just a few minutes later, Progressive magazine editor Matt Rothschild was detained when he attempted to record what was happening. Rothschild informed the arresting officers that he was a journalist and that he had every right to cover the story.

Clear and his fellow singers can point to a US Constitution that guarantees that Americans may assemble and petition for the redress of grievances—and to a Wisconsin Constitution that is even more explicit, declaring, "The right of the people peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good, and to petition the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged."

Rothschild can point to a US Constitution that guards against any abridging of the freedom of the press—and to a Wisconsin Constitution that is even more explicit, declaring that “no laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press.”

Yet, both men were arrested. The governor and his allies argue that a federal court ruling that allows officials to establish permit requirements has cleared the way for a wholesale rejection of constitutional values.
As Wisconsin remains under siege by unlawful corporations, unthinking police, and corrupt prosecutors and politicians, the very conspiratorial underground movements Justice Robert Jackson feared in the United States after coming home from Nuremberg.

In form and effect, the corrupt and criminal have imprisoned the innocent Don Miller for 42 years, imperiling our constitutional liberties and only just beginning to transform Wisconsin into a state towards a future heretofore unknown, with most Wisconsin Democratic Party officeholders silent and content to be bystanders.

As Ros Nelson of Mellen, Wisconsin said:

We're living in a crazy time, and Wisconsin is a crazy governance. ... G-Tec's goons emerged out the forest with camouflage, automatic weapons, black bandannas over their faces. It surprised the hell out of some my friends, and I asked the question, and no one has answered it, 'who are those bullets for,' you what they're for, they're for us. If they don't kill us with bullets, they'll kill us with pollution. Any child would know that blowing up the Penokees (Hills) is insane. The details seem absurd to me because on the face of it, destroying our watershed, the cleanest water in the world. letting it flow into Lake Superior, ... letting it destroy our trout streams, it's insane. I hope you (the DNR) can do your work in the climate that is this fascist government that is Wisconsin.

An exaggeration?

Ask Don Miller. Ask Katie Kloth. Ask Bob Gollubske. Ask Barbara With.

Jul 19, 2013

Wisconsin GOP, Iron County Want Native American Mining Protesters Out






County District Attorney Martin Lipske.

But there is nothing funny about Iron County officials again trying to drum up racist resentment against the Lac Courte Oreilles band of Ojibwe.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin front-group, Media Trackers, and its Republican writer, Brian Sikma, are attacking a wooded campsite because it's calling attention to the proposed open-pit mine, owned by Gogebic Taconite for whom Wisconsin Republicans wrote a mining bill rushed through on a party-line vote earlier this year.

Writes Lee Bergquist this morning:

An attorney for Iron County says that a wooded campsite that's been a hub for opponents of a proposed iron-ore mine is violating county ordinances by exceeding the timeline that such a gathering can take place.

Michael Pope, corporation counsel for Iron County, said Thursday that the harvest camp organized by the Lac Courte Oreilles band of Lake Superior Chippewa has exceeded a two-week limit for such gatherings.

But Paul DeMain, a spokesman for the camp, said Iron County officials have raised no questions about the legality of the tent community directly with tribal leaders. He suggested the issue is politically motivated, as debate over mining shows no sign of abating.

Wisconsin Republicans like Sikma and Iron County officials should give it up.

The Lac Courte Oreilles band of the Ojibwe operate at a level of commitment that Republicans like Brian Sikma simply cannot understand.

Harassment will be laughed off.

Jul 17, 2013

Iron County DA Has History of Professional Misconduct, Suspension of License for Discipline

Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske's
law license was suspended for two years in 1990.
Lipske's  license was suspended four times
between 1985 and 1990 as well
Updated - Steven Verburg and the editors of the Wisconsin State Journal either have not vetted Iron County DA Martin Lipske as a credible source or do not care about Lipske's shady history of practicing law in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin corporate press is playing stenographer to Iron County DA Martin Lipske as Lipske makes pro-mining political statements to the press and threatens to throw the book at a mining protester as he publicly muses about prosecutions of several other Gogebic Taconite mining protesters prior to any criminal complaint or the inception of any law enforcement investigation, the latest careless move in a reckless history of Lipske's, confirmed by the State Bar of Wisconsin this morning.

To this point, the Wisconsin press has failed to report the numerous instances of professional misconduct in Lipske's legal career, treating Lipske's overheated characterization of mining protesters as credible, despite Lipske's slipshod history as an attorney in Wisconsin, as referenced by the State Bar of Wisconsin's history of Lipske's license to practice obtained this morning from the Bar in an e-mail after a phone call, and reproduced below.

Lipske as an attorney had his license to practice law suspended for nearly four years in Wisconsin, and is currently barred from practicing law in Minnesota for numerous ethical violations, including a two-year suspension for discipline involving "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misconduct."

Lipske is getting a free political ride as Lipske takes political shots at mining protesters in the press in his apparent attempt to criminalize opposition to the proposed, massive Iron mine in northern Wisconsin.

Steven Verburg of the Wisconsin State Journal offers editorial support for the Gogebic Taconite mining interests and its allies like Lipske in his news piece today.

Writes Verburg this morning: "The details on the [alleged criminal] incident help explain why the Gogebic Taconite mining company hired heavily armed security guards from Arizona who wore camouflage and masks, Lipske said."

Is that what Lipske said?

Verburg either has not vetted Lipske as a credible source, or does not care about Lipske's shady history of practicing law in Wisconsin.

The State Bar of Wisconsin confirmed this morning the almost four-year suspension of Lipske's license to practice law from 1990-1994, after a quick phone call.

Iron county in northern Wisconsin has a population of 6,861 people.

Lipske's suspension to practice law was lifted in 1994.

Lipske was "Suspended for Discipline" for two years under the category of "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misconduct" in 1990, it was reported in the Ironwood Daily Globe (Ralph Ansami), after consultations with the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation.

The State Bar will not provide specifics per its policy, but a press account from the Ironwood Daily Globe (Ansami. September 6, 1994) when Lipske ran for Iron County DA, reads:

Lipske was also sanctioned for failing to provide competent representation, and for neglect of several legal matters.

[Lipske] was suspended from practicing law in both Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Additionally, Lipske had his license to practice law in Wisconsin suspended four times for administrative delinquencies between 1985 to 1988.

Specifically, Lipske was suspended three times for failure to pay dues, and once for failing to obtain a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) requirement in 1985.

The history of Lipske's license to practice is reproduced below.

All of Lipske's suspensions to practice law in Wisconsin have been lifted since 1994.

Currently, Lipske is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin in good standing.

Further information can also be obtained through the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation.

Iron County DA Martin Lipske License Status (State Bar of Wisconsin)
Atty. Martin Lipske License Status’

10/31/1985 Suspended for CLE (Education requirements)
11/1/1985 Suspended for Dues and CLE
11/7/1985 Suspended for Dues (CLE Lifted)
11/11/1985 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)
11/3/1986 Suspended for Dues
11/12/1986 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)
5/11/1988 Suspended for CLE
07/05/1988 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)
7/1/1990 Suspended for Discipline [emphasis added]
1/19/1994 Good Standing (All suspensions lifted)

Jul 16, 2013

Mining Company Deploys New Masked Militiamen

Kate Sheppard has the piece at Mother Jones.

Corporate terror continues as Mining Company deploys new militia -  Image by Jim Limbach

WKOW TV Lets Genocide, Death Threats Fall into Equivalence Fallacy

So dedicated is local broadcast TV news to the proposition that any and all viewpoints are the same that even the Wisconsinites for Safe Mining references to "Genocide" go unmet, amid an explicit death threat now under criminal investigation.

The WKOW reporter, Greg Neumann, means well in his piece.

But what exactly has to be done and said before dumbed-down broadcast news ditches the false equivalence of Conservationists v. Mining, Corporate Militias, and now idiots who think "Genocide" is funny.

Likely, the poster of the "shoot on sight" Facebook post believes he is being funny.

Does Neumann get why it isn't?

Only one side is armed: The mining and militia side
Only one side thinks Genocide is funny:  The mining and militia side
Only one side thinks issues death threat: The mining and militia side

What has to happen before WKOW and other news sites stop treating all sides as equal?

Mining Operation's Supporters Make Online Death Threats

"Shoot on sight," reads Wisconsinites for Safe Mining Facebook page.

Someone get word to local media, this is not bad PR.

This is a reckless death threat, among other moronic chatter.

Do these people even remember who Jared Lee Loughner and former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords are?

What passes for humor among the rightwing can have deadly consequences perpetrated by the armed and hateful.

By Greg Neumann:

[One] Terry Dipper identifies Lisa Wells and three other women as making threats against the [Iron mine site] as justification for the [Bulletproof] guards.

In a post directly follow Dipper's, Wisconsinites For Safe Mining wrote:  "We have initiated a shoot on sight order for the malcontents that you have listed.  Trespassing on a mining site = genocide."
 Trespassing on a mining site = genocide? [sic]

Further comment should be unnecessary, but corporate media will find a way to present a false equivalence between death threats from idiots v. conservationists.

Jul 15, 2013

Dump False Equivalence of Conservationists v. Mining, Corporate Militias

Dump anything you want here, just watch the PR message
Wisconsin State Journal needs to begin thinking about the communities of Wisconsin, and forget the silly riffs on PR tactics

Not expecting rigor when I read Wisconsin State Journal editorials but its equating indignant Wisconsin citizens with armed, unlicensed, corporate, and illegal (look it up) militias is ludicrous.

The editorial from the Scott Walker rah-rah sheet concludes: "... [B]oth mining and protesting can proceed as planned."

No.

Actually, many federal laws and regulations have to be followed, and Wisconsin citizens retain their right to free speech, disregarded by Republicans after they sold out Wisconsin.


Yelling obscenities at out-of-state corporations poisoning our land and our water is self-defense.

If you don't agree, why not have your children or your parents drink the wastewater discharge that comes from huge open pit mines like that proposed up north. Personally, I don't drink anything with sulfuric acid.

Have some fish from the poisoned water, which is so predictable, Republicans actually wrote into the statute language that they expect environmental damage, so the numerous coming legal challenges can be met with the argument: We contemplated and wanted this pollution. [See "There are going to be some impacts to the environment above the iron ore body."]

The mine in fact will be stopped. The GOP's stating: We don't care about federal law; that's in the state law our party passed is in fact not an argument that will prevail in federal court.

Doesn't the State Journal have a problem with this? Is the State Journal so out-of-touch now that it can only think about Wisconsin families and communities in terms of good or bad PR?

The State Journal begins, "The message from northern Wisconsin last week was unmistakable: One giant public relations blunder can be topped only by ... another giant public relations blunder."

Firstly, the public has the right, guaranteed access, to the Iron Mine site.

Secondly, opening shop and operating as a private security firm is illegal without a license. It's the law and breaking the law is not a "PR blunder."

Since when is civil a prerequisite to stopping operations like Cline's new outfit Gogebic Taconite, coming in our backyard and poisoning the water and earth? You expect everyone to say, thank you.

No, 'get the hell out,' is appropriate for these trespassers, corporate terrorists like 'Bulletproof,' and the sick minds that would come in and poison families and their environment which they call home.

This is not about PR.

This is about preserving the environment and the health of Wisconsin families.

And these mining operations are in this for the money period.


What do you think, these are committed environmentally conscious, full-employment activists who care only about strengthening Wisconsin communities?

The State Journal needs to begin thinking about the communities of Wisconsin, and not worry about the profits of huge mining conglomerates and its political patrons.

Are you  the Wisconsin State Journal or the Republican State Journal.

Nothing wrong with being a party paper, but be honest about it.

Mar 21, 2013

New Film Says, Stop the Disaster Inflicted by the GOP and Mining Goon, Christopher Cline

The Iron Current
One would believe that self-consciously polluting water and watersheds is an act of mass poisoning perpetrated by sociopaths like the kind of crazies hunted by the FBI.

They should be.

What the Republicans and Christoper Cline's minions are doing is unforgivable.

A new documentary film coming out chronicles the crime before it happens—The Iron Current.

The documentary examines the issue of iron ore mining in northern Wisconsin and its impact on local citizens and the environment. The Iron Current: The goal of this documentary is to show how the communities and citizens of Northern Wisconsin are reacting to a proposed iron ore mine near Lake Superior. If permitted, this mine would be the largest open pit iron ore mine in the world, up to four and a half miles long and reaching depths of one thousand feet during phase one. With the unemployment rate near twelve percent in the area, many residents are aware of the need for good paying jobs. Other residents however, aren’t willing to gamble the environment for the jobs, especially the people of the Bad River Indian Reservation, which is located at the mouth of the Bad River on Lake Superior. The proposed mine would be placed at the headwaters of the Bad River, six miles upstream from the Indian Reservation.

The documentary will examine many complex topics surrounding this issue. The proposed mine site lies upon the oldest mountain range in the world called the Penokee Hills, which contains one half of the remaining Iron Ore left in the continental United States. It is an environmentally rich area consisting of many rivers and streams which make up the Bad River Watershed and the Kokaggun sloughs, nicknamed the Everglades of Lake Superior. The Bad River Watershed is considered the most pristine estuary left throughout the Great Lakes by many biologists and also serves as an important spiritual center for the Lake Superior Ojibwe people.
(Directed by Dean Vogtman; produced by Dean Vogtman and Dan Fitzpatrick).