Yep, it’s another double header today, so not much time for a lengthy post… you’ll just have to listen:)
This afternoon on the Randi Rhodes Show, I’ll speak with the Amazing Kreskin (yes, he’s still alive), Forbes’ token liberal Rick Ungar, and Howie Klein will update us on how the solar panels on his house are working out for him, plus lots more….
On my show this morning, we talk about yesterday’s Forward on Climate rally in DC, strange coincidences, and a lot more. Of course since it’s Monday, Nicole Belle joins in for “Fools on the Hill”. She brought us this today…
Look at John McCain’s bizarre and frankly bratty attack on David Gregory for asking what exactly Benghazi has to do with holding up the Chuck Hagel nomination, interrupting Gregory and asking whether he cared that four Americans died. Would that John McCain feel even the slightest bit worse over the 4,500 Americans that died needlessly in Iraq.
And John McCain’s BFF Lindsey Graham who petulantly demands that we cut health care benefits for millions of Americans so that the sequester cuts won’t destroy the military. Even though the Pentagon itself said that they could handle some cuts.
Then there are the incorrigibles. Those children so uncontrolled, so horrible, so lacking in basic respect that you wonder about the parents. Those people work for Fox (like Tucker Carlson) and are responsible for such heinous stories as suggesting the President Obama is indoctrinating federal workers against white people. Why? Because the USDA (you know, the agency that fired Shirley Sherrod) had to take a racial sensitivity training program.
On the incorrigible side, Karl Rove is defending his campaign to divide and conquer the Republican Party to get rid of ‘stupid candidates’. But it’s Bob Woodward who really thinks Rove’s gone too far subverting democracy. Sad that it’s taken the man who broke the Watergate scandal so long to figure out what we liberals have been saying all along.
And now for some adult conversation. UP with Chris Hayes devoted a whole hour to discussing the ramifications of raising the minimum wage. Unlike every other weekend news show, this discussion had nuance and intelligence. Well, with the exception of token conservative Jennifer Sevilla Korn of the Hispanic Leadership Conference. Sevilla Korn tried to dominate the conversation with conservative talking points and unlike every other weekend show, the host pushed back with facts. Hear that, David Gregory?
**We had a last minute addition in the first hour. Texas farm owner Julia Trigg Crawford is fighting Trans Canada to keep them from running the Keystone XL pipeline under her land via eminent domain. She’ll also join us on the Randi Rhodes Show this afternoon. Here’s her story:***
Julia Trigg Crawford is a 6’0” former star basketball player for Texas A&M
[Gov. Perry’s alma mater] and the 3rd generation to manage her family’s 650 acre farm in “little bitty” Direct, Texas, in the northeast part of the state. Purchased by her grandfather in 1948, Red’Arc Farm has some of the richest agricultural land and purest water in the county. Here her family raises cattle and grows wheat, corn and soybeans, irrigating their crops from nearby Bois d’Arc Creek and the Red River. The farm is rich in archeological treasures as well, housing a well-documented Caddo Indian burial site within its boundaries.In 2008 when TransCanada asked for an easement across Red’Arc Farm, the family said no, they simply did not want a pipeline across their place. As Julia Trigg peeled away TransCanada’s rhetoric and began to research all facets of this proposed pipeline she learned of the destructive extraction methods, huge environmental risks, skewed job creation numbers, hollow promise of energy independence, and more. Closer to home she was informed TransCanada planned to horizontally drill their pipeline beneath the creek where the farm draws its water, and trench through an artifact laden pasture. Even worse, TransCanada told her that if she didn’t sign their easement they would have her land condemned and take it through eminent domain.
Julia Trigg refused to sign the easement, TransCanada did have the land condemned, and the battle lines were quickly drawn. Since 2011 the Crawford family has been proudly standing up for their land, appealing TransCanada’s condemnation, and challenging the problem-ridden process in Texas by which these land grabs occur. Julia Trigg is not the only one questioning the process, two Texas Legislative Sub-Committees have held hearing on it, with Julia Trigg as an invited speaker. More recently, the State agency overseeing pipeline activity in Texas, the Texas Railroad Commission, has come under great scrutiny, particularly for their rubber stamping of “Common Carrier” designation, the genesis of eminent domain abuse.
After months in court, numerous hearings, thousands of pages of court records, and national coverage by some of the world’s leading publications, on August 22nd, 2012 the local County Court at Law Judge ruled against the Crawford family by sending a 15 word ruling from his iPhone. Moreover, the Judge has subsequently refused to provide any additional details, legal citations, or further explanation regarding his ruling.
About this time TransCanada’s construction of the Gulf Coast segment launched with blazing speed through Northeast Texas, with crews of out-of-state workers putting in 6 day work weeks, While the pipeline is buried and construction appears to be complete on neighboring properties, no construction has yet to take place on Red’Arc Farm.
The Crawford family is appealing this lower court’s ruling, and within the month will be filing their brief with the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Texarkana, Texas. They feel confident in their position that TransCanada does not qualify as a Common Carrier, and therefore should not have the power of eminent domain, and they look forward to arguing their case before the 6thCircuit Court of Appeals.
