Category Archives: Fail!

Shell’s Battle for Seattle | Earthjustice

The Port’s entry into the lease with Foss Maritime to open Terminal 5 to Shell’s Arctic drilling convoy was made in February without public proceedings or an environmental review.  Not only did the rental agreement violate the Port of Seattle’s long-range plans and its shoreline permit, which designate Terminal 5 as a cargo terminal, but it broke state law and the port’s own rules.

That’s where Earthjustice comes in.

Earthjustice is representing Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, the Sierra Club, Washington Environmental Council and Seattle Audubon Society in a legal fight to vacate the lease. The groups and local residents have pressed the port to rescind the lease and to invest in sustainable jobs that reflect the community’s values and air prospective terminal lessees in public.

via Shell’s Battle for Seattle | Earthjustice.

Netanyahu vows wave of Jerusalem settler homes if elected | Maan News Agency

Creepiest sucking up to right-wing radicals seen yet! Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday that if reelected he will build thousands of settler homes in East Jerusalem to prevent future concessions to the Palestinians.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s general election on a whistle-stop tour of Har Homa, a contentious settlement neighborhood of annexed East Jerusalem, Netanyahu vowed he would never allow the Palestinians to establish a capital in the city’s eastern sector.

“I won’t let that happen. My friends and I in Likud will preserve the unity of Jerusalem,” he said of his ruling right-wing party, vowing to prevent any future division of the city by building thousands of new settler homes.

via Netanyahu vows wave of Jerusalem settler homes if elected | Maan News Agency.

US Neo-Cons – no war against Iran, how about Brazil? Not! You have spilled enough blood for your profits! Brazil: hundreds of thousands of protesters call for Rouseff impeachment | World news | The Guardian

“Brazil does not want and will not be a new Venezuela,” read one. “Nation + Liberty = PT (Workers Party) Out!” declared another.

There was a range of voices. While one flag extolled “Peace and Love”, a sizeable contingent of the crowd expressed support for a return to the military dictatorship that ran the country between 1964 and 1985

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“Army, Navy and Air Force. Please save us once again of (sic) communism” read one banner in English. Among those holding it was computer graphic designer Marlon Aymes who said military force was the only way to unseat the Workers Party.

“They are in power for 16 years. That is like a dictatorship,” he said. “In 1964 the military of Brazil took a stand against a president who was close to the Kremlin. Today, the PT is in a group that wants a Bolivarian socialist model across Latin America. Common people are protesting and calling for impeachment, but congress is too corrupt to approve that so we need military intervention.”

via Brazil: hundreds of thousands of protesters call for Rouseff impeachment | World news | The Guardian.

Gourmet Kitchen Inc. Recalls Various Beef and Chicken Products Due to Misbranding and an Undeclared Allergen

Cook your food yourself! Peanuts end up in too many things for those that are allergic!

The ready-to-cook beef and chicken appetizer items were produced on various dates between October 15, 2014 and March 2, 2015. The following products are subject to recall:

Bulk packages of 0.75 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Beef Wellington Puff.”  The boxes will bear the case code B2018.

Bulk packages of 0.75 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Beef Satay.” The boxes will bear the case code B2028.

Bulk packages of 0.6 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Large Beef Wellington.” The boxes will bear the case code B2032.

Bulk packages of 0.75 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Beef Wellington Puff with Bleu Cheese.”  The boxes will bear the case code B2078.

Bulk packages of 0.4 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Petite Beef Wellington.” The boxes will bear the case code B2148.

Bulk packages of 0.6 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Macadamia Chicken Skewer.” The boxes will bear the case code C2036.

Bulk packages of 0.75 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Chicken Wellington Puff.”  The boxes will bear the case code C2050.

Bulk packages of 0.6 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Pistachio Chicken Pinwheel.” The boxes will bear the case code C2054.

Bulk packages of 0.6 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Oahu Chicken Pinwheel.” The boxes will bear the case code C2084.

Bulk packages of 0.4 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Petite Chicken Wellington Puff.” The boxes will bear the case code C2290.

Bulk packages of 0.75 oz. “Gourmet Foods of Arizona Beef Wellington.”  The boxes will bear the case code GFB2018.

Bulk packages of 0.75 oz. “Gourmet Foods of Arizona Beef Wellington with Bleu Cheese and Duxelle.” The boxes will bear the case code GFB2078.

Bulk packages of 0.75 oz. “Impromptu Petite Beef Wellington.” The boxes will bear the case code IM70021.

Bulk packages of 0.75 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Beef Kabob.” The boxes will bear the case code K1002.

Bulk packages of 0.75 oz. “Gourmet Kitchen Beef Wellington Puff.” The boxes will bear the case code MSB2018.

Bulk packages of 0.75 oz. “MacKenzie Limited Beef Wellington.”

via Gourmet Kitchen Inc. Recalls Various Beef and Chicken Products Due to Misbranding and an Undeclared Allergen.

Avian Flu Diary: APHIS: H5N2 Detected In Backyard Flock In Kansas

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza (HPAI) in a backyard chicken and duck flock in Leavenworth County, Kansas. This is the first finding of HPAI in the Central flyway. CDC considers the risk to people from these HPAI H5 infections in wild birds, backyard flocks and commercial poultry, to be low. No human infections with the virus have been detected at this time.

via Avian Flu Diary: APHIS: H5N2 Detected In Backyard Flock In Kansas.

Mexican mayoral candidate reportedly decapitated – body found on dirt road | World news | The Guardian

The body of a woman running for election as mayor of a small Mexican town has been discovered after she was kidnapped and reportedly decapitated in the same region where 43 student teachers disappeared last year.

Aidé Nava’s body was found on a dirt road in the beleaguered Mexican state of Guerrero on Tuesday night, hours after she was abducted by a group of armed men, Guerrero’s chief prosecutor Miguel Angel Godínez told Milenio TV.

via Mexican mayoral candidate reportedly decapitated – body found on dirt road | World news | The Guardian.

California is punishing low-income people for having children

Studies show that family caps do not reduce the number of children women have. What they do is deepen the poverty rate of single mothers and children. In fact, California now has one of the worst rates of child poverty rates in the nation under the Maximum Family Grant.

Essentially, this policy punishes women for being low-income, but does nothing to help them escape the cycle of poverty. Thankfully, California lawmakers are currently working on their third attempt to repeal the policy. Hopefully the other 15 states where family caps exist will follow suit and do the work of legislative bodies, not legislating bodies.

via California is punishing low-income people for having children.

Tea party may be on verge of becoming a 3rd party | News , World | THE DAILY STAR

Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp, one of Boehner’s strongest critics, said a fierce struggle between establishment Republicans and “grassroots conservatives” is brewing. “The war is on,” he said.

And that likely will show itself in continued infighting within party ranks and between the House and the Senate over pending issues like passing a budget, increasing the nation’s borrowing authority and passing a new use of force agreement for Obama in the battle against ISIS militants.

Robin Lauermann, a political scientist at Messiah College, thinks the “war” Huelskamp speaks of will eventually lead to an open split between tea party Republicans and their more mainstream party colleagues. “I think it continues until you have the fatal error, the fatal decision that does not get made that creates a catastrophe, or the fatal decision that does get made,” Lauermann said.

That could well happen over Obama’s health care program, she said. The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to rule later this year on the constitutionality of a part of the law. If the court rules against the government, Obamacare could be gutted. While the program isn’t widely popular in the United States, a sufficient number of people have begun to see the benefit and could turn against Republicans. That may force the mainstream to kick out the tea party so that mainstream Republicans can begin to find acceptable replacement legislation.

via Tea party may be on verge of becoming a 3rd party | News , World | THE DAILY STAR.

British soldiers ‘shouted sexist abuse’ at England Women against Australia | Football | The Guardian

An Australian supporter at the match, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “This was a stunning one-off that I’ve never heard before in women’s football.

“They were calling the girls t****, telling the referee ‘I’d like to blow you’.

“I said something to the Army sergeant, ‘This isn’t a complaint as an Australian supporter, it’s a complaint as a woman’. It was beyond the pale.

“He was apologetic after the game and offered to apologise to the players.

“He said they’re just a bunch of young boys, but I have 17 and 18-year-old brothers, I know what they’re like but they wouldn’t say that to strangers.”

via British soldiers ‘shouted sexist abuse’ at England Women against Australia | Football | The Guardian.

From India and Turkey to Oxford, we live in a perpetual state of war against women | Suzanne Moore | Comment is free | The Guardian

The war against women is waged routinely and globally. Equality of the most basic kind cannot exist when a woman’s life and her words are always worth less than a man’s. But in the darkness of the night, what haunts us are not broken systems but the faces of the broken girls. So, so many. All the time.

via From India and Turkey to Oxford, we live in a perpetual state of war against women | Suzanne Moore | Comment is free | The Guardian.