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Oceanside Pier, thirty seconds

Friday, August 24, 2012

The new Amerika - constant surveillance and more derricks



Lancaster launches a plane with a camera system that will store and record everything that is going on in the city. The Mayor defends the system by saying that he always behaves better when he knows somebody is watching. Like the old saying goes, you ain't doing nothing wrong, you got nothing to worry about. We got it all on tape. Here's betting American sheeple won't utter a peep.

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Polluted sky, Salt Lake City

Romney yesterday unveiled what I think might be the scariest proposition yet, that his energy policy will contain a provision that grants drilling oversight to states on federal land. That means the EPA will no longer have any say. Bye Bye, Utah, Alaska and Wyoming. Federal means the land belongs to all of us but locals tend to see it as their's to plunder. If he is elected and this policy is enacted, just wait until you see what the environment looks like in 10 years. A very bad idea.

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TransCanada wants to build their Keystone XL pipeline across Julia Trigg Crawford's property. She's not too keen on the idea. Texas Judge Bill Harris rules for TransCanada yesterday and upheld the condemnation of a fifty foot wide swath across her pasture in Paris, Texas.

The issue hinged on if the pipeline was a common carrier, one open to any oil company willing to pay published rates to use it. This pipeline isn't but in Texas all you have to do is file a one page form with the Texas Railroad Commission and say that you are a common carrier and you are home free. No hearing, no evidence, no title, no investigation, you get to do plumb whatever you are hankering to do.

A prior case, the Denbury decision, had found that a private enterprise can not acquire condemnation power by "checking off boxes on a one page form." The court recommended a set of uniform standards  for carriers and an enforcement body. It was never established and now Ms. Crawford is shit out of luck. You don't cross big oil in Texas.

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