Boardman reports: "Officially, it seems, the Tar Sands Blockade was supposed to be over in mid-October, when The New York Times, having thus far ignored the story, announced that it was a 'last-ditch bid.' But Tar Sands Blockade, a grassroots coalition of Texans opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline, is still there, still occupying the treehouse blockade it mounted September 24, still trying to hold up construction of TransCanada's $7 billion pipeline that will bring hot, toxic tar sands oil sludge from Canada for global markets."
Daryl Hannah faces off with the machine. (photo: Earth First)
TransCanada Pipeline Protest in Fifth Week
27 October 12
Reader Supported News | Perspective
�
fficially, it seems, the Tar Sands Blockade was supposed to be over in mid-October, when The New York Times, having thus far ignored the story, announced that it was a "last-ditch bid." But Tar Sands Blockade, a grassroots coalition of Texans opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline, is still there, still occupying the treehouse blockade it mounted September 24, still trying to hold up construction of TransCanada's $7 billion pipeline that will bring hot, toxic tar sands oil sludge from Canada for global markets.
Two more people joined the tree-sitters this week, bringing the number of tree blockades to four, as blockaders maneuver in response to TransCanada's effort to build around the original blockade. One of the new tree-sitters is Cat Ripley, 20, a veteran pipeline protestor who last year helped stop another TransCanada pipeline near Portland, Oregon, when the builders withdrew their permit application.
Presidential candidate Mitt ("if I have to build it myself to get it here, I'll get it to America") Romney and President ("I'm all for pipelines") Obama both support the Keystone XL pipeline, and both claim - falsely - that it will contribute to the chimera of American energy independence. While both candidates are also all but silent on climate change, former US Army chief of staff General Gordon Sullivan and the other ten retired officers of the CNA think tank's Military Advisory Board say unambiguously: "Climate change is and must be recognized as a threat to our national security."
Sometimes lost in the details is the basic argument about tapping the Alberta tar sands in Canada, since tar sands oil is much more toxic than oil from previously exploited reserves. Because the Alberta reserve is vast, it's a significant hedge against oil shortages, and has drawn heavy investment from the oil industry, including PetroChina. Because tar sands oil is so toxic, environmentalists warn against it. As James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, wrote in The New York Times last May: "If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate."
Tar Sands Resistance Spreads Across U.S. and Canada
TransCanada pipeline construction sites offer clear confrontation points in the oil/climate struggle, with resistance growing wherever pipelines have threatened to go lately, whether Nebraska or British Columbia, Vermont or Texas, where the Tar Sands Blockade's action has entered its second month.
Two days after the Times' virtual "obituary" on Tar Sands Blockade, more than 50 supporters swarmed the construction site and later posted video of their actions and security reactions. October 15 was the biggest action of the blockade to date, with protestors outnumbering security officers roughly 3 to 1. The main purpose of the action was to re-supply the nine tree-sitters, but protestors also disrupted construction for the day as they ran around the site, some locking themselves to equipment. Dozens more demonstrated against TransCanada from nearby public land, and there were solidarity rallies in Austin and Denton, Texas, as well as Washington, DC, New York City, and San Francisco.
Security officers made eight arrests and tackled a 70-year-old Cherokee woman, but police violence did not reach earlier levels when officers tortured two protestors, a man and a woman, using chokeholds, pepper spray, and tasers, while the pair was chained helplessly to a backhoe.
The October 15 action came after TransCanada had clamped down on the area with police-state tactics, as reported by Firedoglake: "Enlisted off-duty police officers are intimidating, harassing and arresting just about anyone they think is trespassing, even if those people happen to be on property they own. And, officers who are acting as armed henchmen for TransCanada have arrested three journalists in the past twenty-four hours for simply being there to report on resistance to the pipeline construction."
Times Reporter Leans Pro-TransCanada, Ignores Basic Issue
One of those arrested on October 10 was Times reporter Dan Frosch, whose dismissive October 13 story minimized the size and significance of the confrontation while heavily quoting TransCanada spokesmen without balancing views. For example, Frosch quoted TransCanada's statement that "the company was making sure that work sites were safe, 'even for those who are breaking the law and trespassing on these locations,'" as if there were no opposing point of view.
The Times reporter also reported, as if it were true, the TransCanada claim that "the company was respectful of those people whose land it needed," when the opposite is easily documented. And for the self-described "paper of record," Frosch chose to quote only two resigned and passive landowners, rather than any who have been actively resisting on-site or in court.
In a gesture of journalistic malpractice, Frosch omitted any mention of his own arrest or the arrest of the photographer with him or the arrests of three other journalists, none of whom were apparently charged. He did mention the arrest of Daryl Hannah and others, but not their excessive bail or over-charging by local authorities.
TransCanada Avoids Direct Confrontation, at Least for Now
After its initial sanction of extreme violence against the protestors, TransCanada has apparently managed to keep its security officers relatively restrained except for the occasional roughing-up or hog-tying. The multi-billion dollar Canadian company's more recent actions have included numerous court suits against landowners and protestors, including a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, known as a SLAPP suit, a form of litigation that has been limited by statute in 28 states other than Texas.
The SLAPP suit is a notorious form of legal bad faith, designed not so much to be won (or even taken to trial) by the plaintiffs, but rather to intimidate, silence, censor, and exhaust the resources of opponents who are typically, as with environmental groups like the Tar Sands Blockade, incapable of matching the resources of a multi-billion dollar corporation.
Even before the SLAPP suit, TransCanada had aroused anger among landowners by its use of eminent domain to take control of their land along the pipeline route. Texas law expects eminent domain to be used for a public purpose, and the Texas Supreme Court has ruled similarly in recent cases, but the Texas Railroad Commission continues to allow eminent domain claims based on earlier custom. The question is currently on appeal, but the pipeline construction continues.
The failure of the state of Texas to protect Texas landowners has aroused considerable anger and resentment, as expressed by Edwin Tullos in a letter to the Dallas Morning News: "As a landowner in rural Texas, I find use of the law by a company to override landowners' rights for a profit venture extremely disconcerting. The interpreting of the law by state level government officials in this matter demonstrates their intent to use it to void any law protecting private landowners from profit oriented consortiums including foreign companies - as this one is. How secure are we in our homes when the state - not federal - orders our homes seized to assure the profit of their donors?"
TransCanada Harasses Tree-sitters with Light and Sound
TransCanada has maintained low level pressure on the tree-sitters, with round-the-clock security waiting to arrest anyone who might come down and anyone who might try to bring supplies. The company has also maintained floodlights on the treehouses all night, powered by noisy generators, making sleep difficult. For some reason, TransCanada turned off the lights and generators the night of October 24, according to retired colonel Ann Wright, who visited with the tree-sitters without incident.
That same day a Louisiana woman chained herself to the gate of a TransCanada equipment yard, preventing trucks and other heavy equipment from going to work until sheriff's deputies cut her chains with bolt-cutters and arrested her. Cherri Foytlin, mother of six and wife of an oil field worker, posted her intentions in advance in a video and on her blog, Bridge the Gulf, acting in solidarity with an another anti-pipeline movement in Canada.
In British Columbia in western Canada, massive and widespread opposition has emerged to try to stop another pipeline intended to bring molten tar sands oil from central Alberta to an oil tanker port in Vancouver on the Puget Sound. On October 22, thousands of people took to the streets of the provincial capitol Victoria to make their views known to the provincial legislature and Premier Christy Clark. Two days later the protest spread across the province as more than 60 local communities joined hands in solidarity against the pipeline plan, with significant media attention
Texas Land Commissioner Calls Blockaders "Eco-anarchists"
An elected official, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, called the blockaders names in an October 16 op-ed piece that begins, inaccurately: "I've recently learned that a bunch of out-of-state, self-appointed 'eco-anarchists' think they know better than Texans and have arrived to save us from ourselves. They're trying to block the Keystone Pipeline Gulf Coast Project, the pipeline that's under construction in East Texas that will create thousands of jobs and lessen our dependence on foreign oil."
This provoked a number of hostile letters and comments in opposition in the Dallas Morning News and elsewhere around the state. The Tar Sands Blockade is a native Texan effort with supporters from other states.
National mainstream media coverage, like the Times', has been spotty and behind the curve: on October 15, the Washington Post "discovered" the three-week-old civil disobedience in the treetops; on October 17 an Associated Press report said "a battle is brewing over an unlikely project, an oil pipeline"; and on October 19 the Los Angeles Times reported on 78-year-old Eleanor Fairchild's October 4 arrest (with actress Daryl Hannah) to protest the pipeline's damage to her farm and livelihood.
Regional mainstream media coverage has been somewhat more attentive, with the Fort Worth Weekly running a lengthy, balanced overview piece on October 17. Similarly, regional TV has aired some coverage, but the Tar Sands Blockade of TransCanada's pipeline has apparently not yet been covered by any national TV news network or program.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
**Is nowadays are real word? Ah that's one of the great mysteries of the universe....
"Nowadays" is NOT a 'real word'. Except for the fact that "usage" determines acceptable English, and this bastardization "Nowadays" has infiltrated Standard English from "somewheres" in the Ozarks.
I know that it probably *sounds* perfectly acceptable in Texas.
Could you BE any more snarky ? What is more trivial, the question, or someone wiling to take valuable time out of their day to lift a leg on the person asking the question ?
One contemptible addition some decades back was the inclusion of "DoctorWelbyish " (since removed) in the USA.
Thank you for your important and very interesting coverage.
Anyone else want to chip in right now?
There's only one thing I can think of that can do that: GENERAL STRIKE.
We've a long, long way to go to protect people in foreign lands from the continued war and war crime from the West and most importantly the USA.
Predator Drones murder on a continued basis in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia for certain. How many other places we do not know.
This alone is heavily indicative of what is to come.
But they can't hide forever from a better-informed world outside of the "approved" US Corporate State chowderhead media.
There is a lot more than just P'v't Manning's fate riding on this show trial.
It might just serve to plunge the US back into further isolation as experienced during the Dimwits/Chain-g ang reign of error and terror and shoot it down to the bottom of the world trust and popularity list, where it is currently at the lower-middle (source; BBC).
Gawd knows how Manning is bearing up during this prolonged lynching but his stoicism and perhaps resignation (or is he being drugged?) should be a spur to world support for his Nobel prize nomination. Sign on at http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5459.
Stuff it all back down their hypocritical throats!
And I hope that they enjoy reading this on RSN's surveilled database.
"Ah fart in their general directions" (Monty Python's Holy Grail). I hope they get a chuckle at some of my daffy scribblings on RSN.
Abb-abb-abb-t-th-th-at's al ffolks: He-heh-heh!
Complicity to murder and genocide is on trial, and Manning refuses to be complicit. Do we, as human, also? We are the ones on trial, but you cannot call it one. Should we let them convict us without our knowledge?
Hierarchies have lead to garbage gathering police who are deputized to 'take it out,' the garbage which is provided in droves by the central media outlets as lies, or, as a paper-trade. They have to produce so much garbage to successfully alter the cultural landscape permanently, or tectonically, hollowing out under our feet instead of being hallow, or having any predisposition for that. Purposefully, they drive people from their evolutionary design to learn and to participate.
Learning leads to learning-to-lea rn (Bateson) where we would, then, know the 'container' relevant to the learned where both exist together as form, not word. "In the beginning, all was mush and without form," Denial allows proceeding upon no truth at all. This is usury.
We make up for missing truth when being instructed to be in a container that contains none, or, maybe is 50/50. Tricks are not epistemology, or real knowledge, in any event. One needs imagination. Learning, in reality, is not a trick. It would be an oxymoron. If there is any distinction to made, any leap for cognitive powers we could possess, for the power that makes it all just, this is another drama designed, solely, to make us shudder, and is not random.
"..A military spokesman said that the media operations center located half a mile away from the courtroom was "a privilege, not a right...."
It seems amazing to hear someone in the US military advise us that they grant privileges. And all while the US tax payers fund their entire lives from salaries and health care to retirement.
This is an indication of the power we have given to a group that is supposed to defend the USA. Now they tell us what our privileges are. And even more frightening will be the day that an American civilian is arrested by the military and indefinitely detained as allowed by the NDAA.
One more clear indicator of Eisenhower's warning about the "military-indus trial complex. It's all out of control!
Well, that's the US attitude to healthcare too and education, innit!? It's only for the elite and privileged.
There's a long way to go before this country joins the "civilized" world -if ever!
What's a "secure telephone"?
I agree that life goes on" (Oobladee-oobla dah!) but this country is becoming more and more like Spain's Franco era and Suharto's Indonesia I'm tired of repeating this), both supported and armed by the "land of the faux-free-to-sh op and the home of the cowed and surveilled".
It's the QUALITY of life we are looking at here and which is endangered!
Te US is becoming more and more like one of these Sci-fi box rooms where the walls keep sliding in on and constricting it's occupants, or the four-poster bed that lowers it canopy in the night to smother it's sleeping occupants.
Wake up and smell the shite -then fight!
The U.S. Army, as with other entities with the U.S. empire's power structure is ethically bankrupt. The more it protects an monetary empire's interests, the more chance for change.
There is also an NSA entity, PRISM, that is apparently being used to spy on the emails of who knows how many people, foreign and domestic.
The U.S. Constitution has been violated by the very status quo power brokers-and their supporters-who claim to support it. And it's nothing new.
progressives.
Is that the message?
Who do you think will win that 'discussion'?
Well, the IRS hasn't attacked anyone since Nixon ordered them to, and that was the liberals, the FBI, for all its' faults has a long horrendous record of attacking liberal groups and still does, although they occasionally go after obvious criminal right wing groups, the brunt of their actions still falls on liberal groups. And the ATF goes after the people committing gun crimes, which is nearly 100% conservative. So, in this case, they do go after conservatives mostly, but it isn't targeting conservatives per se, it's targeting subversives.
And the military isn't attacking liberals per se, they're attacking the first and fourth amendments.