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Monday, January 30, 2012

Shale-shocked: Fracking gets its own Occupy movement


Ellen Cantarow 
Ellen Cantarow is a Boston-based journalist 
who examines the effects of oil and gas corporations.

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Strong opposition to "fracking" in New York State has resulted in a "little revolution".

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Hydraulic fracturing uses water laced with sand and poisonous chemicals that blast a well into the shale up to a mile below ground - which eventually resurfaces, along with radioactive elements and carcinogens [GALLO/GETTY]


Boston, MA - This is a story about water, the land surrounding it, and the lives it sustains. Clean water should be a right: There is no life without it. New York is what you might call a "water state". Its rivers and their tributaries only start with the St Lawrence, the Hudson, the Delaware, and the Susquehanna. The best known of its lakes are Great Lakes Erie and Ontario, Lake George, and the Finger Lakes. Its brooks, creeks, and trout streams are fishermen's lore.
Far below this rippling wealth there's a vast, rocky netherworld named the Marcellus Shale. Stretching through southern New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, the shale contains bubbles of methane, the remains of life that died 400 million years ago. Gas corporations have lusted for the methane in the Marcellus since at least 1967, when one of them plotted with the Atomic Energy Agency to explode anuclear bomb to unleash it. That idea died, but it's been reborn in the form of a technology exploited by energy giants such as Halliburton Corporation: High-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing - "fracking" for short.
Fracking uses prodigious amounts of water laced with sand and a startling menu of poisonous chemicalsto blast the methane out of the shale. At hyperbaric bomb-like pressures, this technology propels five to seven million gallons of sand-and-chemical-laced water a mile or so down a well bore into the shale.
Up comes the methane - along with about a million gallons of wastewater containing the original fracking chemicals and other substances that were also in the shale, among them radioactive elements and carcinogens. There are 400,000 such wells in the United States. Surrounded by rumbling machinery, serviced by tens of thousands of diesel trucks, this nightmare technology for energy release has turned rural areas in 34 US states into toxic industrial zones.
Shale gas isn't the conventional kind that lit your grandmother's stove. It's one of those "extreme energy"forms so difficult to produce that merely accessing them poses unprecedented dangers to the planet. In every fracking state but New York, where a moratorium against the process has been in effect since 2010, the gas industry has contaminated ground water, sickened people, poisoned livestock, and killed wildlife.
 Fears that 'fracking' causes Ohio earthquakes
At a time when the International Energy Agencyreports that we have five more years of fossil-fuel use at current levels before the planet goes into irreversible climate change, fracking has a greenhouse gas footprint larger than that of coal. And with thegreatest water crisis in human history underway, fracking injects mind-numbing quantities of purposely poisoned fresh water into the Earth. As for the trillions (repeat: trillions) of gallons of wastewater generated by the industry, getting rid of it is its own story. Fracking has also been linked to earthquakes: Eleven in Ohio alone (normally not an earthquake zone) over the past year.
But for once, this story isn't about tragedy. It's about a resistance movement that has arisen to challenge some of the most powerful corporations in history. Here you will find no handsomely funded national environmental organisations: Some of them in fact have had a cozy relationship with the gas industry, embracing the industry's line that natural gas is a "bridge" to future alternative energies. (In fact, shale gas suppresses the development of renewable energies.)
New York's 'little revolution'
While most anti-fracking activists have been responding to harms already done, New York State's resistance has been waging a battle to keep harm at bay. Jack Ossont, a former helicopter pilot, has been active all his life in the state's environmental and social battles. He calls fracking "the tsunami issue of New York. It washes across the entire landscape".
Sandra Steingraber, a biologist and scholar-in-residence at Ithaca College, terms the movement "the biggest since abolition and women's rights in New York". This past November, when the Heinz Foundation awarded Steingraber $100,000 for her environmental activism, she gave it to the anti-fracking community.
Arriving in the state last October, I discovered a sprawl of loosely connected, grassroots groups whose names announce their counties and their long-term vision: Sustainable Otsego, Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes, Chenango Community Action for Renewable Energy, Gas-Free Seneca, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, Catskill Mountainkeeper. Of these few (there are many more), only the last has a paid staff. All the others are run by volunteers.
"There are so many people working quietly behind the scenes. They're not in the news, they're not doing it to get their names in the paper. It's just the right thing to do."
- Kelly Branigan
"There are so many people working quietly behind the scenes. They're not in the news, they're not doing it to get their names in the paper. It's just the right thing to do," says Kelly Branigan, co-founder of the group Middlefield Neighbors. Her organisation helped spearhead one of the movement's central campaigns: using local zoning ordinances to ban fracking. "In Middlefield, we're nothing special. We're just regular people who got together and learned, and reached in our pockets to go to work on this. It's inspiring, it's awesome, and it's America - its own little revolution."
Consider this, then, an environmental Occupy Wall Street. It knows no divisions of social class or political affiliation. Everyone, after all, needs clean water. Farmers and professors, journalists and teachers, engineers, doctors, biologists, accountants, librarians, innkeepers, brewery owners. Actors and Catskill residents Mark Ruffalo and Debra Winger have joined the movement. Josh Fox, also of the Catskills, has brought the fracking industry and its victims to international audiences through his award-winning documentary film Gasland. "Fracking is a pretty scary prospect," says Wes Gillingham, planning director for Catskill Mountainkeeper. "It's created a community of people that wouldn't have existed before."
Around four years ago, sheltered by Patterson's stay against fracking, little discussion groups began in people's kitchens, living rooms, and home basements. At that time, only a few activists were advocating outright bans on fracking: The rest of the fledgling movement was more cautiously advocating temporary moratoria.
Since then a veritable ban cascade has washed across the state. And in local elections last November, scores of anti-fracking candidates, many of whom had never before run for office, displaced pro-gas incumbents in positions as town councillors, town supervisors, and county legislators. As the movement has grown in strength and influence, gas corporations such as ExxonMobil and Conoco Philips - and Marcellus Shale corporations such as Chesapeake Energy - have spent millions of dollars on advertising, lobbying, and political campaign contributions to counter it.
Shale shock
Autumn Stoscheck, a young organic apple farmer from the village of Van Etten just south of New York's Finger Lakes, had none of this in mind in 2008 when she invited a group of neighbours to her living room to talk about fracking. She'd simply heard enough about the process to be terrified. Like other informal fracking meetings that were being launched that year, this was a "listening group". Its ground rules: Listen, talk, but don't criticise. "There was a combination of landowners, farmers like us, and young anarchist-activists with experience in other movements," she told me. Stoscheck's neighbours knew nothing about fracking, but "they were really mistrustful of the government and large gas corporations and felt they were in collusion".
New York debates merits of fracking
Out of such neighbourhood groups came the first grassroots anti-fracking organisations. Stoscheck and her colleagues called theirs Shaleshock. One of its first achievements was a PowerPoint presentation, "Drilling 101", which introduces viewers to the Marcellus Shale and what hydraulic fracturing does to it.
When Helen Slottje, a 44-year-old lawyer, saw "Drilling 101" at a Shaleshock forum in 2009, she was "horrified". She and her husband David had abandoned their corporate law careers to move to Ithaca in 2000. "We traded corporate law practice in Boston for New York State and less stressful work - or so we thought. New York's beauty seemed worth it."
When news reports about fracking started appearing, the Slottjes thought about leaving. "I kept saying, 'What'll happen if fracking comes to New York? We'll have to move'." "Drilling 101" made her reconsider. Then she visited Dimock, Pennsylvania, 70 miles southeast of Ithaca and that sealed the deal.
By 2009, Dimock, a picturesque rural village, had become synonymous with fracking hell. Houston-based Cabot Oil & Energy had started drilling there the year before. Shortly after, people started to notice that their drinking water had darkened. Some began experiencing bouts of dizziness and headaches; others developed sores after bathing in their once-pure water.
For a while, Cabot trucked water to Dimock's residents, but stopped in November when a judge declined to order the company to continue deliveries. The Environmental Protection Agency was going to start water service to Dimock in the first week of January, but withdrew the offer, claiming further water tests were needed. Outraged New Yorkers organised water caravans to help their besieged neighbours.
"When I went to Dimock," says Slottje, "I saw well drilling, huge trucks, muddy crisscrossing pipeline paths cutting through the woods, disposal pits, sites of diesel spills, dusty coatings on plants, noisy compressor stations - you name it. So I decided to put my legal background to work to prevent the same thing from happening where I lived. We'd been corporate lawyers before. We know the sort of resources the energy corporations have. The grassroots people have nothing. And they have this behemoth coming at them."
In May 2009, the Slottjes became full-time pro bono lawyers for the movement. One of their first services was to reinterpret New York's constitutional home rule provision, which had allowed local ordinances to trump state laws until 1981. In that year, the state's Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Mineral Resources exempted gas corporations from local restrictions.
"I spent thousands of hours on the research," says Slottje. "And then last August we were brave enough to go public and say the emperor has no clothes." The Slottjes' reinterpretation of the provision was simple enough: The state regulates the gas industry; towns and villages can't regulate it, but what they can do is keep its operations off their land through the use of zoning ordinances.
"I spent thousands of hours on the research. And then last August we were brave enough to go public and say the emperor has no clothes."
- Helen Slottje
Zoning out fracking
The town of Ulysses is nestled in the heart of the state's burgeoning wine country in the Finger Lakes region. In 2010, a grassroots group, Concerned Citizens of Ulysses (CCU), asked the Slottjes to speak with members of the town board, which controls Ulysses's planning and its zoning laws.
The board members opposed fracking, but couldn't see how to prevent it. While the board talked with the Slottjes, CCU activists drafted a petition. If enough registered Ulysses voters signed on, the board would have the popular backing it needed for declaring a ban. Ann Furman, a retired schoolteacher who helped found CCU and write the document, recalls: "The petition was pretty specific: 'We the undersigned want to ban hydrofracking in the town of Ulysses'." A six-month-long door-to-door campaign followed.
"There was a lot of education going on in Ulysses at the town board and at forums, as we were going house to house. Even people who would sign the petition would say: 'Tell me a little bit more about it.' And in that next 15 to 20 minutes you would do a whole lot more education." In the end, 1,500 out of 3,000 registered voters signed. This past summer the Ulysses town board voted to ban fracking.
Middlefield, 119 miles east of Ulysses and home of the grassroots group Middlefield Neighbors, enacted a similar ban. So did Dryden, 22 miles east of Ulysses. An out-of-state gas corporation that leased land for drilling in Dryden is suing to get the zoning ban declared illegal. A Middlefield landowner is suing that town on the same basis. The cases are pending.
Meanwhile bans proliferate. Six upstate New York counties have zoned out fracking, including Binghamton, which declared a ban in December. An organic brewery in Cooperstown, the Ommegang, mobilised 300 other businesses, including Cooperstown's Chamber of Commerce, to support more bans in the region.
"If local communities can seize control over their destinies, a giant step will have been taken toward a sustainable future."
- Adrian Kuzminsky
Chefs for the Marcellus, a group headed by Food Network star Mario Batali, has urged Governor Andrew Cuomo to ban fracking at the state level. "Call it home-rule democracy," says Adrian Kuzminsky, chair of the Cooperstown-based organisation Sustainable Otsego. "If local communities can seize control over their destinies, a giant step will have been taken toward a sustainable future."
This past October, activists were preparing to take on the state's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). That agency finds itself caught in a perpetual conflict of interest: On the one hand, protecting the environment; on the other, regulating the industries that exploit it. In fact, the 1981 legislation exempting gas corporations from New York's home rule had been written by Greg Sovas, then head of DEC's Division of Mineral Resources.
Guidelines for the hydraulic fracturing industry were first issued by the department in late 2009 and rejected in 2010 under withering public criticism. Then-Governor David Paterson declared a moratorium on fracking in the state pending DEC revisions. Revised guidelines appeared this past September in the form of 1,537 mind-numbing pages bearing the title, "Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement", aka the "SGEIS".
A world of water
Anti-fracking activists urge New York Governor Cuomo to reject the new SGEIS guidelines [GALLO/GETTY]
In study groups and online tutorials, activists prepared to write letters of commentary and protest to the Department of Environmental Conservation and Governor Cuomo, and to speak out in public hearings the department was organising around the state. Thousands attended these. Pro-gas speakers predictably stuck to the twin themes of the jobs fracking would produce and the economic renewal it would bring about.
Opponents included an impressive line up of scientists (among them Robert Howarth, co-author of last year's landmark Cornell University study, which established the staggering greenhouse-gas footprint of fracking), engineers, lawyers, and other professionals. A letter sent to Cuomo by 250 New York State physicians and medical professionals deplored the DEC's failure to attend to the public health impacts of fracking.
Part-time Cooperstown resident James "Chip" Northrup, a retired manager for Atlantic Richfield (ARCO, America's seventh largest oil corporation), in one public agency hearing called the performances of pro-gas speakers "disgraceful" and the SGEIS "junk science". Citing an industry study that showed 25 per cent of frack wells leak after five years and 40 per cent after eight, he said, "Everybody in the industry knows that gas drilling pollutes groundwater ... It's not ... whether they leak. It's how much."
As 2012 began, the movement was demanding that the department withdraw the SGEIS. In mid-January, DEC spokesperson Lisa King said that once all the comments were tallied, "We expect the total to be more than 40,000". Earlier, agency officials had told the New York Times they didn't know of any other issue that had received even 1,000 comments. (Ten thousand letters were mailed from the Catskills' Sullivan County alone on January 11, just before the commentary deadline.)Gannett's Albany Bureau has reported that anti-drilling submissions outnumber those of drilling supporters by at least ten to one.
Sustainable Otsego's website lists 52 serious and fatal flaws in the document. A letter posted at the website of Toxics Targeting, an environmental database service in Ithaca, elaborately details 17 major SGEIS flaws. By January 10, when the Toxics Targeting letter was sent to the DEC and the governor, it had more than 22,000 signatures representing government officials, professional and civic organisations, and individuals. (The DEC counts this letter with its signatures as only one of the 40,000 comments.)
At a November 17 rally in Trenton, New Jersey, to celebrate the postponement of a vote on allowing fracking in the Delaware River Basin, Pennsylvania and New York activists pledged future civil disobedience. "The broad coalition of anti-frackers has been operating on multi-levels all at once," says Sustainable Otsego's chair, Adrian Kuzminsky. If the governor approves the SGEIS "there will be massive disillusionment with the state government and Cuomo, and from what I'm hearing there will be 'direct action' and civil disobedience in some quarters".
At the moment, in fact, the anti-fracking movement in the state only seems to be ramping up. Should the government approve the SGEIS in its current form, lawsuits are planned against the Department of Environmental Conservation. And a brief "Occupy DEC" event that took place in the state capital, Albany, on January 12 may have set the tone for the future. Meanwhile some activists, turning their backs on established channels, are already working on legislation that would criminalise fracking.
Ellen Cantarow's work on Israel/Palestine has been widely published for over 30 years. Her long-time concern with climate change has led her to explore the global depredations of oil and gas corporations. Many thanks to Robert Boyle, sometimes called "the father of environmentalism on the Hudson", for sharing his expertise for this article.
A version of this article first appeared in TomDispatch.com.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Occupy DC faces 'noon' deadline to end camping


An Occupy protester sits at the McPherson Square Occupy encampment in Washington, DC, on January 30, 2012.
Occupy protesters in the nation's capital were preparing for a noon Monday deadline set by federal park authorities to end camping at some of the movement's last remaining large encampments, with some "surprises" in store, one of the activists said.
The National Park Service said in a flier released Friday that it would begin enforcing regulations prohibiting camping and the use of temporary structures for camping at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza. Individual violators may be subject to arrest and their property subject to seizure as evidence, the flier said.
Justin Jacoby Smith, a 25-year-old activist with OccupyKSt, said the protesters at McPherson Square had plans for the deadline -- a "tent of dreams" was mentioned on their twitter feed, but he noted: “We’re still sorting of keeping the specifics under wraps … we like to have surprises when we can.”
“Today what we’re trying to do is make sure that everyone knows that when you enforce a regulation against sleeping then you can’t dream of a better world, either … when you can’t sleep, you can’t dream," he said. "We’re going to make sure that we still have the opportunity to dream and that the people in this demonstration that have no place else to go are kept safe from the criminalization of homelessness that this order effectively creates.”
Officers would be on site to monitor the situation and try to get protesters to comply, Carol Johnson, a Park Service spokeswoman, told msnbc.com on Friday. Compliance entails removing all camping materials and leaving one side of all temporary structures open.
“People can be there 24 hours a day, but they can’t live there, they can’t sleep there,” she said.
“We still do back the First Amendment, and it is their right. It is not their right to camp. And ... we would, you know, support them if they came into compliance and they had a vigil and they had tents that were there for logistical or symbolic purposes,” she added. "They can occupy as a vigil but not camping."
More than 80 arrests have occurred at the two sites, including for public urination, drunkenness, assault and drug use, she noted.
On Sunday, a protester at one of the camps -- in McPherson Square -- was Tasered and arrested following a confrontation with law enforcement, according to NBCWashington.com. A video of the incident, posted on YouTube, shows the man yelling at officers, "We all know you're coming tomorrow."
Many of the Occupy camps were closed across the country last fall and early winter, and the sites in the nation's capital were two of the bigger outfits remaining.
The Park Service noted that two "compliant" 24-hour First Amendment vigils have been running in Lafayette Park and near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial since the early 1980s. Johnson said they were "very small" vigils and also noted that they were not evicting the Occupy protesters.
But the McPherson Square camp said it was a de facto eviction: "Rather than own up to the fact that they're evicting us, the 'camping ban' allows NPS to pick us off one by one. Death by attrition," read a tweet from the OccupyKSt twitter account.
The action by the Park Service also comes after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Subcommittee held a hearing last week about the McPherson Square encampment.
"Late is better than never," Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the subcommittee on the District of Columbia, said in a statement after learning of park authorities' notice. "I continue to wonder whether others who are 'camping' in national parks would have been afforded a 100-day grace period before the law was enforced."
Occupy groups across the country continue to assemble and organize protests, with about 400 demonstrators in Oakland arrested late Saturday after authorities thwarted their attempt to take over a vacant convention center for a new camp site. Some protesters broke into City Hall and smashed glass display cases and burned the U.S. and California flags, while others ran into a YMCA to evade police.
At least three officers and one protester were injured. Mayor Jean Quan said the cost to the city related to the Occupy Oakland protests is about $5 million.
Related stories:

GOP tries new strategy to get Canada pipeline

updated 1/29/2012 1:42:59 PM ET
Republican lawmakers will try to force the Obama administration to approve the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline by attaching it to a bill that Congress will consider next month, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Sunday.
President Barack Obama earlier this month denied TransCanada's application for the oil sands pipeline, citing lack of time to review an alternative route within a 60-day window for action set by Congress.
The denial does not block TransCanada from reapplying and the company intends to do just that.
But Republicans have since been looking for a vehicle to claim the $7 billion project as their own, and Boehner said that would be a House Republican energy and highway bill.
"If (Keystone) is not enacted before we take up the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, it will be part of it," Boehner said on ABC's "This Week" news program.
Environmentalists and some Democrats oppose Keystone, citing higher greenhouse gas emissions, while most Republicans say it would create needed jobs.
Story: With oil pipeline to US on hold, Canada eyes China Republicans in the Senate also plan to introduce a Keystone bill. Some Senate Democrats back the pipeline, but its passage is not guaranteed in the body.
Parts of the House Republican plan, such as opening up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, stand little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate.
Attaching Keystone to a pending deal to extend payroll tax cuts for workers, which has greater bipartisan backing than the highway bills, is another vehicle Republicans are considering.
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. 

St. Louis hosts first big parade to welcome Iraq War veterans


Jeff Roberson / AP
Participants in a parade to honor Iraq War veterans make their way along a downtown street Saturday, Jan. 28, in St. Louis, Mo. Thousands turned out to watch the first big welcome home parade in the United States since the last troops left Iraq in December.
AP reports:

People in the crowd waved American flags and held signs reading, "Welcome Home" and "God Bless Our Troops." Fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted three huge American flags along the route.
Two St. Louis men launched a grass-roots effort to hold the parade after noticing there'd been no large public celebrations to welcome troops home.



Sarah Conard / Reuters
Larry Connor, center, Vietnam veteran, salutes his fellow servicemen during the Welcome Home
Heroes Parade in downtown St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 28
.

Jeff Roberson / AP
Stephanie King holds a picture of her uncle, Col. Stephen Scott, who was killed in Iraq in 2008, as she prepares to participate in a parade to honor Iraq War veterans, Jan. 28, in St. Louis, Mo.



St. Louis hosting 1st big parade on Iraq War's end


By
updated 1/28/2012 5:27:02 PM ET
Army Maj. Rich Radford looked around at the tens of thousands of people waving American flags and cheering, and was moved that so many people had braved a cold January wind Saturday in St. Louis to honor people like him: Iraq War veterans.
The parade, borne out of a simple conversation between two St. Louis friends a month ago, was the first big welcome-home in the U.S. for veterans of the war since the last troops were withdrawn from Iraq in December.
"It's not necessarily overdue, it's just the right thing," said Radford, a 23-year Army veteran who walked in the parade alongside his 8-year-old daughter, Aimee, and 12-year-old son, Warren.
Radford was among about 600 veterans, many dressed in camouflage, who walked along downtown streets lined with rows of people clapping and holding signs with messages including "Welcome Home" and "Thanks to our Service Men and Women." Some of the war-tested troops wiped away tears as they acknowledged the support from a crowd that organizers estimated reached 100,000 people.
Fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted huge American flags in three different places along the route, with politicians, marching bands — even the Budweiser Clydesdale horses — joining in. But the large crowd was clearly there to salute men and women in the military, and people cheered wildly as groups of veterans walked by.
That was the hope of organizers Craig Schneider and Tom Appelbaum. Neither man has served in the military but they came up with the idea after noticing there had been little fanfare for returning Iraq War veterans aside from gatherings at airports and military bases. There were no ticker-tape parades or large public celebrations.
Appelbaum, an attorney, and Schneider, a school district technical coordinator, decided something needed to be done. So they sought donations, launched a Facebook page, met with the mayor and mapped a route. The grassroots effort resulted in a huge turnout despite raising only about $35,000 and limited marketing. More than half of the money raised came from the Anheuser-Busch brewing company and the Mayflower moving company, which both have St. Louis ties.
The marketing included using a photo of Radford being welcomed home from his second tour in Iraq by his then-6-year-old daughter. The girl had reached up, grabbed his hand and said, "I missed you, daddy." Radford's sister caught the moment with her cellphone camera, and the image graced T-shirts and posters for the parade.
Veterans came from around the country, and more than 100 entries — including marching bands, motorcycle groups and military units — signed up ahead of the event, Appelbaum said.
Schneider said he was amazed how everyone, from city officials to military organizations to the media, embraced the parade.
"It was an idea that nobody said no to," he said. "America was ready for this."
All that effort by her hometown was especially touching for Gayla Gibson, a 38-year-old Air Force master sergeant who said she spent four months in Iraq — seeing "amputations, broken bones, severe burns from IEDs (improvised explosive devices)" — as a medical technician in 2003.
"I think it's great when people come out to support those who gave their lives and put their lives on the line for this country," Gibson said.
With 91,000 troops still fighting in Afghanistan, many Iraq veterans could be redeployed — suggesting to some that it's premature to celebrate their homecoming. In New York, for example, Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said there would be no city parade for Iraq War veterans in the foreseeable future because of objections voiced by military officials.
But in St. Louis, there was clearly a mood to thank the troops with something big, even among those opposed to the war.
"Most of us were not in favor of the war in Iraq, but the soldiers who fought did the right thing and we support them," said 72-year-old Susan Cunningham, who attended the parade with the Missouri Progressive Action Group. "I'm glad the war is over and I'm glad they're home."
Don Lange, 60, of nearby Sullivan, held his granddaughter along the parade route. His daughter was a military interrogator in Iraq.
"This is something everyplace should do," Lange said as he watched the parade.
Several veterans of the Vietnam War turned out to show support for the younger troops. Among them was Don Jackson, 63, of Edwardsville, Illinois, who said he was thrilled to see the parade honoring Iraq War veterans like his son, Kevin, who joined him at the parade. The 33-year-old Air Force staff sergeant said he'd lost track of how many times he had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as a flying mechanic.
"I hope this snowballs," he said of the parade. "I hope it goes all across the country. I only wish my friends who I served with were here to see this."
Looking at all the people around him in camouflage, 29-year-old veteran Matt Wood said he felt honored. He served a year in Iraq with the Illinois National Guard.
"It's extremely humbling, it's amazing, to be part of something like this with all of these people who served their country with such honor," he said.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Occupy Oakland: 400 arrested after violent protest


 


A violent Occupy Oakland protest over the weekend resulted in damage to Oakland's historic City Hall and YMCA and about 400 arrests. KNTV reports.

Crews cleaned up Oakland's historic City Hall on Sunday from damage inflicted overnight during violent anti-Wall Street protests that resulted in about 400 arrests, marking one of the largest mass arrests since nationwide protests began last year.
At a press conference on Sunday, Oakland police and city officials said they did not have a final tally of arrests. Earlier in the day, the city's emergency operations office put the figure at around 400. The skirmishes injured three officers and at least one demonstrator.
Police said a group of protesters burned an American flag in front of City Hall, then entered the building and destroyed a vending machine, light fixtures and a historic scale model of the edifice. The city's 911 emergency system was overwhelmed during the disturbances.
"While City Hall sustained damage, we anticipate that all city offices will be open for regular business tomorrow," said Deanna Santana, Oakland city administrator.

Beck Diefenbach / AP
Occupy Oakland protesters burn an American flag found inside Oakland City Hall on Saturday.
Oakland has become an unlikely flashpoint for the national "Occupy" protests against economic inequality that began last year in New York's financial district and spread to dozens of cities.
The protests in most cities have been peaceful and sparked a national debate over how much of the country's wealth is held by the richest 1 percent of the population. President Barack Obama has sought to capitalize on the attention by calling for higher taxes on the richest Americans.
Related stories:
Occupy protests focused on Oakland after a former Marine and Iraq war veteran, Scott Olsen, was critically injured during a demonstration in October. Protesters said he was hit in the head by a tear gas canister but authorities have never said exactly how he was hurt.
The Occupy movement appeared to lose momentum late last year as police cleared protest camps in several cities.
Violence erupted again in Oakland on Saturday afternoon when protesters attempted to take over the apparently empty downtown convention center to establish a new headquarters and draw attention to the problem of homelessness.
'Violent splinter group'
Police in riot gear moved in to drive back the crowd, which they estimated at about 500 protesters.
"Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares," the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. "The Oakland Police Department deployed smoke, tear gas and beanbag projectiles in response to this activity."
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan accused a "violent splinter group" of the Occupy movement of fomenting the Saturday protests and using the city as its playground. Protesters have accused the city of overreacting and using heavy-handed tactics.

Police move in on Occupy Oakland protesters on Oak Street and 12th as tear gas gets blown back on them in Oakland.
Oakland officials on Sunday were inspecting damage inside City Hall that was caused by about 50 Occupy protesters who broke in and smashed glass display cases, spray-painted graffiti, and burned the U.S. and California flags.
The break-in on Saturday was the culmination of a day of clashes between protesters and police. At least 300 people were arrested on charges ranging from vandalism and failure to disperse.
At least three officers and one protester were injured.
Quan said Occupy protesters have caused an estimated $2 million in damages from vandalism since October. She said the cost to the city related to the Occupy Oakland protests is pegged at about $5 million.

First Thoughts: Writing on the wall



Romney up big in Florida – is the fat lady warming up? … Where does Gingrich go from here – “all the way to the convention”? … Does the Anti Establishment have any juice left? Three questions for Gingrich on his way forward … Four reasons why Romney’s winning. … If Santorum weren’t in the race, Romney’s lead would be even bigger … And ad spending tops $24 million. … And the five closest counties in Florida. … Gingrich and Romney in Florida, Santorum, back on the trail heads to Missouri, which holds its contest Feb. 7.

*** Writing on the wall: It appears Mitt Romney’s on his way to victory in Florida – a slew of polls are out showing him with a double-digit lead over Gingrich, including the NBC-Marist poll, which shows the widest spread, 15 points (42%-27%). What makes Romney’s lead even more insulated is early voting. About half a million people have already voted, about a quarter of the total turnout in 2008. And, in our poll, Romney leads among early voters, 49%-27%, which could account for about a 5-point edge, if all things are equal on Election Day, Marist polling Director Lee Miringoff said. Even if Sarah Palin endorsed Gingrich and showed up at a rally for him today, the best she could likely do would be to get Gingrich to single digits. It’s now just a question of how Gingrich reacts to his defeat and, frankly, how large or small it is.

*** ‘All the way to the convention’: A decisive Romney victory tomorrow means many folks will believe they know where this is headed. But the big question is does Gingrich fall into that camp? In the run up to Iowa, there was a slow Establishment rally around Romney, check that, a slow Establishment takedown of Gingrich. It led to Romney (almost) winning Iowa, then convincingly taking New Hampshire. But then the Anti-Establishment crowd rallied, and Gingrich won South Carolina. With the prospect of a Gingrich win in Florida looking very real seven days ago, the Establishment struck back and Romney now looks assured of victory tomorrow. Gingrich -- perhaps emboldened by the backing of Herman Cain and heavy air cover from Palin -- pledged on Saturday to take the nomination fight with Romney “all the way to the convention.”


*** Three questions for Gingrich: But there are three more questions going forward: (1) Is there any more Anti-Establishment juice left out there; (2) Is Sheldon Adelson going to kick in another check to Gingrich; and (3) How does Gingrich himself get his mojo back? He has a February problem. For the next three weeks, there are four caucuses and no debates. So where does he make his move? Can he make a stand in Adelson’s Nevada (not likely because the GOP primary was more than a quarter Mormon), Arizona, or Minnesota? Hillary Clinton ran into this after Super Tuesday when she was essentially tied with Obama on delegates and then he went on to rattle off a series of small-state victories in February. Clinton willed herself to Ohio, but, by then, in hindsight, the delegate match actually pointed to the fact it was closer to being over than maybe we all realized at the time. Gingrich desperately wants to get to March because there are a slew of Southern primaries that could give him some much-needed victories. That said, don’t expect the Romney campaign to make the same mistake they made after Iowa. Expect it not to let up on Gingrich this time like they did then.
Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich make their final push for Floridians' votes a day ahead of the state's crucial primary. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.
*** Four reasons Romney’s winning: How did we get to the point that in less than seven days, Gingrich went from looking like he had the momentum in Florida to Romney looking like a sure thing. Here are four reasons: (1) Debates: Gingrich wasn't able to dominate at the debates last week like he had before South Carolina. (2) Ads: Perhaps most importantly, with Florida as large as it is, TV matters big time. Gingrich got eviscerated on TV -- outspent 4-to-1 ($16 million to $4 million) when you factor in outside groups. (3) The Establishment struck back: From Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio sticking up for Romney (though not endorsing) to Bob Dole's scathing letter about Gingrich’s time as speaker. And (4) Romney’s strategic shift: Romney re-trained his focus away from President Obama and onto Gingrich, not letting up with attack after attack, whether it was at debates or on the trail. The New York Times detailed that shift Sunday (though we’re not completely sure why the advisers would go on the record about this NOW and not wait until, say, after Tuesday, or even wait until after Gingrich got out). On TODAY, Romney defended the changed strategy, saying, “There’s no question that politics ain’t bean bag.” He added that Gingrich’s attacks have been “painful to watch.” By the way, was Romney annoyed by the story about his advisers? “I think you can expect advisers to think that the work of advisers is very, very important,” Romney said on TODAY. Then Romney went on to tout his OWN debate performances.

*** What if Santorum wasn’t in the race? Perhaps the most important number in the NBC-Marist poll was what happens when Santorum is removed from the race. Santorum’s vote splits off evenly if he’s removed, and Romney has an even WIDER lead over Gingrich, 49%-33%. So, Gingrich can’t make the argument that if conservatives weren’t divided he would win. The numbers just don’t bear that out. What’s really interesting -- Santorum probably could argue that if GINGRICH weren’t in the race, he’d have a better chance against Romney. Santorum’s image is as good as it’s been since the campaign began.

*** Santorum resumes campaign: Speaking from the hospital room where he said his ailing 3-year-old daughter is making a "miraculous turnaround," Rick Santorum said that he would resume his campaign on Monday with stops in western caucus states, NBC’s Andrew Rafferty reports.

*** Ad spending tops $24 million: The grand total spent in Florida during the Republican primary is $24.4 million with $19.9 million spent between the campaigns and outside-group supporters of Romney and Gingrich, according to NBC/Smart Media Group Delta. (*Winning Our Future promised to spend another $3.2 million statewide, but so far that hasn’t materialized):
- Total Pro-Romney: $15.9 million (Restore Our Future: $8.9 million, Romney $7 million)
- Total Pro-Gingrich: $4 million (Winning Our Future $2.8 million, Gingrich $1.2 million)

*** Elsewhere on your Sunday dial: Appearing on FOX News Sunday, Gingrich accused Romney of "carpetbombing" his opponents and called the former governor "a Massachusetts liberal" - sharpening that attack from his earlier "moderate" message. Obama strategist David Axelrod took aim at Romney's big bucks, saying, "If we’re going to solve this deficit, then everyone is going to have to give a little. And that includes people at the top." And your Sunday show shiny-object alert: Donald Trump to CBS's Bob Schieffer on whether or not he will eventually jump into the 2012 contest: "I hope I don’t have to. But I may -- absolutely."

*** What to watch tomorrow -- The five closest counties with more than 10,000 votes: NBC’s John Bailey reports that last cycle, Romney’s strongest counties geographically were in the state’s Northeast corner in and around Jacksonville. But an interesting indicator from last cycle could be large Florida counties that were close. Of the five closest counties with more than 10,000 voters in 2008, Romney won four: Romney won Indian River County by 22 votes (0.1%), Highlands County by 16 votes (0.2%), Lake County by 148 votes (0.3%), and Bay County by 241 votes (0.9%). The only exception was Orange County, which John McCain won by 447 votes (0.5%). Note the geographic diversity of these counties. None other than Lake County comes from the strong Romney counties in and around Jacksonville or northwest of Orlando. But just as important they also are not the GOP goldmine counties surrounding Tampa, which accounted for a large share of the Republican vote in 2008.

***On the trail: Gingrich holds five events, including a rally with Herman Cain in Tampa at 1:00 pm ET. … Romney holds three rallies … Santorum holds two events – in MISSOURI (!), including making a “major speech” on job and manufacturing at 3:30 pm ET and then a town hall at 8:30 pm ET.


Countdown to Florida primary: 1 days
Countdown to Nevada caucuses: 5 days
Countdown to Super Tuesday: 36 days
Countdown to Election Day: 281 days

Economist who foresaw '08 crash warns conflict with Iran could cause global recession

Professor known as 'Dr. Doom' also predicts joblessness in US will remain high in 2012 


Economist Nouriel Roubini speaks during a
panel session on the first day of the the
World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday.

 

msnbc.com news services
updated 1/28/2012 5:43:51 AM ET
    Economist Nouriel Roubini, nicknamed "Dr. Doom" for his gloomy predictions in the run-up to the financial meltdown four years ago, says the fallout from that crisis could last the rest of this decade.
    Roubini, widely acknowledged to have predicted the crash of 2008, sees tough times ahead for the

    global economy and is warning that without major policy changes things can still get much worse.
    He also warned that a conflict with Iran over its controversial nuclear program could lead to a global recession.
    Until Europe radically reforms itself and the U.S. gets serious about its own debt mountain, Roubini said, the world economy will continue to stumble along to the detriment of large chunks of the world's population who will continue to see their living standards under pressure, even if they have a job.
    Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde — speaking Saturday at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland — said Europe was making progress to overcome the euro zone crisis, but need to do more to boost its financial firewall to contain the contagion of the debt crisis and restore trust.
    "There is work under way. There is progress as we see it," Lagarde told a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum.
    "But it is critical that the euro zone members actually develop a clear, simple, firewall that can operate both to limit the contagion and to provide this sort of act of trust in the euro zone so that the financing needs of that zone can actually be met," she said.
    She added that there would be need for IMF funds to help the euro zone.
    US economy ended 2011 at a healthy pace
    Roubini, a professor of economics and international business at New York University, spoke in an interview this week with The Associated Press at a dinner on the sidelines of the meeting, where he is one of the hotly pursued stars.
    Looking at economic prospects this year, he agreed with the International Monetary Fund's latest forecast that the global economy is weakening and said he might be "even slightly more bearish" on its prediction of 3.3 percent growth in 2012.
    Video: Haass from Davos: We're looking at little growth in half the world (on this page) He painted a grim picture of the eurozone in recession and key emerging markets in China, India, Brazil and South Africa slowing down, partly related to weakness in the eurozone.
    Roubini predicted that the U.S. economy, the world's largest, will grow by just 1.7-1.8 percent this year, with unemployment remaining high. The government, he added, was "kicking the can down the road" and not taking measures to increase productivity and competitiveness.
    "We live in a world where there is still a huge amount of economic and financial fragility," he said. "There is a huge amount of uncertainty — macro, financial, fiscal, sovereign, banking, regulatory, taxation — and there is also geopolitical and political and policy uncertainty."
    Too little, too late? Factory jobs making a comeback
    "There are lots of sources of uncertainty from the eurozone, from the Middle East, from the fact that the U.S. is not tackling its own fiscal problem, from the fact that Chinese growth is unbalanced and unsustainable, relying too much on exports and fixed investments and high savings, and not enough on consumption. So it's a very delicate global economy," Roubini said.
    He said the biggest uncertainty is the possibility of a conflict with Iran over its nuclear program that involves Israel, the United States, or both. That could lead oil prices now hovering around $100 a barrel to spike to $150 per barrel, he said, and lead to a global recession.
    Almost half of young Spaniards unemployed
    Unemployment and economic insecurity have become big issues from the Mideast to the Occupy Wall Street movement in the U.S., and protests from Israel and India to Chile and Russia — and at the same time there is rising inequality between rich and poor.
    "All these things lead to political and social instability," he said. "So we have to reduce inequality. We have to give growth to jobs, skills, education, and increase human capital so workers can compete."
    Video: Protesters build igloos at 'Occupy Davos'  (on this page) Roubini called for a major change in policy priorities."We have to shift our investment from things that are less productive like the financial sector and housing and real estate to things that are more productive like our people, our human capital, our structure, our technology, our innovation," he said.
    Roubini said slow growth in advanced economies will likely lead to "a U-shaped recovery rather than a typical V," and it may last for another three to five years because of high debt.
    "Once you have too much debt in the public and private sector, the painful process could last up to a decade, where economic growth remains weak and anemic and sub-par until we have cleaned up the balance sheet and invested in the things that make us more productive for the future," he said.
    Iran warns Europe On Friday, Iran warned that it may halt oil exports to Europe next week in a move calculated to hurt ailing European economies.
    The Tehran government — grappling with its own economic crisis under Western trade and banking embargoes — will host a rare visit on Sunday by U.N. nuclear inspectors for talks that the ruling clergy may hope can relieve diplomatic pressure as they struggle to bolster public support.
    Since the U.N. watchdog lent independent weight in November to the suspicions of Western powers that Iran is using a nuclear energy program to give itself the ability to build atomic bombs, U.S. and EU sanctions and Iranian threats of reprisal against Gulf shipping lanes have disrupted world oil markets and pushed up prices.
    Amid forecasts Iran might be able to build a bomb next year, and with President Barack Obama facing re-election campaign questions on how he can make good on promises — to Americans and to Israel — not to tolerate a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic, a decade of dispute risks accelerating towards the brink of war.
    The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday it would send its undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, David Cohen, to Britain, Germany and Switzerland next week to talk about how to enforce sanctions against Iran's central bank.
    Those sanctions aim to starve Iran of funds for developing nuclear weapons.
    Western diplomats see little immediate prospect that renewed talks between Iran and the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, scheduled from Sunday to Tuesday in Tehran, would result much in the way of concessions to Western demands.
    EU states have given themselves until July to enforce an oil import embargo on Iran.
    The EU accounted for 25 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011. But China, India and others have made clear that they are keen to soak up any spare Iranian oil, even as U.S. Treasury measures to choke Tehran's dollar trade make it harder to pay for supplies.
    Moayed Hosseini-Sadr, a member of the energy committee in the legislature, said there would be no delay of the kind the EU allowed to its members.
    "If the deputies arrive at the conclusion that the Iranian oil exports to Europe must be halted, parliament will not delay a moment," Hosseini-Sadr said. "The Europeans will surely be taken by surprise and will understand the power of Iran."
    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.


    3he Council on Foreign Relations' Richard Haass joins Morning Joe from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to discuss what's happening and why all eyes are on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.


    As world leaders and company CEO's ready for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 'Occupy' protesters are building igloos so they can camp out for the week. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.