Pulp Non-Fiction

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• Reader Comments (5)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  It’s interesting to read about this in the American press for the first time, though I’m sure it’s come up in some other print source I may have missed.  This article isn’t too bad as a starting point for the basic issue, but misses a much larger point.

  The Argentine goverment opposes the pulp mills primarily for economic reasons, rather than the purported noble environmental reasons.  Argentina already has 10 pulp mills whose environmental contamination has been well documented.  If Uruguay were to build these state of the art plants (Argentina’s pulp mills rely on outdated and heavily-polluting technology), it would represent an enormous amount of Foreign Direct Investment for the tiny nation and a coup for the Uruguay government.

  I understand the real concerns of the Argentine localities that will be close the paper mills, but the position of the Kirchner government is completely hypocritical and should be recognized.  If Kirchner administration is so interested in the environment, it should start by doing a better job of policing the great polluters it already has. 

  I understand that Greenpeace would get involved in this campaign, but the politicians in Buenos Aires are cynically exploiting the environmental movement for their own economic motives.

  Incidentally, this conflict perfectly illustrates why Latin America will likely never be in a position to significantly challenge Washington’s hemispheric influence.  Despite both countries being members of Mercosur, Argentina is completely willing to screw Uruguay over in this deal which would provide much needed FDI, for its own gain.  This shows that despite the ascendance of the left and the centrist left in Latin America, governments will still pursue self-interest politics at the expense of regional unity and economic improvement, all of which plays into the hands of Washington.

  (Full disclosure:  I was born in Uruguay and raised in the U.S. but go back every year and have most of my family there)

  Posted by Caschunk on Apr 3, 2006 at 6:41 PM

  Up here in northern Minnesota these multi-national corporations are also destyroying everything in sight that they can get their greedy hands on… the paper companies like the Finnish multi-national Sappi, mining companies like United States Steel, and the huge Canadian multi-national Berger out of Quebec Canada are all a part of the scheme.

  The Minnesota Commissioner of Natural Resources, Gene Merriam—- a long-time Democrat turned Republican who was always a servant for these big corporations—- has granted a permit to mine peat in the Big Bog, which is the last and largest of the bogs in the lower forty-eight ; bogs play a crucial role in fighting global warming.

  If this isn’t enough, United States Steel’s Minntac taconite producing operation has been granted permission to pump billions of gallons of contaminated industrial wastes, including mercury and heavy metals, into the streams, rivers, and lakes of northern Minnesota, and not one single elected Minnesota legislator has the courage to stand up and say that this insanity has to be halted.

  None of the three contenders for governor from the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party have spoken out. The present Republican governor is a Bush clone.

  Both the peat mining, and the dumping, are the hare-brained schemes of United States Congressman James Oberstar who brokered both deals behind closed doors in corporate board-rooms behind the backs of the people. Oberstar even came up with the name for the Environmental Impact Statement: Minntac’s Water Reduction Proposal, which would lead one to believe that the corporation just has too much water. The problem is, this water has been accumulating in a two mile by thre mile reservoir that United States Steel was forced to construct because the contaminents were too dangerous to allow into our environment. The problem, one finds after opening up the EIS is that Minntac is saying that this water has become so dirty that it is ruining their equipment and degrading the taconite pellets to the extent that the pellets are contaminating the steel making process of their customers.

  Oberstar taunts people with “jobs, jobs, jobs,” and has used the issue of “jobs” in much the way Joe McCarthy used anti-communism; smearing anyone who dares to challenge corporate rule with “destroying jobs;” this probably shouldn’t surprise anyone since Oberstar rose to power thirty years ago in a vicious red-baiting campaign against his opponent, George Perpich, brother of former DFL governor Rudy Perpich. Oberstar said that their father was a communist, as if this was some kind of crime. Now Oberstar, a worthless political hack who constantly attacks women’ rights and who has refused to introduce any legislation to protect jobs and workers in the workplace or their communities, has taken to referring to Bush as a communist—- apparently because he refuses to acknowledge the truth articulated by the elder Perpich that capitalism is the source of the problems working people experience.

  This contaminated water will flow into a pristine designated trout stream and much of this “dirty water” will end up in the Big Bog.

  Readers can help by boycotting all products sold by Miracle Grow and Scott’s Gardening Products.

  Of course, in the long run we need to get rid of capitalism and replace it with socialism. We should be taking some lessons from our neighbors to the south who are standing up to these multi-national corporations.

  Posted by alanmaki on Apr 6, 2006 at 4:35 PM

  Amen! God, what I would give to live in such rich and stable countries.

  Viva la socialism!

  Posted by Jay Cline on Apr 6, 2006 at 7:01 PM

  Shocking new revelations—more reasons to impeach Bush
  More conspiracies, lies and crimes revealed

  This ad has been placed in the NY Times,
  the SF Chronicle, and the Boston Globe

   

   

  The growing nation-wide effort to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is emblematic of a larger issue: what kind of country is the United States to become.

  Yesterday’s news brought out two explosive pieces of information:

  Lewis Libby, the indicted chief aide to Dick Cheney, has admitted under oath before a Federal Grand Jury that it was George W. Bush himself who authorized Libby to illegally “leak” classified information to New York Times reporter Judith Miller in July, 2003 in an effort to discredit Ambassador Joseph Wilson who had publicly stated that “there is nothing to the story” that Saddam Hussein’s government was trying to buy uranium for a nuclear weapons program. Wilson is the husband of Valerie Plame, the undercover CIA operative whose identity was revealed to the media as retaliation for Wilson’s contention that Bush’s assertions about Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction were false. The “classified information” that Bush and Cheney authorized Libby to plant in the New York Times turned out to be entirely false.

  
  Bush’s Attorney General admitted yesterday that Bush believes that he has the authority to personally authorize the secret wiretapping, without any court order, of any and all conversations and emails between Americans that occur exclusively within the borders of the United States. Earlier it was revealed that Bush set up a massive secret wiretapping operation monitoring a huge number of Americans, but he had asserted that it was only to listen in on conversations of people in the United States who were making international calls and emails.
  The fact that Bush has not already had articles of impeachment filed in the House of Representatives is clear evidence that the people must act forcefully as the true guardians of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That is exactly what the ImpeachBush.org movement is doing. When impeachment looked remote, there were still tens of thousands of individuals who tirelessly worked to collect petitions, hold rallies, wrote and called members of Congress and donated so that we could place newspaper ads all across the country.

  Today, impeachment is not remote at all. It reflects the majority sentiment. Recent polls show that by 52% to 43% majority the American people favor impeachment if it is proved that Bush lied about the reasons for going to war. A nearly similar majority support impeachment if the President broke Federal wiretapping laws by authorizing the secret wiretapping of Americans without a court order when there is no evidence or inquiry of criminal wrongdoing. 

  Yesterday’s revelations confirm again that this is a lawless administration. Impeachment is imperative. This is a challenge for every person in this country who has a commitment to the Constitution. The people must continue to act rather than wait for the politicians to lead.

  Now that more than 700,000 people have voted for impeachment at http://www.impeachbush.org/ it is urgent that we do everything in our power to make the issue of Bush’s criminal conduct a major issue between now and the November Congressional elections. The newspaper ads are an excellent way to keep the issue of impeachment front and center. We have succeeded in placing more and more ads because of the donations of the people who are committed to this course.

  We want to increase the visibility in the weeks ahead with even more newspaper ads. Please continue to show your support by making a generous donation on-line or by learning how you can send a check. This is a grassroots people’s movement. It is historic and it can succeed with your help. Click here to make your contribution.

  -All of us at VoteToImpeach/ImpeachBush.org

  Posted by brian28 on Apr 8, 2006 at 3:42 AM

  Brian28,

  What the hell does a controversy over a paper mill in Uruguay have to do with impeaching the President?  Not that I disagree with you, but it’s this kind of thing that turns people off to your message.

  It’s the same phenomenon when you go an anti-war rally.  It turns out that in addition to Iraq, you end up protesting on Palestine, Agribusiness, Plan Colombia.  The lack of focus only hurts the original cause, whether its opposition to the Iraq War or support for impeachment. 

  It’s the equivalent of spam e-mail because it shows you’re not even paying attention to what the original thread of conversation was about.

  Posted by Caschunk on Apr 10, 2006 at 4:01 PM

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