June 29, 2010

NEW SHIRT DESIGN: Most Offensive Valentine's Day Gift EVER



One day I had a TERRIBLE IDEA.

I sketched this little cartoon. I was immediately reviled and offended by my own work. But then starting at it, it seemed so cute, and yet at the same time hilariously callous and evil.

Then one day, I mentioned it to a friend, and they immediately demanded that I make this into a T-Shirt. They now have it and love it.

If you have a serious case of anti-social disorder, or something else really wrong upstairs (like both me and my friend), this may be the perfect t-shirt for you.

4 color screen print (white, pink, orange, and black on Sky Blue shirt) shown here on a woman's fitted cut.

CLICK HERE: http://www.etsy.com/listing/50442568/the-most-offensive-valentines-day-shirt?ref=v1_other_2

NEW SHIRT DESIGN: Full-Time Citizen


Who's got Ralph Nader pointing them out as being a Full-Time Citizen?

THIS GUY!

And maybe you too! CLICK HERE

It's okay to brag about being a political activist. Do it even more with this t-shirt!

Seen here Black and White on Brown. Available in other color combos. If you want a custom color combo, leave a note for me in "notes to the seller" when you make your purchase, or contact me directly via email. punkpatriot411 [at] gmail [dot] com

June 13, 2010

Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen making the case for Revoking BP's Corporate Charter

Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen's Energy Program posted an excellent article over at MRZine.

He explains how when you are a multiBILLION dollar, multinational corporation, the fines that you get hit with for breaking the law are, if cheaper than doing things right, just a cost of doing business.

Don't beleive it? Here's just a PART of BPs extensive wrap sheet that Slocum lists:
Just last month, BP paid $3 million fine to OSHA for 42 willful safety violations at one of its refineries in Ohio. This follows a $2.4 million fine BP paid for safety & health violations at this refinery in April 2006.

In September 2001, OSHA fined BP $141,000 after an explosion killed 3 workers at BPs Clanton Road facility.

In October 2007, the Minerals Management Service fined BP $41,000 for various safety violations.

In October 2006, the Minerals Management Service fined BP $25,000 because "operations were not performed in a safe and workmanlike manner. While making an assessment of the unsafe conditions on the platform that needed repairing, the construction crew did not barricade a 3'4″ x 3'4″ opening in the stairway landing. Later, one of the crew members was injured when he fell through the open hole approximately 20′ and into the Gulf of Mexico."

In July 2004, BP paid a $190,000 penalty to MMS for safety violations that resulted in a fire.

In February 2004, MMS fined BP $25,000 because "The Rig's Gas Detection System was bypassed with ongoing drilling operations being conducted."

In November 2003, MMS fined BP $25,000 for violations that resulted in an oil rig crane falling into the Gulf of Mexico.

In July 2003, MMS fined BP $20,000 because a subsurface safety valve was "blocked out of service."

In January 2003, BP was fined $70,000 by MMS for a faulty fire water system. Also that month, BP was fined $80,000 by MMS for bypassing "Relays for the Pressure Safety High/Low for four producing wells."

In January 2002, MMS fined BP $20,000 for a safety violation.

In May 2002, MMS fined BP $23,000 for a workplace safety violation that resulted in a worker having his hand injured from an electrical shock.

In September 2002, MMS fined BP $39,000 for missing 13 monthly tests of an "oil low level sensor."

In February 2001, MMS fined BP $20,000 for workplace violations resulting in serious injury to an employee.


He also appeared on DemocracyNow! where he builds a case for revoking BP's corporate charter.

Part 1




Part 2




Part 3


BP Spills Coffee



Brilliant sketch from the Upright Citizen's brigade.

T-Shirts around the world!

ON YOU TUBE, IN MINNESOTA!



I'm Just A Girl's YouTube Channel



IN CLEVELAND OHIO!






AT ROCK SHOWS!






ON YOUTUBE CELEBRITY DAVIS FLEETWOOD!



Davis Fleetwood's YouTube Channel




IN THE UK







IN UTAH







AT THE FIRST McDONALD'S IN THE WORLD, in Des PLaines, Illinois







IN CLEVELAND AGAIN!




I'm going to make a video, accompanied by a song, with all the fan photos and videos sent to me.
If you've bought a shirt in the past, and you'd like your shirt to be in that video, please send a photo to me! punkpatriot411 [at] gmail [dot] com

June 12, 2010

REVOKE BP'S CORPORATE CHARTER - I'm Just a girl



Please share this excellent video by I'm Just A Girl. Her YouTube channel is here.
Then join the group below, and TAKE ACTION.
If you are unsure of what must be done, click here for more info.

June 11, 2010

Tom Toles: Out of Sight, Out of Mind



I can always count on Tom Toles to have a clever turn on current events.

As he points out here, spilling oil into our air isn't any better than spilling it into the ocean.

We need a new energy economy. We need a Green New Deal.

3/5ths of Theodore Treehouse foolin' around



A video of me and the band fooling around before rehearsal. I don't normally use a pick, so forgive my sloppiness in string crossings.

Me on bass
Dylan on Drums
Sam on keys
Ian not there, but normally lead vox and guitar

Buy a CD here for like $7:
http://bit.ly/dmncEq

Listen to the CD before you buy it here:
http://www.myspace.com/TheodoreTreehouse

Even though we have all our tracks from the DIY CD online for free, we apprecaite any purchases of T-shirts or CDs as we are raising money to produce a studio album.

Sorry to Sam that he isn't in the video, but he's playing MAD LICKS on the fender rhodes.

Hilarious twitter accounts have arisen out of tragedy:

So eleven people are dead. An environmental disaster such as the world has not seen is destroying communities and natural resources for decades to come. Government refuses to act. BP refuses to spend the money it needs to in order to make things right.

Is there any condolence for us while we drift towards apocolypse?? Well, at least we can laugh at these great twitter accounts!

Two of my favourites are Spill Updates and BPGlobalPR, both of which seem like they are legitimate accounts.

Until one reads the content of their tweets.






Does anybody know of any others?

BP to blame in 8,000 oil spills

From the Sunlight Foundation

So here's the least you need to know:

British Petroleum and its subsidiaries have been the subject of roughly 8,000 reported incidents of spills, emissions and leaks of oil, chemicals and gases into the environment, according to a government database.


There's plenty more details in the article. If you click through to the original article, there's a robust interface with an interactive map, and a sweet-ass interactive data table.

CHECK IT OUT

June 10, 2010

Is Clark County Nevada f**king around with the Green Party's ballot access?

Clark County Nevada is quite possibly fucking around with the Green Party's ballot access.

As you can see here on the Secretary of State's page, they've dumped all Registered Greens into the "Other" category.

Why would they do this?
It just so happens that Clark has the largest registered Green Population in the state.

Nevada has a serious politician, doing a great job mobilizing volunteers, registering new Greens, who may provide a serious challenge to both Republicans and Democrats in November. And they're running for Governor as a Green.

This recategorization drops the total number of registered greens by 2,600 -- when Green Registration has actually been increasing.

See the **




I smell hi-jinks afoot.

June 8, 2010

Awesome Citizen Actions!

The Cool thing about the internet, is you never know what you're going to get back from other people.

The Revoke BP's corporate Charter Page has been sort of a hub for people to share creative protest ideas, videos, adverts, you name it!

People have been compiling research, reading legal precedents, digging to find the contacts for key officials that aren't readily available online, searching through SEC documents to find which state BP America holds charter in.

It's been an amazing display of Citizenry in Action!

I was once again surprised today to find that somebody had once again taken their anger beyond the computer screen, and out into the real world. And then posted about it on Facebook to share!



Totally awesome!

Two huge thumbs up! You all give me hope for the future.

MoveOn.org is holding vigils for the Oil Spill-- BE THERE

Show up to one of THESE
And hand out some of THESE:





Click the image for a link to the full 8.5x11 size.
Cut them into quarter-sheet flyers, and hand them out!

REVOKE BP's CORPORATE CHARTER- ACTION

A CALL TO ACTION




So a lot of people were really excited by the call to revoke BP’s corporate charter.
Even though my last video only got a little 300 views, that has multiplied into almost one and a half thousand people joining the Revoke BP’s corporate charter page over on facebook within the past week! Awesome!

Many of you are asking, WHAT DO WE DO NOW?! I'm glad you are!

For starters, if you haven’t already, join the "Revoke BP's corporate charter" group, and spread that and the "Revoke BP's Corporate Chater" videos around to everybody you know.

Before we can make a significant impact, we need to grow and strengthen our numbers. Try reposting the “Revoke BP’s Corporate Charter” page on facebook to your wall once a day using the “Share” button.

Next, call or write your Representatives in Congress. This isn't going to do anything directly because they don’t have direct power to revoke BPs charter-- but it lets them know that their constituents are talking about this, and then since they like being re-elected, it increases the chances that THEY'LL talk about it too. While they don't actually have any power to revoke BP's charter, just by talking about it they can help put pressure on Delaware’s elected officials with even an off-the-cuff remark about revoking BP's corporate charter on Meet The Press or the evening news.

After that, go to Delaware.gov, and email the Governor, the heads of the state senate and house, and the Attorney General. Be nice. We need to convince these people to be our allies.

Also be mindful that we can’t just revoke a corporate charter because we don’t like a company. We have to illustrate the long criminal record that BP has as grounds for the revocation. Start doing research on any violations of the law, environmental or otherwise, that BP has been involved with up to and including this oil spill in the Gulf, and start sharing what you find, either in my video’s comment section, or over on my blog, or over on the Revoke BP’s corporate charter page. Or create a blog of your own dedicated just to what you find and compile-- and be sure to share it with everybody else!

For those that have contact pages, but no listed email, I made Bit.ly links. Capitalization is important!

THE GOVERNOR is Jack Markell. You can twitter him @GovernorMarkell
You can call him at a bunch of different offices here: http://bit.ly/ContactMarkell

THE SENATE:

The Senate Majority Leader is Democrat Patricia M Blevins. You can contact her a bunch of ways here: http://bit.ly/ContactBlevins Patricia.Blevins@state.de.us
The Senate Majority Whip is Demcorat Margaret Rose Henry. You can contact her a bunch of ways here: http://bit.ly/ContactHenry MargaretRose.Henry@state.de.us
Senate Minority Leader is Republican F. Gary Simpson: http://bit.ly/ContactSimpson gsimpson@udel.edu
Senate Minority Whip is Republican Liane Sorenson: http://bit.ly/ContactSorenson Liane.Sorenson@state.de.us

THE HOUSE:

The Speaker of the house is Democrat Robert F Gilligan: http://bit.ly/ContactDelawareSpeaker Robert.Gilligan@state.de.us
The Majority Leader is Democrat Peter Scwartzcopff: http://bit.ly/ContactHouseMaj
Peter.Schwartzkopf@state.de.us
The Majority Whip is Democrat Valarie Longhurst: http://bit.ly/ContactHouseWhip
Valerie.Longhurst@state.de.us
The Minority Leader is Republican Richard Cathcart: http://bit.ly/ContactCathcart
Richard.Cathcart@state.de.us
The Minority Whip is Republican Daniel Short: http://bit.ly/ContactShort
Daniel.Short@state.de.us

The Attorney General will ultimately be the guy who brings proceedings to revoke BP’s Corporate charter. His name is Beau Biden. He’s related to somebody fameous. You can email his office at: Attorney.General@State.DE.US

Then tell your friends to do the same.

You know what would make all this a whole hell of a lot easier?
If we had some organization backing us, giving us access to sweet webtools that hooked us up with all this information automatically. If we could just send around a link to our friends that hooked them up with everything that they needed... that would be awesome.

Try contacting the following organizations and see if you can get a response from any of them:

For the first two, they have contact pages, so I made bit.lys for them. Capitalization is important!
MoveOn.org : http://bit.ly/ContactMoveOn
GreenChange.org : http://bit.ly/ContactGreenChange

The other two organizations have listed contact emails. Try giving them a shot! See if we can’t get any of them on our side!
Public Citizen: litigation@citizen.org
GreenPeace: info@wdc.greenpeace.org

The OTHER huge uncontrollable oil spill in PA

There's another HUGE and UNCONTROLLABLE oil spill that happened this past Thursday.

From the Post-Gazzette

The accident occurred when EOG's operators lost control of the well after fracturing, or cracking, the Marcellus formation more than a mile underground to release the natural gas locked in the shale. High pressure pushed the gas and "frack fluid" laced with toxic chemicals out of the well for 16 hours, spraying more than 35,000 gallons and maybe as many as 1 million gallons 75 feet into the air.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10159/1063980-455.stm#ixzz0qHFquu3K


Holy s**t. You'd think we'd have seen footage of this, or pictures or something. Why haven't we? Well, reporters have been told by oil company officials that if they go on this site to take photos or video, that they will be trespassing, and have been threatened with arrest, or even being shot.

From DailyKos's Michael Morrill:

EOG Resources, the owner of the wells, won’t allow anyone on the site, especially with a camera. When I tried to shoot some video, they not only wouldn’t let me on the site, they told me I might be shot for being on their property and then sent thugs to chase me and threaten me.


{snip]

I’m not one to back down easily, but I wasn’t ready to take a bullet for a grainy video of the spill site. I wished them a good day and turned back to my car, a couple of miles and bridgeless brook away. As I crossed the brook barefoot I noticed another pickup truck parking on the opposite hill, blocking the path. When I approached the truck two men got out. The older man got in front of me and said “Show me some ID.”

I asked him who he was and he grabbed my arm and told me I was on private property. I shook his hand off and continued walking. Without looking back, I told him there was nothing posted that indicated the land I was on was private property. He yelled to me, “We know where your car is. We called the police. You’ll be arrested when you get back to your car.” He then added, “We know you’re taking water samples.”

The truth is, I had filled up some drinking water bottles with samples of water from various sites along my hike. I’m not sure what use they will be, but I thought it was important to at least get something that could be independently tested.

When I got a few hundred yards from my car I could hear the last two men who confronted me. As I approached my car the older man took out an old disposable film camera and took my picture. I tried to get my Flip Camera to take some video of them, but the battery was dead and I only got a few seconds.

They tried to get me to stay and wait for the police to come, but I wasn’t about to test the fairness of the local criminal justice system. I told them to back off or be charged with assault, and susprisingly they complied.

As a parting shot the younger one said,” Don’t come back.” I replied, childishly, “I’ll do what I want.” He said, “If you come back you won’t leave.”


Even HOLIER s**T!

I recommend you read both articles in full. I'll be posting more about this as I learn more about it.



UPDATE:

Here's a photo of oil company goons telling people that they can't take photos, from TheState.com. That's the best we've got right now.

June 6, 2010

The BP Spill reenacted by Kittens



This really is how all bad news should be delivered...

Dana Milbanks of WaPo calls for the REVOCATION OF BP's CORPORATE CHARTER!



Check out the full article here at the Washington Post


God spoke to Moses through a burning bush on Mount Horeb. He apparently speaks to Republicans through a spewing oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) delivered the startling revelation last week that the BP oil spill was caused not by a faulty blowout preventer but by the Almighty Himself. He explained the spill to an Oklahoma City radio station like this: "Acts of God are acts of God." With this curious theology, Cole has joined the ministry of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a fellow Republican, who last month said of the oil spill: "From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented."

So if God is responsible for the spill, and BP is the spill's "responsible party," what these men are really saying is that BP is . . . God?

This interpretation is at the very cutting edge of ecclesiastical thought. In the past, our Heavenly Father has involved himself in floods, droughts and the occasional earthquake, but this may be his first foray into industrial disasters.

The Valdez spill was an act of Exxon. Bhopal was an act of Union Carbide. But the BP spill is an act of God. Oiliness is next to godliness.

Forgive this blasphemy, but is it perhaps time to question the Doctrine of Boardroom Infallibility? In Washington, belief in corporate divinity has become a bipartisan religion, and it's polytheistic: Lawmakers, despite the occasional bit of populist rhetoric, routinely provide generous offerings to the automotive, aerospace, financial, pharmaceutical and insurance industries, along with petroleum.

An article by The Post's Dan Eggen explains why: More than 1,400 former members of Congress, staffers and federal employees registered as lobbyists in the financial services sector alone since the start of 2009, according to a study by Public Citizen and the Center for Responsive Politics. Many of these lobbyists, of course, moonlight as fundraising captains for lawmakers.


Check out the full article here at the Washington Post

Join the Citizen's movement:

BRANDS: Your life-long friends



You know these faces. You probably know these faces better than you know people in your own neighborhood. Better than you know members of your extended family. They were there with you when you were born. They were there with you as a child. They visited you every day on TV.
Who are they?
What do they want from you?
They just want to be your friend. They make things for you. Are they the ones who made these cookies? Your oatmeal? Your big mac? Your breakfast cereal?
"Be our friends! Let me hang out in your home!" they cry, with their silent pleading eyes.
And you do. You always have. You always will. They will be with you throughout your adult life. They're always so happy to see you. They always will be.
They will visit you every night on TV, even as you become old and fragile. You will age and decay. They will not. They will be with you, these friends, as you reach the end of your life and die. They will be there, silent, watching. They will not mourn your passing.

They're all so happy to see you! They always will be.

June 5, 2010

Post-Oil Hakiu contest!



Normally I wouldn't post about something like this. But I figured, there's not a whole hell of a lot we can do right now (I'm looking over at the live video of the leak in the right-hand column of my blog). But why just cling to all the doom and gloom? Get your creativity on!

DissectingWords.com recently posted an entry about how author John Scalzi is holding a contest. A haiku writing contest!
Whoever writes the best haiku about a post-oil age, will win a copy of his new book, "METAtropolis."

Now, I LOVE haiku. I once took it upon myself to write 100 haiku. I have since lost that notebook. Oh well.

The reason I love haiku? It's always a challenge to pack as much meaning into as few words as possible. The perfectly crafted haiku can tell an entire story.

Here are my entries for this contest so far:

They left the city.
Green grows up from between cracks.
Deer graze in Times Square.

The sky at night shines.
Forgotten lights re-emerge.
Now we remember.

The orange haze lifts.
We see now what they once saw.
Our ancestors’s stars.

Fields. Bright green. Sun’s sheen.
The party has just begun.
Our hands see the land.

June 1, 2010

REVOKE BP'S CORPORATE CHARTER

revoke bp's charter


by the Punk Patriot



After my last video on evolution and capitalism, many of you asked me:

Do you support capitalism?

Capitalism is a force of nature. You may as well ask if one supports a type of gravity. One must keep in mind, however, that markets should serve society, not the other way around.

The type of market that Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell, Rothbard, and Ayn Rand talk about, is a market that is given complete dominion over society. Society does not exist to serve markets, markets exist to serve society, and because they have the relationship backwards, their theories are destructive.

I support the mixed-market capitalism that Ralph Nader advocates for, and I support Adam Smith's 'small-businesses-only', version of capitalism, but not lassiez-faire capitalism, and not corporate oligarchical capitalism.

Corporations are a business model that Adam Smith despised. They remove accountability from the market, and allow businesses to take risks that they never would, and to act in ways that- free from concequnce, and are thus outside of the context of the morality in society.

But corporations have an achilles heel. Corporations exist because of Corporate Charter. These charters are issued by state governemnts. These charters are like contracts, saying that the business in question exists to serve the public good.

It’s clearly the case that many corporations do not exist to serve the pubic good. Citizens and Government alike should be far less shy about revoking corporate charters when a business becomes destructive to society. For instance, BP and Halliburton are both responsible for cutting corners, and doing things wrong to save money, resulting in one of the worst environmental disasters in 25 years, and potentially one of the worst environmental disasters known to modern man. They have destroyed local economies throughout the gulf coast for generations. They should have their corporate charter revoked, and BP should cease to exist as a corporation in the United States.

We the people have the power to do this. We always have. We should not be afraid to use this power. My task for YOU, my audience, is to find what state’s laws BP America is incorporated under. Then we shall organize to take action. (Stay Tuned)

The free market does not know good from evil, it only knows profits. Just the same, fire does not know useful from destructive, it only knows to burn.

A totally free market will bend towards monopoly, and at that point it ceases to function properly. If left completely to it’s own devices a free market will turn into totalitarianism. Like a fire, it needs to be tended from time to time, to keep it from smothering itself as it eats itsself alive and destroys it’s own structures in a fit of continuous consumption.

There must be restrictions placed on the market, because it does not know service from disservice, or creation from destruction. The market must be regulated to keep it from destroying society-- in the same way that we keep fire in a fireplace to keep it from consuming the entire house.

And when a particular fire gets out of control, it must be snuffed out.