Hall of Mirrors: Bradley Manning is imprisoned by the military under condityions approaching the very brutality that he was originally jailed for exposing. It is within - well within - the realm of possibility that any one of the many protesters who demonstrated on Manning's behalf yesterday coul wind up imprisoned in the civilian equivalent of the conditions Bradley Manning is currently enduring. Which conceivably could lead to a protest against his/her incarceration leading to yet anothre incarceration for protesting the previous imprisonment. And thus the Prison-Industrial State wreaks its vicious way across the land. Code Pink protesters - Medea Benjamin among them - brought a package of relief supplies, the sort of articles that might as well be destined for Gaza. Cynthia Papermaster traveled from Berkley to deliver the donated CD, CD player, boxer shorts, a book, chocolate, and a Snuggie.
In what is believed to be the first legal challenge to the use of eminent domain to secure U.S. right-of-way for a proposed tar sands oil pipeline, an Oklahoma family charges that TransCanada Corp. can not condemn their property because it is a foreign company whose project will not benefit American citizens. The children and grandchildren of the late A.L. and Dollie White filed the challenge last Friday, January 14, in state district court in Durant, Oklahoma, in Bryan County near the Texas-Oklahoma border. They assert that TransCanada of Calgary, Alberta, has no right to force them to allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline through the family farm. The 1,900-mile Keystone XL pipeline would carry crude oil from Alberta to Texas Gulf Coast refineries. Tar sands oil is some of the dirtiest in the world, containing more toxic chemicals than conventional oil and emitting more global warming gases in production. Its corrosive and acidic properties increase the danger of pipeline ruptures and threats to public health.
TransCanada is seeking approval from the U.S. State Department to build the pipeline and in the meantime is acquiring right-of-way along the proposed route. TransCanada has a U.S. subsidiary but is a Canadian corporation with heavy investment from the Chinese government and other foreign entities.
- KBOO