Wanna See Socialism Up Close And Real Personal-Like ?

From the deranged mind of Shaun Donovan, Chairman Obama's Housing and Urban Development Reichsfuhrer....er, uh... Secretary:


(Emphasis added to the juicy parts, outrage is brackets)


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" September 30, 2011

DRAFT - 2012 – 2015 Environmental 1 Justice Strategy for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

 Message from the Secretary

  The ongoing housing and economic crisis has touched every family in one way or another – but for low-income and minority communities, it’s been particularly devastating. [Lost your house ? Tough toenails, Whitey.] Not only have these communities watched as nearly two decades of economic gains were rolled back in a matter of months, but they are also uniquely vulnerable to pollution, unsafe drinking water and other environmental and public health hazards. [Yes, fellow taxpayer, this means the redistribution of wealth.]

 The Obama Administration believes that all communities deserve the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, equal access to the Federal decision-making process, and a healthy environment where they can live, learn, and work. That’s why I’m proud that HUD was one of 17 agencies to recently sign the Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898. Built on a 1994 Executive Order that directed a range of federal agencies to make environmental justice central to their missions as part of the Environmental Justice Interagency Working Group, this MOU brings more federal partners to the table, adopts a charter, and provides guidance to help communities achieve better results for families.

 This work builds on progress we’ve already made – particularly in areas like childhood lead poisoning, where we’ve reduced the number of children with lead poisoning by 75 percent over the last decade. But the job’s not over. Given that these hazards are most prominent in older housing stock where many low-income communities live, HUD’s engagement on this issue has been essential. That’s why HUD’s 2010-2015 Strategic Plan included a commitment to improve health outcomes and promote communities that are healthy, sustainable, affordable, and inclusive.

What makes this MOU unique is that for the first time, it recognizes that keeping our families healthy is not just about the quality of the homes themselves – but where they are located. Indeed, right now we can predict a child’s life expectancy by the zip codes he or she grows up in.

 Major contributors to this tragedy include higher rates of childhood  obesity, increased air pollution, and a lack of open space, to name just a few. HUD’s 2011 Environmental Justice Strategy responds to these challenges by expanding 'geographies of opportunity.' Through our Choice Neighborhoods initiative and the sustainability grants we awarded to communities in 2010, HUD is already helping to lay the foundation for healthy, inclusive, and more sustainable communities – creating walkable neighborhoods with sidewalks, preserving and protecting parks and other open spaces, and helping metro regions reduce traffic congestion and commute times by developing comprehensive transportation and housing plans that bolster economic growth. [Comrade Lenin would be proud!]

 All this work reflects a core belief: that when you choose a home, you do not just choose a home. You choose a community and the choices available in that community – including how healthy and safe that community is. With President Obama’s leadership and this Environmental Justice strategy, we’re committing to working together with federal, state, and local partners to ensure that every neighborhood is vibrant and safe, and provides a healthy future for our children. [My future grandchildren and great-grandchildren just can't wait to pay for this!]

 Shaun Donovan"

 http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=DrftHUDEnvJustStrat093011.pdf



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Hmmmm......and what was "environmental justice" again ? Let's ask the ever-so huggable Van Jones, Chairman Obama's former "Green Jobs Czar":

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"Mother Jones: Can you briefly explain what 'environmental justice' means to you?

Van Jones: Environmental justice is the movement to ensure that no community suffers disproportionate environmental burdens or goes without enjoying fair environmental benefits."


http://motherjones.com/environment/2008/10/qa-van-jones



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No dice, Vannie. You can bullshit your way through the Sunday Morning Snoozefests, answering questions from automatons pretending to be journalists all you want, but you're not fooling me. I know who you are, and more importantly, I know what you are. Let's try it again. What does the term "environmental justice" actually mean ?

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"Well, the only reason that we have the unsustainable accounting that we have right now is because incinerators, dumping grounds, and sacrifice zones were put where poor people live. It would never have been allowed if you had to put all the incinerators and nasty stuff in rich people's neighborhoods; we'd have had a sustainable economy a long time ago. We'd have had a clean and green economy a long time ago. It's the environmental racism that allowed the powerful people in society to turn a blind eye for decades to the downsides of the industrial system that got us to this point. So there's a direct relationship between environmental racism and the lack of sustainability of society as a whole. We were the canaries in the coal mines, crying for relief. Now finally the consequences are affecting everyone, with global warming and everything else. The other thing is that the environmental justice agenda is also changing. Before, it was much stronger on demanding equal protection from environmental bad. Now we are also demanding equal opportunity and equal access to environmental good. We don't want to be first and worst with all the toxins and all the negative effects of global warming, and then benefit last and least from all the breakthroughs in solar, wind energy, organic food, all the positives. We want an equal share, an equitable share, of the work wealth and the benefits of the transition to a green economy." 

http://motherjones.com/environment/2008/10/qa-van-jones


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I knew you had it in you, Vannie. Now go "Occupy" something, preferably in North Korea.

As we can see from Comrade Van's rant above,"environmental justice" has nothing to do with the environment or justice. It has everything to do with taking money from Citizen A by force and giving it to Citizen B. The last time I checked, this was the redistribution of wealth, a hallmark of the 20th Century political phenomenon known as "communism", which really doesn't work very well. ( Don't believe me ? Just ask the 100 million people communism murdered.)

This announcement from HUD is beyond troubling for two reasons: One, the housing market is being held together by bailing wire and spit. Two, the Federal Leviathan can't support a goldfish, let alone pay for another dystopian pipe dream.


While we're on the subject, exactly what is HUD's Five-Year Plan, anyway ?



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"The 2010 – 2015 HUD Strategic Plan commits to accomplish the HUD mission through five core goals:

 1. Strengthen the Nation’s Housing Market To Bolster the Economy and Protect Consumers
 2. Meet the Need for Quality, Affordable Rental Homes
 3. Utilize Housing as a Platform for Improving Quality of Life
 4. Build Inclusive and Sustainable Communities Free From Discrimination
 5. Transform the Way HUD Does Business"

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=DrftHUDEnvJustStrat093011.pdf

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Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good. The last time the Federal Leviathan tried to "Strengthen the Nation's Housing Market to Bolster the Economy" (in 2008), the United States almost entered the Third World.


And how does this piece of socialist crap tie into "environmental justice" ?

(Emphasis added where appropriate, snarky comments from yours truly in brackets.)


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 "HUD’s Strategic Plan: Its Connection  to Environmental Justice:

 HUD’s mission, to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality, affordable homes for all, clearly reflects principles of environmental justice. For HUD, strong, sustainable, inclusive communities are resilient communities that can weather the impacts of disasters and economic downturns, offer residents access to healthy living and amenities such as transportation, education, jobs, and social services, and are free from discrimination that has historically limited housing choice and relegated minority populations to low-opportunity areas.

 These principles offer an affirmative answer to the challenges that environmental justice communities face. By encouraging the availability of quality, affordable homes that are both hazard-free and more energy-efficient, HUD is protecting residents and our environment.

 The 2010 – 2015 HUD Strategic Plan1 commits to accomplish the HUD mission through five core goals:

 1. Strengthen the Nation’s Housing Market To Bolster the Economy and Protect Consumers
 2. Meet the Need for Quality, Affordable Rental Homes
 3. Utilize Housing as a Platform for Improving Quality of Life
 4. Build Inclusive and Sustainable Communities Free From Discrimination
 5. Transform the Way HUD Does Business

The FY 2010–2015 HUD Strategic Plan allows HUD to scale-up local innovations, lead the charge, and set the pace for change leading up to HUD’s 50th anniversary in 2015. Each of these core goals will help HUD move forward in achieving environmental justice. Particular elements of the HUD strategic plan provide greater alignment between agency goals and environmental justice. Strengthening the Nation’s Housing Market (Goal 1) requires HUD to forge new relationships with federal, state, and local agencies across government silos—to assist different regions with vastly different housing needs. Likewise, Meeting the Need for Quality Affordable Rental Homes (Goal 2) requires us to provide people with the choices they need to seize opportunities for their families by streamlining the way HUD delivers rental assistance and by building partnerships that preserve housing affordability near transit and jobs. 

Under Subgoal 1 2D, Expand families’ choices of affordable rental homes located in a broad range of communities, is Strategy 6: 'Remove local barriers to the expansion of the supply of multifamily homes in strong, safe, healthy communities through incentives to state and local governments.' Strategy 6 integrates the values of residential choice and healthy communities, which are central to the Department’s statutory obligation to affirmatively further fair housing in its housing and urban development programs under the Fair Housing Act. They are central also to the equal access and equal treatment requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

To Utilize Housing as a Platform for Improving Quality of Life (Goal 3), HUD must make federally subsidized housing a catalyst for investments in education, health, and job training, while also leveraging the private capital needed to expand housing for the growing number of seniors and homeless Americans. [In other words, the Regime is gonna take YOUR money and hand it over to someone else.] By bringing to bear mixed-use, mixed-income tools to transform all housing in a neighborhood and helping communities identify and address longstanding development challenges through targeted assistance, HUD will Build Inclusive and Sustainable Communities Free From Discrimination (Goal 4)—supporting and creating geographies of opportunity that result in neighborhoods of choice, affirmatively furthering fair housing laws, and fighting the scourge of concentrated poverty. Under Subgoal 4B, Promote energy-efficient buildings and location-efficient communities that are healthy, affordable, and diverse, the Department would promote a healthy and safe living environment. This subgoal is consistent with HUD’s longstanding site and neighborhood standards under the Fair Housing Act and Title VI, which encourage investment of HUD assistance in demographically diverse and healthy areas with good access to jobs, education, services, and recreation. EJ’s emphasis on the participation of minority and low-income populations in policy making is reflected in strategies under Subgoal 4C, Ensure open, diverse, and equitable communities.

 To Transform the Way HUD Does Business (Goal 5), HUD will not only reform hiring practices and empower local decision-making, but also provide our customers with the information and technical assistance they need to better target resources and build their own capacity—taking the holistic, cross-cutting view of community development required to make the biggest difference on the ground. Goal 5 incorporates many of the dimensions of a revitalized EJ compliance effort – including education and training of HUD’s workforce, establishment of rules and systems that are responsive, open, and transparent, and a renewed  focus on the customer: the men and women who experience the impact of HUD’s programs."

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=DrftHUDEnvJustStrat093011.pdf



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Did I miss something, or is the word "Congress" missing from the above slop ? It appears that the utopians at HUD have decided to give the Hairpiece Gang the middle finger with one hand and setting the Constitution on fire with the other.

HUD's Five-Year Plan is as massive as Barbara Mikuluski and as scary as watching a naked Joyless Behar shave Hitlery Clinton's chubby-wubby legs. Don't believe me ? Think I'm bloviating to hear myself bloviate ?

Here are the low-lights from HUD's Five-Year Plan:

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HUD intends to:


"Reduce the number of completed foreclosures.

• Interim: Assist 3 million homeowners who are at risk of losing their homes due to
  foreclosure
• 200,000 homeowners will be assisted through
  Federal Housing Administration (FHA) programs.
• 400,000 homeowners will be assisted through
  third-party lender loss mitigation initiatives.
  mandated by FHA but not receiving FHA subsidy.
• 2.4 million homeowners will be assisted through
  joint HUD-Treasury programs.
• For all FHA borrowers who become 30 days late,
  achieve a Consolidated Claim Workout ratio of 75
  percent, and, for those receiving a CCW, achieve a
  6 month re-default rate of 20 percent or less.
• Restore FHA’s excess capital reserve ratio to the
  congressionally mandated 2-percent level by 2014.
• Reduce the average residential vacancy rate in Neighborhood
  Stabilization Program (NSP) investment areas.
• Interim: Reduce the average residential vacancy rate in
  Neighborhood Stabilization Program Round 2 (NSP2)
  investment areas."    

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=HUDStrategicPC_goal1.pdf


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Oh, but wait, there's more:


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"The current administration strongly believes that, in addition to the moral imperative to end the human suffering caused by homelessness, there are compelling economic reasons for investing in efforts to eradicate this complex social problem. If individuals and families that are currently cycling through expensive institutions can be targeted for appropriate housing and services, there can be significant cost savings, according to recent studies. To achieve this goal, HUD will partner with local, state, and federal organizations,[but not Congress, of course.] including the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, to deploy evidence-based interventions, such as supportive housing, housing first, homelessness prevention, and rapid rehousing, to more effectively and efficiently use the nation’s limited resources to bring an end to homelessness."

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=HUDStrategicPD_goal2.pdf

"Stable housing, made possible with HUD support, provides an ideal platform for delivering a wide variety of health and social services to improve health, education, and economic outcomes. Through partnerships at the federal, state, and local levels, HUD will utilize its housing platform to deliver a wide variety of services to improve the quality of life of its residents and the surrounding community. The following subgoals provide a roadmap for accomplishing this goal:

Subgoal 3A:

Utilize HUD assistance to improve educational outcomes and early learning and

development.

Subgoal 3B:

Utilize HUD assistance to improve health outcomes.

Subgoal 3C:

Utilize HUD assistance to increase economic security and self-sufficiency.

Subgoal 3D:

Utilize HUD assistance to improve housing stability through supportive services

for vulnerable populations, including the elderly, people with disabilities, homeless people, and

those individuals and families at risk of becoming homeless.

Subgoal 3E: Utilize HUD assistance to improve public safety."

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=HUDStrategicPE_goal3.pdf

"The nation’s current housing, economic, health, and energy crises demand that the federal government and its local partners effectively coordinate policies related to community development, climate change, energy efficiency, transportation, housing, and disaster preparedness. Today we know that 'place' influences outcomes—the place where a person lives is a reliable predictor of his or her long-term health, education, and employment outcomes. Families and individuals living in concentrated poverty experience greater inequity and often, as a result, more dismal outcomes.

Unfortunately, many neighborhoods hit hardest by the recent housing and economic crisis—those with the highest foreclosure rates and the most job losses—are among the least sustainable. Residents of these neighborhoods have limited access to transportation, face health hazards in their homes and communities, suffer from the poorest schools, and have the fewest economic opportunities. In many areas, the spatial mismatch between housing and transportation investments

limits access to decent employment and education opportunities for entire neighborhoods.

This not only impacts the lives of residents in those communities, but the resulting need to travel greater distances to connect to these resources has a clear impact on the environment as well—from wetland and open space lost to sprawling development patterns to ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions. To address these problems, Goal 4 focuses explicitly on 'place,' on ensuring inclusivity and preparing communities for the future of their economy, environment, culture, and preparedness in case of disaster. HUD seeks to ensure—through comprehensive community development, strategic planning, enforcement, and enhanced capacity building—that all communities are livable for residents and viable in the long term. The following subgoals provide a roadmap for accomplishing this goal: [Oddly enough, this is the best definition for environmental justice I've found yet. It's even better than Comrade Van's!]

Subgoal 4A:

Catalyze economic development and job creation, while enhancing and preserving

community assets.

Subgoal 4B:

Promote energy-efficient buildings and location-efficient communities that are

healthy, affordable, and diverse.

Subgoal 4C:

Ensure open, diverse, and equitable communities.

Subgoal 4D:

Facilitate disaster preparedness, recovery, and resiliency.

Subgoal 4E: Build the capacity of local, state, and regional public and private organizations."

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=HUDStrategicPF_goal4.pdf

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We are on the edge of  political, social, and economic disaster. I can't gussy it up. I can't make it sound palatable.

God help us all.

(By the way, "Republican" Presidential Candiate Mitt Trotsky's father George was Richard Nixon's HUD Secretary from 1969-1973. Take from that what you will.)

 


 

What's The Department Of No Energy Up To These Days ?

From the Department of Energy, which produces no energy, but produces tons and tons of fertilizer:

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Oh, a "five year plan".....Just like the Soviet Union of old.....No call for concern. None at all.

Go back to your American Idol and Top Chef, citizens. Nothing to see here. Move along, proles. Move along.


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And out of normal and healthy curiousity, what does the Department of No Energy's five year plan entail ?


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(This is from the same chart, continued)

Same chart, Con't

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And it goes on and on, for five more excruciating pages. I have my limits, and I'm sure you do as well.

If you have nothing better to do with your time, you can download this pdf at:

http://www.lm.doe.gov/default.aspx?id=1889


As we can plainly see, this "environmental justice" crap has nothing to do with the environment or justice. It's just the redistribution of wealth with a little bit of racism thrown in for good measure.

Here's what the EPA told the press (which they completely ignored) about about programs like the one illustrated above:

(All the juicy bits will have emphasis. My outrage will be in brackets.)

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"Obama Administration Announces Commitments to Protect the Health of Every American/ Agencies publish environmental justice strategies designed to ensure that all communities are protected from environmental harm and benefit from federal programs

Release Date: 02/27/2012
Contact Information: Alisha Johnson (EPA), johnson.alisha@epa.gov, Taryn Tuss (CEQ), 202-456-6998. En español: Betsaida Alcantara, alcantara.betsaida@epa.gov

WASHINGTON - Today, federal agencies, led by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), released environmental justice strategies, implementation plans and progress reports, outlining steps agencies will take to protect communities facing greater health and environmental risks. These strategies represent a significant step forward in the Administration’s commitment to integrating environmental justice into federal decision-making and programs in areas such as transportation, labor, health services, housing and others.

'Working together we have been able to make environmental justice a focus not just for EPA, but for agencies across the administration. Each of our federal partners plays a unique role in serving the American people, and each has a unique opportunity to ensure that our communities get the health and environmental protections they deserve,' said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. 'If we aspire to build an economy and a society that works for every American, we can’t allow the heaviest burdens of pollution and health threats to fall on our poorest citizens. Bringing together our federal partners to tackle these challenges is a major step toward health, environmental and economic benefits in communities across the nation.' [Quick question: Where in the Constitution does it mention anything about building economies and societies ?]

'We know that all too often, low-income and minority families live in the shadows of some of the worst pollution, leading to higher rates of diseases and threatening the economic potential of their communities,' said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. 'With these environmental justice strategies, Federal agencies are following through on the Obama Administration’s commitment to reduce public health threats.'
The Administration believes that all Americans should be able to live in healthy communities, share in the benefits of federal programs and initiatives, and have a voice in the federal decision-making process. Yet too often that is not the case, particularly for low-income, minority and tribal populations. To make progress toward addressing these inequities, federal agencies have reviewed their portfolios to assess how their programs, policies, and activities may have disproportionately adverse health and environmental effects. Through this review, they have identified overarching strategies, as well as specific programs and initiatives, to reduce environmental or health hazards, ensure access to beneficial programs, and increase community participation in agency decision-making. For example:

• The Department of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Transit Administration is finalizing an environmental justice circular to help grantees determine whether there are any minority or low-income populations that may be adversely affected by a transit project or decision. DOT’s Federal Highway Administration is working with the National Highway Institute to revamp their course on environmental justice and Title VI.
• The U.S. Department of Labor is translating educational materials and hazard alerts into Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese to ensure that minority workers have access to information they need to avoid environmental hazards on the job.
• The U.S. Department of Energy’s Pueblo Project in Los Alamos, N.M., provides four tribal governments the opportunity to run pollution monitoring programs and provide technical input on National Nuclear Security Administration decisions.
• The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is helping to provide green jobs and workforce development opportunities for veterans in minority and low-income communities. [This is also called the redistribution of wealth since green jobs do not exist.]
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with communities to use Health Impact Assessments, to help proactively address the potential impacts a policy or project might have on minority and low income populations. For example, in Baltimore, MD, work is under way to evaluate the human health impact of a vacant property redevelopment program. [What Enumerated Power does this come from again ?]

'Communities that have historically been the reluctant hosts to the country's environmental burdens have endured the consequence of poor public health, housing, employment and education inequities to name a few,' said Elizabeth C. Yeampierre, Executive Director of the United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park and chair of EPA's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council. The Administration deserves praise for recognizing that these complex problems require a holistic approach.' [You want praise ? Fine. Seig Heil!]

'At the Department of Transportation, we are committed to working directly with disadvantaged groups to choose, plan, and build transportation projects that will create jobs and spur economic growth,' said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. 'When we talk about environmental justice, we don't just mean avoiding harm to disadvantaged communities: we want to invest in projects that will create healthy, vibrant neighborhoods, revitalize communities, and connect all Americans to jobs, housing, schools, and medical care.'

'The Department of Labor’s environmental justice strategy demonstrates our commitment to ensuring safe and healthy workplaces, and vibrant communities for the American workforce to call home,' said Secretary of Labor Hilda L.Solis. 'Environmental justice is a key component of my vision of Good Jobs for Everyone, and means making sure that the department’s programs and policies foster health, safety and adequate training for all people, including minority, low-income, and tribal workers.'
'At the Department of Health & Human Services we understand the important connection between our environment and our country’s health but we also know that our department cannot do this work alone.' said Secretary Sebelius. 'We look forward to our continued collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency and others to focus on building safe and healthy communities.'
The release of these strategies and implementation progress reports is a part of a broad effort the Administration has undertaken to reinvigorate the federal commitment to environmental justice. After more than a decade of inaction, the Administration reconvened the Environmental Justice Interagency Working Group and engaged more than 100 environmental justice leaders at a White House Forum on Environmental Justice. Throughout 2011, federal agencies participated in more than 15 listening sessions across the country to learn from stakeholders how the federal government can better partner with overburdened communities to reduce environmental and health burdens. Then, in August 2011, 16 federal agencies committed to finalizing environmental justice strategies and releasing annual implementation progress reports.

Federal agencies releasing new environmental justice strategies by February 2012 include: the Department of Agriculture, Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Transportation, Department of Interior, Department of Veterans Affairs and General Services Administration. The EPA and the Department of Energy published new strategies in 2011 and 2008, respectively, and released annual implementation plans last year. They both continue to take public comment on their strategies and will update each strategy, as appropriate. The U.S. Department of Justice recently released its annual implementation progress report. The Department of Defense released its strategy in 1995 and this year will be releasing an annual implementation progress report. The Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Commerce have taken public comment on their draft strategies and are working to finalize their strategies and implementation reports. "


http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/cd2d72a02dda6281852579b100516ff3!OpenDocument

More about agency strategies and implementation plans: http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/interagency/iwg-compendium.html

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God help us all.

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me

We no longer live in times that allow us to shrug our shoulders and say, "Naaaaah, that couldn't happen here".  We now live in times that force us to say, "Well, I hope that's not true," as we tend to our crisis gardens and take inventory in our bomb shelters.

What I'm about to present to you is not an Alex Jones fantasy. There aren't Paultards discussing this between bong hits. This isn't a 9/11 Truther hallucination. This is a presentation of cold, hard facts. It is also a reminder of how close we are to complete economic, political, and social disaster in the United States.

In my last column, I wrote about the term environmental justice. For those of you who missed it, here's a quick review of what environmental justice is, courtesy of the commissars at the rogue Environmental Protection Agency:

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"Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies. Meaningful involvement means that: (1) people have an opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that may affect their environment and/or health; (2) the public's contribution can influence the regulatory agency's decision; (3) their concerns will be considered in the decision making process; and (4) the decision makers seek out and facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected."

http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/basics/ejbackground.html


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Yep, it's a bunch of socialist psychobabble, but what does it mean in actual terms ? Let's ask, oh, I don't know, former "Green Jobs Czar" (and admitted communist) Van Jones:

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"Well, the only reason that we have the unsustainable accounting that we have right now is because incinerators, dumping grounds, and sacrifice zones were put where poor people live. It would never have been allowed if you had to put all the incinerators and nasty stuff in rich people's neighborhoods; we'd have had a sustainable economy a long time ago. We'd have had a clean and green economy a long time ago. It's the environmental racism that allowed the powerful people in society to turn a blind eye for decades to the downsides of the industrial system that got us to this point. So there's a direct relationship between environmental racism and the lack of sustainability of society as a whole. We were the canaries in the coal mines, crying for relief. Now finally the consequences are affecting everyone, with global warming and everything else. The other thing is that the environmental justice agenda is also changing. Before, it was much stronger on demanding equal protection from environmental bad. Now we are also demanding equal opportunity and equal access to environmental good. We don't want to be first and worst with all the toxins and all the negative effects of global warming, and then benefit last and least from all the breakthroughs in solar, wind energy, organic food, all the positives. We want an equal share, an equitable share, of the work wealth and the benefits of the transition to a green economy." 

(Emphasis added to the juicy parts.)

(By the way, it also behooves us to note that 'ol Vannie is also a crony of the Fuhrer himself, George $oros.)
http://motherjones.com/environment/2008/10/qa-van-jones


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Crazytown, right ? You don't know the half of it. This is official US government policy. Not a law, mind you, passed by elected CONgressmen and Imperial Senators. No sirree, this madness was brought to us via Executive Order 12898 by Bill Clinton (between sexual escapades, of course).

As a result, every federal agency must take "environmental justice" into account for every action they take, regardless of cost. After all, nothing must get in the way of invented civil rights.

When I say every federal agency, I mean EVERY federal agency.


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https://www.denix.osd.mil/references/upload/DoD-Environmental-Justice-Strategy-24-Mar-1995.pdf

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You're right, True Believer. That's the Department of Defense's "Environmental Justice Strategy".

Let's take a look-see inside shall we ? (For some weird reason, cut and paste doesn't work on the document, so please bear with me with the screen captures.)

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What does this have to do with defending the nation ? I dunno, hoping you knew, FRiend.

But this gets better. Oh, so much better.

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When governments seek to address "economic opportunities", it can only mean one thing: the redistribution of wealth, which also known as socialism.

How does the DoD intend to do this ?

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???????

"Deputy of  Under Secretary of Defense (Environmental Security) " ?

What in the hell ? (Juicy stuff has emphasis added, outrage is in brackets.)

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"Volume 12, Number 30

DoD Helps Protect Human Health, Environment

Prepared remarks by Sherri W. Goodman, deputy undersecretary of defense for environmental security, to the National Conference of Black Mayors, St. Louis, April 25, 1997.

Good morning. ... I am here today representing the Department of Defense. Many of the mayors here are very familiar with the many environmental and economic programs DoD administers because they have a DoD installation in their city. Those of you who are unfamiliar with DoD's environmental programs might be surprised to learn that we are the third largest landowner in the federal government. We have a great responsibility to protect human health and the environment, and we take this responsibility very seriously.

Environmental security includes pollution prevention, conservation, compliance, cleanup, the Explosive Safety Board and the Pest Management Board.

I would like to tell you about three ways DoD is supporting you and your communities: DoD's work to implement environmental justice; economic opportunities in the environment; and partnering with communities.

DoD's environmental justice strategy focuses on implementing institutional changes rather than one-time projects to ensure that a healthy and safe environment exists around DoD installations. DoD does not have the authority to issue grants or fund projects specifically for environmental justice. Rather, our approach is to identify opportunities within the day-to-day operations of our installations and in mission-related activities where environmental principles may be applied. By integrating environmental justice issues into existing policy and through the National Environmental Policy Act, we are ensuring that DoD is meeting our environmental justice responsibilities and changing the way we do business.

The military departments have issued or are in the process of drafting guidance for use in considering environmental justice issues. They are also educating and training their personnel on all aspects of environmental justice. [This is also called indoctrination.]

We are also putting the finishing touches on a training video that explains to all DoD military and civilian personnel the requirements of the executive order on environmental justice. Our goal is to increase awareness and infuse the spirit and intent of the executive order into DoD's decision-making process from the bottom to the very top.

We are making information more accessible to environmental justice communities through the Defense Environmental Network Information Exchange, or DENIX. We added a public menu, which has information on DoD's environmental justice initiatives. The Navy also hosts an environmental justice section on their home page for news and information.

We are also working to preserve the contribution of African Americans in the U.S. military through the Legacy Resource Management Program. [Whites, Hispanics, and Asians don't serve ? Since when ?] There are four projects currently under way. They are:

• A study of the African-American community on the lands of the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station [Va.] from 1865-1918;
• The black officer's club renovation and archival project at Fort Leonard Wood [Mo.];
• The Civil War African-American sailors research study;
• A report on the historic context for the African-American military experience. [Huh ? Wha--?]

These projects focus on military activities, but their significance is much larger. Through these projects, we can reconstruct history and raise awareness of the role African Americans played in the U.S. military. Author Dudley Taylor Cornish said, 'American military history, by the very nature of our society and the organization of our government and of our Army, is more nearly social and political history than mere military analysis.'  [Military analysis is what prevents us from being forced to wear burqas and speak Arabic.]

The executive order focuses attention on the environmental impacts on human health and the quality of life in minority and low-income populations. One of the ways we meet this requirement is through the Toxic Release Inventory. TRI details the toxic releases and waste management practices of DoD installations. In the first year, DoD's toxic releases went down 30 percent. We issued the TRI last year, and the next report is due in May. For example:

• The Lake City Army Ammunition plant, outside of Kansas City [Mo.], underwent a 200 percent reduction of pollutants.
• Robins Air Force Base, near Macon [Ga.], reported a 26 percent reduction.
• Norfolk Naval Base, [Va.] reported a 60 percent reduction.
• Norfolk purchased new equipment that uses water instead of chemicals to clean equipment and ship parts. The shipyard also replaced a number of paints that gave off fumes with lower-emission paints to greatly reduce the number of TRI chemicals emitted. The shipyard achieved significant reductions in TRI releases through its consistent use of the Consolidated Hazardous Material Reutilization and Inventory Management Program. The program, also called "Pharmacy" by the military services, limits distribution of hazardous materials to authorized users in small quantities only. Unused material is returned to collection centers for redistribution. These simple management steps greatly reduce the use of hazardous material and worker exposure to the material.

That's just the beginning. We hope to have even greater reductions as the program progresses. By using safer alternatives to certain chemicals, we can better protect communities near our installations.

As DoD downsizes, thanks to the end of the Cold War, the BRAC [base realignment and closure] program has focused on transforming former bases into viable economic and environmental assets by empowering local communities to chart their own economic futures.

In addition, many DoD installations are the last bastions for several endangered species and plants.

• Denver is home to two very important institutions: Mayor Wellington Webb and the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. A portion of the arsenal has been made into a wildlife refuge and hosts almost 300 species of wildlife. It is also one of the best examples of short-grass prairie left in the West. Fishermen cast for bass in the refuge's catch-and-release ponds, and school-children get their first close-up glimpse of a bald eagle. All of this activity on the largest cleanup project in all of DoD.
• San Francisco -- home of Mayor Willie Brown and the Presidio -- is another closure base which is being transformed. The Army transferred the installation property to the National Park Service in 1994. While the Army is performing cleanup activities there, the Park Service is playing a key role in the management and care of this beautiful landmark. This national treasure attracts visitors from all over the world and is a valuable asset to the city.
• DoD's Office of Economic Adjustment supports the formation and operation of local redevelopment authorities to promote economic revitalization. A successful reuse plan depends on a community's ability to form alliances that should include workers, businesses, civic leaders, local government, interest groups and traditional underrepresented populations.

The LRA's responsibility is to formulate a base redevelopment plan that reflects the community's prescription for economic recovery. The primary goal is usually job creation, balanced with the need to expand the tax base, diversify the local economy, promote environmental quality and meet affordable housing needs.

• The Office of Economic Adjustment tracks the number of civilian jobs created and lost at 48 (out of 97) BRAC bases. Since 1993, 30,892 new jobs have been created.
• President Clinton's five-part Community Reinvestment Plan emphasized fast-track cleanup at BRAC bases. After almost four years, we believe the program is working because DoD works in partnership with the community, the state, local government and other federal agencies to reach the mutual goal of economic reuse.

Around the same time the environmental justice executive order was issued, I directed my office to find new ways to increase minority business participation in our environmental programs. As a result, the two have become intertwined, but we didn't embark on this initiative because of a presidential directive, we did it because it was an area that we wanted to improve upon.

In 1994, I issued a memo to my counterparts in the military services encouraging them to maximize opportunities for small disadvantaged businesses in DoD contracts for environmental services. Since environmental cleanup is one of our largest programs, a small business work group was formed to improve access by small businesses to environmental cleanup opportunities.

• An environmental cleanup homepage was established on the Internet.
• Small businesses need exposure. For the past two years, we sponsored the Environmental Cleanup/Small Business Awards. Last year's recipients included a woman-owned business, Human Factors Application, Inc., and two minority business firms, Oarga Services, and the other, also headed by a woman, is Peer Consultants. [Can we say "crony capitalism" ? In the infamous words of Chairman Obama, Yes We Can!]

Finally, the statistics speak for themselves. The number of environmental contracts awarded to small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses and woman-owned businesses are all up compared to last year.

U.S. businesses received about $1.7 billion in cleanup contracts. Of that, small business received 16 percent, or $271 million; small disadvantaged business received 7.5 percent, or $128 million; and women-owned businesses received 3.5 percent, or $60 million.

(1995 Cleanup stats [statistics]: U.S. business received about $1.3 billion; small business received $194 million, or 14 percent; small disadvantaged business received $99 million, or 7.2 percent; and women-owned business received $25 million, or 1.8 percent.)

Community participation in DoD's cleanup program is key to our success. We take great care to keep the public informed and involved in environmental cleanup decisions which impact them. Restoration advisory boards are our primary outlet to foster this communication.

A RAB is a forum through which members of nearby communities can provide input to DoD's environmental cleanup program at active, closing or realigning installations and formerly used defense sites. RABs include members of the local community and representatives of the installation, the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], the state, tribal and local governments.

It is DoD policy to have a balanced and diverse representation on a RAB to reflect the diversity of interests within a community. More than 250 DoD installations are participating on a RAB. I encourage every one of you who have bases in your cities to get involved with your RAB or to work with the public affairs office on the base to determine if there is enough community interest to establish a RAB.

As a side note, DoD is developing the Technical Assistance for Public Participation program to help community members of RABs participate more effectively in the restoration program at local installations. Through TAPP, community members will have the resources to obtain objective, independent analysis of technical cleanup issues. The Congress authorized DoD to spend $6 million for the TAPP program. We plan on having a final TAPP rule completed by the end of this year. (For more information, please visit our Web site [http://www.dtic.mil/envirodod/envirodod.html].)

In addition to RABs, another community-based partnership is with the Naval District Washington. The National Urban Tree House is a cooperative, community-based program involving natural resources education, urban forestry, outreach and research. The program includes education and outreach programs for at-risk youth living in the Anacostia-Congress Heights neighborhood of Washington. There are five research projects in progress, focusing on human and natural environmental relationships and cooperative planning research. [What does this have to do with national defense ? Just curious.]

I wanted to touch on the role of training and how DoD is integrating environmental justice training into our own internal community through education and outreach programs. We are in the process of developing a curriculum about environmental justice for incorporation into all DoD environmental training programs and for our senior leadership. [Well, at least no one was sent to a reeducation camp.] In addition, DoD administers the Environmental Scholarship, Fellowship and Grants Program, which provides environmental education and training partnerships among public universities.

DoD is supporting environmental training to disadvantaged young adults through the Clark Atlanta University and the Minority Institution Consortium. They also offer hazardous waste training courses and degree programs in environmental sciences and engineering.

To summarize DoD's progress in implementing the executive order, we are focusing on four areas:

• Incorporating environmental justice issues into existing policy and guidance;
• Promoting economic opportunities in BRAC communities and small business opportunities for minority businesses;
• Encouraging impacted communities to participate in environmental cleanup decisions that affect them; and
• Training DoD personnel and raising their awareness of environmental justice."

http://www.defense.gov/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=647


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The rest of the DoD document introduced earlier is much like Inner Party Member Goodman's speech. I, like you, can only take so much and no more.

Before you call me a crackpot and tell me this is old news that happened years ago, let's fast foward to 2012:


**********************************

(Emphasis in italics, outrage in brackets.)


***********************************

" 'Even as orchestrated campaigns succeed in convincing a growing number of Americans to doubt the established evidence of climate change, the Department of Defense must remain committed to continuing its science-based efforts to address the expected dramatic and far reaching impacts of climate change on the military and on national security.'

That was the message of Dr. Naomi Oreskes, historian of science and author of Merchants of Doubt, How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco to Global Warming, during the opening plenary session of the annual Partners in Environmental Technology Technical Symposium & Workshop hosted by SERDP and ESTCP in Washington, D.C., November 29 – December 1, 2011. More than 1,200 environmental professionals from the military, government agencies, academia, private industry, and the regulatory community participated in this conference.
Dr. Oreskes, who is also a Professor of History and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and an Adjunct Professor of Geosciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, cited SERDP for peer-reviewed research the program first sponsored in the early 1990s, which added to the scientific evidence of climate change.

Still, she cautioned that even as DoD moves forward in establishing policy and taking action on climate change, the ongoing efforts by certain groups aimed at sowing doubt among Americans and policymakers have succeeded in stalling wide-ranging federal action for the nation as a whole.
Regarding climate change, Americans in general have 'engaged in some magical thinking,' Dr. Oreskes said. 'We’ve denied, or at least doubted, the facts. We’ve persuaded ourselves that the matter is unsettled. But as Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, ‘we may be entitled to our own opinions, but we’re not entitled to our own facts’,' said Dr. Oreskes. 'And the facts of climate change are very clear. By denying those facts, we’ve put ourselves on a collision course with our own future.'
The successful efforts to spread doubt about climate change and its causes are similar to campaigns by a small group of scientists with connections in industry and politics to question the evidence linking smoking to lung cancer, CFCs to the ozone hole, and coal smoke to acid rain, Dr. Oreskes said. In Merchants of Doubt, Dr. Oreskes and coauthor Erik M. Conway detailed the long history of these groups’ campaigns.

'For climate change, they’ve applied the same strategy as they used for tobacco – to insist that the science related to these environmental issues was unsettled and it would be premature for the government to act,' Dr. Oreskes said. As with tobacco and its effects on public health, delaying action on climate change risks potentially devastating consequences for the environment and human health and well being.'

'This is why the facts of science still matter greatly, because we ignore the facts of nature at our peril,' Dr. Oreskes said. 'Denying them does not make them go away.'

Dr. John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, [Chairman Obama's whack job Science Czar who thinks it's a good idea to put sterilants in drinking water to control population] described the wide-ranging effects of climate change on the most basic aspects of life and society in his address during the plenary session.

'Without energy, there is no economy. And without climate, there is no environment,' Dr. Holdren said. 'Without economy and environment, there is no material well being, no civilized society, no personal or national security. The problem is the world is getting most of the energy its economies need in ways that are imperiling the climate its environment needs. Much greater harm is ahead unless we move rapidly to reduce the offending emissions and adapt to the changes in climate that are no longer avoidable.'

The implications of climate change for DoD are profound, Dr. Holdren said. 'The United States’ dependence on oil and greenhouse gas driven climate change both pose significant national and international security challenges,' he said.

Climate change itself can have impacts on international tensions, [ ???]  Dr. Holdren explained. It can increase conflicts over scarce resources such as water, and it can have impacts on the types of missions, for example, those necessitated by instability from flows of environmental refugees. Climate change also can influence the effectiveness of troops in combat as in heatwaves or duststorms. And it can affect troop training and readiness as military installations, depending on location, are subjected to more frequent and varied weather extremes, such as storm surge, sea level rise, more intense hurricanes, or hotter and drier climate.

Regarding energy, DoD is both a major user of fossil fuels and a major emitter of greenhouse gases, Dr. Holdren noted. He praised DoD, and SERDP and ESTCP, for meeting both the energy and environmental challenges in several ways.

First, Dr. Holdren cited DoD’s extensive investment in science and technology to develop such innovations as advanced fuel systems, hybrid propulsion systems, high efficiency engines, lightweight components, and alternative biofuels for ships and aircraft. [Guess who's paying for this junk science ? You are, silly!]

Second, he noted the military’s early procurement of energy efficient technologies and clean energy, which can bring down costs and make these options more available for the nation as a whole. ESTCP’s Installation Energy Test Bed initiative is a good example of early procurement, Dr. Holdren noted. Through this initiative, DoD facilities throughout the nation are being used as energy test beds for innovative technologies. These test beds are validating performance costs and environmental impacts and enabling DoD to transfer lessons learned in design procurement across services and installations.

Third, Dr. Holdren cited DoD’s innovation and responsible operations at installations, including the use of clean energy, energy efficient practices, and environmental stewardship. Building efficiency, he noted, can reduce costs, improve reliability, and improve sustainability on installations. DoD, through SERDP and ESTCP, also is studying advanced electric power systems, which can reduce costs, improve resilience, secure power for critical loads, and reduce carbon emissions. Examples include utility-scale distributed power, wind, solar and fuel cells, microgrids, and vehicle-to-grid power.
'In short, the defense sector is a crucial player in the Obama administration’s national strategy of innovation to address energy and climate challenges,' Dr. Holdren told Symposium & Workshop attendees. 'What you are doing in this domain is immensely important. It is the leading edge, and the White House very much appreciates it.'

The Honorable Terry Yonkers, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics, described during his plenary session address how SERDP and ESTCP have been instrumental in enabling the U.S. Air Force to make dramatic strides in the speed and effectiveness of environmental cleanup of harmful contaminants on current and former military sites.

'Under the auspices of SERDP and ESTCP, advanced technologies were developed that enhanced the natural degradation of some of the more troublesome contaminants,' Mr. Yonkers said. And advances in nanotechnologies, bioremediation, and chemical approaches are emerging that will help accelerate cleanup even more, he noted.

'Not only are these technologies leading to cost savings, but they are allowing us to meet regulatory standards and to close out sites and do it much more quickly,' Mr. Yonkers said. Sites that just a few years ago were projected to take 50 to 100 years to complete now are projected to be cleaned up in 8 to 10 years, he said.

Still, Mr. Yonkers acknowledged significant challenges remain for cleaning up contaminants such as chlorinated solvents and munitions at difficult sites. Regulatory agencies also are proposing stricter standards on a number of emerging contaminants. 'As we think about the future, we have to be conducting research that addresses a dynamic challenging regulatory cleanup environment with tighter standards,' he said.

Mr. Yonkers also discussed several other areas where progress has been made and challenges remain, including natural resources, sustainability, recycling, pollution prevention, and energy.
The Air Force is the single largest user of energy in the federal government, he said. In FY 2011, the service spent $8 billion on energy - $6.5 billion on jet fuel, $1.1 billion to run installations, and $400 million to fuel non-tactical vehicles. Fuel costs for the Air Force for FY 2012 are projected to exceed $9 billion, he said.

'At the same time we seek to reduce demand and the annual costs, we’re also pursuing energy security,' said Mr. Yonkers. 'Reliable uninterrupted energy is essential in meeting our critical infrastructure needs and hence our critical missions.'

'SERDP’s charter is no less critical today than it was 25 years ago, perhaps more so,' Mr. Yonkers said. In connection with ESTCP, he further indicated that bringing that innovation to the marketplace is key.

Project-of-the-Year Awards Showcase Program Successes and DoD Benefits

During the opening plenary session, SERDP and ESTCP announced
five Projects of the Year to recognize outstanding achievements and
technical advances with significant benefits to DoD. (Photo by Cassi Hayden)

Dr. Jeffrey Marqusee, SERDP and ESTCP Executive Director, and Dr. Anne Andrews, Deputy Director, presented four SERDP Project-of-the-Year Awards and one ESTCP Project-of-the-Year Award at the conclusion of the plenary session to recognize research and technology developments with significant benefits to DoD. Recipients of this prestigious honor follow. Descriptions of the award-winning projects are available at the links below.
SERDP Projects of the Year

• ENVIRONMENTAL RESTORATION: Assessing Vapor Intrusion at Chlorinated Solvent-Impacted Sites (Dr. Paul C. Johnson, Arizona State University)
• MUNITIONS RESPONSE: Advanced Signal Processing for UXO Discrimination (Dr. Fridon Shubitidze, Dartmouth College and Sky Research, Inc.)
• RESOURCE CONSERVATION & CLIMATE CHANGE: Forecasting the Effects of Multiple, Interacting Stressors on At-Risk Populations (Dr. Joshua J. Lawler, University of Washington)
• WEAPONS SYSTEMS & PLATFORMS: Combustion Science to Reduce Particulate Matter Emissions for Military Platforms (Dr. Mel Roquemore, Air Force Research Laboratory)

ESTCP Project of the Year

• Passive Sampling to Support Remediation Of Contaminated Sediments (Dr. Philip M. Gschwend, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Technical Program Delivers Timely Updates and Training Opportunities
Following the opening plenary session, attendees took part in the technical program, which offered a selection of 15 technical sessions and four short courses. Technical sessions highlighted research and innovative technologies that are helping DoD address increasingly complex environmental challenges such as energy efficiency and security, emissions from gas turbine engines, controlling munitions constituents on operational ranges, classification of military munitions, and climate change vulnerabilities and impacts.

Stimulating presentations encouraged audience participation and follow-on discussion throughout the technical program. (Photo by

Cassi Hayden)

Short courses in the environmental restoration and munitions response areas provided unique training opportunities on recent advances in science and technology.

Throughout the conference, attendees also took advantage of the many opportunities to meet with colleagues, exchange information, and tour the Exhibit Hall, which featured more than 450 poster presentations and 11 booths showcasing technologies and scientific advances from SERDP, ESTCP, and related environmental and energy research programs.

Presentations from the plenary session, technical sessions, and short courses are available at http://symposium2011.serdp-estcp.org. Coming soon to the web site are on-demand videos from the four short courses—Implementing Classification on a Munitions Response Project, Estimating DNAPL Source Zone Natural Attenuation, Thermal Treatment Technologies: Lessons Learned, and Field Methods to Distinguish between Vapor Intrusion and Indoor Sources of VOCs.
Planning is now under way for the 2012 Symposium & Workshop to be held November 27-29 in Washington, D.C. Watch http://symposium2012.serdp-estcp.org for details. The Call for Poster Abstracts will be released by the end of May with abstracts due July 31.

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Phone (703) 696-2127 | Fax (703) 696-2114

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http://www.serdp-estcp.org/News-and-Events/News-Announcements/Program-News/Symposium-highlights-S-T-advances-and-challenges-for-the-environment-energy-and-security

 

 

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God help us all.

...And Environmental Justice For All, Comrades!

Hey, take a look at what I found on the EPA's website (Yes, I have a life. Really. I do. Promise.):

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"Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies. Meaningful involvement means that: (1) people have an opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that may affect their environment and/or health; (2) the publics contribution can influence the regulatory agency's decision; (3) their concerns will be considered in the decision making process; and (4) the decision makers seek out and facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected."

http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/basics/ejbackground.html

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Hmmmm....environmental justice....environmental justice.....where did hear that before....? Dang, the 90's were such a blur...Oh, wait, now I remember!

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"Mother Jones: Can you briefly explain what "environmental justice" means to you?

Van Jones: Environmental justice is the movement to ensure that no community suffers disproportionate environmental burdens or goes without enjoying fair environmental benefits."

http://motherjones.com/environment/2008/10/qa-van-jones

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Yep, that's the same Maoist who served as Chairman Obama's "Green Jobs Czar". ('till Glenn Beck exposed him and the Big Mommy Regime quietly fired him over the weekend. Ah....the days when Glenn Beck was still cool....No bizarre attacks on Newt Gingrich.....Ah, those were the days, weren't they ?)


No, really, the guy is a Maoist:

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"Recalling his brief incarceration, Jones says: 'I met all these young radical people of color. I mean really radical: communists and anarchists. And it was, like, ‘This is what I need to be a part of.’ I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary.'

"After leaving Yale in 1993, Jones relocated to San Francisco, where he helped establish Bay Area Police Watch, a hotline and lawyer-referral service that began as a project of LCCR and specialized in demonizing local police. In 1996 he founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which, claiming that the American criminal-justice system was infested with racism, sought to promote alternatives to incarceration. Jones headed the Baker Center from 1996 to 2007. Between 1999 and 2009, the Baker Center received more than $1 million from......."

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2406

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 From.....c'mon, take a guess......Yep. The Fuhrer himself, George $oros.

Needless to say, Van the Maoist is very big on the whole concept of environmental justice. In fact he said this in 2008: (For craps and giggles, I'm going to add emphasis to certain words. Maybe we'll see a pattern of some sort emerge.)

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"MJ: What's the relationship between environmental justice and sustainability ?

VJ: Well, the only reason that we have the unsustainable accounting that we have right now is because incinerators, dumping grounds, and sacrifice zones were put where poor people live. It would never have been allowed if you had to put all the incinerators and nasty stuff in rich people's neighborhoods; we'd have had a sustainable economy a long time ago. We'd have had a clean and green economy a long time ago. It's the environmental racism that allowed the powerful people in society to turn a blind eye for decades to the downsides of the industrial system that got us to this point. So there's a direct relationship between environmental racism and the lack of sustainability of society as a whole. We were the canaries in the coal mines, crying for relief. Now finally the consequences are affecting everyone, with global warming and everything else. The other thing is that the environmental justice agenda is also changing. Before, it was much stronger on demanding equal protection from environmental bad. Now we are also demanding equal opportunity and equal access to environmental good. We don't want to be first and worst with all the toxins and all the negative effects of global warming, and then benefit last and least from all the breakthroughs in solar, wind energy, organic food, all the positives. We want an equal share, an equitable share, of the work wealth and the benefits of the transition to a green economy."

http://motherjones.com/environment/2008/10/qa-van-jones

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Wanna see something really weird ? Let's go back to the EPA's website. Again, because I'm a "racist, homophobic, climate change denying, Zionist war-mongering Right Wing nutjob", I'm going to add emphasis to some words:

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"How Did the Environmental Justice Movement Arise? The environmental justice movement was started by individuals, primarily people of color, who sought to address the inequity of environmental protection in their communities. Grounded in the struggles of the 1960's Civil Rights Movement, this movement sounded the alarm about the public health dangers for their families, their communities and themselves.

Early in 1990, the Congressional Black Caucus, a bipartisan coalition of academic, social scientists and political activists met with EPA officials to discuss their findings that environmental risk was higher for minority and low-income populations. They alleged that EPA's inspections were not addressing their communities' needs. In response, the EPA Administrator created the Environmental Equity Workgroup in July 1990 to address the allegation that "racial minority and low-income populations bear a higher environmental risk burden than the general population."
The Workgroup produced a report, 'Reducing Risk in All Communities', in June 1992 that supported the allegation and made ten recommendations for addressing the problem. One of the recommendations was to create an office to address these inequities. Thus, the Office of Environmental Equity was established November 1992. The name was changed to Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) in 1994.

On Feb 11, 1994, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations", to focus federal attention on the environmental and human health conditions of minority and low-income populations with the goal of achieving environmental protection for all communities. The Order directed federal agencies to develop environmental justice strategies to help federal agencies address disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of their programs on minority and low-income populations. The order is also intended to promote nondiscrimination in federal programs that affect human health and the environment. It aims to provide minority and low-income communities access to public information and public participation in matters relating to human health and the environment. The Presidential Memorandum accompanying the order underscores certain provisions of existing law that can help ensure that all communities and persons across the nation live in a safe and healthy environment."

http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/basics/ejbackground.html


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Yep. The "fundamental tranformation" of America didn't start with Chairman Obama. It started under Bill Caligula. Now if I remember right, Bill had a Vice President named Al Snore, who, by sheer coincidence of course, would stand to make billions from this madness. You know what else ? Bill Caligula was also married to this woman, who, once again, this is just coincidence, just happened to have a mentor named Saul Alinsky. Yep, it's just Crazytown how that all worked out, huh ?

Creating a Marxist-Leninist command and control Soviet style economy isn't easy. (Just ask "Republican" Presidential Candidate Mitt Trotsky. Look how it blew up in his face in Taxachusetts.) You gotta have a plan, Comrade. You can't just come in and slaugher the bourgeoisie all Che Guevara-like. That's soooo late Twentieth Century. First, you have to have a cadre ready. For example, a person like this would be very helpful. True Believer, I'd like you to meet Nia Robinson. Ms. Robinson is member of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council at the EPA (AKA--the Empire Protection Agency.)

**************************************

"Robinson, Nia

Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative

Ms. Robinson is the Director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC) in Washington, D.C. She was a 2003 Climate Justice Corps Fellow prior to joining EJCC. She was also an organizer and labor relations representative with Service Employees International Union [emphasis added] and a program organizer with the Earth Tomorrow Program of the National Wildlife Federation. Ms. Robinson co-authored the July 2008 report, A Climate of Change: African Americans, Global Warming, and a Just Climate Policy for the U.S."

http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/resources/publications/nejac/members-exec-council-bio-2010.pdf

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Not only do you need the right people to help out, you also need the political will to pull it off. (It also doesn't hurt when you're a rogue federal agency like the EPA that doesn't have to answer to those pesky voters and you get to make "regulations" that carry the same weight as laws.) Emphasis added where appropriate:

**********************************

"Dear Colleagues:

 Expanding the conversation on environmentalism and working for environmental justice are among my top priorities for our work at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. All too often, low-income, minority and tribal Americans live in the shadows of the worst pollution, facing disproportionate health impacts and greater obstacles to economic growth in communities that cannot attract businesses and new jobs.

 In 1994, President Bill Clinton issued an executive order directing all federal agencies to participate in a governmentwide effort to address environmental justice issues. To strengthen our efforts in anticipation of the 20th anniversary of that directive and to ensure that the EPA is setting a standard for all other agencies, I am pleased to share our comprehensive environmental justice strategy

Plan EJ 2014. Plan EJ 2014 builds on the solid foundation we have established at the EPA to expand the conversation on environmentalism. Since my first days as Administrator, I have traveled the country to meet with diverse communities and listen to their concerns. And I am committed to making environmental justice an essential part of our decision making. Plan EJ 2014 offers a road map that will enable us to better integrate environmental justice and civil rights into our programs, policies and daily work. The plan focuses on agencywide areas critical to advancing environmental justice, including rulemaking, permitting, compliance and enforcement, community-based programs and our work with other federal agencies. It also establishes specific milestones to help us meet the needs of overburdened neighborhoods through our decision making, scientific analysis and rulemaking. Every American deserves clean air, water and land in the places where they live, work, play and learn.

Through our implementation of Plan EJ 2014, the EPA will be leading by example in expanding the conversation on environmentalism and working for environmental justice – now and into the future. I am proud to be a part of this effort and ask you to join me as we strengthen our mission to protect the health of all Americans.

Sincerely,

Lisa P. Jackson [EPA Administrator]"


http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/resources/policy/plan-ej-2014/plan-ej-overview.pdf


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All kidding aside:

We are on the edge of complete and total economic, political, and social disaster.

I can't gussy it up.

I can't make it sound palatable.

God help us all.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency