Mind Vomit by the ikss ~ a journal
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Tuesday, Mar. 30, 2004alms
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somebody out there loves me
�Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead�
-Lucille Ball
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
REGISTER TO VOTE
"The time is always right to do what is right"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The "seven social sins": Knowledge without character,
Science without humanity,
Wealth without work,
Commerce without morality,
Politics without principles,
Pleasure without conscience,
Worship without self-sacrifice."
--Gandhi
"We have not inherited the world from our forfathers -
We have borrowed it from our children."
--Kashmiri, proverb
This time, I am participating in a 5k walk, designed to raise money and awareness on behalf of several AIDS & HIV charities in Orange County. These charities assist men, women, children, and families in Orange County living with HIV disease. Services include food, transportation, housing, emergency financial assistance, kids and family programs, mental health counseling, support groups and HIV education and prevention services. Visit this page for some additional information, or the AIDS Walk page.
If you would care to make a donation to this very worthy cause, please visit my donation web page.
Or if any of you local-type folks would care to join me, please do. Drop me a line.
~~~
Internet-Dating Profile Quote of the Day:
I picked this one, because it made me laugh�
�I was born and raised in the UK, but I grew tired of the culture of drunken hooliganism and dreadful weather, so I packed my bags and left the country.�
~~~
Troubled Waters: Bush Team Works to Weaken Clean Water Protections
Between January 2002 and June 2003, more than 3,700 facilities across the U.S. violated their Clean Water Act permits for discharging pollutants into the nation's waters, according to a new study from U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG). Some facilities exceeded their permits repeatedly, and for multiple pollutants. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration has weakened both protections and enforcement under the Act, putting public health at risk.
The report, "Troubled Waters: An analysis of Clean Water Act compliance, January 2002-June 2003," details extensive violations of the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA). USPIRG notes that in the 18-month period covered in the report:
* 35 facilities exceeded their permits during every reporting period.
* 436 major facilities exceeded their CWA permit limits for at least 10 of 18 reporting periods.
* There were more than 32,000 total violations of CWA permits.
* On average, facilities that exceeded their permits had violations in excess of six times the amount of allowed pollution discharge.
Meanwhile the Bush Administration has persistently worked to weaken protections for America's waterways, resisted clean-up of dirty waters, and undercut enforcement of the CWA.
In January 2003, the Bush Administration announced an intended rule change that would exclude numerous waterways from protection under the Act, including 20 million acres of wetlands, comprising 20% of all wetlands in the contiguous 48 states. Simultaneously the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers instructed staff to stop enforcing the CWA in "isolated" waterways such as small streams and non-navigable ponds. Responding to an angry outcry from the environmental community, EPA announced in December, 2003 that it would not go forward with the rule change. However, agency staff must now apply for "formal project-specific approval" to protect these waters. Formerly, mining companies, developers, and other polluters had to apply for exemptions under the CWA.
Last November the Bush Administration issued a draft of revised guidelines for sewage treatment by publicly owned facilities. The changes would allow these plants to divert filtered sewage from secondary, biological treatments and mix it with fully treated wastewater before discharge. The risks to public health from this relaxed guideline could include increased outbreaks of pfisteria, giardia, and hepatitis A.
The Bush Administration's proposed EPA funding for fiscal year 2005 slashes over $600 million from the agency's budget, reducing the agency's ability to monitor and enforce federal clean water laws. The proposed budget also reduces by 37% funds made available to states for improvement of wastewater treatment facilities.
"At a time when our leaders should be working with the states to address this illegal pollution and make all of our waterways fishable and swimmable, the Bush Administration suggested, proposed, or enacted numerous policies that would weaken the Clean Water Act and threaten the future of America's rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans," writes USPIRG's Alison Cassady.[1]
TAKE ACTION
Email your U.S. Representative and ask them to protectect U.S. waters from polluters by supporting the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act.
SOURCES:
[1] "Troubled Waters: An analysis of Clean Water Act compliance, January 2002-June 2003," USPIRG report, Mar. 30, 2004.
~~~
Word of the Day for Tuesday March 30, 2004
grandiloquent gran-DIL-uh-kwuhnt, adjective:
Lofty in style; pompous; bombastic.
last / next
~~~~~~~~~~~peace, love and smooches~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't know why you'd wanna, but on the off-chance you may feel tempted to steal any of my words and claim them as your own, please be advised:
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Copyright 2002-2005, Howl-at-the-Moon Words
***DISCLAIMER: These are my thoughts and my thoughts alone. If you know me in my "real life" off the net and have come across this page purely by accident, please keep in mind that you were not invited here and I would suggest you leave this page now. However, should you choose not to do so, please be warned that reading my thoughts here is not an invitation to discuss them off-line. You may discover things you do not know about me and may not like very much. Such is life. Again, this is MY space and I will use it as I see fit. If you are offended by anything here, well that's pretty much your own fault at this point.
I say all of this with love, of course, but there it is.
