ALARM: Corporate thug running amok, claiming right of privacy and mental anguish

The coal company Murray Energy suing PUBLIC CITIZEN invokes Citizens United to claim a right meant for people.

There's been a bizarre twist in Big Coal's lawsuit against Public Citizen.

Last month, I alerted you that Public Citizen has been sued by a major coal company, Murray Energy, after we called out its attempts to block new rules intended to help protect workers and prevent air pollution.

Murray Energy is now claiming that Citizens United — the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that has allowed unlimited election spending by billionaires and Big Business to corrupt our democracy — may also give corporations privacy rights previously belonging only to people.

In response to our motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Murray Energy is arguing that radio ads we ran about it challenging new worker safety and clean air protections "invaded its privacy" and caused it "mental anguish and emotional distress."

Remember, Murray Energy is a corporation.

And Murray Energy sued us, not the other way around.

But in this post-Citizens United, "corporations are people" world, companies claim to have human privacy that can be invaded and human feelings that can be hurt.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for December 9.

I wish we didn't have to devote time and money to fighting a lawsuit that is the desperate act of a member of an industry engaged in a losing battle against the tide of history.

But we do.

Can you chip in right now so that we don't have to eat into funding for real work while we defend ourselves from this attack? Go to https://secure.citizen.org/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=8201&track=w15idMrry1122a.

As if invoking Citizens United to claim a right intended for living, breathing human beings isn't radical enough, Murray Energy goes even further, suggesting that it is willing to make this lawsuit about the truth of climate science itself.

It could be the Scopes Monkey Trial all over again.

To recap, here's what we're up against:

A corporation with very deep pockets — claiming that Citizens United entitles it to rights meant for people and seemingly eager to put science on trial — is suing us.

I hope you'll make a contribution to help us fight back and keep standing up to corporate power.

Thank you for whatever you can chip in today.

Onward,

Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen

© 2014 Public Citizen • 1600 20th Street, NW / Washington, D.C. 20009


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Coal is cheap like giving yourself lung cancer with discount cigarettes is cheap

 

http://www.governing.com/gov-institute/voices/col-myth-coal-cheap-health-societal-costs.html

Promoting bottled water screws up an otherwise reasonable message

City of Salem hits a foul ball here -- they connect solidly with the message not to give panhandlers cash, but then they send the message out of bounds by promoting bottled water.

Hate Gridlocked Legislatures? | Sightline Daily

http://daily.sightline.org/2015/06/18/hate-gridlocked-legislatures/

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Why "growth" only produces the Illusion of Wealth

From: Charles Marohn <marohn@strongtowns.org>
Date: June 17, 2015 at 03:
Subject: Sneak Peak of Illusion of Wealth

First, here's our latest Curbside Chat video from Gracen Johnson: Illusion of Wealth. You're getting it a few hours ahead of everyone else. We think you'll like it.

-Chuck

Charles Marohn
http://www.strongtowns.us/

Invest $5 to save much more on your biggest energy use: your house

Here at LOVESalemHQ, we have enjoyed almost $20,000 of tax and rebate incentives for our solar hot water system and our 4.4 kW solar electric system, helped support good jobs in Oregon, and significantly reduced the amount of carbon emitted to make this place comfortable. The Energy Trust of Oregon -- which we all pay for through a surcharge on all our power bills -- did all the hard parts for us, cheerfully and efficiently. 

And this year, ETO just helped us tap another $500 state tax credit by upgrading our furnace to a super-high efficient model. We gained a great new closet too (by moving the furnace into the attic, making the house much quieter). 

In this era of low interest rates on anything but highly risky investments, investing in your own home's energy conservation is a triple winner: you get an ultra-safe investment that adds to the value of your home, lowers your monthly cash outflow month after month, improves your home comfort, and ends up paying for itself and then making money for you after that. Even if you ignore the environmental benefits, it's foolish not to take part.  


Amateur Naturalist: Making Your Home More Energy Efficient
Thursday, June 18th         7pm - 8:30pm
$5/person      

RSVP: nichole@straubenvironmentalcenter.org
Straub Environmental Center, 1320 A St.

Increase your energy IQ through an interactive presentation by Energy Trust staff members with practical and hands-on activities for how to improve home energy efficiency and take advantage of renewable energy generation.

Lizzie Rubado, Energy Trust’s senior solar project manager, will highlight the dramatic changes in the solar market in recent years, and the range of renewable energy resources in Oregon. She will lead the class through an interactive exercise for determining the solar potential of a home. Lizzie is best known for her role helping to launch solarize efforts across Oregon that enabled communities to harness their collective purchasing power to acquire solar at a reduced rate and through a streamlined process.

Marshall Johnson, Energy Trust’s senior residential program manager, will describe the energy mix in Oregon and the opportunities to save energy now and over time in your home. He will share information on emerging technologies such as NEST and LEDs. An interactive exercise to identify energy saving opportunities in the home and determine what steps can be taken to save, will propel attendees to action. Marshall has been leading and designing programs to help homeowners save energy for seven years and draws from his past experience as a local contractor in sustainable remodeling.

This engaging presentation will allow attendees to understand the growing choices that exist related to energy generation and use, and how Oregon and Salem are leaders in this area. If you are interested in learning how you can be part of Oregon’s clean energy future, or inspire others to do the same, please join Lizzie and Marshall on June 18th from 7 pm to 8:30 pm.

For more information on Energy Trust cash incentives and services for customers of Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, NW Natural and Cascade Natural Gas visit www.energytrust.org.

Copyright © 2015 Straub Environmental Center, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
Straub Environmental Center, PO Box 12363, Salem, OR 97309

Portland man's beautiful video farewell to dog goes viral

Portland man's beautiful video farewell to dog goes viral | OregonLive.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/06/portland_mans_beautiful_video.html#incart_most-read_opinion_article
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Shared via my feedly reader

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Make Rep. Kurt Schrader explain why he supports this Anti-American abomination

Update: TPP's assault on the Constitution

Ben Beachy, Counterpunch - Alan Morrison, a constitutional law professor and associate dean at George Washington University Law School who has practiced law for 45 years, taught at six law schools including Harvard, and argued 20 Supreme Court cases. 

Morrison warns in a letter to Congress that the TPP's proposed expansion of a controversial parallel legal system for foreign corporations, known as "investor-state dispute settlement", "improperly removes a core judicial function from the federal courts and therefore violates Article III of the Constitution." 

TPP's expansion of ISDS would newly empower thousands of foreign corporations to bypass the entire U.S. legal system and challenge U.S. laws before private international tribunals comprised of three attorneys. 

These three individuals would not be constitutionally appointed and salaried U.S. judges, but private lawyers who are paid by the hour. As Morrison points out, "many of those who serve as arbitrators in one ISDS case represent investors challenging governments in another." The three ISDS lawyers, though acting like a court, would not be bound by a system of legal precedent. They would be authorized to rule against U.S. laws and order U.S. taxpayer compensation in decisions that could not be appealed on the merits or reviewed in U.S. courts. 

The U.S. Constitution states in Article III that U.S. courts, presided over by salaried U.S. judges, have judicial authority over challenges to U.S. laws. Instead, the TPP would empower an ad-hoc group of three bill-by-the-hour private lawyers operating outside of the U.S. legal system to issue binding decisions on corporate challenges to U.S. laws. 

Morrison concludes, "The Administration owes it to Congress and the American people to explain how the Constitution allows the United States to agree to submit the validity of its federal, state, and local laws to three private arbitrators, with no possibility of review by any U.S. court." 

The TPP's expansion of this constitutional aberration would threaten the policies that we rely on for a clean environment, stable economy and healthy communities. Since ISDS tribunals, unlike U.S. judges, are not bound by legal precedent or substantive appeal, they are free to concoct broad governmental obligations to foreign investors and then rule against environmental, financial and health policies. 

What kinds of U.S. laws and regulations would be vulnerable to corporate challenge under this unprecedented expansion of U.S. ISDS liability? Morrison spells out some examples: 

* E-cigarette regulations: "If Congress decided to regulate [e-cigarettes] after enactment of the TPP, a non-U.S. investor from a TPP country that makes e-cigarettes here could ask an ISDS panel to rule that its investment-based expectations were improperly violated and thus that it is entitled to damages under the minimum standard of treatment provisions." 

* Water rationing for drought-stricken California: "A similar challenge could be made by a TPP investor who owned farm land in California and objected to an intensification of mandatory water rationing for farms enacted after the TPP goes into effect, even if such rules also applied to U.S. owners of land that would be adversely affected by them." 

* A $15 minimum wage: "Or the non-U.S. TPP-owner of restaurants in Los Angeles could demand arbitration over a post TPP-enactment of an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which, he claims, violates his investment-based expectations when he decided to purchase the restaurants." 

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

T.R. Reid coming to Salem

Author, lecturer, documentary film maker T. R. Reid visits Oregon to discuss health care reform
T. R. Reid has become one of the nation's best-known reporters through his books and articles, documentary films, reporting for the Washington Post, and commentaries on NPR's Morning Edition. 

His 2009 book "The Healing of America" became a national best-seller. PBS Frontline made two documentaries, "Sick Around the World" and "India--A Second Opinion" following Reid as he did the reporting for that book. His latest PBS film is "U.S. Health Care: The Good News," broadcast by PBS affiliates around the country.

Reid is Chair of the Colorado Foundation for Universal Health Care, the state-wide citizens' campaign working to provide health care for every Coloradan. For more information, please visit his website: www.trreid.net. This Oregon visit is sponsored by the Oregon chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Here are events open to the public:

·         July 25th, Saturday 12:00 pm in Salem: "Obamacare: Is it the answer?" Presentation by Mr. Reid to the Salem City Club followed by discussion. Creekside Room, Building D, Salem Hospital Campus, 890 Oak Street SE, Salem. Details will be available at http://salemcityclub.com/page-953771 


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

The Conservative Case Against Capital Punishment

http://www.governing.com/gov-institute/voices/col-conservative-case-against-capital-punishment.html


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."