Pall Corp. to pay $2M to clean Glen Cove waste site

One of Long Island’s  largest companies has agreed to pay New York $2 million to clean up hazardous waste at a state Superfund site in Glen Cove where the firm once manufactured high-tech filters.

The settlement with Pall Corp. of Port Washington will cover most of the state’s estimated $2.4 million cost to address pollution at the 5-acre site, according to state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office, which announced the deal Monday.

It covers contaminated soil and groundwater down to 60 feet below the surface at 30 and 36 Sea Cliff Ave. The state Department of Environmental Conservation is still investigating deep groundwater contamination there and could pursue further legal action, Cuomo’s office said.

Heathen all my adult life, I’ve gotten used to ignoring the slurs, the bad jokes, the accusations of satanism and marginalization of my religion and those like it which always seems to appear at this time of year.

So imagine my shock when Selena Fox appeared on the online front page edition for the NY Times. She wasn’t up there for long, of course, but there it finally was – a nod from mainstream media toward taking paganism seriously.

Granted, the article was timed for Halloween. But it was there at last, and that’s something. And while it’s old news that Selena’s groups Circle Sanctuary, The Order of the Pentacle (as a heathen veteran, I am a member) and the Lady Liberty League, working together with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, won a successful lawsuit to add the Wiccan pentacle to the approved religious symbols that can be used for military headstones, it was nice to finally see front page recognition of that in a mainstream paper.

Soon it became apparent that there has been a steady stream of interesting Halloween goodies coming forth from the Grey Lady over the last several days which bear mentioning. I am starting to really wonder who the hell is this and what have you done with the Grey Lady, but I am not entirely sure yet whether I should take the position of Gandalf looking at a tricky and corrupted Saruman, or the fellowship looking at the newly returned Gandalf the White.

Get a load of this: someone let slip that numerous members of Congress are currently being investigated. Two of these names, Maxine Waters and Marcy Kaptur, are no Blue Dogs – they’re some of the staunchest progressives in the House.

Right on the heels of that comes this pearl of wisdom: A new shield law is being crafted to protect journalists (and of interest to those here, bloggers!) from prosecution in case they reveal classified information that “is of interest to the greater general public”.

Even more fun: President Obama has rolled back most of a Bush executive order that essentially neutered the Intelligence Oversight Board.

And as one might well expect in the face of all these boat-rocking events affecting both Congress and the intelligence community, the inevitable Bart Simpson-like “I didn’t do it, nobody saw me do it, you can’t prove nuttin'” public posturing from Cheney over the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson. Ol’ Trickier Dick sounds a little… nervous.

Can it possibly be that real progress is being made? Real cleanup is happening where we can see it? What the heck is goin’ on out there, folks?

Maybe it’s magic…

Thanks for the fp, EK!

Perhaps it’s unfair of me, but the only part of the NY Times 5 part story of the escape of David Rohde and Tahir Luddin that I have bothered to read thus far is the last one. It’s the part that contains the information of most interest to me.

I already know that the Taliban are assholes. I already know that the lives of both local and American embedded/combat journalists have become cheaper in this war than any other, including World Wars I and II. Too, I already know that stories like this serve as tools for a continued propagandist agenda that the NY Times has seldom shown itself on the right side of for the entire duration of these Bush-borne abominations, to include the beginning.

What’s left for someone like me to glean from this story, therefore, are the details of the actual escape. There’s still good and valuable stuff there, for all that it might be tinged with the overbearing agenda – the fact that the guy heard someone loading “a Kalishnikov”, for example. One wonders how he knew it was a Kalishnikov – does that somehow sound different than someone loading another kind of assault rifle? This is the sort of detail that intelligence agents, detectives and lawyers focus on to get to the truth of matters; but it is also exactly the sort of detail that propagandists, preachers and salesmen will tweak in order to create their own version.

As surely sanitized and infused with an agenda as this public debriefing is, there are still select and valuable take-home lessons in it for any of us living in the looming shadow of our own police state.

NYCCAN’s petition, 80,000 verified NYC citizens strong, to place a checkbox vote for a new, impartial investigation of 9/11 has been denied by a Supreme Court judge.

New York City’s government won’t help, New York State’s legislature is in it’s own world of hurt, and the nation has already proven that it cannot be trusted to do the job right, nor can they be asked to do it again.

So NYCCAN is now going worldwide, as I had advised them to do on several occasions.

NYCCAN’s legal advisor, William Pepper, explains the status and future plans of NYCCAN. He is now moving forward to attach the petition and goals for a new 9/11 investigation to the efforts of Spanish Judge Garzon, who is working to hold the Bush administration war criminals accountable for various crimes committed during their regime.

Another excellent writeup on the future NYCCAN focus and strategy is here. NYCCAN will seek credible and well spoken witnesses, and will employ any and all means at their disposal to make the need for a new investigation mainstream.

They chose the wrong goddamned city to mess with when they did this to us, folks. They want to play psyops? We have people who can head that shit right off at the pass. They want to play legal games? We have lawyers who can play those games all day long. They want to take advantage of a lack of marketing savvy and resources? That’s not happening either – we have folks who can do that too.

We have architects. We have scientists. We have military. We have intelligence.

It’s not like we haven’t asked our own city, our own country to help us bring the creatures who did this to justice.

The world is not so large that we won’t be able to find help outside our borders if we need it.

After all, that’s what they did to us.  

/* begin Primal Scream

PLEASE! MOMMY!! MAKE IT STOP!!!

Dear Eileen,

Meet President Obama. October 26, 2009, Miami, FL. Contribute $5 today for a chance to win a trip to Miami and dinner with President Obama! Contribute now.

BARACK OBAMA IS NOT A ROCK STAR! I DO NOT WANT HIS GODDAMN AUTOGRAPH! WE VOTED FOR HIM!!! WE ELECTED HIM!!! HE WORKS FOR US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!!

How would you like to meet President Obama – and get your picture taken with him? Here’s your chance.

I DON’T WANT HIS GODDAMN PICTURE! I WANT MY DAD TO HAVE SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE! YOU P.R. FLACKS TRIED THIS LAME ASS “ROCK STAR” SHITE WITH HILLARY TOO AND LOOK HOW WELL THAT WORKED!!!

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is hosting a special dinner Oct. 26 in Miami to celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime leader, and you and a friend could be there. You’ll also receive a keepsake photo, so you’ll always remember the night you met the president.

I WOULD MUCH RATHER ATTEND A SPECIAL DINNER WHERE WE ARE ALLOWED TO TAKE SLEDGEHAMMERS TO THE NSA WARRANTLESS WIRETAPPING DATA SNIFFERS, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! IF YOU CHARGE A DOLLAR A WHACK I AM BETTING YOU WILL RAISE AT LEAST ENOUGH FOR A TARP BAILOUT FOR THE WALL STREET KISSASS OF YOUR CHOICE!!!

If you make a contribution to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee today, you will be automatically entered to win you and a guest a trip to Miami (airfare and hotel included) to meet President Obama and other Democratic leaders at our special event.

PRESIDENT OBAMA IS A PRETTY COOL PERSON FOR ALL THAT HE DRINKS BUD LIGHT, BUT HE IS NOT A FREAKING ROCK STAR AND UNTIL HE CAN SING “STARSHIP TROOPER” LIKE JON ANDERSON OR AT LEAST SHUT OFF THE MOTHERFUCKING NSA WIRETAP DATA SUCKERS AND GET MY DAD AND MY SISTER AND MY FRIEND MARY AND ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE LIVING HAND TO MOUTH SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW FROM THIS!!!

I DON’T DRINK “GOV LIGHT”!!! THIS IS NOT THE UNITED STATES OF DISNEYLAND!!! GIVE ME SOME ROBUST TOASTED MALT AND CASCADE HIPPIE HOPPY FLAVA IN MY GOVERNMENT OR GO THE FUCK AWAY!!!

/* end Primal Scream

Coming only a mere 10 days after my original diary on the subject, someone at the NY Times suddenly decides they don’t want the karma of thousands of ignorant dead on their souls and frontpages a story about how the interaction of H1N1 and aspirin caused hundreds of thousands of deaths during the Pandemic of 1918.

However, the spin on this article is difficult to miss for someone who already knows the rest of the story. Disinformation can be just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than no information at all. The article is peppered with bad information, authoritative-sounding half-truths and spin that is clearly designed to simultaneously deflect the blame from the US military and aspirin as a treatment.

Deaths are attributed to aspirin overdose ONLY, and the article infers that aspirin was prescribed (we are carefully and repeatedly told “in excess”) simply because it was “the hot new thing” during a time when medical science “was nowhere near as advanced as it is now”.

Bull twinkies. Cow cupcakes. Meadow muffins.

The well-spoken, firey actor has a a two-part interview on Russia Today that continues to leave blistering tire tracks across the back of the complicit mainstream American media. Hat tip to Lo Auer of Big Yellow for this one.

I encountered several examples of internet troll today that quite literally redefined the term, bringing it to a new low I didn’t think was possible.

Apparently my “vitriol” concerning 9/11 is “sexy”.

Yeah. It’s all about the entertainment, and argument for the sake thereof. 9/11 is such a bountiful font of giggles and fun, let me tell you.

I can’t even imagine what these… things… would have done to someone who actually lost a friend or relative on 9/11, or who had seen people die, or whose job it had been to pick up body parts. Someone who wasn’t made of sterner military stuff. Someone who truly was turned into a permanent basket case by the events of that day.

There are dead slugs I’ve shaken out of beer bottles that are closer to humanity than the infowar creatures who are making a merry game out of covering up what happened on 9/11. Cointelpro for the LOSE, people.

Global Exchange (Medea Benjamin’s fair trade cooperative) is having a contest called Human Rights Heroes where progressives can vote on their favorite human rights activist in three categories: Peace, Green Alternatives, and Economic Justice. The winner will receive $1000. You can nominate someone, or you can vote for the folks already listed. The contest ends October 22nd and is also being sponsored by Democracy in Action and Ben & Jerry’s. Nominees will be accepted until October 5th.

The Peace category presented a lot of tough choices but in the end I voted for David Swanson. His tireless work to hold the Bush administration accountable, which would address many of the world’s problems at their root cause, has been invaluable to the peace movement.

A well-loved and highly respected woman in the SCA out in California fell ill at an event held on Labor Day weekend. She was hospitalized on the 15th. The diagnosis, a WEEK later, was H1N1 – swine flu.

They took her off life support yesterday. She’s gone.

Her lung collapsed and her kidneys completely failed within a month. This was a woman who fought in the SCA, both heavy list and fencing. She had been knighted for her skill and recently was awarded another peerage for her service. Just as a note for people unfamiliar with the SCA; those who receive knighthoods for heavy list fighting, male or female, are not exactly known for their weak constitutions. They have proven themselves capable of moving with superior speed and skill while wearing suits of armor that can weigh up to 120 pounds. She was healthy and strong a month ago. Today she’s dead.

I strongly urge you to read the full blog which describes this poor lady’s symptoms as they developed. My suspicion is that what actually killed her was IGNORANCE. First of all, why did it take them a FULL WEEK to come back with a diagnosis of swine flu? Doctors and hospitals KNOW this shit is coming. They should be prepared.

Secondly, note in the blog that they state that she had a reaction to “a codeine medication”. This was probably Tylenol with Codeine. On this note, read the second link.

Treating H1N1 as ordinary flu, especially with certain drugs, can make the problem worse. This is what happened in 1918, when antibiotics were nonexistent and aspirin was a new treatment for fever. What killed most of the people who died from the 1918 flu was not the flu itself – it was treating them with ASPIRIN.

The purpose of a fever is to heat the body so much that viruses and bacteria will die. By treating the fever without attacking the invasive virus/bacteria, you nullify the body’s natural defenses, the infection runs wild, and PEOPLE DIE.

The reason I can speak with a certain amount of authority about the H1N1 swine flu and it’s effects is that I am very familiar with them. While stationed at my first and only duty station in Germany, I was frequently very sick with either bronchitis or bronchial pneumonia. I was never prone to either of these until I was stationed overseas, and originally thought that it was because I was allergic to something there. However, the problem followed me home and from 1992 until 2003 I continued to get bronchitis and bronchial pneumonia regularly. This was because even after I left the Air Force, I continued in civilian life to get a flu shot every fall.

While in the Air Force, every November I was injected with a mandatory annual flu shot, which I was told was to work against “Russian Type A Flu”. Googling this will get you many hits on H1N1 – it’s the same biological weapon that came out of Fort Dix in 1976, although (of course) it was being blamed on the Russians in our neck of the woods.

For the entire duration of my assignment in Germany and for many years after that, I could never simply catch a cold. Anything that even remotely resembled a cold would blossom into sinusitis or bronchitis, and if I ignored this into bronchial pneumonia, within the week. It got to the point later in my civilian life that if I got a stuffy nose, I’d wait exactly three days and then make the appointment, because I knew by the fourth day I was going to be coughing stuff up and the doctor would give me antibiotics.

I have documented elsewhere the incident in November of 1989 where I came down with bronchial pneumonia while assigned a garbage detail. After two days of trying to tough out outdoor duty in the dead of a viciously cold German winter, I finally broke down and reported to sick call. I was treated like a malingerer and ignored for so long that the fever broke over the three and a half hours that I sat shivering and sweating in the waiting room. When I finally was seen by a doctor, he snorted in disgust because now there was no fever, and ordered me to pick up a prescription at the window. The prescription was for aspirin.

My own disgusted reaction, which was to crush the paper in my hand and throw it across the room, probably saved my life.

When I reported to sick call the following day I was treated quickly with professionalism and compassion and given antibiotics, which solved the problem.

When I was outprocessing the Air Force, I was handed my medical charts by a doctor and noticed a new stamp on my file that said “MK-ULTRA”. It was next to the other compartmentalizations on my clearance, and I recognized the term from having seen it on the system I administered. I asked what it was, and the doctor looked embarrassed and said “Um, it’s something that shouldn’t be there. I’ll take it off.” He refused to tell me what it was. I knew what my other compartmentalizations meant, so the fact that I hadn’t been told about this and the doctor’s cageyness caused the incident to stay in my memory. I later found out that MK-ULTRA was the project name for unauthorized experimentation that has been done on members of the US military since the 1950s.

In 2003 I stopped taking the annual flu shot, and I also stopped getting bronchitis and pneumonia on a regular basis.

I make a habit of eating a wedge of stilton cheese at least once a month. I like stilton, for me it’s a “comfort food”, but after catching the bronchial foo that was going around the CodePink house in DC a few summers ago I discovered that it could also save me a copay and prescription fee. I had come down with the foo on a Friday and was not going to have access to my doctor until Monday. I ate a wedge of stilton and the stuff was completely gone by Monday. Stilton’s unique flavor, as I discovered by happy accident, is provided by a helpful little critter called penicillum roqueforti. 🙂

A word to the wise… if you get the flu this season, do not treat the fever. Let it run it’s course unless things get dangerous (in which case a doctor should already be involved, of course), and keep the presence of natural antibiotics in your diet high throughout the flu season. If you are not allergic to penicillin and don’t mind the flavor, a wedge of stilton (or roquefort, or bleu) a month will keep the doctor away. Honey is also good, especially manuka – highly antibacterial. Antibacterials won’t do anything to combat the virus, of course, but it will help a great deal to avert secondary infections.

Pass this on to those you care about.

NYCCAN’s March for Answers yesterday was to raise public awareness to the fact that despite 80,000 validated NYC resident signatures on their petition to put a vote for a new 9/11 investigation on November’s ballot, the City is moving to quash this effort. On Friday, Referee Louis Crespo issued his “report and recommendations” and recommended that the Court rule in favor of the City, which does not want to include this request on the ballot.

The march, organized in Battery Park, first came to Ground Zero to observe a moment of silence.

A decision on the matter is expected this week. NYCCAN marched yesterday to protest this attempt to silence the concerns of tens of thousands of New Yorkers as well as those of the watching world. The march gathered in Foley Square/Federal Plaza, where the decision will be made. Ironically it is the same place I was standing eight years ago when I saw the towers fall.

Yesterday I was one of the speakers for NYCCAN at City Hall. As a former member of the US military as well as the third generation of my family to serve the US military intelligence community, I feel strongly that the official story the Bush administration has propagated is a lie and that a new investigation is necessary. I am seen here speaking with Bob McIlvaine (left) and Manny Badillo (right), both of whom lost family members on 9/11.

Video of the speeches at City Hall.

This morning WBAI’s Esther Armah interviewed myself and Bob McIlvaine about the reasons we believe a new 9/11 investigation is necessary. The interview segment runs from 37:05 to 46:19.

More pictures of the march here.

Please continue to support NYCCAN. If you haven’t signed the petition and are a resident of NYC, please do so. Survivors, first responders and those who lost family and friends can also sign a petition of support.