Longer does. A person doesn't have to look too far to see how much the system has degraded. You can go all the way back to April of 2010, when the BP Corexit was approved by the EPA, who decided a test of a mere seven days was sufficient to say the product was safe, or to May of 2011, when the EPA responded to the Fukishma holocaust of radioactivity by stopping its operation of air monitoring here on the West Coast.

Or here is a more current event and example - wherein the EPA decided to do a hatchet job on its own research regarding the contamination of water from the natural gas/shale oil activities in TX:

Tiny URL:
http://tinyurl.com/a2dfx56

Or regular:
http://news.yahoo.com/epa-changed-course-oil-company-protested-082012084.html;_ylt=AmveX8E14CsKyLcN.JfNSLQS.MwF;_ylu=X3oDMTQ2bTdpNTV2BG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBTY2llbmNlU0YgRW5lcmd5U1NGBHBrZwM2Yjg2NzM2OC00NWE2LTM1OWMtOTI5MC0wZTE4ZGU2YWVkYWUEcG9zAzEEc2VjA3RvcF9zdG9yeQR2ZXIDNWY2NjY5OTAtNWZiNi0xMWUyLWJlZmUtMzE1ZDMwNTQ3ZGFk;_ylg=X3oDMTFzMnBqYnA4BGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANzY2llbmNlfGVuZXJneQRwdANzZWN0aW9ucw--;_ylv=3

WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) — When a man in a Fort Worth suburb reported his family's drinking water had begun bubbling like champagne, the federal government sounded an alarm: An oil company may have tainted their wells while drilling for natural gas. At first, the Environmental Protection Agency believed the situation was so serious that it issued a rare emergency order in late 2010 that said at least two homeowners were in immediate danger from a well saturated with flammable methane. More than a year later, the agency rescinded its mandate and refused to explain why.

Now a confidential report obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with company representatives show that the EPA had scientific evidence against the driller, Range Resources, but changed course after the company threatened not to cooperate with a national study into a common form of drilling called hydraulic fracturing. Regulators set aside an analysis that concluded the drilling could have been to blame for the contamination.

While they get paid for it:

http://securityblog.verizonbusiness.com/2013/01/14/case-study-pro-active-log-review-might-be-a-good-idea/

my spouse just started laughing very loudly in the back room, and when I checked on him, he was excitedly reading an article in a Marin Newspaper about an acquaintance of ours.

Apparently Jonathan Frieman, of San Raphael Calif., was caught as a single driver, alone and without any physical passengers, zipping along in the Car Pool lane.

Now Jonathan has one of those really small, three wheeled two person autos, that gets something like 54 miles to the gallon. The article showed his photo but didn't detail what car he was driving.

The reason for me mentioning all of this on DU is this one: now Jonathan is going to have the matter brought to trial, with his reasoning that since he had papers regarding incorporatization in his car, and since corporations are people, that he was not driving alone, and that he should not be ticketed.

Full article is here:


http://www.pacificsun.com/news/local/article_a50eab78-56c0-11e2-b475-001a4bcf6878.html

Since the November election, I am noticing more and more positive reports on the state of California's fiscal health.

In reading this report, please remember to cut California some slack. Although our state budget is always a massive financial entity, it is a budget that must provide for over 37 million people!

Apparently one of the reasons for California getting back on track was that in November 2012, the voters approved Proposition Thirty. This measure received approval from the fifty percent majority necessary for the tax hikes to go into effect. It increases the state retail sales tax by one quarter percent. It also ups the tax rates of people who make over a quarter of a million dollars a year. Due to this surge in state revenue, students at California State University system will be getting tuition refunds!

Looking back to last May, the deficit in California had increased by unexpected amounts. The situation was rather dire. Witness this account from the Sacramento Bee:
"The Democratic governor says the general fund deficit has mushroomed from $9.2 billion to $15.7 billion. Most of the widening gap comes from acknowledging that his previous forecast was too optimistic, a concern that economists voiced during the summer of 2011."
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/15/4490013/optimistic-projections-led-to.html#storylink=cpy

Now for what is going on currently -

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/politics&id=8877651

SHERMAN OAKS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- California voters have spoken loud
and clear when it comes to education funding. They are willing to pay
more in taxes to avoid major budget cuts from kindergarten to college.

With 100 percent of precincts' reports, 54 percent of voters support
Proposition 30. The measure was aggressively backed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
"We are now living within our means because of the cuts and because of Prop
30," Brown said during a Wednesday news conference. "That money will pay down
debt, and then with the economic recovery, it will create more and more money
per child in the classroom."

Proposition 30 was close throughout election night, and it did not receive
the 50 percent majority until 3 a.m. Wednesday. But now that it has been
approved, starting in January, Californians will be paying an additional
quarter-cent in sales tax for the next four years. It will also raise the
income tax on people who earn more than $250,000 for seven years.

Parents were very happy that Prop 30 passed. "This money is going to do a lot
for the classroom, for the students to be in school the full year," said parent
Christina Concidine. The passage of prop 30 is having immediate effects.

####

is it the best of the worst movies ever made, or is it worth renting?

Yet even as this Majority scoffs as those who are awakening, much is going on. Some of it is on the surface, but some lies within what Carl Jung would consider to be the Collective Unconscious.

Given the history of this nation, with its Founding Fathers laying out how each citizen has an inalienable right to freedoms, and then those freedoms are fully detailed in the Bill of Rights, why are so many around us willing to become feudal serfs inside an Oligarchy?

In the economic domain there is much activity as the governments of the world, with few exceptions, attempt to profit at the expense of the people. Here also, however, The Shift of Consciousness is being experienced by the Powers That Be. (One example of this "Shift" is in those who have been so very much a part of the Occupy Movement. Anyone following this movement was enheartened to notice that Occupy Sandy did more for the people afflicted by Hurricane Sandy than the Red Cross or even FEMA!)

The old models are not working and as these old models fail, the Elite must develop new schemes to convince the people that they should support their governments and the rich FIRST, rather than consider their own needs. (One such scheme is of course, the "Fiscal Cliff." All this is feudalism in its death throes, in my opinion.

The awakening of the human individual to the truth of the matter naturally allows even those who are slaves to the system to consider a different perspective. It allows a bit of Light to come in, in a quite literal fashion. The argument that "monarchies," some of them off in the Middle East, and one massive Monarchy of a Corporate Cabal here in the USA, which includes various insidious members of the Political Class, that these monarchies must be supported by the greater population -- this argument is losing coherency, for example. The idea that humans should be separated into classes according to income is losing credibility.

There is a great equalizing effect in this Post-Shift Environment that sees the great virtue and utility in achieving a consensus in economic matters that supports the
highest good for all participants.

Discuss as you will...