Community Advisory Panel Meeting #1

I've been writing off and on between laundry loads all day today, but waited until I could read the professional writers' articles about yesterday's meeting at the Freeland Elementary School cafeteria. No need to reinvent the wheel, eh? The Saginaw News version headlines, "We are not Dow, U-M says," by JOE SNAPPER. The Midland Daily News leads off with "Scientists explain how dioxin health study will work," by Kelly Jerome.

I became aware of this meeting Thursday on WNEM Channel 5's evening news... only three days notice. We changed our weekend plans to accomodate the 6:30 meeting on Sunday evening. There were somewhere between 46 and 75 residents attending, depending on which newspaper you read. I'm convinced more people would have attended if they had known about it sooner.

I've deleted the stuff I was writing today... thank me for that!... and here is how I felt about the actual presentation... gut feel!

• The meeting was very informative, worth changing our plans.
The study will be fair (more about this later).
• Participants will be random.
• Litigants and non-litigants all have more in common than we might want to admit. I'm concerned that, since participants are chosen randomly, our household might not be chosen for the sampling. I also want to know if living with dioxin in my backyard has affected my health, or for that matter the health of my family.
• I'm overall convinced the Community Advisory Panel was well-chosen, but believe at least one member should be somebody who actually lives on the floodplain.

The next meeting is planned for Thursday, December 9 at 6:00 pm in the Freeland Elementary School Auditorium. Mark your calendars now. These advisory meetings are important. Unfortunately, the Saginaw Valley Computer Association meets that same evening. As President I really should attend that meeting. We shall see how things go.

Guess I'd better start reading the Midland Daily News religiously!!! It's the one place where I can get info about dioxin-related meetings in a timely fashion. Thanks for your journalistic expertise, Kathie!!!

Read Kathie Marchlewski's complete article here: U-M dioxin study focus of Sunday meeting.

What: A meeting of community leaders to discuss the plans
for a University of Michigan study on dioxin exposure in the Midland and Saginaw
areas.
· When: Sunday August 29, 6:30 p.m.
· Where: Freeland Elementary School, in
the cafeteria
· For more information: www.UMDioxin.org

This meeting is all about the dioxin exposure studies to be performed on actual living people who have lived in the Tittabawassee River floodplain! This is an important topic. All of us should be aware of what is going on... and more important, all of us should willingly open our doors and our personal availabilities for this all important study!

Read the Saginaw News editorial dated July 18, 2004 for the Saginaw News editor's viewpoint.

Illinois Conservative Politics...
...has an article by Joyce Morrison about people all over the country whose properties are being stolen from them by government bureaucracies because they have been deemed to be wetlands. Not only that, they are being labeled as criminals and being fined for violation of 'wetlands laws.' These 'wetlands' include farms and former farms that are now untended, a wildlife refuge, and our neighbor Rapanos, a land developer.

What is this all about? People... just ordinary people across the country are being fined for violating laws we didn't know existed. Not only that, in many cases the laws didn't exist when we bought the land. Something needs to be done soon! We need to rescind some of these ridiculous laws that harm the very people that pay the taxes that pay the bureaucrats that fine us as criminals for breaking the laws the bureaucrats created to keep themselves employed.

Joyce Morrison lives in southern Illinois. She is a chapter leader for Concerned Women for America and she and her husband, Gary, represent the local Citizens for Private Property Rights. Joyce is Secretary to the Board of Directors of Rural Restoration/ADOPT Mission, a national farm ministry located in Sikeston.
She has become a nationally-recognized advocate for property rights.

BACK TO NATURE... By Terry Judd, The Grand Rapids Press, Wednesday, August 25, 2004.

In brief: The Grand Haven channel is in need of dredging. Because there is no place to dump the dredged material, the Corps of Engineers has come up with a method combining yard compost with dredging to provide a superior topsoil.

Wow Dow & MDEQ!!! Sounds like business to me! Whether you are dredging a river or handling soil already on land... why not let that dioxin disintegrate in the sunlight for 24 hours, mix with compost, bag it and sell it!!!

Kidz

Kidz Korner... is a fantastic website for kids... all about Michigan, by the Michigan Department of Agriculture. I just needed to do this after all that depressing stuff I blogged about earlier today.

Watch out for these extremists... they are out to scare your kids into a vegan lifestyle! A Rat's Life is one of three comic books PETA offers to kids in their new effort to educate them. Well, let's change that word 'educate' to brainwash, okay? The Clarion Ledger published this article about PETA's recruiting efforts in one small agricultural town in Mississippi. They don't want you eating chicken or eggs either! Hmmm... they haven't gotten around to fish yet but I'm sure they will!

You really need to visit PETA Kids to get the full effect of how extremists work to frighten people into accepting their beliefs! Here's an example to make them dislike dairy products...

"Today is “Ice Cream Sandwich” Day, but in behalf of cows, we’re renaming it “Tofutti Cutie” Day. These fab summer treats are just like ice cream sandwiches except that they don’t have tons of fat, pesticides, and pus … and best of all, no cows are involved!"

Why do I mention this here? I suggest some of the people who put us in the middle of the dioxin squabble between Dow Chemical and MDEQ really believe the propaganda dished out to them by environmental extremists! All extremists work with the same tools - fear and intimidation. They even take classes so they can get better at it! If you don't believe me you can check out the Ruckus website where they are currently offering 'training camp' sessions for rabble rousers!

Look folks, we know dioxin is a bad thing... we neither eat it nor bathe in it! We are saying what has been said forever... all things in moderation... the poison is in the dose... etc.

How 'wetlands' bureaucrats crush private property rights, a WorldNet Daily Exclusive Commentary by David Stirling. I don't know Mr. Rapanos and I don't know if I would like him or not if I ever met him but I do know he has been treated unfairly for no apparent good reason. Here are a few words from a Federal District Court Judge concerning Rapanos' dilemma...

"So here we have a person who comes to the United States and commits crimes of selling dope and the government asks me to put him in prison for 10 months. And
then we have an American citizen who buys land, pays for it with his own money,
and he moves some sand from one end to the other and the government wants me to give him 63 months in prison. Now if that isn't our system gone crazy, I don't
know what is. And I am not going to do it."

You need to read the commentary to see the whole picture! I never fail to be amazed by MDEQ. So much power, so little expertise! God bless America. God save the State of Michigan!

The Holland Sentinel tells us...

"State deciding next step after dune ruling. Court earlier awarded $1.16 million to couple who own land along Lake Michigan shoreline. By RICHARD HARROLD, Staff writer"

Which immense bureaucracy has too much power? Could it be....? What? Right! ...that would be the all-powerful Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

What is your response, MDEQ? Oh! That's right! You are just 'carrying out the law.' ...and who writes the law? Oh that's right... our legislators! So they thought up all those laws giving you all that power? Hmmmm?

Oh! It's the 'will of the people'... that would be us, the residents of Michigan? Oh! I get it. We told you to brand our homes with a 'facility' designation! We told you to decide we can't build homes in certain designated places! We told you to make all of our decisions for us!!!

Oh! You mean there are groups who represent us who go talk to the legislators and tell them what we, the residents, want? Is that correct? ...and those people are called lobbyists? Hmmm! ...and some of these lobbyists are environmental extremists, each and every group having some very 'special' interests?

Well!!! I've been voting for more than forty years. I've voted for Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Representatives & Senators, Judges and all kinds of peripheral political positions but I don't recall EVER voting for a lobbyist!

Extremists, environmental and otherwise, are supported by larger organizations like The Tides Foundation. The Tides Foundation is supported by rich billionnaire people like the ketchup heiress who feel like they have to tell the rest of us how to live... and how to spend our money.

Huh? Did you say we live in a democracy?

You're right on, kiddo! This is the natural born color of these most delightfully delicious eggs! 

Time sure flies when a body decides to take a few days break! Just finished updating myself on the local newspapers... added the URLs in case you missed them. I also read an interestingly twisted article by Michelle Heard Rhetoric at the TRW/Lone Tree website... from now on referred to as ... anyway, click the pic to read what she said this time. Once you get there you also have to click on 'News' and look around until you find 8/10/2004. One of the many misconceptions Ms. Heard Rhetoric passes on to us is as follows:

'We've had two episodes of flooding this year which deposited additional contaminated sediments onto the floodplain.'

Well, where I live (I think it's the floodplain) we had four... count them FOUR separate floods this spring, but then after all, she represents the 'residents' doesn't she? She talks about 'our' parks and 'our' yards but she probably never saw any of 'our' floods!

I've provided a link to the over on this page to the lower right and on our links page. I think it's important to check out their rationale periodically to keep in mind how ludicrously some people can sound like science! The whole website is sort of convoluted but once you click around on a few of their links you'll get the idea.

For sure I hope you'll read Dr. Varner's article in the Midland Daily News. Dr. Varner is a real scientist and a compassionate man with real interest in our health and welfare.

Nobody says dioxin is safe. That is foolishness... but remember this... the poison is in the dosage! Where are all those sick people anyway?

In case you missed the August 2 article in The Saginaw News, Dredging technique improved, we saved it for you. The U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers knows, many others know... sunlight destroys dioxin. You read it here on June 1 this year.

What's the big deal with MDEQ anyway... spending way too many taxpayer dollars telling Dow Chemical what's 'wrong' with their SOW (Scope of Work)?

...the sludge settles and dries out, baking under the hot sun, until the next day's work. The dredging in Saginaw County likely would occur over two or three weeks annually for about 20 years.

Gee, maybe we should hire the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Tittabawassee River floodplain cleanup!

Speaking of the Army, God bless President Bush for doing his level best to keep the religious extremist terrorists fighting in their country and not in ours! He drew a fantastic crowd in Saginaw yesterday. I chose not to attend President Bush's appearance at the Wendler Arena. Large noisy crowds are just not my cup o' tea, but I watched Airforce One land from the back deck in the comfort of my own home. Frank & I then watched his entire presentation. Thanks to WNEM TV5 we had the best seats in the house! If you missed it, WNEM TV5 has a website for you to view, complete with film clips.

The White Lake Beacon reports: "Developers last Tuesday stressed to the Whitehall City Council they want a development that is both safe and beautiful at the former Whitehall Leather property they intend to acquire." Have you ever been to Whitehall? One beautiful summer day in the early 1980's we sailed into White Lake, which is surrounded by the quaintly lovely towns of Whitehall and Montague. It's quite beautiful!

Who wouldn't want to own property there? Somebody's gonna make mucho bucks on this deal!!! ... 20 acres of PRIME real estate!!! The article says:

"He (Mick McGraw, Eastbrook Homes chief executive officer) said the redevelopment plan currently would put condominium units, possibly some small retail shops and a bar/restaurant into the former facility, itself.

Officials of South Shore Development shared its intentions to construct a variety of residential structures, a private marina, a possible health club in the tannery's former gymnasium and a public walkway to Svensson Park."

...and how do they come about obtaining it? They buy it from a Tennessee company called Genesco and the MDEQ - current owners who are currently completing the clean up of the 'formerly contaminated property' with... get this..... if I'm not mistaken, school tax money!!!

Read all about the Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act, Public Act 381 of 1996, as amended and help me. Tell me if I'm wrong. Isn't that a sweet deal, or what?

Well now you're going to see the MDEQ refer to various Acts, and they would have us believe they are '.....just doing what is prescribed by the law....' and we all know laws can only be put into being by our legislators, right? Well honey, somebody asked our legislators to create these laws, didn't they? Who did it? Well golly gee, I would guess that would be the environmental extremists that tag along with the DEQ... they have a mighty lobby, don't you suppose?

What a fun game!!! First we get our bureaucratic brethren to create the laws, then we carry out the laws, then our friends get to make lots of money on the whole deal!!! Wouldn't you like some of that action?

I mentioned 'brownfields' some time ago in this blog... since then learning a bit more about it. What do you think? Apparently the 'brownfields' are cleaned up with public funds collected for school taxes!!! That's because the companies that created the problem are now defunct. Dow Chemical, however, is a chemical giant... so of course, MDEQ will make them clean it up. Oh goody! At least they're saving our school tax money. Meanwhile, our backyards are 'facilities.' How does that differ from 'brownfields?' ... semantics my friend, semantics and source of money.

My Heavens!!! This is more than I bargained for! What a bureaucratic monster we are looking at!