'Extraordinary': Three Weeks Later, Keystone Blockaders Still in Texas Jail

[cory777]

Source: Common Dreams

Nearly three weeks after they were arrested on misdemeanor charges, activists who barricaded themselves inside a portion of pipe to protest the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline remain in a Texas jail, each held on $65,000 bail.

Activists Matthew Almonte and Glen Collins. (Photo: Tar Sands Blockade) Mathew Almonte and Glen Collins were arrested Dec. 3 in Winona, Texas after chaining their arms to two 600-pound concrete barrels they had maneuvered inside a section of pipe. They hoped to block construction of the TransCanada KXL pipeline, which if completed will carry highly toxic tar sands from Alberta, Canada, to Gulf Coast refineries.

Also arrested was Isabel Brooks, who was filming the protest.

Part of the coalition Tar Sands Blockade, Collins said at the time that he was barricading the pipe "to say loud and clear to the extraction industry that our communities and the resources we depend on for survival are not collateral damage."

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/12/21-4

---

Breaking Activist News http://activistnews.org/

[patrice]

1. Solidarity with the Keystone Resistance!!

[mbperrin]

2. I'm ashamed that any agency of the state, county, or city in Texas

is aiding these toxic merchants who are simply taking whatever they want without impediment. I'm old enough to remember that if outsiders had come in and pushed citizens around, they could look forward to an old fashioned ass-whipping or worse.

Apparently, that's dead.

[Dustlawyer]

11. Texas is an oil state, but it is no different anywhere in the country when it comes to big

corporations having their way. The Gulf oil spill proves that! Every governor of a Gulf coast state is bought off. Obama is bought off. Do you remember the mood when we watched that oil coming out of that riser everyday before the mid-term elections? People were saying it was Obama's Katrina until they came out with the 20 billion dollar fund. It was not Obama's idea, BP came to him with Ken Feinberg and this lie about a fund with 20 billion in it. The Judge (before BP got to him) later signed an Order stating that Feinberg had never been "Independant" and was always BP's representative. Obama gave BP the use of the Coast Guard who parroted everything BP told them to say, and actually used their planes to spray the dispersant to hide the oil from, you guessed it, our government!
Big corporations buy off opposition where they can, and bury the rest. The only solution to these problems is, COMPLETE CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM! Corporations OWN our government plain and simple! You can talk about Repugs and Democrats all day, but know this, there is a reason no one from Wall Street has been arrested. No one goes down unless they want them to. BP offered up a couple of minor players, but no one who caused the spill got arrested. Where have the Democrats been on these issues?
EVERYONE NEEDS TO KEEP DEMANDING COMPLETE CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM OVER AND OVER ON EVERY ISSUE ON DU OR ANYWHERE ELSE!!!!!! Until this happens, we can continue to get screwed. Climate change will not be stopped, social safety nets will continue to erode, and we will never have Universal Health Care!

[newfie11]

3. Is this NDAA in action

now that the part below has been removed

"Under our Constitution, the federal government does not have the power to indefinitely detain American citizens, without charge or trial, at the discretion of the President of the United States."

[Berlum]

4. Solidarity

[another_liberal]

6. Great photo!

Thanks for posting that, Berlum.

[Berlum]

9. You are welcome

[another_liberal]

5. Good Lord all mighty, how I do hate Texas!

Climatologists have predicted that if Canada's tar sands are fully developed the carbon released into our atmosphere will surely doom our planet's ecosystem. However, the Koch brothers and a few other billionaires pushing the project don't expect to live long enough to be troubled by that. They'll be quite happy to have few billions more cash to roll around in for a few more years, then the whole World can go to hell for all they care.

These brave souls who most likely will be spending the holidays in jail are not only heroes, they are the conscience of the human race.

[Jackpine Radical]

8. I hate the political and corporate atmosphere in Texas.

I most certainly don't hate Texans. At least not as a class, although I'm perfectly happy to make exceptions on an individual basis.

[valerief]

7. Texas seems like the scariest place in the Western Hemisphere. Outside of Haiti. nt

[KoKo]

10. It's not just Texas...they get away with it because of US Policy--Indefinite Detention.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

12. Kicking and Rec'ing

[olddad56]

13. If this can happen in Texas, it can probably happen in America as well.

[They_Live]

14. Page that includes more info and a link for donations

http://tarsandsblockade.org/14th-action/

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. Political prisoners.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

16. They know they can get away with anything now.

[HiPointDem]

17. kr