Category Archives: Walter Brasch

Standing Tall for Landowner Rights

  By Walter Brasch | May 19, 2013 8:04 am - 8:04 am | , ,
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by Walter Brasch   Julia Trigg Crawford of Direct, Texas, is the manager of a 650-acre farm that her grandfather first bought in 1948. The farm produces mostly corn, wheat, and soy. On its north border is the Red River; to the west is the Bois d’Arc Creek. TransCanada is an Alberta-based corporation that is building the controversial Keystone Pipeline that will carry bitumen—thicker, more corrosive and toxic, than crude oil—through 36-inch diameter pipes from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast, mostly to be exported. The $2.3 billion southern segment, about 485 miles from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf Coast is nearly complete. With the exception of a 300-mile extension between Cushing and Steele City, Neb., … Continue reading →

Oh, THAT What the Boy Scouts Mean by Being ‘Morally Straight’

  By Walter Brasch | April 25, 2013 8:17 am - 8:17 am | , , , ,
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  by Walter Brasch  Harry Strausser III owns a successful small business with 25 employees in Bloomsburg, Pa. As an undergraduate, he was a national champion in several forensics categories, and represented the Boy Scouts of America in national competitions sponsored by the Reader’s Digest. As a graduate student, he coached a college forensics team. He has never been arrested or suspected of any crime. Strausser is an Eagle Scout. He is also gay. The National Council of the Boy Scouts of America says he doesn’t have the right “core values” to be a Scout leader. Denny Meyer, who lives in New York City, wasn’t a Scout, but often tagged along with his older brother to Scout meetings. During college, … Continue reading →

Pennsylvania: You Are Fracked

  By Walter Brasch | April 22, 2013 8:34 am - 8:34 am | ,
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  by Walter Brasch    AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a special Earth Day edition of my weekly social issues column, Wanderings. The information is from my latest book, Fracking Pennsylvania, an overall look at the nature and consequences of high-pressure horizontal hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking. Even if you are not a Pennsylvanian or living in the recent boom in the Marcellus Shale, fracking is destroying the health of people, livestock, pets, and wild animals; it is impacting the environment and ecological diversity. It is going on across the country, and is about to expand into the urban and agricultural areas of central California. If you don’t want your wine, lettuce, or hundreds of other fruits and vegetables to be … Continue reading →

NRA Liars and Congressional Cowards

  By Walter Brasch | April 18, 2013 8:07 am - 8:07 am | , , , , ,
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    by Walter Brasch   President Obama cast off his “No Drama Obama” garb, and became the fiery leader of hope and change that Americans first elected in 2008. At a speech in Hartford, Conn., the President, frustrated by Republican obstructionism, demanded of his audience, “If you believe that the families of Newtown and Aurora and Tucson and Virginia Tech and the thousands of Americans who have been gunned down in the last four months deserve a vote, we all have to stand up.” He demand, “If you want the people you send to Washington to have just an iota of the courage that the educators at Sandy Hook showed when danger arrived on their doorstep, then we’re all … Continue reading →

Mitch McConnell’s ‘Whack-a-Mole’ Dirty Politics Campaign

  By Walter Brasch | April 11, 2013 6:53 am - 6:53 am | , , , ,
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was mad. Not the kind of mad you get when your favorite team blows a big lead and loses its eighth straight game, but Red-Faced-Exploding-Blood-Pressure Mad. This is what you get from the political Left in America,” McConnell bellowed to the media. “That is what the political Left does these days.” McConnell’s campaign manager, Jesse Benton, added his opinion—“We’ve always said the Left would stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell.” They demanded the FBI launch a criminal investigation. The FBI response to the media was, “[W]e are looking into the matter.” Not long after, McConnell approved a campaign slogan, exhorting voters to “Stand with McConnell against the liberal media’s illegal and underhanded tactics.” … Continue reading →

The Politics behind the Killing of Americans

  By Walter Brasch | April 5, 2013 7:56 am - 7:56 am | , , , , ,
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Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) opposes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), and vows to block the expansion of Medicaid in his state. At a news conference this past week, Perry, flanked by conservative senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, declared “Texas will not be held hostage by the Obama administration’s attempt to force us into the fool’s errand of adding more than a million Texans to a broken system.” About one-fourth of all Texans do not have health care coverage. According to an analysis by the Dallas Morning News, if Texas budgeted $15.6 billion over the next decade, it would receive more than $100 billion in federal Medicaid funds, allowing the state to cover about 1.5 million more residents, … Continue reading →

Look for the Union Bunny

  By Walter Brasch | March 31, 2013 1:53 pm - 1:53 pm | , , ,
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Bullied, harassed, and lied to, District 1 of the Amalgamated Association of Easter Bunnies, AFB-CIO (American Federation of Bunnies–Cottontails International Organization) went on strike, forcing a halt to this year’s Easter egg hunts. At Bunny Headquarters, Solomon P. Bunny, union executive secretary, and a militant corps of Easter bunnies were preparing picket signs. I walked in, notepad in hand. “Excuse me, Mr. Bunny, but why aren’t your members delivering eggs this week?” Bunny looked up from the papers on his desk, chomped harder on his cigar, looked at me, scowled, and answered harshly, “Don’t you know!?” “No, sir,” I replied apologetically. “I always thought you were happy and content passing out your Easter eggs.” “We love it,” growled Bunny, “but … Continue reading →

No Merit Badge for Courage for Boy Scouts

  By Walter Brasch | March 29, 2013 8:03 am - 8:03 am | , , , ,
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by WALTER BRASCH   Sometime in May, the Boy Scouts of America will decide whether they will allow gays to be members, volunteer leaders, or be employed on the professional staff. The decision may have more to do with funding than with any other policy. Contributions from individuals, major corporations, and at least 50 United Way agencies stopped because of the Scouts’ anti-gay policy. Among corporations that have not made annual six-figure donations are Intel, Merck, CVS, Chase Manhattan Bank, Verizon, Google, UPS, and Levi Straus. Stephen Spielberg, an Eagle Scout, in protest of the policy against gays dropped off the national advisory council. The national council was also losing funds because of a drop of about 22 percent in … Continue reading →