A standard truck next to the completely and utterly safe megaload monstrosity that does the same amount of damage to a road as 50,000 cars would. Source: http://fightinggoliath.org/...
If you are a regular reader of Daily Kos then you are probably well aware of the Alberta Tar Sands disaster-in-waiting and how the usual suspects are manipulating our government to push this through even though the vast majority of American and Canadian citizens know little to nothing about this climate shattering project, which is why our local community decided something needed to be done to not only inform people but to motivate people to get them engaged with direct action activism. At this point you're probably thinking these protests are happening all over in America and Canada so what makes this one special? Because we are in one of the reddest red states there is, Idaho. To be more specific our we are located in Moscow, Idaho home of the University of Idaho (Yes, the school of she who should not be named lest she appear.) It is home to a vibrant and politically active community thanks to its dedicated and educated citizens and more recently thanks to the luxury of having access to our own media via Radio Free Moscow, a low power FM station that we began broadcasting from in October 2004. In the past we have stopped Mall-Wart from constructing one of its monstrous super-duper ugly mega big box stores, which we achieved by educating people and asking them if they wanted to see their downtown boarded up like so many other small towns across America. The people spoke and voted no against it. And now we are focusing our efforts to stop the dangerously overweight megaload modules from tearing up our roads and a being used to destroy our planet once they reach their destination in Alberta. And dangerously overweight is not hyperbole as these trucks and the modules that they are carrying are over the legal weight limit for being driven on these roads but, as you can easily guess, the Idaho legislature rubber stamped approval for these rigs to ruin our roads and risk the lives of people. And it's just a coincidence these same corporations gave campaign money to the rubber stampers. Just like it is a coincidence Imperial Oil's scientists predicted at worst there would be seven minor spills in a fifty year period and it's also a coincidence that in just the last year there have been a staggering 12 spills.
KRFP | August 26, 2011 | 9:50 am Morning Mix: Civil Disobedience Stops Tar Sands Trucks
http://radiofreemoscow.org/...
KRFP | August 26, 2011 | 8:47 pm Evening Report: Tar Sands Protest Arrests
http://radiofreemoscow.org/...
FYI: I tried my best to embed youtube videos but couldn't accomplish it so you'll have to make due with old school clicking on the link and going to another page.
The Corporations involved with this atrocity know it is not a popular idea once people learn the facts about it and that Moscow citizens are well known for standing up against overreaching corporations, which is one of the reasons they chose to drive these megaloads in the dead of night hoping that sending them through after midnight would be enough of an obstacle to keep most people from getting involved. A local environmental group, Wild Idaho Rising Tide, decided such corporate greased shenanigans and dirty tricks should not go unchecked and organized a response to these trucks coming through our community. We wanted to let them know their trucks and their back room politics were not welcome in Moscow and that hiding under the cover of darkness was not going to deter us.
Now that's a megaload monster!
Megaload Arrives in Moscow - August 25, 2011
http://youtube.com/...
Around 10 PM Thursday night people began gathering at The Pie Hole, a local pizzeria, with generous outside seating that was right next to the highway the trucks would be using. At the same time The Moscow Volunteer Peace Band showed up and began playing music to entertain people while they awaited the arrival of the trucks. An anonymous noise complaint forced us to move a few blocks down the road but did not cause anybody to leave. By midnight there were over 200 people present, which is a sizable amount when you consider Moscow's population is 23,800; that's almost one percent of the entire town! (To put it another way if it was an equivalently sized protest in LA there would have been 23,903 protestors and if it was NYC it'd be 51,524 protestors.) Before the trucks reached this area they had to deal with several people slowly crossing back and forth at the crosswalks, which they could not drive through because Idaho law gives the pedestrian the right of way in such instances. After that game of cat and mouse was over the trucks were stopped by six people sitting down on the crosswalk. Once it became obvious the local police weren't going to immediately arrest people about two dozen people joined the original sitters, standing behind them holding signs and chanting peaceful slogans.
UNEDITED VIDEO: Police, protesters clash over megaloads in downtown Moscow, Idaho
http://www.youtube.com/...
Much to their credit, the Idaho police were professional and polite during the event, which is a testament to general niceness of Idahoans because these officers were dealing with something not only unusual, but most of them were dragged out of bed and were probably not happy having to be there. The police gave the people blocking the road several chances to leave on their own volition. About a half-hour into the situation they brought out zip-tie cuffs and told everybody they either had to get off of the road or face arrest. At that point the two dozen or so people holding signs and chanting decided to return to the sidewalks but the original six informed the police that they were not departing and their arrest was the only way the street would be cleared. At this point that is exactly what happened, the six were arrested but only one, Dave Willard, was placed into the police van. During the confusion of what to do next, the remaining five, still cuffed, sneaked back out onto the road and sat back down. Eventually, all six were charged with misdemeanor unlawful assembly, disturbing the peace, and refusal to disperse. At that point a majority of the protestors headed home but a handful rushed to their vehicles and followed the megaloads all the way to the Latah and Benewah County borders, which is where the trucks were slated to park during the day.
UNEDITED VIDEO: Police arrest those protesting Megaloads going through Moscow, Idaho
http://www.youtube.com/...
As you would imagine, there was a tiny but vocal counter protest group led by a couple of students from the University of Idaho Law School. (Note: this was not in any way organized by the Law School itself.) Law student Al Baker held a sign proclaiming “I ♥ Commerce” while another law student, Reed Colten declared, “Have you been to the gas station lately? The more oil, the better.” There was also an unknown person shouting to the truck drivers, “Run over 'em.” All in all, seeing how this is an incredibly red state, their behavior was fairly restrained.
From these beautiful landscapes
To a Florida sized moonscape like this because in some minds the more oil the better
Since this is going to be the world's largest public works project ever these trucks are going to continue wrecking our roads on their way to Alberta where they will get to wreck our planet. This means we will continue to keep the pressure on those involved with these atrocious activities and we will keep reporting on them too. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the media in the region is either ignoring the story or painting the protestors as a horde of out of control, clueless, and childish hippies. The only local media that is giving this issue fair and in-depth coverage is Radio Free Moscow also known as KRFP located at 92.5 on the FM dial and can be listened to live via the web at http://radiofreemoscow.org/ and you can also listen to older news reports and special events via that link too. For full disclosure, I need to inform you that I am a member of KRFP's unpaid board of directors so I am biased in regards for my support of our station. I'm divulging that information because we are currently a low power FM station at just 100 watts, which means our broadcast range isn't that far but we have been given permission to expand to full power FM but that is going to cost us upwards of $80,000. We have done numerous fund raisers, and we have held membership drives, and what not but we are a small town in a dark red state and a good number of our listeners aren't wealthy enough to hand out big checks and almost all of us have given money already, several of us multiple times not to mention all the time we donate. So yes, we are going to hit you up for a donation to help us expand our station and let me tell you giving us a dollar is like giving twenty to NPR (That's not a knock on NPR because I like and listen to them.) as we operate on a shoestring budget and all of our employees, save our incredibly overworked and underpaid station manager, are volunteers, which is how we get incredible value from any amount of money donated to us. Even more importantly, Radio Free Moscow is a blue beacon in a dark red state but we need your help to make it a blazing blue beacon. Moscow has an ever revolving community of college students, which means through Radio Free Moscow they can be enlightened about so many issues dear to our hearts. But we are not only producing our own morning and evening news shows, we also cover political candidate forums that are often hosted by The League of Women Voters, we even cover city council meetings. Even more exciting, for locals at least, is that anybody with a passion for radio can get their very own show. We have a show hosted by an 8 year old boy and his mom, we have shows hosted by local high school students, we have shows covering alternative medical treatments, we have shows that report on the local art scene, and we have ambitious hosts of their own talk shows. And when it comes to music we have dozens of shows that cover practically every music genre from opera to rockabilly to metal to folk to spoken word to Grateful Dead bootlegs to Frank Zappa to focusing on local and regional artists.
Radio Free Moscow is the people's radio station.
The only problem is that most of the people involved with KRFP don't have much money but we do have time to donate, which is how we can survive on our shoestring budget. What we lack in economic resources we make up with tenacious dedication. But if we want to expand to full power FM we are going to need outside help so this article is not only about encouraging other small heartland communities to stand up to the trucks tearing through their roads and the horrors tar sands will inflict upon Earth but to also see if the Daily Kos community would be interested in helping us raise the resources we will need to reach full power FM. We are already on that path but there is a deadline and we are going to need help meeting it. And what's the number one reason why we want full power FM? Because Moscow is part of the Quad Cities and each one of those cities also has a university, which means there are thousands and thousands of impressionable young minds seeking ways to become more involved with progressive politics and their local communities and Radio Free Moscow is an incredible tool not only for that job but also for deprogramming these people from their Foxtastic anger addiction that allows to easily lash out against the dreaded other. Regardless of what happens, we will continue to cover local and regional issues beyond press releases and talking points. We will continue to press for answers as opposed to sound bites. And we will do it all on a shoestring budget because that is all we have but that's a billion times better than having nothing at all.
You can donate to Radio Free Moscow via PayPal or Network For Good. And as much as we need money to move forward we also need gear so if you happen to have some extra FM radio gear, mixing boards, etc. that you'd be willing to donate, or servers for online streaming and news production, office equipment, etc. we'd be more than happy to take that too via the donation link below.
http://radiofreemoscow.org/...
And you can always contact us directly via email by visiting our home page http://radiofreemoscow.org/ and clicking on the About KRFP tab at the top of the page. We'd rather not place that contact email address out in the open for webcrawlers to throw into their web of spam spinning.
Edit: Feel free to republish anywhere within DK our elsewhere on the web!