Archive for June, 2010

A Colossal Fracking Mess

The dirty truth behind the new natural gas. Related: A V.F. video look at a town transformed by fracking.

Early on a spring morning in the town of Damascus, in northeastern Pennsylvania, the fog on the Delaware River rises to form a mist that hangs above the tree-covered hills on either side. A buzzard swoops in from the northern hills to join a flock ensconced in an evergreen on the river’s southern bank.

Stretching some 400 miles, the Delaware is one of the cleanest free-flowing rivers in the United States, home to some of the best fly-fishing in the country. More than 15 million people, including residents of New York City and Philadelphia, get their water from its pristine watershed. To regard its unspoiled beauty on a spring morning, you might be led to believe that the river is safely off limits from the destructive effects of industrialization. Unfortunately, you’d be mistaken. The Delaware is now the most endangered river in the country, according to the conservation group American Rivers.

Full Story: A Colossal Fracking Mess | Business | Vanity Fair.

It’s Official: First Commercial Production Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles for Sale

Yes, there have been a few commercial hydrogen fuel cell production cars built (such a by Honda and Daimler) but they have been for lease and not for sale. Yesterday I talked about hydrogen fuel cell Sysco forklifts and palette trucks powered by Plug Power Gendrive systems possibly being the first commercial production hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for sale on the market.

This was confirmed yesterday by Plug Power’s Teal Vivacqua and Sysco VP Gary M. Mills. Okay, perhaps forklifts and palette trucks are not as sexy as hydrogen cars. And, perhaps the fact that they operate in a warehouse away from the public eye also makes a difference along with the fact that not everyone will own one.

But, this is still an important milestone in the advancement of hydrogen vehicles. You see many people think that the first hydrogen fuel cell car of record was the 1966 General Motors Electrovan. And, they would be correct.

But, the first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle actually predates this by 7 years. The first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle of record was a 1959 Allis-Chalmers farm tractor, developed by Harry Karl Ihrig.

Full Story: It’s Official: First Commercial Production Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles for Sale | Hydrogen Fuel Cars and Vehicles Blog.

Loan Mod Program Still Sputtering, Despite Attempted Fixes

New data released Monday by the Treasury Department shows continued delays and disappointment faced by homeowners in the administration’s mortgage modification program.

190,000 homeowners remain stuck in trial mods that have lasted over six months, still waiting to hear whether they’ll receive a permanent modification. Most of those homeowners will likely be dropped from the program.

Even homeowners who’ve successfully obtained a permanent modification have done so after months of waiting. The average trial modification at the servicer with the worst delays, JPMorgan Chase (the second largest in the program), has lasted over seven months before becoming permanent. Under the program’s guidelines, the trials are supposed to last only three months. The prolonged trials hurt homeowners by damaging their credit, increasing the balance of their mortgage, and preventing them from saving for the possibility of foreclosure.

Full Story: On The Hill: Loan Mod Program Still Sputtering, Despite Attempted Fixes.

US Gulf oil drilling ban overturned by federal judge

A US federal court judge has blocked President Barack Obama’s six-month moratorium on deep water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

The moratorium was put in place in the wake of the massive oil spill triggered by an explosion at a rig in April.

The judge said the lengthy ban was “invalid” and could not be justified, as the negative impact on local businesses was simply too great.

The White House said it would be appealing against the decision.

“An invalid agency decision to suspend drilling of wells in the depths over 500ft simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs, the local economy, the Gulf region and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country,” judge Martin Feldman said.

Full Story: BBC News – US Gulf oil drilling ban overturned by federal judge.

Additional background:

#1 Judge Martin Feldman seems to have extensive investments in the oil industry.
http://slabbed.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/katrinas-who-dat-judge-martin-feldman-now-dabbling-in-oil/
Somebody tell me they’re surprised.

He also seems have a reputation in the Fifth Circuit for being overturned on appeal.
http://slabbed.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/who-dat-judge-martin-feldman-the-5th-circuits-opinion-in-versai-v-clarendon/
But that’s OK. The oil industry needed a hack who would block the drilling ban. Now the wheels of justice can grind slowly while the slick oil companies pollute for profit.

US probes Google Street View data grabs

The attorney general of Connecticut is looking into whether Google broke the law by capturing people’s personal data from wireless networks while Street View bicycles and cars mapped streets.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced Monday that his office will lead a multistate probe of “Google’s deeply disturbing invasion of personal privacy,” which has drawn ire and scrutiny in an array of countries.

“Street View cannot mean Complete View — invading home and business computer networks and vacuuming up personal information and communications,” Blumenthal said.

Full Story: France24 – US probes Google Street View data grabs.

Questions Persist About Alvin Greene’s Mysterious Military Discharges

A week ago in the living room of South Carolina’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, I asked Alvin Greene if there was anything that had not yet been written about by the press that he wanted to get out. “Bring the Air Force discharge up,” Greene replied. “Y’all go and get that.”

This was not the response I had expected. Greene has based his candidacy, in large part, on his military service—a total of 13 years in the South Carolina Air National Guard, U.S. Air Force, Army National Guard and U.S. Army. Tarnishing this record are the mysterious circumstances around what he calls his “involuntary” discharges from the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army. In both cases, he has refused to detail the reasons for his dismissal.

Earlier in the same interview, I had asked Greene about his dismissal from the Air Force. His answer was, somewhat typically, cryptic. “I left the Air Force in September ’05,” he said. “I ran through some problems, dealing with rank. It’s a long story. I guess that will be the next thing they will be focusing on.” I asked him repeatedly to clarify further, and he declined to do so.

Full Story: Questions Persist About Alvin Greene’s Mysterious Military Discharges – Swampland – TIME.com.

Chicago Violence: At Least 40 Shot, Seven Dead Over The Weekend

At least 40 people were shot over the weekend in Chicago–seven of them fatally. Police are blaming gangs for most of the widespread incidents.

The Chicago Tribune reports that after Friday’s severe storms through Monday at 6:30 a.m., violence erupted throughout the city.

Saturday night and early Sunday, at least six people were shot near the annual Puerto Rican festival in Humboldt Park. A 15-year-old girl was among the injured.

A Shakespeare District lieutenant told the Sun-Times Media Wire that the girl was not seriously injured. “She’ll be fine,” the lieutenant said. “She just got caught in crossfire, unfortunately.”

Full Story: Chicago Violence: At Least 40 Shot, Seven Dead Over The Weekend.

Monsanto Wins Supreme Court Case: Genetically Modified Alfalfa Ban Lifted

The Supreme Court on Monday lifted a nationwide ban on the planting of genetically engineered alfalfa seeds, despite claims they might harm the environment.

In a 7-1 vote Monday, the court reversed a federal appeals court ruling that had prohibited Monsanto Co. from selling alfalfa seeds because are resistant to the popular weed killer Roundup.

The U.S. Agriculture Department must now decide whether to allow the genetically-modified seeds to be planted. It had earlier approved the seeds, but courts in California and Oregon said USDA did not look hard enough at whether the seeds would eventually share their genes with other crops.

Full Story: Monsanto Wins Supreme Court Case: Genetically Modified Alfalfa Ban Lifted.

Joe Barton: The Vultures Circle

Joe Barton’s fate rests with the voters, though they don’t have to wait until November to weigh in. Republican leadership aides say that Barton’s ability to remain the senior-ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee depends on what GOP members hear from constituents back in their districts about Barton’s apology to BP on Thursday, according to House Republican leadership aides.

Those members will report back Tuesday evening, when the House returns to business.

At the end of the 2010 legislative session, Barton will have been ranking Republican on the committee for three terms. According to House GOP term limits, his time would be up, preventing him from becoming chairman. But Barton, said GOP aides, had planned on asking for an extension, arguing that years spent as ranking member and years spent as chairman aren’t equal.

Full Story: Joe Barton: The Vultures Circle.

‘Gasland’ Documentary Shows Water That Burns, Toxic Effects Of Natural Gas Drilling (VIDEO)

What do you do when a gas company offers nearly $100,000 for the right to drill on your land?

If you’re Josh Fox, you refuse the money – then make an award-winning documentary portraying the natural gas industry as an environmental menace that ruins water, air and lives.

In “Gasland,” premiering Monday at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO, Fox presents a frightening scenario in which tens of thousands of drilling rigs take over the landscape, gas companies exploit legal loopholes to inject toxins into the ground and residents living nearby contract severe, unexplained illnesses.

This isn’t some dystopian nightmare, Fox says, but the harsh reality in communities from Texas to Colorado to Pennsylvania. “People are feeling completely upended,” the 37-year-old filmmaker said in an interview at his woodland home near the Pennsylvania-New York border, where gas companies have been leasing thousands of acres of pristine watershed land in anticipation of a drilling boom.

Full Story: ‘Gasland’ Documentary Shows Water That Burns, Toxic Effects Of Natural Gas Drilling (VIDEO).

India to seek extradition of US Bhopal boss

With the state under fire for the slow pace of justice and inadequate clean-up after the gas leak, the world’s worst industrial accident, a panel of senior ministers has drawn up recommendations for fresh action.

The panel, whose advice will be discussed at a special cabinet meeting on Friday, has recommended renewing efforts to secure the extradition of the American former boss of the US chemical group at the centre of the case.

Full Story: India to seek extradition of US Bhopal boss – Yahoo! News.

White House says Jon Kyl story not true

The White House on Monday denied Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl’s claim that President Barack Obama told him privately that he would not work to secure the border unless it was part of a comprehensive immigration reform package.

In a video that started circulating among conservative blogs over the weekend, the Arizona Republican is seen telling supporters in North Phoenix that in a private meeting in the Oval Office, Obama said “the problem” with border enforcement measures is that “if we secure the border then [Republicans] won’t have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform.”

Kyl said the president’s supposed statement is proof that Democrats “don’t want to secure the border unless or until it is combined with comprehensive immigration reform.”

Full Story: White House says Jon Kyl story not true – Andy Barr – POLITICO.com.

Morning Joe hosts: Giuliani’s ‘baseless lies’ on spill left us stunned

MSNBC’s Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski accused former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of coming on the show last week to “vomit out complete, baseless lies.”

Appearing on the show last Thursday, Giuliani claimed that the Obama administration had not talked with oil industry experts about how to stop the leaking well.

But Brzezinski said Monday the former New York mayor did not have his facts straight and initially left the hosts “stunned.”

“I’m glad there’s someone on the set who is actually asking questions when people come and vomit out complete and baseless lies on our set,” Brzezinski said of herself. “I’m sorry but that was so over the top, and we sat there like stunned in silence because it was so untrue because we could not believe it.”

She added, “But it was not true.”

Full Story: Morning Joe hosts: Giuliani’s ‘baseless lies’ on spill left us stunned | Raw Story.

Barbour backtracks on opposition to BP escrow account: ‘I think the President was smart.’

Last week, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) complained about a proposed escrow account that BP will fund in order to pay out claims resulting from its oil spill. Barbour claimed that it would cause BP to lose profits. “[I]t bothers me to talk about causing an escrow to be made,” he said, adding, “which makes it less likely that they’ll make the income that they need to pay us.” But yesterday on NBC’s Meet the Press, when host David Gregory asked Barbour why he opposed the account now that the oil giant has agreed to pay into it, Barbour changed his mind:

BARBOUR: Right, well, I thought that they were talking about taking $20 billion from BP all at once and my fear was if you took $20 billion from them all at once, put it in an escrow account then they wouldn’t have the working capital to generate the revenue to pay us. I think the President was smart, and I congratulate him and BP that they reached an agreement on. Instead of $20 billion taken out of that working capital all at once, it’s actually going to be $5 billion this year, $5 billion the next year, $5 billion the following year and $5 billion the fourth year.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Barbour backtracks on opposition to BP escrow account: ‘I think the President was smart.’.

DR. TOM TERMOTTO PROPOSES GULF OIL SPILL SOLUTION IN AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dr. Tom Termotto, National Coordinator of International Citizens´ Initiative – Gulf Oil Spill Remediation, has proposed quite significant solution to the worst ongoing environmental disaster of our times in the US, and may be, even the worst man-made calamity on the face of the earth. I am urging everyone to read diligently Dr.Tom Termotto ´s open letter to President Obama as his insights and wisdom can truly make a big difference in this nation and worldwide.

PRESS RELEASE 2010

Re: Gulf Oil Spill Solution

Dear President Obama,

We write this letter concerning the worst man-made, and ongoing, environmental catastrophe of the modern era, and perhaps the worst calamity the entire hemisphere has ever seen.

We are truly perplexed why the US Federal Government has not taken complete command and control of the disaster area known as the Gulf of Mexico. It is, after all, full of oil and dispersants and corpses of every sort and kind. A foreign multi-national corporation (BP) was allowed to conduct the most risky and highly experimental deep-sea drilling for oil and gas without proper permits, federal oversight and regulatory regime that would have prevented this avoidable event.

Full Story: Pennsylvania Chronicle | DR. TOM TERMOTTO PROPOSES GULF OIL SPILL SOLUTION IN AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA.

My Father and Alan Greenspan

Robert Reich:

When I was a small boy at the start of the 1950s, my father gave me my first economics lesson. “Bobby,” he said with obvious concern, “you and your children and your children’s children will be repaying the national debt created by Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

I didn’t know what a national debt was, but I remember being scared out of my wits.

Dad was wrong, of course. Even though the national debt then was a much higher percentage of the national economy than it is today, it shrank as the economy boomed. My children have never mentioned FDR’s debt. My granddaughter (almost 2) will never pay a penny of it.

Full Story: Robert Reich (My Father and Alan Greenspan).

Budget Deficits – Spend Now, Save Later

Paul Krugman:

Spend now, while the economy remains depressed; save later, once it has recovered. How hard is that to understand?

Very hard, if the current state of political debate is any indication. All around the world, politicians seem determined to do the reverse. They’re eager to shortchange the economy when it needs help, even as they balk at dealing with long-run budget problems.

But maybe a clear explanation of the issues can change some minds. So let’s talk about the long and the short of budget deficits. I’ll focus on the U.S. position, but a similar story can be told for other nations.

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – Budget Deficits – Spend Now, Save Later – NYTimes.com.

Rahm Emanuel expected to quit White House

Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is expected to leave his job later this year after growing tired of the “idealism” of Barack Obama’s inner circle.

Full Story: Rahm Emanuel expected to quit White House – Telegraph.

Witches turn their attention to BP oil spill

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has people around the world hoping, searching and praying for a solution.

On Sunday, the Salem witches will give it a shot.

The Temple of Nine Wells, a local Wiccan and pagan group, will conduct an “ocean blessing and healing” ceremony at 11:30 a.m. at Waikiki Beach on Winter Island. Many of the city’s Wiccan high priests and high priestesses are hoping to raise local awareness about the present state of the oceans and send out “magickal healing energy.”

“As we are all now aware, the world’s oceans are presently in great peril,” Marc Delaney, public relations director for the Temple of Nine Wells, said in a statement. “Drilling rig accidents and tanker disasters dump vast quantities of toxic crude oil into the sea, jeopardizing fish, birds, marine mammals and polluting shorelines …”

Full Story: Witches turn their attention to BP oil spill » Local News » SalemNews.com, Salem, MA.

Stop Global Food Security Act Promoting GMOs

Biotech corporations and mega-charities are promoting the GMO agenda as US foreign policy, and it must be stopped.

The GM clause to food security

The US Global Food Security Act of 2009 (S. 384) sponsored by Richard Lugar (Indiana, Republican), Robert Casey (Pennsylvania, Democrat) and seven other US Senators in February 2009 is [1, 2] “A bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2010 through 2014 to provide assistance to foreign countries to promote food security, to stimulate rural economies, and to improve emergency response to food crises, to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and for other purposes.”

However, the proposed amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) of 1961 has proven controversial. It would “include research on biotechnological advances appropriate to local ecological conditions, including genetically modified technology.”

The bill is supported by the US land grant colleges as well as InterAction (American Council for Voluntary International Action) and its 26 member organizations including WWF, Oxfam, Bread for the World CARE, Save the Children, and ONE [3]. The bill was passed through the Senate foreign Relations Committee on 31 March 2009, and the Senate is expected to vote on it soon in 2010.

Full Story: Stop Global Food Security Act Promoting GMOs « Wake-up Call.

Supreme Court Ruling Criminalizes Speech in Material Support Law Case

President Carter Could Be Prosecuted for Monitoring Fair Elections in Lebanon

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to criminalize speech in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the first case to challenge the Patriot Act before the highest court in the land, and the first post-9/11 case to pit free speech guarantees against national security claims. Attorneys say that under the Court’s ruling, many groups and individuals providing peaceful advocacy could be prosecuted, including President Carter for training all parties in fair election practices in Lebanon. President Carter submitted an amicus brief in the case.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the majority, affirming in part, reversing in part, and remanding the case back to the lower court for review; Justice Breyer dissented, joined by Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor. The Court held that the statute’s prohibitions on “expert advice,” “training,” “service,” and “personnel” were not vague, and did not violate speech or associational rights as applied to plaintiffs’ intended activities. Plaintiffs sought to provide assistance and education on human rights advocacy and peacemaking to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey, a designated terrorist organization. Multiple lower court rulings had found the statute unconstitutionally vague.

Said CCR Cooperating Attorney David Cole, “We are deeply disappointed. The Supreme Court has ruled that human rights advocates, providing training and assistance in the nonviolent resolution of disputes, can be prosecuted as terrorists. In the name of fighting terrorism, the Court has said that the First Amendment permits Congress to make human rights advocacy and peacemaking a crime. That is wrong.”

Full Story: Supreme Court Ruling Criminalizes Speech in Material Support Law Case | Center for Constitutional Rights.

Why China’s Currency Announcement is Hokum

Robert Reich :

The stock market is euphoric over China’s apparent decision to allow its currency to rise against the dollar.

Watch your wallets.

China isn’t really changing anything. It’s only doing the minimum to prevent Congress from listing China as a currency manipulator, leading to a squeeze on Chinese imports.

Over time – and I’m talking about months if not years – China will raise its currency to where it was before the global meltdown in 2008. Big deal.

Even then, a stronger yuan won’t generate lots of new jobs in the United States

Full Story: Robert Reich (Why China’s Currency Announcement is Hokum).

Read the Internal Document that Contradicts BP’s Claims on Oil Flow

Rep. Ed Markey has been among BP’s toughest critics in Congress following the Deepwater Horizon blowout, accusing it, among other things, of lowballing its estimates of oil flow.

On Sunday, Markey was at it again. As you may have read, the Boston Democrat released an internal BP document that shows that early company estimates for worst-case oil flow scenarios were far higher than the company has ever acknowledged — up to 100,000 barrels per day if all containment mechanisms were to fail. Take a look at the document for yourself.

The document is not dated, but a statement from Rep. Markey that accompanied its release said that BP’s oil flow estimate at the time the document was made available to Congress was 5,000 barrels per day, and its worst-case scenario was 60,000 barrels per day, figures the company provided for much of the month of May.

The 100,000-barrels-per-day scenario contrasts sharply with the company’s public pronouncements at the time.

Full Story: On The Hill: Read the Internal Document that Contradicts BP’s Claims on Oil Flow.

The Leak cannot be stopped: Video

ROV films oil leak coming from rock cracks on seafloor.

Starts off slow – but gets NASTY! ROV films oil leak coming from cracks in a ROCK on the sea floor.

BP denies that oil or gas are leaking from cracks in the sea floor on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

This is just one of many videos that may prove otherwise.

The video here seems to skip frames so here are two slow motion clips that show that this is definitely not silt being kicked up by the ROV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6-fPw…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2J2yn…

If your still not convinced check out 2:47 in the video and watch the globs of oil float across the screen.

Follow this story here:

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010…

This video was recorded from the Viking Poseidon — ROV 1 on June 13th, 2010 at 2:58 AM EST.

Location of the sea floor crack leaking:

N:10431633.05

E: 1202852.27

Some things to point out:

After rewinding it a few times you can see the clear progression of oil coming from the rocks:

At 2:45 coagulated oil rises from the cracks pretty much confirming this is oil and not mud.

Toward the end of the video you see bubbles of gas and can clearly see this a rock formation on the sea floor.

My calculations indicate:

The ROV is 19.11 feet north and 55.75 feet west of the leak point.

The ROV is 58.93 feet away from the leak point.

Israel Eases Gaza Blockade, Will Allow In All Goods Except For Weapons

Israel’s government decided Sunday to draw up a list of items banned from Gaza limited to weapons and materials deemed to have military uses and said the easing of the three-year-old blockade of the Palestinian territory would be implemented immediately.

The list of banned goods replaces an old list of allowed items that permitted only basic humanitarian supplies for the 1.5 million Gazans. Under the new system, the government said practically all non-military items can enter Gaza freely.

“From now on, there is a green light of approval for all goods to enter Gaza except for military items and materials that can strengthen Hamas’ military machine,” Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said.

Full Story: Israel Eases Gaza Blockade, Will Allow In All Goods Except For Weapons.

Toxic Oil Spill Rains Could Destroy North America

A  report prepared  by Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources is warning that the BP oil and gas leak is about to become the worst environmental catastrophe in human history threatening the entire eastern half of the North American

A dire report prepared for President Medvedev by Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources is warning today that the British Petroleum (BP) oil and gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico is about to become the worst environmental catastrophe in all of human history threatening the entire eastern half of the North American continent with “total destruction”.

Russian scientists are basing their apocalyptic destruction assessment due to BP’s use of millions of gallons of the chemical dispersal agent known as Corexit 9500 which is being pumped directly into the leak of this wellhead over a mile under the Gulf of Mexico waters and designed, this report says, to keep hidden from the American public the full, and tragic, extent of this leak that is now estimated to be over 2.9 million gallons a day.

The dispersal agent Corexit 9500 is a solvent originally developed by Exxon and now manufactured by the Nalco Holding Company of Naperville, Illinois that is four times more toxic than oil (oil is toxic at 11 ppm (parts per million), Corexit 9500 at only 2.61ppm). In a report written by Anita George-Ares and James R. Clark for Exxon Biomedical Sciences, Inc. titled “Acute Aquatic Toxicity of Three Corexit Products: An Overview” Corexit 9500 was found to be one of the most toxic dispersal agents ever developed. Even worse, according to this report, with higher water temperatures, like those now occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, its toxicity grows.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in discovering BP’s use of this dangerous dispersal agent ordered BP to stop using it, but BP refused stating that their only alternative to Corexit 9500 was an even more dangerous dispersal agent known as Sea Brat 4.

Full Story: Toxic Oil Spill Rains Warned Could Destroy North America | EUTimes.net.

Louisiana lawmakers propose prayer to stop oil disaster

You’ve seen the devastation. Now it’s your chance to help. Tune in Monday night for a special “Larry King Live, Disaster in the Gulf: How You Can Help” telethon featuring an all-star panel of guests joining forces in the Gulf region. Don’t miss “Larry King Live,” 8 p.m. ET Monday on CNN.

(CNN) — While cleanup crews and technical teams continue efforts to stop crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana lawmakers are proposing a different approach: prayer.

State senators designated Sunday as a day for citizens to ask for God’s help dealing with the oil disaster.

“Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail,” state Sen. Robert Adley said in a statement released after last week’s unanimous vote for the day of prayer. “It is clearly time for a miracle for us.”

Full Story: Louisiana lawmakers propose prayer to stop oil disaster – CNN.com.

‘Arsenic in water poisoned 77 million Bangladeshis’

Up to 77 million Bangladeshis have been exposed to toxic levels of arsenic from contaminated drinking water, and even low-level exposure to the poison is not risk-free, The Lancet medical journal reported.

Over the past decade, more than 20 percent of deaths recorded in a study that monitored nearly 12,000 people in the Araihazar district of the capital Dhaka appear to have been caused by arsenic-tainted well water.

By some estimates, between 35 and 77 million people in Bangladesh have been chronically exposed to arsenic-contaminated water as a result of a catastrophically misguided campaign in the 1970s.

Millions of tube wells were drilled in the aim of providing villagers with clean, germ-free water. Many wells were inadvertently dug into shallow layers of soil that were heavily laced with naturally occurring arsenic.

Full Story: AFP: ‘Arsenic in water poisoned 77 million Bangladeshis’.

Whales closer to us than thought, say scientists

As the future of whales once more comes under global debate, some scientists say the marine mammals are not only smarter than thought but also share several attributes once claimed as exclusively human.

Self-awareness, suffering and a social culture along with high mental abilities are a hallmark of cetaceans, an order grouping more than 80 whales, dolphins and porpoises, say marine biologists.

If so, the notion that whales are intelligent and sentient beings threatens to demolish, like an explosive harpoon, the assumption that they are simply an animal commodity to be harvested from the sea.

That belief lies at the heart of talks unfolding at the International Whaling Commission (IWC), meeting from Monday to Friday in Agadir, Morocco.

Full Story: Whales closer to us than thought, say scientists.

Obama Administration Keeping Blackwater Armed and Dangerous in Afghanistan

Jeremy Scahill:

Blackwater is up for sale and its shadowy owner, Erik Prince, is rumored to be planning to move to the United Arab Emirates as his top deputies face indictment for a range of alleged crimes, yet the company remains a central part of President Obama’s Afghanistan war. Now, Blackwater’s role is expanding.

On Friday, the US State Department awarded Blackwater another “diplomatic security” contract to protect US officials in Afghanistan. CBS News reports that the $120 million deal is for “protective services” at the US consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. Blackwater has another security contract in Afghanistan worth $200 million and trains Afghan forces. The company also works for the CIA and the US military and provides bodyguards for US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry as well as US lawmakers and other officials who visit the country. The company has four forward operating bases in Afghanistan and Prince has boasted that Blackwater’s counter-narcotics forces have called in NATO airstrikes.

The new security contract was awarded to one of Blackwater’s alter egos, the United States Training Center, despite the indictments of five senior company officials on bribery, weapons and conspiracy charges. Its operatives in both Afghanistan and Iraq have been indicted for killing innocent civilians. The Senate Armed Services Committee has called on the Justice Department to investigate Blackwater’s use of a shell company, Paravant, to win training contracts in Afghanistan. Despite these and numerous other scandals, the State Department once again awarded the company a lucrative contract.

Full Story: Obama Administration Keeping Blackwater Armed and Dangerous in Afghanistan | The Nation.

Global Seed Vault: National Geographic Explores The Arctic Facility (VIDEO)

Take a look inside the global seed vault in this clip from National Geographic’s upcoming 3-night special, “How The Earth Changed History”.

The seed vault, built to protect the world’s food supply in the event of a global crisis, is located on a remote Norwegian island in the Arctic Svalbard archipelago. It was built high enough to avoid rising sea levels, and deep enough into the mountain to be able to withstand a nuclear explosion. The vault is kept at a constant temperature of zero degrees to preserve its contents.

“How The Earth Changed History” premieres Sunday, June 20.

Full Story: Global Seed Vault: National Geographic Explores The Arctic Facility (VIDEO).

Inflated Appraisals Are Key Evidence In Lawsuits Against Banks

The Inflatable Loan Pool

AMID the legal battles between investors who lost money in mortgage securities and the investment banks that sold the stuff, one thing seems clear: the investment banks appear to be winning a good many of the early skirmishes.

But some cases are faring better for individual plaintiffs, with judges allowing them to proceed even as banks ask that they be dismissed. Still, these matters are hard to litigate because investors must persuade the judges overseeing them that their losses were not simply a result of a market crash. Investors must argue, convincingly, that the banks misrepresented the quality of the loans in the pools and made material misstatements about them in prospectuses provided to buyers.

Recent filings by two Federal Home Loan Banks — in San Francisco and Seattle — offer an intriguing way to clear this high hurdle. Lawyers representing the banks, which bought mortgage securities, combed through the loan pools looking for discrepancies between actual loan characteristics and how they were pitched to investors.

Full Story: Fair Game – The Inflatable Loan Pool – NYTimes.com.

Ancient legends once walked among early humans?

Wild, hairy, folks who fought griffons and nomads — have paleontologists unearthed mythic figures of folklore?

Siberia’s Denisova cave held the pinky bone of an unknown early human species, a genetics team reported in March. The Naturejournal study, led by Johannes Krause of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, offered no answer for what happened to this “archaic” human species, more than one million years old and living near their human and Neanderthal cousins as recently as 30,000 years ago.

But at least one scholar has an intriguing answer: “The discovery of material evidence of a distinct hominin (human) lineage in Central Asia as recently as 30,000 years ago does not come as a surprise to those who have looked at the historical and anecdotal evidence of ‘wild people’ inhabiting the region,” wrote folklorist Michael Heaney of the United Kingdom’s Bodleian Library Oxford, in a letter to The Times of London.

Wild people?

Full Story: Ancient legends once walked among early humans? – USATODAY.com.

Payback Time – In Budget Crisis, States Take Aim at Pension Costs

Many states are acknowledging this year that they have promised pensions they cannot afford and are cutting once-sacrosanct benefits, to appease taxpayers and attack budget deficits.

Illinois raised its retirement age to 67, the highest of any state, and capped public pensions at $106,800 a year. Arizona, New York, Missouri and Mississippi will make people work more years to earn pensions. Virginia is requiring employees to pay into the state pension fund for the first time. New Jersey will not give anyone pension credit unless they work at least 32 hours a week.

“We can’t afford to deny reality or delay action any longer,” said Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois, adding that his state’s pension cuts, enacted in March, will save some $300 million in the first year alone.

Full Story: Payback Time – In Budget Crisis, States Take Aim at Pension Costs – NYTimes.com.

Poll: Most Palestinians want peace with Israel

- Haaretz  -

Fafo poll conducted in West Bank and Gaza finds that 89% Palestinians support PA legislative elections this year, 84 % believe Fatah will win.
The majority of Palestinians support a peace agreement with Israel and believe that the Palestinian Authority should use non-violent means to achieve their political goals, a new Fafo poll revealed.

Fafo, a Norwegian based international multidisciplinary research foundation, found that 73 percent of Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza were in favor of peace negotiations with Israel, but stressed that a settlement freeze should be a precondition to talks.

Full Story: Poll: Most Palestinians want peace with Israel – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Japan Has ‘Priority’ On Rights To Mine Afghanistan Mineral Deposits, Says Hamid Karzai

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said this week that Japan — not the U.S. — takes priority over other nations when it comes to mining his country’s vast mineral deposits.

Karzai made his proclamation during a five-day visit to Japan. Over that same time period, news reports surfaced that Afghanistan and Pakistan planned to negotiate with U.S.-NATO enemies, the U.N. reported that insurgent violence is surging, and Reuters tried to parse the Pentagon’s mixed messages over U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.

During an appearance at Japan Institute for International Affairs, Karzai focused on his country’s mineral deposits. He Pointed to Japan’s status as Afghanistan’s second-biggest donor, and reasoned that Japan should enjoy special access to Afghan resources with estimated values that range from $1-3 trillion dollars.

Full Story: Japan Has ‘Priority’ On Rights To Mine Afghanistan Mineral Deposits, Says Hamid Karzai.

OPS: even for an idiot conservative (DLC, Blue Dog or Republican -  take your pick) this has to be a wake-up call. WE are getting OUR kids killed and maimed,  and going bankrupt as a nation, so Japan, China and others can grab the loot. WTF are WE doing there?

Rahm Emanuel: Joe Barton’s BP Apology Represents Difference Between Democrats And Republicans (VIDEO)

President Barack Obama’s chief of staff is warning about what might happen if Republicans — who have defended BP over the Gulf oil spill — were to run Congress after the fall election.

Rahm Emanuel says the GOP philosophy is to paint BP as the victim, pointing to Rep. Joe Barton’s apology to BP for what the congressman called a White House “shakedown.”

“That’s not a political gaffe, those are prepared remarks. That is a philosophy. That is an approach to what they see. They see the aggrieved party here as BP, not the fishermen,” Emanuel said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Barton and Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul, who recently called Obama’s criticism of BP “un-American,” are a reflection of the Republican party’s governing philosophy, Emanuel said. “They think that the government’s the problem.”

Full Story: Rahm Emanuel: Joe Barton’s BP Apology Represents Difference Between Democrats And Republicans (VIDEO).

Attacks on census workers double

An unexpected result for some census takers: the wrath of irate Americans [Teabagers]

This is the scary season for the nation’s census takers.

Since they began making follow-up house calls in early May, census takers have encountered vitriol, menace and flashes of violence. They have been shot at with pellet guns and hit by baseball bats. They have been confronted with pickaxes, crossbows and hammers. They’ve had lawn mowers pushed menacingly toward them and patio tables thrown their way. They have been nibbled by ducks, bitten by pit bulls and chased by packs of snarling dogs.

Some days, being cursed at seems part of the job description.

So far, the Census Bureau has tallied 379 incidents involving assaults or threats on the nation’s 635,000 census workers, more than double the 181 recorded during the 2000 census. Weapons were used or threatened in a third of the cases.

Full Story: An unexpected result for some census takers: the wrath of irate Americans.

BP’s plan: Raise $50 billion, sue business partners

BP is trying to raise 50 billion dollars to cover the cost of the Gulf of Mexico spill and is preparing to sue its partners in the oil field, British newspapers said on Sunday.

The Sunday Telegraph said BP is readying to take legal action against US firm Anadarko, its main partner in the field, for its share of the clean-up costs.

The broadsheet cited a “senior BP source” as saying Anadarko was “shirking its responsibilities”, not accepting its liabilities and that legal action in the United States is now likely to follow.

The Sunday Times said BP is working on a plan to raise 50 billion dollars to cover the cost of the oil spill, which would start next week with a bond sale to raise 10 billion dollars.

A further 20 billion dollars would come from bank loans, while the final slice is expected to come from asset sales over the next two years, the broadsheet said.

Full Story: BP’s plan: Raise $50 billion, sue business partners | Raw Story.

Fox News: GOP in Congress Has Lowest Approval of D.C. Politicians – Even Among Republicans

Democrats in Congress continue to garner better ratings than Republicans. Some 37 percent of voters approve of the job Democrats in Congress are doing, little changed from 36 percent about six months ago. For Congressional Republicans, 31 percent approve, up slightly from 29 percent.

Fully 70 percent of Democrats approve of the job their representatives are doing on Capitol Hill, compared to 52 percent of Republicans who approve of theirs. About twice as many Republicans (40 percent) disapprove of the job their party is doing in Congress as Democrats disapprove of their party (19 percent).

A majority of independents disapproves of Democrats (60 percent) and Republicans in Congress (66 percent).

The same poll found that Pres. Obama has a 53 percent favorable rating overall, including a 91 percent favorability among Democrats.

Full Story: Pensito Review » Fox News: GOP in Congress Has Lowest Approval of D.C. Politicians – Even Among Republicans.

Pentagon revives Rumsfeld-era domestic spying unit

The Pentagon’s spy unit has quietly begun to rebuild a database for tracking potential terrorist threats that was shut down after it emerged that it had been collecting information on American anti-war activists.

The Defense Intelligence Agency filed notice this week that it plans to create a new section called Foreign Intelligence and Counterintelligence Operation Records, whose purpose will be to “document intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism and counternarcotic operations relating to the protection of national security.”

But while the unit’s name refers to “foreign intelligence,” civil liberties advocates and the Pentagon’s own description of the program suggest that Americans will likely be included in the new database.

Full Story: Pentagon revives Rumsfeld-era domestic spying unit | Raw Story.

Gulf Spill Highlights Republicans Who Are ‘Owned, Bought And Paid By The Oil Industry’

Pivoting off Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-TX) apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward for what he called a “shakedown” from the White House, the Washington Post noted yesterday that “the episode showed the uncomfortable spot in which some Republicans find themselves”:

[S]ome Republicans are having trouble bringing themselves to say anything bad about an industry that has been so good to them. It was notable that in their statement distancing themselves from Barton, House Republican leaders John A. Boehner (Ohio), Eric Cantor (Va.) and Mike Pence (Ind.) referred to the spill — caused by the explosion of an oil rig — as a “natural” disaster.

The oil industry “has deep pockets, and they have a long history of supporting Republicans,” said political consultant John Weaver, a former strategist for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “Like any kind of addiction, it’s a terribly difficult thing to break.”

Indeed, Weaver’s comments are perfectly illustrated on the GOP side in a U.S. Senate campaign in Kansas. As the Kansas City Star reports, the “state’s next senator is widely expected to be either Rep. Todd Tiahrt or Rep. Jerry Moran,” Republicans who have each “been a consistent vote for oil and gas industry interests — supporting oil exploration subsidies and expansion while opposing Democratic plans to subsidize alternative energy sources.” And for their efforts, the two have been handsomely rewarded:

Full Story: Think Progress » Gulf Spill Highlights Republicans Who Are ‘Owned, Bought And Paid By The Oil Industry’.

OPS: We are seeing some ‘bought and paid for’ Democrats highlighted also

The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Is Making A Lot Of People Really Sick

At this point nobody knows. What is becoming clear is that a whole lot of people are becoming ill.

Several days ago, the state of Louisiana announced that 71 cases of oil spill-related illnesses had been reported to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals up to that point. A significant number of those had not even been involved in any of the clean up efforts.

But the cases of illness are most prominent among those involved in cleaning up the oil spill. CBS news has reported that more than 75 oil spill disaster workers have already been treated for mysterious symptoms.

The most common symptoms being reported by oil spill disaster workers include vomiting, dizziness, headaches and shortness of breath.

The wife of one fisherman who is involved in disaster relief efforts in the Gulf recently told CNN what her husband has been telling her about what is really going on out there:

I received several calls from him saying, 'This one's hanging over the boat throwing up. This one says he's dizzy, and he's feeling faint. Everybody's loading up their stuff, tying up their rigs and going back to the docks.'

Down in Texas, they are referring to these illnesses as “TILT” – Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance. The following is an excerpt from a local news report out of San Antonio:

Full Story: The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Is Making A Lot Of People Really Sick — Signs of the Times News.

China Signals End to Yuan’s Peg to Dollar Before G-20 Summit

China said it will allow a more flexible yuan, signaling an end to the currency’s two-year-old peg to the dollar a week before a Group of 20 summit.

The decision was made after the world’s third-largest economy improved, the central bank said in a statement on its website yesterday, without indicating a timeframe for the change. It ruled out a one-time revaluation, saying there is no basis for “large-scale appreciation,” and kept the yuan’s 0.5 percent daily trading band unchanged.

“The recovery and upturn of the Chinese economy has become more solid with the enhanced economic stability,” the People’s Bank of China said. “It is desirable to proceed further with reform of the renminbi exchange-rate regime and increase the renminbi exchange-rate flexibility.”

Full Story: China Signals End to Yuan’s Peg to Dollar Before G-20 Summit – Bloomberg.com.

Medvedev Promotes Ruble to Lessen Dollar Dominance

Russia wants the ruble to be one of the world’s reserve currencies as President Dmitry Medvedev renews his push to reduce the dollar’s dominance and make Moscow a global financial hub.

“Only three, five years ago it seemed like a fantasy” to create a new reserve currency, Medvedev said yesterday in a speech in St. Petersburg, Russia. “Now we are seriously discussing it.”

Medvedev, who has repeatedly called for a supranational currency to match the dollar, said discussions with China are continuing on broadening the global options. Russia sold U.S. Treasuries for a fifth consecutive month in April, the U.S. Treasury Department said June 15. The world may need as many as six reserve currencies, Medvedev said.

Full Story: Medvedev Promotes Ruble to Lessen Dollar Dominance (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.

USDA opens public comments on Monsanto’s H1-7 GM beet

No-GMO campaigns won victories recently in Bolivia, Luxembourg, and Japan (at least temporarily), while Bulgaria saw the introduction of a bill to clearly label all genetically modified products and to ban distribution of GM food to children. We’re not so lucky here in the States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has deregulated over 79 GM products – the most recent being a genetically engineered (GE) soybean line developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International. Now, APHIS seeks public input on deregulating Monsanto’s GE sugar beet known as H1-7.

You know you have something to say. You have until June 28 to do so. At this link, you can read the Notice and submit a comment.

The USDA finds GE beets just fine and safe. It unscientifically refuses to acknowledge crop contamination, mass bee and butterfly die-off from pesticides, and an explosion in obesity, diabetes and food allergies in the US since the introduction of GE foods. When the government says “science-based,’ in plain speak that means profit-based. Some multinational corporation stands to make a fantastic fortune.

Full Story: USDA opens public comments on Monsanto’s H1-7 GM beet « Food Freedom.

North America faces years of toxic oil rain from BP oil spill chemical dispersants

North America will be facing years of toxic rain becuase of the poisonous chemical dispersants BP is using to control the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

When you pour more than a million gallons of toxic chemical dispersants on top of an oil spill, it doesn’t just disappear. In this case, it moves to the atmosphere, where it will travel hundreds, if not thousands of miles from the site of the BP oil spill, in the form of toxic rain.

BP’s oil spill-fighting dispersant of choice is Corexit 9500. It has been banned in Europe for good reason. Corexit 9500 is one of the most environmentally enduring, toxic chemical dispersants ever created to battle an oil spill.  Add to that the millions of gallons of oil that have been burned, releasing even more toxins into the atmosphere, and you have a recipe for something much worse than acid rain.

Oil in the environment is toxic at 11 PPM (parts per million). Corexit 9500 is toxic at only 2.61 PPM. But Corexit 9500 has another precarious characteristic; it’s reaction to warm water.

Full Story: North America faces years of toxic oil rain from BP oil spill chemical dispersants.

Clean the Gulf, Clean House, Clean Their Clock

Frank Rich:  The president must come clean and clean house not just because it’s right. He must rebuild confidence in his government for that inevitable day when the next crisis hits the fan.

PRESIDENT Obama is not known for wild pronouncements, so it was startling to hear him liken the gulf oil spill to 9/11. Alas, this bold analogy, made in an interview with Roger Simon of Politico, proved a misleading trailer for the main event. In the president’s prime-time address a few days later, there was still talk of war, but the ammunition was sanded down to bullet points: “a clean energy future,” “a long-term gulf coast restoration plan” and, that most dreaded of perennials, “a national commission.” Such generic placeholders, unanimated by details or deadlines, are Washingtonese for “The buck stops elsewhere.”

The speech’s pans were inevitable, but in truth it was doomed no matter what the words or how cool or faux angry the performance. The president had it right the first time — this is a 9/11 crisis — and only action will do. The sole sentence that really counted on Tuesday night was his prediction that “in the coming weeks and days, these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well.” He will be judged on whether that’s true. The sole event that mattered last week was his jawboning of BP for a $20 billion down payment of blood money — to be overseen, appropriately enough, by Kenneth Feinberg of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

That action could be a turning point for Obama if he builds on it. And he must. In this 9/11, it’s not just the future of the gulf coast, energy policy or his presidency that’s in jeopardy. What’s also being tarred daily by the gushing oil is the very notion that government can accomplish anything. The current crisis in that faith predates this disaster. In the short history of the Obama White House, two of its most urgent projects, reducing unemployment and pacifying Afghanistan, have yet to yield persuasive results. The dividends on the third, health care reform, won’t be in the mail for years.

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – Clean the Gulf, Clean House, Clean Their Clock – NYTimes.com.

Methane is newest BP oil spill threat for Gulf of Mexico

All eyes have been on the continuous outflow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico but a new and less known threat has surfaced. Methane gas keeps being released in the gulf waters and threatens the natural habitat of sea creatures.

The “flow team” of the US Geological Survey estimates that 2,900 cubit feet of methane gas is being released into the gulf waters with every barrel of oil. The constant flow of 20,000 barrels of crude oil would place the total daily amount of methane at roughly 5.8 million cubic feet.

Methane gas depletes the natural oxygen levels found in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico which are crucial for the survival of plankton and other sea creatures in the natural food chain. The high concentration of methane is now threatening to suffocate the seafood population.

Full Story: Methane is newest BP oil spill threat for Gulf of Mexico | HULIQ.

Matt Simmons Revises Leak Estimate to 120,000 Barrels Per Day, Believes Oil Covers 40% of Gulf Beneath the Surface

Matt Simmons was on Bloomberg earlier, adding some additional perspective to his original appearance on the station, in which he initially endorsed the nuclear option as the only viable way to resolve the oil spill. Simmons refutes even the latest oil spill estimate of 45,000-60,000 barrels per day, and in quoting research by the Thomas Jefferson research vessel which was compiled late on Sunday, quantifies the leak at 120,000 bpd. What is scarier is that according to the Jefferson, the oil lake underneath the surface of the water could be covering up to 40% of the entire Gulf of Mexico. Simmons also says that as the leak has no casing, a relief well will not work, and the only possible resolution is, as he said previously, to use a small nuclear explosion to convert the rock to glass. Simmons concludes that as punishment for BP’s arrogance and stupidity the government “will take all their cash.” Now if only our own administration could tell us the truth about what is really happening in the gulf…

video at link

Full Story: Matt Simmons Revises Leak Estimate to 120,000 Barrels Per Day, Believes Oil Covers 40% of Gulf Beneath the Surface — Signs of the Times News.

Milk The Deadly Poison

About the Author

Robert Cohen performed research in the 1970's on the hormonal effects on the brain and behavior. Twenty-five years later, this father of three became concerned about the most controversial drug approval in FDA history, the genetically engineered hormone that is now in our milk supply. Along the way, Cohen discovered that milk is implicated in causing breast cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease, and chronic childhood illnesses. Cohen's skills as a researcher, and his passion for the safety of his family, led to his single-minded pursuit to expose the truth about milk. Based on his exhaustive and comprehensive research over the past six years, Cohen predicted the Mad Cow Disease outbreak. His dogged determination has set the American dairy industry on its ear. To insure that all citizens of the world learn the truth, Cohen founded and is executive director of America's Dairy Education Board, a group of nationally prominent doctors dedicated to dispelling the myth that milk is nature's perfect food.

===

This is a 1998 Hard Copy Special on MILK. What the government doesn't want you to know about milk. Don't drink milk, we know it contains fat and cholesterol but did you know it contains the protein CASEIN (which is basically a glue which leads to a lot of mucous build up and other health problems like asthma and congestion), milk also contains.. powerful growth hormones, viruses, a host of deadly chemical and biological bacterial agents, bovine proteins that cause allergies, insecticides, antibiotics, all this can trigger the growth of cancer and contributes to today's problem of obese children (ever notice why young girls breasts develop faster?). Cow's milk is the number one allergic food in this country. It has been well documented as a cause in diarrhea, cramps, bloating, gas, gastrointestinal bleeding, iron-deficiency anemia, skin rashes, atherosclerosis, and acne. It is the primary cause of recurrent ear infections in children. It has also been linked to insulin dependent diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, infertility, and leukemia. Milk and refined sugar make two of the largest contributions to food induced ill health in our country.

For More Information about Milk go to: http://www.notmilk.com/

Read Robert Cohen’s book Milk The Deadly Poison Available at Amazon.com or other major bookstores.

Direct Link: http://www.amazon.com/MILK-Deadly-Poi…

Poll: Bad News for GOP, Rep. Barton – 82% Approve of BP’s $20 Bil Victims’ Fund

If you were surprised that House Speaker-to-Be John Boehner and other top Republicans went into a full-bore panic over Rep. Joe Barton’s apology to BP on Thursday — normally they’d be high-fivin’ over Barton’s smearing the $20 billion victims’ fund the president brokered with BP as a “shakedown” — the answer may lie in a poll that came out the same day:

The poll’s Thursday release comes as top BP executives testify in front of Congress. At the hearing, Rep. Joe Barton, ranking Republican on the House Energy Committee, defended BP and slammed the White House for insisting that BP place $20 billion in an escrow fund to help compensate those affected by the oil disaster.

“I am ashamed of what happened at the White House yesterday,” said Barton at the hearing. “I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation would be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown. In this case a $20 billion dollar shakedown.”

But according to the poll, Americans disagree with Barton. Eighty-two percent approve of the creating of a fund of billions of dollars to compensate workers and businesses affected by the spill.

Full Story: Pensito Review » Poll: Bad News for GOP, Rep. Barton – 82% Approve of BP’s $20 Bil Victims’ Fund.

History Channel Mega Disasters – Methane Explosion

History Channel “Mega Disasters” series. This explores the controversial paper published by Northwestern University's Gregory Ryskin. His thesis: the oceans periodically produce massive eruptions of explosive methane gas… enough to cause global catastrophe on a regular basis!

U.S. Testing Pain Ray in Afghanistan

The U.S. mission in Afghanistan centers around swaying locals to its side. And there’s no better persuasion tool than an invisible pain ray that makes people feel like they’re on fire.

OK, OK. Maybe that isn’t precisely the logic being employed by those segments of the American military who would like to deploy the Active Denial System to Afghanistan. I’m sure they’re telling themselves that the generally non-lethal microwave weapon is a better, safer crowd control alternative than an M-16. But those ray-gun advocates better think long and hard about the Taliban’s propaganda bonanza when news leaks of the Americans zapping Afghans until they feel roasted alive.

Because, apparently, the Active Denial System is “in Afghanistan for testing.”

An Air Force military officer and a civilian employee at the Air Force Research Laboratory are just two of the people telling Danger Room co-founder Sharon Weinberger that the vehicle-mounted “block 2″ version of the pain ray is in the warzone, but hasn’t been used in combat.

Full Story: U.S. Testing Pain Ray in Afghanistan (Updated) | Danger Room | Wired.com.

DEFICIT TERRORISTS STRIKE IN THE UK – USA NEXT?

Ellen Brown:

Last week, England’s new government said it would abandon the previous government’s stimulus program and introduce the austerity measures required to pay down its estimated $1 trillion in debts. That means cutting public spending, laying off workers, reducing consumption, and increasing unemployment and bankruptcies. It also means shrinking the money supply, since virtually all “money” today originates as loans or debt. Reducing the outstanding debt will reduce the amount of money available to pay workers and buy goods, precipitating depression and further economic pain.

The financial sector has sometimes been accused of shrinking the money supply intentionally, in order to increase the demand for its own products. Bankers are in the debt business, and if governments are allowed to create enough money to keep themselves and their constituents out of debt, lenders will be out of business. The central banks charged with maintaining the banking business therefore insist on a “stable currency” at all costs, even if it means slashing services, laying off workers, and soaring debt and interest burdens. For the financial business to continue to boom, governments must not be allowed to create money themselves, either by printing it outright or by borrowing it into existence from their own government-owned banks.

Today this financial goal has largely been achieved. In most countries, 95% or more of the money supply is created by banks as loans (or “credit”). The small portion issued by the government is usually created just to replace lost or worn out bills or coins, not to fund new government programs. Early in the twentieth century, about 30% of the British currency was issued by the government as pounds sterling or coins, versus only about 3% today. In the U.S., only coins are now issued by the government. Dollar bills (Federal Reserve Notes) are issued by the Federal Reserve, which is privately owned by a consortium of banks.

Full Story: DEFICIT TERRORISTS STRIKE IN THE UK – USA NEXT?.

Rescission Decision

Take a look at how much of our budget it lost due to tax loopholes.

Tax Expenditures Belong on the Cutting Block

The House Budget Committee will hold a hearing Thursday morning on a White House proposal to give the president authority to force reconsideration of items in spending bills that he concludes are not a good use of public resources. Under this rescission measure, the president could send recommended spending cuts back to Congress for an up-or-down vote.

Unfortunately, the Reduce Unnecessary Wasteful Spending Act of 2010 excludes from the presidential scalpel one of the largest categories of government spending: tax expenditures, or more simply, government subsidies that are doled out through the tax code. The failure to include tax expenditures in the president’s spending-reduction measure leaves more than $1 trillion off the table.

Lawmakers should press administration officials at Thursday’s hearing about this regrettable omission from the new proposal. White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, has said tax expenditures were considered for inclusion in the bill, even though the White House ultimately left them out. He indicated that the Obama administration is “interested in exploring whether there is any way to incorporate tax entitlements and, frankly, all mandatory spending in a way that is constitutional and does not create procedural problems with the provisions.”

Full Story: Rescission Decision.

Obama officials still approving flawed Gulf drilling plans

Despite President Barack Obama’s promises of better safeguards for offshore drilling, federal regulators continue to approve plans for oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico with minimal or no environmental analysis.

The Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service has signed off on at least five new offshore drilling projects since June 2, when the agency’s acting director announced tougher safety regulations for drilling in the Gulf, a McClatchy review of public records has discovered.

Three of the projects were approved with waivers exempting them from detailed studies of their environmental impact — the same waiver the MMS granted to BP for the ill-fated well that’s been fouling the Gulf with crude for two months.

Full Story: Obama officials still approving flawed Gulf drilling plans | McClatchy.

Chevron Vows To Pay

Salt Lake City attorneys expect Chevron Corp. will quickly agree to a financial settlement related to last weekend’s pipeline spill that dumped 33,000 gallons of crude oil into city waterways, a spokeswoman for Mayor Ralph Becker said Friday.

Becker has vowed to make Chevron pay for the cleanup, and the company has repeatedly pledged to cover the city’s expenses, as well as damage or reimbursement claims from others.

A deal could be announced next week, said Lisa Harrison Smith, the mayor’s spokeswoman.

“We won’t be satisfied until it’s done,” she said.

Full Story: Utah Oil Spill: Chevron Vows To Pay.

Tea Party Confessional Runs In Playboy

The new Playboy magazine has an anonymous confessional from a K Street consultant who lifts the curtain on many of the politically crafty, somewhat seedy underpinnings of the Tea Party movement.

The article has not received much attention. But its contents, if true, are illustrative and fascinating. The consultant, who doesn’t identify for whom he actually works, paints a picture of a movement that has strength in its legions of followers outside the Beltway but harnesses its power from the “black arts” of politicking.

Among the author’s various claims are the following:

* Tea Party strategists have “quietly acquired Service Employees International Union shirts to wear at Tea Party rallies,” which he or she describes as the equivalent of “handing out TSA uniforms in Kabul.”

* Sarah Palin isn’t the leader of the movement. Big Government’s Andrew Breitbart is. “Breitbart is one of them, except smarter, better connected and angrier; compared with him, Palin is Las Vegas dinner theater. That’s why he is loved by Tea Partyers in a way Palin can never hope to be loved.”

* Actual elected officials are bowing down to the Tea Party throng in

Full Story: Tea Party Confessional Runs In Playboy.

Jury Awards Florida Couple $2.4 Million In Damages For Poison Chinese-Made Drywall

A Florida couple who fled their dream home because of foul-smelling, ruinous Chinese drywall was awarded $2.4 million in damages Friday in the nation’s first jury trial over the defective wallboard that could have legal ramifications for thousands of similar cases.

The six-person jury ruled that Armin and Lisa Seifart should receive more than just the costs of gutting and renovating their home: they were also awarded damages for loss of enjoyment of the $1.6 million house and for the drywall stigma that might reduce its resale value.

The defendant, drywall distributor Banner Supply Co., is named in thousands of other lawsuits. Attorneys in those cases, as well as many others pending nationwide against other companies, will look to the Seifart damage award as a guide for what kinds of damages they seek

Full Story: Jury Awards Florida Couple $2.4 Million In Damages For Poison Chinese-Made Drywall.

Blackwater Firm Gets $120M U.S. Gov’t Contract – CBS News Investigates – CBS News

CBS News has learned in an exclusive report that the State Department has awarded a part of what was formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide a contract worth more than $120 million for providing security services in Afghanistan.

Private security firm U.S. Training Center, a business unit of the Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater, now called Xe Services, was awarded the contract Friday, a State Department spokeswoman said Friday night.

Under the contract, U.S. Training Center will provide “protective security services” at the new U.S. consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, the spokeswoman said. The firm can begin work “immediately” and has to start within two months. The contract lasts a year but can be extended twice for three months at a time to last a maximum of 18 months.

Should the firm fulfill all 18 months available in the contract, it will be paid a total of $120,123,293, the spokeswoman said.

Full Story: Blackwater Firm Gets $120M U.S. Gov’t Contract – CBS News Investigates – CBS News.

World’s Mining Companies Covet Afghan Riches

Mining companies around the world are eager to exploit Afghanistan’s newly discovered mineral wealth, but executives of Western firms caution that war, corruption and lack of roads and other infrastructure are likely to delay exploration for years.

A few high-risk investors are sufficiently intrigued by the country’s potential to take an early look. JP Morgan, for instance, has just sent a team of mining experts to Afghanistan to examine possible projects to develop.

“Afghanistan could be one of the leading producers of copper, gold, lithium and iron ore in the world,” said Ian Hannam, a London-based banker and mining expert with JP Morgan. “I believe this has the potential to be transforming for Afghanistan.”

Full Story: World’s Mining Companies Covet Afghan Riches – NYTimes.com.

Droid Incredible Snaps, Saves Pictures Of Your Browsing History

Droid Incredible users have found a truly incredible glitch on the HTC smartphone.

As Boy Genius Report writes, the Droid Incredible will snap screenshots of your browser–via the phone’s Sense UI bookmarking widget–then store the pictures in its internal memory. Erasing those files isn’t so easy. Those screengrabs of your online banking session or favorite porn site (for example) stick on the phone around even after a total factory reset.

Engadget explains, “Ending the browsing session, deleting your history, and even a full reset to factory settings failed to eviscerate the indiscreet imagery. You have to manually discover their location and delete them by hand.”

BGR offers instructions on where you can find the images in order to erase them: “The JPEG files are saved to a folder named .bookmark_thumb1 which is located within the emmc folder of the phones internal storage (so you would expect a full factory reset to delete them). ” (see picture below)

Full Story: Droid Incredible Snaps, Saves Pictures Of Your Browsing History.

BP Partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Blasts BP’s ‘Reckless Decisions And Actions’

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which owns a quarter of BP PLC’s blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, late Friday blasted BP “reckless decisions and actions” that led to the well’s explosion.

Anadarko Chairman and CEO Jim Hackett’s statement came after some elected officials said Anadarko should help pay for the massive cleanup and spill-related claims. Company spokesman John Christiansen said the comments were in response to “a week’s worth of testimony” and other information and data compiled on the disaster.

“The mounting evidence clearly demonstrates that this tragedy was preventable and the direct result of BP’s reckless decisions and actions,” said Hackett in the statement. “We recognize that ultimately we have obligations under federal law related to the oil spill, but will look to BP to continue to pay all legitimate claims as they have repeatedly stated that they will do.”

Full Story: Gulf Oil Spill: BP Partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Blasts BP’s ‘Reckless Decisions And Actions’.

General Petraeus Starts Moving the Goalposts on Afghanistan Withdrawal

When asked about the July 2011 deadline to begin troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, General Petraeus says “I support the policy of the president.” This past week, though, in testimony before Congress in hastily arranged hearings, he made his position more clear. He supports the policy of the president,” but thinks “we have to be very careful with time-lines,” and he might even try to convince the president to renege on his promise to the American people as July 2011 comes closer.

He’s a concern troll. He’s kowtowing to the principle of civilian control of the military, but his function in the debate is to constantly hem and haw, sapping support for strong action in favor of a position with which he does not (and maybe never did) agree.

Now, Petraeus is a cool customer and an experienced hand at testifying before Congress. When faced with an adversarial questioner, he rarely shows his cards and tends to filibuster them out of time, sticking closely to the “I support the president” talking point. That’s what makes his performance this week slightly shocking. The masked slipped.

Full Story: Derrick Crowe: General Petraeus Starts Moving the Goalposts on Afghanistan Withdrawal.

The New Poor – Peddling Relief, Firms Put Debtors in Deeper Hole

For the companies that promise relief to Americans confronting swelling credit card balances, these are days of lucrative opportunity

So lucrative, that an industry trade association, the United States Organizations for Bankruptcy Alternatives, recently convened here, in the oceanfront confines of the Four Seasons Resort, to forge deals and plot strategy.

At a well-lubricated evening reception, a steel drum band played Bob Marley songs as hostesses in skimpy dresses draped leis around the necks of arriving entrepreneurs, some with deep tans.

The debt settlement industry can afford some extravagance. The long recession has delivered an abundance of customers — debt-saturated Americans, suffering lost jobs and income, sliding toward bankruptcy. The settlement companies typically harvest fees reaching 15 to 20 percent of the credit card balances carried by their customers, and they tend to collect upfront, regardless of whether a customer’s debt is actually reduced.

Full Story: The New Poor – Peddling Relief, Firms Put Debtors in Deeper Hole – NYTimes.com.

When Congress Becomes a Subsidiary of Corporations, Democracy and the Free Market are Dead and Buried

There is no doubt that the biggest political disappointment this year for BuzzFlash is how a candidate who promised “change” from the corporatist stranglehold over D.C. turned into a President who believes that corporate rule is beneficial to America, even as he presides over the destruction that such corrupt corporate control of our capital leaves in its wake.

Reagan, the two Bushes and Cheney may have planted the booby traps that blew up our nation’s economy, destroyed its environment and mired us in war, but Obama continually looks to those global corporations and financial firms who have caused our catastrophic problems to resolve them. The late David Halberstram wrote about how the “best and the brightest” (Ivy League grads, primarily, but toss in the University of Chicago and Stanford types too) were the ones who steered us into the Vietnam War without an exit plan. Obama appears to believe in the elitist notion that if you are at the head of an immense enterprise, it is because of merit.

But the modern global corporations and financial firms are built on a core of corruption, of buying off D.C. so that there are no legal rules to inhibit their pillaging and gambling — and to ensure that Congress and D.C. cover their backsides with public funds when they screw up.

Full Story: When Congress Becomes a Subsidiary of Corporations, Democracy and the Free Market are Dead and Buried | BuzzFlash.org.

Alert issued for Afghans gone AWOL from Texas base

U.S. military investigators are asking law enforcement nationwide to be on the lookout for Afghan military members who went AWOL while training in Texas, though none is believed to be a national security threat, officials said Friday.

Air Force spokesman Gary Emery said 17 Afghans disappeared from Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio one-by-one over the last 18 months, but a federal law enforcement official says seven have been accounted for. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because privacy rules prevent disclosure of details about individual cases.

The men were vetted by the military and aren’t believed to be connected to one another or to any terrorist group, Emery said. All had been studying English as a precursor to training sponsored by the U.S. and Afghan militaries.

“I don’t think that anybody’s really concerned that this is any sort of a plot or that they’re looking to do anybody any harm,” he said.

Full Story: The Associated Press: Alert issued for Afghans gone AWOL from Texas base.

New laser shoots beams of night

New technology actually designed to reduce light

A laser that doesn’t produce light would ordinarily be a failure. After all, the first two letters of laser stand for light amplification, not light reduction.

But a new laser created by scientists at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology and JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder, shoots beams of night instead of beams of light. The “dark pulses,” as the NIST scientists ominously call them, create areas absent of light.

The research could improve fiber optic communications. Pulses of light fade or degrade over long distances to cause noise and errors. Dark pulses don’t have the same drawbacks, which should improve the transmission and detection of light through fiber optic cables

Full Story: New laser shoots beams of night – Innovation- msnbc.com.

BP Blocks Attempt to Save Endangered Sea Turtles from Oil Spill – video

A shrimp boat captain in Louisiana hired by BP was blocked from rescuing juvenile Kemp’s ridleys that were covered in oil in the Gulf waters. He was captured on video saying that the turtles are being collected in the clean-up efforts and burned up like so much ocean debris with other marine life gathering along tide lines where oil also congregates.

He witnessed BP workers burning turtles caught in the oil booms. Rescue efforts are being ended tomorrow.

STRP’s Gulf Director Carole Allen responded to the news by saying “The burning of boom and oil when even one sea turtle was seen in the water is a despicable crime.”

Full Story: Sea Turtle Restoration Project : BP Blocks Attempt to Save Endangered Sea Turtles from Oil Spill.

Kucinich: What if the BP Gusher in the Gulf is Unstoppable?

Kucinich Addresses the Floor regarding the BP oil spill

That ’30s Feeling

Paul Krugman:

Suddenly, creating jobs is out, inflicting pain is in. Condemning deficits and refusing to help a still-struggling economy has become the new fashion everywhere, including the United States, where 52 senators voted against extending aid to the unemployed despite the highest rate of long-term joblessness since the 1930s.

Many economists, myself included, regard this turn to austerity as a huge mistake. It raises memories of 1937, when F.D.R.’s premature attempt to balance the budget helped plunge a recovering economy back into severe recession. And here in Germany, a few scholars see parallels to the policies of Heinrich Brüning, the chancellor from 1930 to 1932, whose devotion to financial orthodoxy ended up sealing the doom of the Weimar Republic.

But despite these warnings, the deficit hawks are prevailing in most places — and nowhere more than here, where the government has pledged 80 billion euros, almost $100 billion, in tax increases and spending cuts even though the economy continues to operate far below capacity.

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – That ’30s Feeling – NYTimes.com.

Obama Was Created by Our Failure to Impeach Bush

David Swanson:

I want to save most of the time we have for your questions, so I’ll be brief and I’ll start with a couple of questions for you. And then I want you to think of questions for me, because otherwise I’ll just go on and on about what I want to talk about.

Who can tell me who said this and where they said it?

“I — like any head of state — reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation.” (President Barack Obama, asserting the illegal and unconstitutional power to make war, in a Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway.)

What about this one — who and where?

Full Story: Obama Was Created by Our Failure to Impeach Bush | The Smirking Chimp.

War for Resources: From Slander to Clarion Call

David Sirota

Reading this week’s New York Times headline—“U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan”—many probably wondered how this information was being presented as “news” in 2010. After all, humanity has long been aware of the country’s vast natural resources. As Mother Jones magazine’s James Ridgeway said after recalling past public accounts of the ore deposits, “This ‘discovery’ in fact is ancient history tracing back to the times of Marco Polo.”

The intrigue in the Times dispatch, then, is not Afghanistan’s “huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals” that the paper quotes Pentagon officials gushing about—it is the gushing itself. Indeed, the real question is: What would prompt the government to portray well-known geology as some sort of blockbuster revelation?

The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder proffers a convincing answer. Noting the military’s coordinated quotes in the Times piece, he writes that the Pentagon is probably trying to bolster Americans’ support for the flagging Afghanistan campaign by “publicizing or re-publicizing valid but already public information about the region’s potential wealth.”

Full Story: David Sirota: War for Resources: From Slander to Clarion Call – Truthdig.

New York Dems Standing Strong For Wall Street

House Democrats representing New York are making a last-minute push to defend the interests of the state’s most profitable industry.

On Monday night, Gary Ackerman, a Democrat who represents Queens, told his fellow caucus members that if reform is too tough on Wall Street — particularly, if it includes a tough derivatives proposal from Blanche Lincoln or a hardened Volcker Rule — the 26 members of the New York delegation may abandon the party on a final vote. He claims that reduced profits for Wall Street translates into lower tax revenue for the state and city, which hurts all New Yorkers.

That would leave Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with only a few votes to spare, with plenty of other opposition from within her caucus still left to overcome.

The conventional understanding of the congressional equation is that the Senate, with its requirement of 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, is the limiting factor. But the House is proving a more difficult obstacle.

Full Story: New York Dems Standing Strong For Wall Street.

Obama welcomes ease of Gaza blockade, urges Israel to expand goods inflow

The international community has welcomed Israel's decision to ease its land blockade of the Gaza Strip, a decision made Thursday after weeks of pressure from its allies in the United States and the European Union.

The White House welcomed the announcement on Thursday as a “step in the right direction.” U.S. President Barack Obama a few weeks called the three-year embargo unsustainable, and urged Israel to scale it back dramatically.

The new product list approved by Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday includes all food items, toys, stationery, kitchen utensils, mattresses and towels.

Israel will also allow in more construction materials to repair damage from the December 2008-January 2009 war in the Gaza Strip, provided they are used for civilian projects carried out under international supervision, government and military officials said.

Full Story: Obama welcomes ease of Gaza blockade, urges Israel to expand goods inflow – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Loopholes Grow in Bill to Offset Ruling on Campaigns

Congressional Democrats are pushing hard for legislation to rein in the power of special interests by requiring more disclosure of their roles in paying for campaign advertising — but as they struggle to find the votes they need to pass it they are carving out loopholes for, yes, special interests.

In a deal that left even architects of the legislation squirming with unease, authors of a bill intended to counter a Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations and unions to pour money directly into campaign commercials provided an exception this week for the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington.

The resulting uproar over special treatment for the pro-gun group led Democrats on Thursday to expand the exception to cover even more interest groups as they tried to secure votes for the measure, which is opposed by most Republicans. But with other powerful groups also weighing in and no assurance that Democrats had the votes they need, House leaders decided late Thursday to put off a planned Friday vote on the campaign bill, increasing doubts about whether Congress can enact it in time for this year’s elections.

Full Story: Loopholes Grow in Bill to Offset Ruling on Campaigns – NYTimes.com.

Climate Change : Ten Times Faster than Predicted

It takes 196,000 pounds of plants to produce a gallon of gasoline. It takes 40 acres of plants, roots, stalks, and leaves, to go 20 miles in the average car. This is how much ancient plant matter had to be buried millions of years ago to produce one gallon of gas. It is just incredible how much buried sunshine, how many fossilized photons it takes to make up a little bit of oil.

Dr. Jeff Dukes published the paper from which these numbers are taken back in 2003 in the journal Climatic Change. This ancient solar energy is normally emitted back into the environment over tens, or even hundreds of millions of years. Mankind is literally releasing this carbon millions of times faster than it is naturally released.

Since 1983 Dr. James Hansen has been the Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). GISS is the United States’ foremost climate modeling agency. Hansen, who National Public Radio suggests is “almost universally regarded as the preeminent climate scientist of our time,” says that mankind is causing the carbon dioxide concentration in our atmosphere to increase 10,000 times faster than at any time in the last 65 million years — since the giant asteroid struck the Yucatan Peninsula and the dinosaurs went extinct

Full Story: The Rag Blog: Climate Change : Ten Times Faster than Predicted.

Top Republicans Offer BP Apologies, Tips to Avoid Accountability

It was BP that provided unsound information about the crisis and its aftermath, creating a false sense that the spill could be more easily contained than was reasonable to imagine.

It was BP that tried to prevent monitoring of the spill that so threatens the Gulf Coast and the environments and economies of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

So now that President Obama is getting a little tougher on the company—and it should be emphasized that the White House remains far too cautious a player—who are key Republicans in Congress feeling sorry for?

BP.

Full Story: Top Republicans Offer BP Apologies, Tips to Avoid Accountability | The Nation.

Paul Krugman Vs. Alan Greenspan On Deficits (POLL)

We don’t know for sure that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan had each other in mind when they penned diametrically opposed op-eds, both of which ran today. But, we can hope.

Start with their titles. Greenspan’s Wall Street Journal piece is dubbed “U.S. Debt and the Greece Analogy” (You can guess where that piece is headed.) Ever the Keynesian, Krugman’s piece is titled, “That ’30s Feeling.”

The key issue for both Krugman and Greenspan, of course, is deficits and spending. For Krugman, the world’s recent turn toward austerity, evinced by Congress’s recent refusal to extend unemployment benefits and cutbacks in social services across Europe, is a sign that governments are afraid to spend enough to stimulate economic growth. “Suddenly, creating jobs is out, inflicting pain is in,” he writes.

Full Story: Paul Krugman Vs. Alan Greenspan On Deficits (POLL).

Is Using Dispersants on the BP Gulf Oil Spill Fighting Pollution with Pollution?

Scientific American:  “…massive, uncontrolled experiment being run in the Gulf of Mexico…”

It remains unclear what impact chemical dispersants will have on sea life–and only the massive, uncontrolled experiment being run in the Gulf of Mexico will tell

Roughly five million liters of dispersants have now been used to break up the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, making this the largest use of such chemicals in U.S. history. If it continues for 10 months, as long as Mexico’s Ixtoc 1 blowout in 1979 in the same region, the Macondo well disaster has a good chance of achieving the largest global use of these chemicals, surpassing 10 million liters.

And there is no doubt that dispersants are toxic: Both types of the dispersal compound COREXIT used in the Gulf so far are capable of killing or depressing the growth of a wide range of aquatic species, ranging from phytoplankton to fish. “It’s a trade-off decision to lessen the overall environmental impact,” explained marine biologist Jane Lubchenco, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), at a press conference on May 12. “When an oil spill occurs, there are no good outcomes.”

The trade-off in this case is the addition of toxic chemicals in a bid to protect the marshes of Louisiana and the beaches of Florida. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for one, has become concerned about the toxicity of the most-used dispersant at the Gulf of Mexico spill—COREXIT 9500—and ordered BP to look at alternatives. (COREXIT 9527 was used earlier during the spill, but it was discontinued because it was considered too toxic.)

Full Story: Is Using Dispersants on the BP Gulf Oil Spill Fighting Pollution with Pollution?: Scientific American.

More Companies Knew About Tainted Drywall but Stayed Quiet—and Kept Selling It

At least a half-dozen homebuilders, installers and environmental consultants knew as early as 2006 that foul smells were coming from drywall imported from China – but they didn’t share their early concerns with the public, even when homeowners began complaining about the drywall in 2008.

ProPublica and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported last month that two U.S. companies – WCI Communities, a major Florida homebuilder, and Banner Supply, a Miami-based distributor – knew about the problem in 2006. But according to recently released sworn depositions by current and former executives at Banner, other companies also were aware of the problem.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has since linked the foul odor to sulfur gases that can corrode electrical wiring and household appliances, including air conditioners and refrigerators. The long-term health effects of the air are still being studied, although homeowners have complained of respiratory problems, bloody noses and severe headaches.

Full Story: More Companies Knew About Tainted Drywall but Stayed Quiet—and Kept Selling It – ProPublica.

Doctors urge Cuccinelli to drop health-reform lawsuit

A grass-roots organization of physicians yesterday joined the battle in the court of public opinion over whether Virginia and other states should challenge the legality of recently passed health-care reform legislation.

The Washington-based group Doctors for America sent a letter to Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli urging him to withdraw litigation filed against President Barack Obama’s reform.

The group’s letter argues that the litigation, successful or not, would harm patients by delaying funding appropriated in the bill to medical schools and community health centers, and medical care to underserved populations. More than 1 million people in Virginia are uninsured, and 131 health centers would receive federal aid under the new legislation, according to the group.

“Your lawsuit poses an imminent threat to the health of Virginians,” states the letter, signed by 155 Virginia physicians of the organization, which boasts 16,000 members nationwide.

There are 30,000 physicians in Virginia.

Full Story: Doctors urge Cuccinelli to drop health-reform lawsuit | Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Al Franken Slams Supreme Court For Dismantling Legal Protections (VIDEO)

Franken:  it’s the conservatives who have become activist judges.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) railed against the Supreme Court in a speech to progressive legal scholars Thursday night, declaring that “the Roberts Court has systematically dismantled the legal protections that help ordinary people find justice when wronged by the economically powerful.”

Franken in particular decried the way conservative legal scholars have changed the popular perception of what Supreme Court justices do — and what justice is.

They’ve distorted our constitutional discourse to make it sound like the Court’s rulings don’t matter to ordinary people, but only to the undeserving riff-raff at the margins of society.

So unless you want to get a late-term abortion, burn a flag in the town square, or get federal funding for your pornographic artwork, you really don’t need to worry about what the Supreme Court is up to.

The ACLU has a long and proud history of defending the First Amendment, and while I haven’t seen polling on this, I’d bet that most Americans are fairly pro-First Amendment. But, thanks to a generation of conservative activism, the ACLU is now best known as “those guys who hate Christmas.”

By defining the terms of constitutional debate such that it doesn’t involve the lives of ordinary people, conservatives have disconnected Americans from their legal system. And that leaves room for lots of shenanigans.

Full Story: Al Franken Slams Supreme Court For Dismantling Legal Protections (VIDEO).

BP’s Secret Army Of Oil Disaster Contractors

The true story of the BP disaster is how private contractors, not the government, are handling the response. Of the 25,000 people responding to the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of the nation, 21,000 are under contract to the foreign oil giant BP. This private army includes workers shipped in from California making $10 an hour to clean the beaches, ex-military public relations experts, and submarine robotics companies. There are no contractors working directly for the government. The Center for American Progress — like many other outside observers — recommends that the government take over operational control from BP, to resolve conflicts of interest between the foreign corporation’s shareholders and public health and safety.

BP has been notoriously secretive about the network of companies working to run practically every aspect of the Deepwater Horizon response, including claims processing, hazardous material cleanup, boom deployment, scientific monitoring, and call centers. BP has ignored the state of Louisiana’s request on May 7 for a list of contractors and subcontractors.

On June 3, the Wonk Room called the Unified Command number and talked with USCG officer Rachel Polish, who told me that BP would have to answer my questions. Later that day, a BP subcontractor contacted this reporter, but would only identify himself as “Les.” On June 4, the Wonk Room asked National Incident Commander Thad Allen in the daily briefing for a list of contractors, which he promised to address. USCG officer J. R. Hoeft followed up by email to say he would start working on it.

Full Story: Wonk Room » BP’s Secret Army Of Oil Disaster Contractors.

GOP aims to hobble FCC regulatory power

FCC Broadband Plan Prompts GOP, Industry Backlash

Thursday’s broadband proceeding at the Federal Communications Commission has prompted another congressional challenge.

Shortly after the commission announced a public comment period on its “third way” to regulate broadband, Rep. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, said he would soon introduce a bill that would reform the FCC and guard against unnecessary taxation and regulation of the Internet and other media services.

DeMint’s “Consumer Choice Act” is based on a bill he introduced in 2005, which would “reform the FCC into a market-based, antitrust-style framework, using an ‘unfair competition’ standard” similar to the model at the Federal Trade Commission. It would also require timelines for FCC regulatory decisions and put a five-year expiration date on any regulations, unless the FCC chooses to renew them.

Full Story: FCC Broadband Plan Prompts GOP, Industry Backlash | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

School Says Representative Kirk Never Taught There

A leader of the church in upstate New York where Representative Mark S. Kirk of Illinois claims he worked as a nursery school teacher said on Friday that he had overstated his role there.

The leader, Sally Grubb, a member of the administrative council at Forest Home Chapel, a Methodist church in Ithaca, N.Y., said Mr. Kirk had a limited role while working part-time as a student in a work-study program at Cornell University.

“He was never, ever considered a teacher,” Ms. Grubb said in a phone interview after spending two days researching the history of Mr. Kirk’s association with the nursery school. “He was just an additional pair of hands to help a primary teaching person.”

The church has been trying to determine whether Mr. Kirk worked there after The New York Times reported on Thursday about the brevity of Mr. Kirk’s teaching experience. Mr. Kirk, a five-term congressman, is the Republican nominee in Illinois for the Senate seat formerly held by President Obama.

Full Story: School Says Representative Kirk Never Taught There – NYTimes.com.

If GOP wins House, Obama’s ‘chief antagonist’ aims to be ’subpoena machine’

According to a Politico report, “Rep. Darrell Issa, the conservative firebrand whose specialty is lobbing corruption allegations at the Obama White House, is making plans to hire dozens of subpoena-wielding investigators if Republicans win the House this fall.”

The California Republican’s daily denunciations draw cheers from partisans and bookings from cable TV producers. He even bought his own earphone for live shots. But his bombastic style and attention-seeking investigations draw eye rolls from other quarters. Now, he’s making clear he won’t be so easy to shrug off if he becomes chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in 2011.

Issa has told Republican leadership that if he becomes chairman, he wants to roughly double his staff from 40 to between 70 and 80. And he is not subtle about what that means for President Barack Obama.

Full Story: If GOP wins House, Obama’s ‘chief antagonist’ aims to be ’subpoena machine’ | Raw Story.

Disaster capitalists: Halliburton to make money off oil spill

Does a company that both builds oil rigs and cleans up oil spills have any motivation to prevent oil rig disasters?

That’s the question some people in business and politics are asking themselves after Halliburton’s purchase of an oil clean-up company 10 days before the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and launched the worst oil spill in US history.

Some observers see a conspiracy in the actions of the company once headed by Dick Cheney. Halliburton, which built the cement casing for the Deepwater Horizon’s drill, announced its purchase of Houston-based oilfield services company Boots and Coots for $240 million on April 9, just 11 days before the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Full Story: Disaster capitalists: Halliburton to make money off oil spill | Raw Story.

Trade war? Bill would ban government from buying Chinese

The US government would be barred from buying any Chinese goods or services under legislation unveiled Friday by US senators angry at Beijing’s policy of buying only from domestic sources.

The prohibition would last until China, a World Trade Organization (WTO) member for nearly 10 years, signs on to the WTO’s “Agreement of Governmental Procurement,” enabling Washington to challenge Beijing’s procurement rules.

“China continues to discriminate against American businesses, refusing to let our companies bid on Chinese government contracts,” said Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, the measure’s lead author.

Full Story: Trade war? Bill would ban government from buying Chinese | Raw Story.

After Blaming Dems For ‘Spending Money We Don’t Have,’ Rubio Faces Foreclosure On House He Can’t Afford

Across the country, homeowners have been facing foreclosure after seeing their payments on adjustable mortgages increase while housing prices fell. According to the Palm Beach Post, this problem has even afflicted the Republican senate candidate in Florida, Marco Rubio.

Rubio is reportedly facing foreclosure on a Tallahassee home that he co-owns with David Rivera, a Florida state lawmaker. The duo “stopped making payments in February after a dispute about the amount [of the mortgage payment] once the interest-only period ended.” Rubio’s campaign has claimed that the issue has “been resolved,” even though documents do not show that the foreclosure process has been halted.

Rubio, of course, is basing his entire campaign on his version of fiscal conservatism, and has repeatedly criticized the Obama administration (as well as Republicans) for spending money that it doesn’t have:

Full Story: Think Progress » After Blaming Dems For ‘Spending Money We Don’t Have,’ Rubio Faces Foreclosure On House He Can’t Afford.

Dawn Johnsen Advises Progressives To Stick By Their Principles: ‘I Have No Regrets’

In April, Dawn Johnsen withdrew from consideration to be the next Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). The progressive community had applauded Johnsen as one of President Obama’s best nominees, but Republicans ended up blocking her nomination twice. In a Washington Post op-ed last week, Johnsen suggested that the reason the GOP opposed her was simply that she opposed torture:

There is no simple answer to why my nomination failed. But I have no doubt that the OLC torture memo — and my profoundly negative reaction to it — was a critical factor behind the substantial Republican opposition that sustained a filibuster threat. Paradoxically, prominent Republicans earlier had offered criticisms strikingly similar to my own. A bipartisan acceptance of those criticisms is key to moving forward. The Senate should not confirm anyone who defends that memo as acceptable legal advice.

Speaking to the American Constitution Society’s National Convention yesterday, Johnsen used her first public appearance since her unsuccessful nomination to advise progressives to nevertheless stay true to their principles:

Full Story: Think Progress » Dawn Johnsen Advises Progressives To Stick By Their Principles: ‘I Have No Regrets’.

EXCLUSIVE: BP Funds Front Group Claiming Oil Spill Jobs Are Better Than ‘Normal’ Ones, Storm Will Clean Up Oil

Shortly after BP’s catastrophic oil spill in the gulf, the New York Times spoke to Quenton Dokken, the executive director of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, about the environmental impact. “The sky is not falling,” Dokken told the paper, adding “it isn’t the end of the Gulf of Mexico.” ProPublica dug into the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, and reported that the Times had failed to disclose that Dokken and his group are funded by a consortium of oil companies with business in the gulf, including companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon rig, Transocean and Anadarko. Today, the Times reported that the Foundation has been downplaying effects of the spill, possibly because of its funding from oil companies.

ThinkProgress has obtained more documents and evidence that the Gulf of Mexico Foundation has operated as a front for the oil companies involved in the spill. In addition to Transocean and Anadarko, this 2008 “Guardians of the Gulf” award ceremony hosted by the Foundation shows that BP is also a “CEO council member” of the nonprofit. View a screenshot here:

Full Story: Think Progress » EXCLUSIVE: BP Funds Front Group Claiming Oil Spill Jobs Are Better Than ‘Normal’ Ones, Storm Will Clean Up Oil.

Eric Cantor’s financial disclosures reveal that he bets against U.S. Treasury bonds.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) has often expressed concern for how Obama administration policies are supposedly a “grave danger to America’s prosperity.” Now, the Wall Street Journal finds that Cantor actually invests in an exchange-traded fund that “takes a short position in long-dated government bonds” — effectively betting against the U.S. Treasury bonds that the government uses to fund its operations:

[Cantor], the Republican whip in the House of Representatives, bought up to $15,000 in shares of ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury ETF last December, according to his 2009 financial disclosure statement. The exchange-traded fund takes a short position in long-dated government bonds. In effect, it is a bet against U.S. government bonds — and perhaps on inflation in the future.

Full Story: Think Progress » Eric Cantor’s financial disclosures reveal that he bets against U.S. Treasury bonds..

Middle East is Changing, and Ankara Knows It

“Even despots, gangsters and pirates have specific sensitiveness, (and) follow some specific morals.”

The claim was made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a recent speech, following the deadly commando raid on the humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza on May 31. According to Erdogan, Israel doesn’t adhere to the code of conduct embraced even by the vilest of criminals.

The statement alone indicates the momentous political shift that’s currently underway in the Middle East. While the shift isn’t entirely new, one dares to claim it might now be a lasting one. To borrow from Erdogan’s own assessment of the political fallout that followed Israel’s raid, the damage is “irreparable.”

Full Story: Scoop: Middle East is Changing, and Ankara Knows It.

As Barton Apologizes, Senate GOP Continues To Block Measures To Hold BP Accountable

Republicans on Thursday once again blocked the Senate from voting on separate bills designed to hold energy giant BP accountable for the monster oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The action in the Senate came on the same day a senior House Republican also came under fire for apologizing to the fourth-largest corporation on the planet for the federal government’s efforts to force it to take responsibility for disaster, which continues to drain oil into the waters off the Louisiana coast two months after the initial explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) sought to overcome what’s been a weeks-long filibuster of his Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act, once again casting the issue in a single question: “Whose side are you on?”

Full Story: On The Hill: As Barton Apologizes, Senate GOP Continues To Block Measures To Hold BP Accountable.

Behind Closed Doors Four Key Democrats Maneuver To Weaken Financial Reform

Several House Democrats with close ties to the financial industry, including four members of the conference committee hashing out the final bill, are pushing to weaken the Wall Street reform legislation in the conference committee.

The 68-member New Democrat Coalition has been circulating drafts of a letter outlining their position on financial regulatory reform, proposing to significantly scale back regulations on derivative trading, and open up exceptions to the so-called Volcker rule, which limits financial firms’ ability to speculate with their profits.

One draft of that letter, obtained by TPM, can be read here. Their position on derivatives provoked the ire of Americans for Financial Reform, the largest pro-regulation coalition in the country, which responded yesterday with a letter of their own.

Full Story: Behind Closed Doors Four Key Democrats Maneuver To Weaken Financial Reform | TPMDC.

Army Corps of Engineers Suspends Nationwide Permit for Mountaintop Removal Mining

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today suspended the use of a fast-track nationwide permit, Nationwide Permit 21, for mountaintop removal mining operations in the six states of the Appalachian region.

Now, proposed surface coal mining projects that involve discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States will have to go through the individual permit process to obtain Department of the Army authorization under the Clean Water Act.

The individual permit evaluation procedure provides increased public involvement in the permit evaluation process, including an opportunity for public comment on individual projects.

Full Story: Army Corps of Engineers Suspends Nationwide Permit for Mountaintop Removal Mining.

Billions of New Nuke Giveaways in Kerry-Lieberman Bill Exposed

BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TAX BREAKS FOR EACH NEW REACTOR UNDER KERRY-LIEBERMAN WIPE OUT RISK FOR UTILITIES ALREADY BENEFITING FROM MASSIVE LOAN GUARANTEES

Earth Track Analysis Finds That Just Two of the Subsidies Add Another $1.3 Billion to $3 Billion in Tax Breaks Per Reactor; May Make It More Likely Taxpayers Will Face Downside Risk.

Washington, D.C. — The nuclear industry could end up facing no risk under massive tax break subsidies in the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill, according to an important new analysis conducted for Friends of the Earth by the research organization Earth Track. These tax breaks totaling $9.7 billion to $57.3 billion (depending on the type and number of reactors) would come on top of the Kerry-Lieberman measure’s lucrative $35.5 billion addition to the more than $22.5 billion in loan guarantees already slated for nuclear power.

Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica said: “Doling out an additional $1.3-$3 billion in tax breaks per new reactor means the industry would be at the table playing almost entirely with taxpayer money. Industry will have little to lose when a reactor goes belly up. While taxpayers are bankrolling the industry’s nuclear gamble they would share in none of the reactor’s financial returns. In fact, all taxpayers will receive if the reactors are built is responsibility for disposing of the waste. By contrast, investors stand to make billions with no risk should their reactor gambit goes belly up and enter bankruptcy.”

Full Story: Billions of New Nuke Giveaways in Kerry-Lieberman Bill Exposed | Friends of the Earth.

Stewart Takes On America’s Oil Dependence (VIDEO)

With Obama promising a plan to move America toward a non-petroleum based future, Jon Stewart took the time to give a little history lesson on the show last night. As he pointed out, Obama is certainly not the first President to come on TV and talk about a plan for energy-independence. No, no. It seems that going as far back as Nixon, every President has broadcast the same, if not similar, pledge.

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me eight times, I must be a f–king idiot.”

The strikingly similar footage of each of the last eight presidents painted a bleak picture of our reliance on oil, but also served as a platform for Stewart to mock our nation’s leaders dating back to 1974. The latter, as you can imagine, was quite funny.

Video at link

Full Story: Stewart Takes On America’s Oil Dependence (VIDEO).