Archive for June, 2010

Mark Kirk’s Teaching Experience Questioned By The New York Times

After Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk was caught “embellishing” several aspects of his military service record, people began looking into other claims Kirk has made about his history–and discovering some serious inconsistencies.

On Wednesday, the New York Times published a story examining Kirk’s teaching experience, which he has touted in campaign ads and on the House floor. Reporter Jeff Zeleny explains that Kirk has been less than forthcoming about how brief his teaching experience was, and had trouble confirming his alleged employment at a New York nursery school.

The Times reports (emphasis added):

Full Story: Mark Kirk’s Teaching Experience Questioned By The New York Times.

Red Cross Fined $16 Million For Sloppy Blood Screening

Federal health regulators on Thursday fined the American Red Cross $16 million for sloppy screening of donated blood, the latest in a series of violations that have cost the group millions of dollars.

The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement that the group failed to take precautions to assure the safety of blood donations. Despite those oversights, the FDA says the U.S. blood supply appears to be safe.

Regulators fined the group nearly $10 million for mismanagement of blood products – including red blood cells, plasma and platelets – and over $6 million for faulty manufacturing practices. The violations occurred in fiscal years 2008 and 2009.

Full Story: Red Cross Fined $16 Million For Sloppy Blood Screening.

Electronic Armageddon: How An EMP Bomb Would Be A Deathblow To Life As We Know It (VIDEO)

Earlier this month, NASA warned that as the Sun wakes up from its “deep slumber,” a massive solar storm could wreak havoc on our electronics, from satellites to the electrical grid, causing damages up to 20 times the cost of Hurricane Katrina.

But the Sun isn’t the only threat to our electronic lifeline. National Geographic explorers the risk and consequences of the “electronic Armageddon” that could be caused by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bomb.

An EMP bomb, National Geographic explains, is “a bomb that’s designed to go above the atmosphere and release huge amounts of energy,” some of which in the form of gamma rays. Such a weapon would cripple electronics, but not kill people.

Full Story: Electronic Armageddon: How An EMP Bomb Would Be A Deathblow To Life As We Know It (VIDEO).

American Car Quality Tops Foreign Car Quality, Finds J.D. Power And Associates

U.S. automakers have surpassed foreign brands for the first time in a survey that measures the quality of new cars and trucks.

J.D. Power and Associates said Thursday that owners of vehicles made by Detroit automakers reported fewer problems on average during the first 90 days of ownership than those built by companies based overseas.

It was the first time that has happened in the 24 years the industry research group has conducted the annual quality study that is a closely watched measure of the durability and reliability of vehicles.

Full Story: American Car Quality Tops Foreign Car Quality, Finds J.D. Power And Associates.

White House Flip Flops On Reining In CEO Pay

The White House is intervening at the last minute to come to the defense of multinational corporations in the unfolding conference committee negotiations over Wall Street reform.

A measure that had been generally agreed to by both the House and Senate, which would have affirmed the SEC's authority to allow investors to have proxy access to the corporate decision-making process, was stripped by the Senate in conference committee votes on Wednesday and Thursday. Five sources with knowledge of the situation said the White House pushed for the measure to be stripped at the behest of the Business Roundtable. The sources — congressional aides as well as outside advocates — requested anonymity for fear of White House reprisal.

The White House move pits the administration against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who told Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to stand strong against the effort.

Full Story: White House Flip Flops On Reining In CEO Pay.

Rig Owner’s Avoidance Of U.S. Jurisdiction Angers House Panel

The Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling rig was registered in the Marshall Islands and its owners paid taxes in Switzerland — but when the rig blew up and sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, who came to the rescue? And who is suffering the economic and environmental damages caused by the ongoing spill?

Those were among the combative question raised by members of a House committee on Thursday at a hearing about foreign-flagged vessels operating in the Gulf.

Mississippi Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor was particularly irritated. “I'm just curious, how long did it take the Marshall Islands Coast Guard to show up when that rig caught on fire?” he asked rhetorically.

Pointing out that the rig was built in Korea, he asked: “And how long did it take the Korean Coast Guard to show up?”

Full Story: Gulf Oil Spill: Rig Owner’s Avoidance Of U.S. Jurisdiction Angers House Panel.

Pan-Starrs telescope begins operations to hunt asteroids

A new telescope facility in Hawaii designed to search for asteroids and comets which could threaten Earth has been made operational.

The Pan-STARRS 1 telescope will map large portions of the sky each night to track not only close space objects, but also exploding stars (supernovae).

The telescope has been taking science data for six months but is now operating from dusk-dawn each night.

Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) is expected to map one-sixth of the sky every month.

The facility boasts a huge digital camera: a 1,400 megapixel (1.4 gigapixel) device that can photograph an area of the sky as large as 36 full Moons in a single exposure.

Full Story: BBC News – Pan-Starrs telescope begins operations to hunt asteroids.

End Seen to Free Checking

Bank of America Corp. and other banks are preparing new fees on basic banking services as they try to replace revenue lost to regulatory rules, in a push that is expected to spell an end to free checking accounts for many Americans.

Free checking accounts, which have been widely available for more than a decade, have been a boon to middle-class consumers and attracted low-income customers to the banking system for the first time.

Customers will likely be required to pay new monthly maintenance fees on the most basic accounts that don’t generate a lot of activity. To avoid a fee, customers will have to maintain certain account balances or frequently use other banking services, such as credit and debit cards, automated teller machines and online accounts.

“If you put $1,000 in a checking account and don’t do anything with it, it will be hard to get that for free,” says Sherief Meleis, a managing director at Novantas LLC, a consulting firm that advises banks.

Full Story: End Seen to Free Checking – WSJ.com.

Panel Recommends Approval of After-Sex Pill to Prevent Pregnancy

A federal advisory panel voted unanimously Thursday that federal drug regulators should approve a medicine that could help prevent pregnancy if taken as late as five days after unprotected sex.

The pill, called ella, sprang from government labs and appears to be more effective than Plan B, a morning-after pill now available over the counter to women 18 and older that gradually loses efficacy after intercourse and can be taken at latest three days after sex. Ella, by contrast, works just as well on the fifth day as the first after sex.

Ella blocks the effects of progesterone, a female hormone that spurs ovulation. It is a chemical relative to RU-486, the abortion pill, and some mystery remains over exactly how it works. That mystery spurred a fierce debate outside the committee over whether it should be considered an abortion drug, a debate that prompted the posting of several uniformed police officers around the meeting room.

Full Story: Panel Recommends Approval of After-Sex Pill to Prevent Pregnancy – NYTimes.com.

AP-GfK poll: Public thumbs up for Obama health law

The vital signs are improving for President Barack Obama’s health care plan.

The latest Associated Press-GfK poll on Obama’s top domestic achievement finds support for the new overhaul has risen to its highest point since the survey started asking people about it in September – six months before it became law.

The results now: 45 percent in favor, 42 percent opposed. That’s a significant shift in public sentiment considering that opposition hit 50 percent after Obama signed the health plan into law in late March and that in May, supporters were outnumbered 39 percent to 46 percent.

“I thought when people began to realize what was in the health care package that they would see it’s a good, solid program and that would dispel some of the misinformation,” said Brigham Young University English professor Claudia Harris, 72, of Orem, Utah.

Full Story: CQ Politics | News from the AP.

Labor Board Hobbled By Senate Obstruction Has Hundreds Of Cases Invalidated By Supreme Court

Today, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court invalidated more than 500 cases decided by the National Labor Relations Board. For more than two years, the five person board only had two sitting members, due to Congressional obstruction of its nominees, and the Court decided that the two-person board did not have legal authority to issue rulings.

The Board, which is responsible for overseeing labor-management relations under the National Labor Relations Act, realized in late 2007 that it was not going to have a full complement of members for the upcoming year, so delegated its authority to three members, of which two constitute a quorum. Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said this procedural move doesn’t grant a two-person board the ability to do anything:

If Congress wishes to allow the Board to decide cases with only two members, it can easily do so. But until it does, Congress’ decision to require that the Board’s full power be delegated to no fewer than three members,and to provide for a Board quorum of three, must be given practical effect rather than swept aside in the face of admittedly difficult circumstances. Section 3(b), as it currently exists, does not authorize the Board to create a tail that would not only wag the dog, but would continue to wag after the dog died.

Full Story: Think Progress » Labor Board Hobbled By Senate Obstruction Has Hundreds Of Cases Invalidated By Supreme Court.

BP Executive To Gulf Residents: You Need Us, So Don’t ‘Shoot The Dog Who Is Trying To Bring Home The Bone’

Last night during an interview with BP executive Bob Dudley on Fox News, host Greta Van Susteren noted that the oil giant has been taking some heat because of its Gulf oil spill. “Your company has taken quite a beating,” she said. Dudley agreed but said his company’s critics should be careful because Gulf coast residents are dependent on BP:

DUDLEY: Well, Greta, I know that oil companies are not popular. It has been that way for sometime in the U.S. It’s a company made up of people, many of which live along the Gulf coast, that are integrated into the fabric of the communities there.

We have 23,000 people in the U.S., many of which are around the Gulf coast. I think — and everyone is devastated by what has happened today. I think I would look at some of the process today as just making sure that through that sentiment we don’t actually shoot the dog who is trying to bring home the bone and meet its obligations all across the Gulf, and we are going to be there a long time.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » BP Executive To Gulf Residents: You Need Us, So Don’t ‘Shoot The Dog Who Is Trying To Bring Home The Bone’.

CORPORATE MURDER?

Jim Hightower :

A mass murder has taken place in another American workplace, taking 29 lives. The authorities know who did it, so shouldn’t that person be made to pay for this heinous crime?

Yes! But the killer is one of America’s largest coal corporations, Massey Energy Company, and you can’t give the death penalty to a corporation. Can you? Well, the Supreme Court has ruled that a corporation is a “person” – so why not?

Massey – headed by its right-wing multimillionaire CEO, Don Blankenship – has spent millions of dollars on lobbyists and lawmakers to fend off any effective regulations to protect mine workers. By using its political clout to muzzle the federal watchdog, Massey has been able to flaunt the law. Last year, it had nearly 500 safety violations in just one of its mines, including life-threatening violations. It’s punishment? Fines totaling a mere $168,000 – chump change to an outfit with $56 million in profits last year.
Full Story: Jim Hightower | CORPORATE MURDER?.

Kevin Costner’s oil-water separation machines help with clean-up

The devices, developed with a team including his scientist brother, leave water 99% free of crude

As Robin Hood, Kevin Costner stole from the rich to give to the poor. As an unnamed, be-gilled seafarer in Waterworld, he fought with outlaw “smokers” for a greater cause.

The actor’s latest role, as saviour of the Gulf of Mexico, goes some way towards combining the two, after his oil-water separation machines, in which he has personally invested $20m (£13.5m), were contracted by BP to help in the Gulf clear-up effort.

The 32 centrifuge machines, which a Costner-funded team of scientists have spent the past 15 years developing, are to be deployed to help tackle the spill, now believed to be gushing 40,000 barrels a day into the Gulf.

Full Story: BP oil spill: Kevin Costner’s oil-water separation machines help with clean-up | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

Motion to Amend

Sign The Petition:

We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:

* Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.

* Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our vote and participation count.

* Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate “preemption” actions by global, national, and state governments.

Full Story: Motion to Amend | Move to Amend.

Capitalism, the Absurd System

Monthly Review:

What is society actually like when the veil of money is removed, and the real face of power is seen?

A few years ago, in a class one of us taught, a discussion arose about how capitalism works as a system in which the need for the few to maximize profit drives the entire political-economic structure. The students appeared to grasp how the capital accumulation process has a strong effect, often negative, on the course of a society’s development. The discussion then turned to Salvador Allende’s Chile of the early 1970s, where the goal was to develop a socialist political economy. “Knowing what you do about how capitalism functions,” the students were asked, “what would a socialist system look like?” They were unusually quiet. Finally, one of them blurted out: “I don’t know how it could work. I guess the government would have to kill everybody.”

The question of how a socialist society would operate raised a horrible, dystopian image in this student’s mind. Such libertarian fears of a totalitarian state imposing socialism by force, even to the point of annihilation, on an unwilling people, who are presumed to be capitalist by nature, are all too common. This brings to mind Fredric Jameson’s comment: “Someone once said that it is easier [for most people in today’s society] to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.”2

Perhaps nothing points so clearly to the alienated nature of politics in the present day United States as the fact that capitalism, the economic system that drives the society, is effectively off-limits to critical review or discussion. To the extent that capitalism is mentioned by politicians or pundits, it is regarded in hushed tones of reverence for the genius of the market, its unquestioned efficiency, and its providential authority. One might quibble with a corrupt and greedy CEO or a regrettable loss of jobs, but the superiority and necessity of capitalism—or, more likely, its euphemism, the so-called “free market system”—is simply beyond debate or even consideration. There are, of course, those who believe that the system needs more regulation and that there is room for all sorts of fine-tuning. Nevertheless, there is no questioning of the basics.

Full Story: Capitalism, the Absurd System – Monthly Review.

Gulf Cleanup Training Ignores Advice From Health Agency, Official Says

As we’ve reported, workplace safety experts have expressed concern that Gulf oil spill responders aren’t getting enough safety training. On Wednesday, we spoke with a federal official who said the four-hour safety course that BP is providing to Gulf cleanup workers lacks basic information on health risks and is too short to cover the necessary material.

Joseph Hughes, director of the worker training program at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, said the course fails to incorporate important information. Among the subjects not included are chemical inhalation, the health effects of dispersants, and the risks of direct contact with weathered crude oil.

Hughes’ agency, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, helped develop the training. “We tried to recommend what we thought the right training topics were, but all of those were not included,” he said.

Full Story: On The Hill: Gulf Cleanup Training Ignores Advice From Health Agency, Official Says.

Internet ‘kill switch’ proposed for US

A new US Senate Bill would grant the President far-reaching emergency powers to seize control of, or even shut down, portions of the internet.

The legislation says that companies such as broadband providers, search engines or software firms that the US Government selects “shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed” by the Department of Homeland Security. Anyone failing to comply would be fined.

That emergency authority would allow the Federal Government to “preserve those networks and assets and our country and protect our people,” Joe Lieberman, the primary sponsor of the measure and the chairman of the Homeland Security committee, told reporters on Thursday. Lieberman is an independent senator from Connecticut who meets with the Democrats.

Due to there being few limits on the US President’s emergency power, which can be renewed indefinitely, the densely worded 197-page Bill (PDF) is likely to encounter stiff opposition.

Full Story: Internet ‘kill switch’ proposed for US – Security – News.

License To Drill

Mother Jones:

Why did the Obama administration just approve more than 400 new leases for oil companies to operate in the Gulf of Mexico?

At his long-awaited press conference on the Gulf oil disaster last month, President Obama announced a moratorium on new oil drilling and exploration for six months. “We can’t do this stuff if we don’t have confidence that we can prevent crises like this from happening again,” he declared. But while existing rigs may be out of commission for the near future, the administration hasn’t exactly put the brakes on new oil and gas drilling ventures. In recent weeks, the government has quietly approved the sale of more than 400 new leases for vast swaths of the Gulf of Mexico. And these contracts—which mark the first step in the drilling process—were subjected to the same slapdash environmental oversight that failed to prevent the BP catastrophe.

The region was included in a plan created by the Bush administration’s Department of the Interior to lease new areas of the Gulf to the oil and gas industries. But it was Obama’s Interior secretary, Ken Salazar, who gave the go-ahead for the sale of Lease 213—6,800 tracts covering 36 million acres off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in November 2009. The sale—which was held on March 17 this year in the New Orleans Superdome—attracted $1.3 billion in bids. Since then, the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has approved the sale of 448 of those tracts, 198 of them in deepwater, which is defined as more than 656 feet below the sea. BP is the proud new leaser of 13 of those tracts.

Full Story: License To Drill | Mother Jones.

Oil Spill on Track to Reach Atlantic No Later Than October

Oil gushing from the Deepwater Horizon site in the Gulf of Mexico will reach the Atlantic Ocean within six months, says oceanographer Synte Peacock. Exactly when is all down to an eddy that broke off of the infamous Loop Current southwest of Florida on June 12.

Peacock, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, usually studies how the ocean’s water absorbs atmospheric gases. But after the Deepwater Horizon platform exploded April 20, she realized her computer models could be used to follow where the oil gushing from the seafloor might end up.

Her simulations, announced in a press release June 3, made headlines worldwide. No surprise: The simulations suggested that, once the oil became caught up in the Loop Current, it would be funneled into the Atlantic within weeks.

Talking with reporters at NCAR on June 14, Peacock explained how some news outlets misrepresented her work by glossing over a few major caveats. Most important, the work simulated the movement of dye (not viscous oil) injected in the upper layers of the ocean (not the deep seafloor) for a total of two months (not the ongoing no-end-in-sight disaster).

Full Story: Oil Spill on Track to Reach Atlantic No Later Than October | Wired Science | Wired.com.

How the ultimate BP Gulf disaster could kill millions

Warnings were raised  a year ago that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous.

—–

Disturbing evidence is mounting that something frightening is happening deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—something far worse than the BP oil gusher.

Warnings were raised as long as a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous.

What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas.

Full Story: How the ultimate BP Gulf disaster could kill millions – by Terrence Aym – Helium.

OPS:  Additional Info: History Channel Mega Disasters – Methane Explosion (6 min video)

Greer Charged With Theft, Money Laundering – Hotline On Call

Ex-FL GOP chair Jim Greer will be charged with 6 felony counts for allegedly laundering money through a company he and a former top aide set up, a contract that gave him $200K in money intended to go toward electing GOP candidates.

Announcing the indictments today, FL law enforcement officials said Greer could face significant time in jail. At least 2 of the charges carry maximum sentences of 30 years in prison. Greer was taken into custody at his home early this morning.

An alleged contract, signed when Greer was chairman, provided Victory Strategies LLC with a 10% cut of all major donations to the state party. As chairman, Greer also directed $60K in payments to the company. Greer and his former executive director, Delmar Johnson, controlled the company and profited from the payments.

Full Story: Greer Charged With Theft, Money Laundering – Hotline On Call.

Millions of patients should never be prescribed antidepressants, scientists say

Roughly half the population should never be prescribed antidepressant drugs because they are only likely to become more depressed, according to a new study conducted by researchers from Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute and published in the journal Neuron.

Scientists have known for some time that antidepressant drugs only work in about half of patients. Research has discovered that although the drugs are designed to raise circulating levels of the neurotransmitter chemical serotonin in the brain, they actually produce the opposite effect in large numbers of people.

“The more antidepressants try to increase serotonin production, the less serotonin [they] actually produce,” researcher Rene Hen said.

Full Story: Millions of patients should never be prescribed antidepressants, scientists say.

Did the BP Oil Well Really Blow Out in February, Instead of April?

The Deepwater Horizon blew up on April 20th, and sank a couple of days later. BP has been criticized for failing to report on the seriousness of the blow out for several weeks.

However, as a whistleblower previously told 60 Minutes, there was an accident at the rig a month or more prior to the April 20th explosion:

[Mike Williams, the chief electronics technician on the Deepwater Horizon, and one of the last workers to leave the doomed rig] said they were told it would take 21 days; according to him, it actually took six weeks.

With the schedule slipping, Williams says a BP manager ordered a faster pace.

“And he requested to the driller, ‘Hey, let’s bump it up. Let’s bump it up.’ And what he was talking about there is he’s bumping up the rate of penetration. How fast the drill bit is going down,” Williams said.

Washington’s Blog.

BP ‘shakedown’ remark sets off US political furor

A US lawmaker kicked off a political storm Thursday and embarrassed his own Republican party by apologizing to BP chief Tony Hayward for what he termed a White House “shakedown.”

“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday,” Joe Barton told Hayward during a congressional hearing, referring to the fact that BP bosses summoned to a meeting with US President Barack Obama had then agreed to set up an oil spill disaster fund.

“I apologize,” said the Texas representative. “It is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case, a 20-billion-dollar shakedown.”

Full Story: BP ‘shakedown’ remark sets off US political furor – Yahoo! News.

OPS: more proof that republicans actually hate Americans.

Gates Demands Congress OK War Funds by July 4

Warns Pentagon Will Do ‘Stupid Things’ in Less than 3 Weeks

Speaking during a Senate Appropriation Defense Subcommittee hearing today, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates demanded that the $33 billion war funding bill be approved by Independence Day.

President Obama had promised that the emergency war funding bill passed last year would be his last one, and that future war expenses would be paid for with a record defense budget. This promise fell by the wayside, however, in the wake of December’s escalation pledge.

“We begin to have to do stupid things if the supplemental is not passed by July 4,” Gates warned. Exactly what these would be and how we would be able to tell the difference from ordinary Pentagon strategy was not clear.

Full Story: Gates Demands Congress OK War Funds by July 4 — News from Antiwar.com.

44 – Lawmakers sold off BP shares

Members of the congressional committees that oversee the oil and gas industry held more than $11 million in personal financial assets in that sector late last year, including at least $400,000 in the two companies at the heart of the Gulf of Mexico oil-drilling disaster.

From the nearly $100,000 in BP stock held by Rep. Frederick Upton (R-Mich.) to the nearly $650,000 in ConocoPhillips shares held by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), lawmakers on five key panels with oversight of the oil industry held more than 110 assets in firms from that sector.

All told, the members of the five House and Senate committees had a minimum of $11.4 million in stock holdings in the oil and gas industry, with a maximum value that could have exceed $16.8 million, according to an analysis of financial disclosure forms released Wednesday.

Before the Gulf disaster, some lawmakers sold off shares in the companies at the center of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill for personal financial reasons. Among them was Kerry, whose wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, sold off the last remaining shares she held in Transocean, the company that owned the drilling rig

Full Story: 44 – Lawmakers sold off BP shares.

President’s speech – How’s that hopey changey thing going for us?

Thom Hartmann

Video

League of Women Voters calls for ‘Medicare for all’

Noting the Obama administration’s new health law falls short of providing affordable care to all U.S. residents, the national convention of the League of Women Voters passed a resolution Monday calling on the group’s board to “advocate strongly” for “an improved Medicare for all.”

The convention’s 600 delegates, meeting in Atlanta on the group’s 90th anniversary, voted more than 2 to 1 in support of the measure. In the run-up to the national meeting, nearly identical resolutions were adopted by more than 50 local chapters and 11 state organizations of the League, which claims more than 150,000 members nationwide.

Although many other groups, including labor unions, religious denominations and medical associations, have gone on record in recent years in support of a single-payer health program, or an improved Medicare for all, the League’s action is believed to be the first national endorsement of its type since Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March.

Full Story: League of Women Voters calls for ‘Medicare for all’ | Physicians for a National Health Program.

Massive spill forces fossil fuels rethinking

It’s become clear after the recent BP oil disaster that the time to rethink energy resources has certainly arrived

s it possible to energize our civilization without fear? Fear of oil spills and oil wars, fear of nuclear meltdowns and nuclear waste, fear of global warming and polluted air and water?

It is, according to Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), among the world’s most respected authorities on alternative energy strategies. In a new video available at www.rmi.org/rmi/ReinventingFire#video, Lovins makes the case that a richer, fairer, cooler, safer world is now possible because saving and replacing fossil fuels works better — and costs less — than buying and burning them.

Events such as the U.S. Gulf Coast oil spill — the Three Mile Island of deepwater drilling — expose the true costs and dangers of fossil fuel. Supposedly, we use oil as a fuel because it is cheaper and easier to use — and more profitable — than alternatives such as wind, solar or conservation. But that assumption changes when drilling for deep-water oil goes awry and it costs the oil producer billions to deal with the mess.

Switching to alternative energy may not be a choice but a necessity. As author Jeff Rubin points out, U.S. President Barack Obama’s moratorium on offshore oil drilling is a potential game changer.

Full Story: Massive spill forces fossil fuels rethinking.

BP Is a Corporate Criminal

Jim Hightower:

Gosh, how quickly things turn. One day, you’re a strutting peacock — the next day, you’re just another gasping, oil-covered bird.

In early April, BP was strutting about in full corporate splendor, showing off the $9 billion in profits that it had soaked up in just the first three months of this year. It was also basking in a corporate re-imaging campaign, depicting itself as a clean-energy pioneer and declaring that BP now stood for “Beyond Petroleum.”

Since its Gulf of Mexico well blew out on April 20, however, BP has proven to be beyond belief. The wider and deeper that this catastrophe spreads, the more we discover just how oily this giant is.

From the time it was known as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and set out to grab and control the rich petroleum reserves owned by what is now Iran, BP has been a recidivist global criminal. In the past three decades, it grew huge by swallowing such competitors as Standard Oil of Ohio, Amoco and Arco. Along the way, it has been implicated in bribery, overthrowing governments, plunder and money laundering, plus having established one of the worst safety and environmental records in an industry that is notoriously reckless on both counts.

Full Story: BP Is a Corporate Criminal by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.

BP Claims It Has No Authority Over Its Contractors Blocking Media Access

As we’ve noted repeatedly, one of the aspects of the Gulf Oil cleanup operation that BP has really applied itself to with great success is the ongoing effort to prevent the media from covering the story.

Long after it was made crystal clear by both National Incident Commander Thad Allen and BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, reporters continue to find themselves being denied access to sites and to clean-up workers. This all reached a farcical apotheosis when WDSU reporter Scott Walker had this perplexing conversation with a pair of private contractors, tasked by BP with the job of “keeping the beach safe.”

Full Story: BP Claims It Has No Authority Over Its Contractors Blocking Media Access.

Jobs Bill Bombs In Senate, 45-52

Deficit concerns trumped jobless aid in the Senate Wednesday as a key vote on a bill to reauthorize several expired programs, including extended unemployment benefits, failed 45-52, with 12 Democrats voting against it.

“I’ve said all along that we have to be able to pay for what we’re spending,” said Sen. Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat who voted against the bill. “$77 billion or more of this is not paid for and that translates into deficit spending and adding to the debt, and the American people are right: We’ve got to stop doing that.”

Democrats scrapped a post-vote press conference moments before it was scheduled to start.

Full Story: Jobs Bill Bombs In Senate, 45-52.

Congress May Bring Back Airline Regulation

Restoring financial regulation of the airline industry will be put before Congress if the Justice Department approves a proposed merger of United and Continental airlines, two key House members said Wednesday.

At a hearing on the merger, Reps. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Jerry Costello, D-Ill., chairman of the panel’s aviation subcommittee, expressed concern about the impact the proposed deal could have on consumers and airline workers.

Deregulation has been credited with making airline travel affordable for the average American. But Oberstar pointed to the $2.7 billion the airlines earned in baggage fees in 2009 as evidence that consumers are no longer benefiting from the system. He said he believes there’s support in the House for re-regulation.

Full Story: Congress May Bring Back Airline Regulation.

Obama’s Speech: Not The Turning Point He Had In Mind

The most depressing thing about President Obama’s profoundly underwhelming speech Tuesday night was that the White House thought it would change everything, when there was no good reason to think it would change anything.

White House aides had excitedly announced that the speech — his first from the Oval Office — would be an “inflection point,” somehow turning eight weeks of growing anxiety about the disaster in the Gulf and the government’s response in a positive new direction.

But vague generalities and empty, convictionless rhetoric just don’t have that effect — certainly not in the midst of a real, concrete national emergency.

Full Story: Obama’s Speech: Not The Turning Point He Had In Mind.

Bernanke: Financial Reform Could Limit Megabank Growth, But Won’t End Too Big To Fail

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that the pending financial reform legislation before Congress could have the effect of simplifying the nation’s largest banks and limiting their ability to grow even larger, adding that while the bills could help end Too Big To Fail, key challenges remain.

He did not, however, say that the legislation could or should force the nation’s financial behemoths to shrink — a point advocated by his colleagues in regional Federal Reserve banks across the country.

Stressing the Fed’s ongoing improvements in how it regulates banks and supervises the financial system, Bernanke told a crowd of bankers, regulators and economists in New York that the Fed’s efforts and the bills pending in Congress will go a long way toward addressing the problems associated with Too Big To Fail and the weaknesses in the current financial regulatory system.

Full Story: Bernanke: Financial Reform Could Limit Megabank Growth, But Won’t End Too Big To Fail.

Senate Accepts Expanded Fed Audit

The Senate will accept an expanded Federal Reserve audit proposal from the House as part of Wall Street conference committee deliberations, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told the panel Wednesday evening.

The House proposal allows repeated future audits of discount window and open market transactions, whereas the Senate proposal had only allowed a one-time audit.

The Senate’s provision had already been stronger than what the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department had previously been willing to accept.

Full Story: Senate Accepts Expanded Fed Audit.

Stewart: Obama, like Frodo, won’t give up Bush powers | VIDEO

John Stewart Nails it!

President Barack Obama promised to end the “fever of fear” created by the Bush administration and relinquish unreasonable executive powers. But after becoming president, Obama didn’t end many of the practices he campaigned against.

Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart likened the president Tuesday to a character in “The Lord of the Rings” who falls under the sway of Sauron’s Ring of Power and is unable to complete his mission to destroy it.

Stewart took a step back from the current BP oil spill catastrophe to look at the bigger picture of Obama’s presidency. “The Gulf crisis was an unforeseen catastrophe. Barack Obama’s real mission when running for president was to restore some of America’s moral high standing that we had lost in the turmoil of the war on terror,” said Stewart.

Full Story: Stewart: Obama, like Frodo, won’t give up Bush powers | Raw Story.

Louisiana To Require Ultrasounds Before Abortions

Women seeking abortions in Louisiana will be required to get an ultrasound first, even if they are a victim of rape or incest, under a bill that received final legislative passage Wednesday.

The bill by Democratic state Sen. Sharon Broome of Baton Rouge was sent to the governor’s desk with a 79-0 vote of the state House. Gov. Bobby Jindal supports the measure.

Supporters of the proposal said they hope the ultrasound dissuades some women from getting an abortion at the handful of abortion clinics in Louisiana, by giving them more information about their pregnancies.

Full Story: Louisiana To Require Ultrasounds Before Abortions : NPR.

Queensland police win new powers to fine for public nuisance offences

THOUSANDS of people could be slapped with fines for offences that would never have attracted police attention in the past under sweeping reforms to police powers.

Experts fear swearing in public, with a fine of $100, will be a major money spinner and could become the weapon of choice for frustrated officers on the beat.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced the new powers for the state’s police to issue on-the-spot notices for public nuisance offences.

Full Story: Queensland police win new powers to fine for public nuisance offences | News.com.au.

Exclusive: ‘Politics of pot’ endangering state medical marijuana laws | Raw Story

Mark Zeitlin manages Harmony House, a medical marijuana dispensary in North Hollywood, California.

His product is popular and his services — providing medicinal marijuana — are in demand. But Mark has a problem. L.A. County prosecutors want to put him out of business.

“I have AIDS patients, cancer patients, people with all sorts of illness to treat, but the government is trying to shut me down,” he told Raw Story.

One of 439 facilities ordered to be shuttered last week by the L.A. County prosecutors as part of a crackdown on medical marijuana, Zeitlin said the booming business of medicinal healing through cannabis is under siege.

Full Story: Exclusive: ‘Politics of pot’ endangering state medical marijuana laws | Raw Story.

Limbaugh’s solution to childhood hunger: Kids should ‘dumpster dive’ | Raw Story

Rush Limbaugh believes he knows why 16 million American schoolchildren will go hungry this summer, and it has nothing to do with soaring job losses or endemic poverty — the problem is kids can’t find their refrigerator or the local neighborhood McDonald’s.

Responding to an article Wednesday at AOL.com that reports 16 million children will go hungry this summer once free or subsidized school lunches are no longer available, Limbaugh suggested he would run a daily feature on his radio show all summer entitled “Where to find food.”

And, of course, the first will be: “Try your house.” It’s a thing called the refrigerator. You probably already know about it. Try looking there. There are also things in what’s called the kitchen of your house called cupboards. And in those cupboards, most likely you’re going to find Ding-Dongs, Twinkies, Lays ridgy potato chips, all kinds of dips and maybe a can of corn that you don’t want, but it will be there. If that doesn’t work, try a Happy Meal at McDonald’s….

Full Story: Limbaugh’s solution to childhood hunger: Kids should ‘dumpster dive’ | Raw Story.

ACLU asks South Carolina: Don’t erase voting machine records

The American Civil Liberties Union has waded into the controversy over South Carolina’s bizarre Democratic primaries last week, which ended with the Senate nomination going to an unknown, unemployed candidate who won more votes than were cast in some counties.

The ACLU has sent a letter (PDF) to the South Carolina State Election Commission asking it not to allow the state’s counties to erase the voting records from the June 8 primary, which saw favored candidate Vic Rawl lose the Senate nomination to unknown Alvin Greene by a 59-to-41 margin.

“We take no position on whether there were irregularities sufficient to place the outcome of the election in doubt but believe the voters in South Carolina are entitled to know that their votes were properly counted,” the ACLU letter states. “That assurance can only be given if the information on the flash cards is preserved and audited.”

Full Story: ACLU asks South Carolina: Don’t erase voting machine records | Raw Story.

Sea creatures flee oil spill, gather near shore

Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow water just off the Florida coast. Mullets, crabs, rays and small fish congregate by the thousands off an Alabama pier. Birds covered in oil are crawling deep into marshes, never to be seen again.

Marine scientists studying the effects of the BP disaster are seeing some strange phenomena.

Fish and other wildlife seem to be fleeing the oil out in the Gulf and clustering in cleaner waters along the coast in a trend that some researchers see as a potentially troubling sign.

The animals' presence close to shore means their usual habitat is badly polluted, and the crowding could result in mass die-offs as fish run out of oxygen. Also, the animals could easily get devoured by predators.

“A parallel would be: Why are the wildlife running to the edge of a forest on fire? There will be a lot of fish, sharks, turtles trying to get out of this water they detect is not suitable,” said Larry Crowder, a Duke University marine biologist.

Full Story: The Associated Press: Sea creatures flee oil spill, gather near shore.

Kerry: Not the ‘right time’ to repeal big oil tax breaks

Climate bill architects Kerry, Lieberman vote against repealing oil industry tax breaks

‘Substance is good, timing is wrong,’ Kerry’s office tells Raw Story

The two chief authors of the Senate energy and climate bill joined 20 other Democrats Tuesday evening to help defeat a motion that would have stripped $35 billion in special tax breaks for big oil companies.

Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) cast their votes against the amendment introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to H.R. 4213, the “American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act.” It failed 35-61.

Kerry, the Democrats’ designated crusader for clean energy reform and tough emissions regulations, said through a spokesman he was not opposed to the substance of the amendment, but rather the timing at which it was introduced.

Full Story: Climate bill architects Kerry, Lieberman vote against repealing oil industry tax breaks | Raw Story.

Pentagon report in April never mentioned $1 trillion in Afghan wealth

Original goal of Pentagon task force that performed Afghan minerals survey was to get “contracts going between US firms and Iraqi firms”

A RAW STORY investigation has revealed that a report released by the Pentagon last April on the progress of the Afghanistan “surge” included only a single passing reference to a survey that is now being touted as having discovered mineral resources in that nation potentially worth $1 trillion.

The lack of any mention of dramatic new discoveries is likely to reinforce suspicions that there is something bogus about the claim in last Sunday’s New York Times that “the United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself.”

Full Story: Pentagon report in April never mentioned $1 trillion in Afghan wealth | Raw Story.

Opponents of same-sex marriage ask Prop. 8 judge to invalidate 18,000 marriages of gay couples.

As Judge Vaughn Walker prepares to hear closing arguments today in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the landmark case against California’s Proposition 8, supporters of the measure are urging him to “go a step further and revoke state recognition of the marriages of 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who wed before” voters stripped same-sex couples of their right to marry in November 2008:

Such an order would honor “the expressed will of the people,” backers of the November 2008 ballot measure said Tuesday in their final written filing before Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker.

Andrew Pugno, an attorney for Prop. 8’s backers, said in an interview that the sponsors aren’t asking Walker to nullify the 18,000 marriages, but only to rule that government agencies, courts and businesses no longer have to recognize the couples as married.

Full Story: Think Progress » Opponents of same-sex marriage ask Prop. 8 judge to invalidate 18,000 marriages of gay couples..

Barbour Is Concerned That Escrow Account Will Cut Into BP’s Profits: ‘It Bothers Me’

The Obama administration announced this week that it wants BP to transfer “substantial” funds to an escrow account overseen by an independent third party that will handle claims from individuals and businesses affected by the company’s oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. “We need to make sure that the interests of people in the Gulf are protected,” senior White House adviser David Axelrod said on Sunday. Congressional Democrats have asked BP to create a $20 billion fund.

Sticking with the “Obama is a socialist” meme, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) called the account a “redistribution of wealth fund.” Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) also thinks it is a bad idea. Although he noted on Fox News last night that BP is “saying that they have the ability to pay and that they will pay,” Barbour expressed concern that BP will lose some profits:

BARBOUR: If BP is the responsible party under the law, they’re to pay for everything. I do worry that this idea of making them make a huge escrow fund is going to make it less likely that they’ll pay for everything. They need their capital to drill wells. They need their capital to produce income. … But this escrow bothers me that it’s going to make them less able to pay us what they owe us. And that concerns me. … [I]t bothers me to talk about causing an escrow to be made, which will — which makes it less likely that they’ll make the income that they need to pay us.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Barbour Is Concerned That Escrow Account Will Cut Into BP’s Profits: ‘It Bothers Me’.

After meeting with Sharron Angle, Sen. Johnny Isakson refers to Nevada voters as ‘the unwashed back home.’

Yesterday, Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle “introduced herself to a very curious Senate Republican Conference” at their weekly caucus lunch. Apparently, the “Republicans walked away impressed.” “I hadn’t met her. I was impressed by what she had to say, and she did interact with several of our Members,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told Roll Call. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) said she “did a good job” and gave the kind of speech she wouldn’t “give to the unwashed back home”:

Republicans, who heard Angle’s presentation were, to a letter, impressed. “She said she won, she needed money, and wanted to be a part of the team and was glad to be here today,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-GA, who said Ensign also showed a recent Rasmussen poll showing Angle up 11 points against Reid. “She did a good job. She’s an articulate lady…This was an introduction. It wasn’t the kind of speech you would give to the unwashed back home, she was talking to her colleagues,” Isakson recounted.

Full Story: Think Progress » After meeting with Sharron Angle, Sen. Johnny Isakson refers to Nevada voters as ‘the unwashed back home.’.

GOP congressional candidate: The federal government and BP colluded to spill oil in the Gulf.

Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, disgraced FEMA director Michael Brown went on Fox News and claimed that the Obama administration wanted the devastating oil spill as an excuse to backtrack on its offshore drilling plan. Around the same time, Rush Limbaugh unleashed a conspiracy theory suggesting that someone intentionally blew up the rig in order to “head off more oil drilling.” After widespread mockery and criticism, these types of oil spill truthers have largely gone quiet. Now, however, Bill Randall, who’s competing to be the GOP nominee in a congressional race in North Carolina and identifies with the Tea Party movement, is going even further by saying that the federal government and BP worked together to spill oil:

“Now, I’m not necessarily a conspiracy person, but I don’t think enough investigation has been done on this,” Randall said at a media conference on Tuesday. “Someone needs to be digging into that situation. Personally, and this is purely speculative on my part and not based on any fact, but personally I feel there is a possibility that there was some sort of collusion. I don’t know how or why, but in that situation, if you have someone from a company violating a safety process and the government signing off on it, excuse me, maybe they wanted it to leak.

Full Story: Think Progress » GOP congressional candidate: The federal government and BP colluded to spill oil in the Gulf..

BP keeps cleanup workers getting sick from pollutants out of its records, claims only two such incidents.

BP attempted to deny and conceal links of its oil spill to illnesses, after initial reports of oil cleanup workers who were getting sick due to extended exposure to oil and dispersants. Fishermen have complained of “severe headaches, dizziness, nausea and difficulty breathing” after working to clean up the spill, and one said BP did not provide protective equipment. But BP CEO Tony Hayward brushed off illness concerns, suggesting “food poisoning” might have been the culprit. Now, McClatchy reports on a wide disparity in government and BP records on illness complaints:

Although Louisiana state records indicate that at least 74 oil spill workers have complained of becoming sick after exposure to pollutants, BP’s own official recordkeeping notes just two such incidents.

BP reported a wide range of worker injuries in the period from April 22 to June 10 , from the minor — a sprained ankle, a pinched finger and a cat bite — to the more serious — three instances of workers being struck by lightning and one worker who lost part of a finger.

Full Story: Think Progress » BP keeps cleanup workers getting sick from pollutants out of its records, claims only two such incidents..

Obama’s Disappointing Spill Speech

Kevin Drum asked earlier whether President Obama would “go big” in tonight’s Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill disaster. I hoped he would. But he didn’t come close.

There was plenty of militaristic talk, with Obama outlining the “battle plan” for the spill and noting that “there will be more oil and more damage before this siege is done.” But his speech was short on specifics concerning both the near-term response to the immediate crisis and the long-term energy policy that will curb the nation’s dependence on oil.

On the Gulf disaster, Obama could have offered clear direction on several issues: for instance, by clarifying the administration’s stance on eliminating the liability cap to protect oil companies from damages following a spill, or by offering a hard number for how much money BP must set aside for the independently administered fund the government has proposed.

Full Story: Obama’s Disappointing Spill Speech | Mother Jones.

One in Five People Between 18 and 65 Have No Health Insurance

More than 15 percent of Americans lacked health insurance in 2009, a slight but insignificant rise from 2008, according to U.S. government survey data released on Wednesday.

The survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a stable pattern over recent years of Americans without health insurance — numbers used as the basis for battles over healthcare and health insurance reform.

The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics said in its report that 15.4 percent of Americans lacked health insurance in 2009, compared to 14.7 percent in 2008.

The survey found that 46.3 million people had no health insurance in 2009, a bit up from 43.8 million in 2008. This included more than 6 million children under 18.

Full Story: In U.S., 15 Percent Lack Health Insurance – Survey – NYTimes.com.

SEC: Government Destroyed Documents Regarding Pre-9/11 Put Options

Sources tell CBS News that the afternoon before the attack, alarm bells were sounding over unusual trading in the U.S. stock options market.

An extraordinary number of trades were betting that American Airlines stock price would fall.

The trades are called “puts” and they involved at least 450,000 shares of American. But what raised the red flag is more than 80 percent of the orders were “puts”, far outnumbering “call” options, those betting the stock would rise.

Sources say they have never seen that kind of imbalance before, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. Normally the numbers are fairly even.

After the terrorist attacks, American Airline stock price did fall obviously by 39 percent, and according to sources, that translated into well over $5 million total profit for the person or persons who bet the stock would fall.

***

At least one Wall Street firm reported their suspicions about this activity to the SEC shortly after the attack.

Full Story: SEC: Government Destroyed Documents Regarding Pre-9/11 Put Options « Wake-up Call.

additional source: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/06/sec-government-destroyed-documents.html

Cuba braces to contend with BP oil spill

Havana calls in Venezuelan experts to combat potential environmental disaster as tarballs spotted off island’s coast

Cuba is steadying itself for an ecological and tourism crisis as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill appears to be heading towards its pristine northern coast.

Authorities are preparing coastal communities to respond to the first sign of black slicks and have brought in Venezuelan experts to advise on damage limitation.

Patches of oil were reportedly spotted 100 miles north-west of the island, prompting concern that gulf currents will add Cuba to the list of casualties from the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion.

Should oil reach Cuba it will be the latest twist to decades of toxic diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington.

Full Story: Cuba braces to contend with BP oil spill | World news | The Guardian.

When animal rescues fall short, evidence of oil spill’s toll on wildlife is collected

Within each of the animal-rescue stations set up along the Gulf Coast is a makeshift morgue for oiled and ill creatures that didn't make it. And behind the scenes, pathologists and laboratory staff are carefully cataloging each dead creature as part of larger criminal, civil and scientific inquiries into how the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has affected animals and their habitats.

Hundreds of birds including pelicans, seagulls, terns and gannets are being gathered by wildlife teams in an effort both to save them from their veils of oil and to help them recover from the effects that it can have on their lungs and digestive systems. At the same time, government scientists and the seasoned nonprofits that the government usually hires to respond to major wildlife disasters have set up animal rescue centers along the coast.

Within those operations are morgues and temporary freezers where the dead animals are catalogued and examined. The operations cannot be photographed or observed by outsiders, because they are part of a massive body of evidence outlining the harm that the spill has caused wildlife, in violation of federal laws such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act.

Full Story: When animal rescues fall short, evidence of oil spill’s toll on wildlife is collected | NOLA.com.

22 Dems Join GOP To Save Big Oil’s Federal Tax Breaks

Despite the political fallout from the continuing Gulf oil disaster, and rhetoric about accountability for oil companies, 22 Senate Democrats crossed over to join a united GOP to defeat a measure aimed at stripping big oil companies of their generous federal tax breaks.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ amendment died Tuesday on a lopsided 35-61 vote. The Vermont independent’s proposal would have repealed $35 billion in oil and gas industry tax breaks. Sanders argued such taxpayer-funded giveaways to the oil companies were foolish while the energy giants had reported $750 billion in profit in the last decade.

“Some of the most profitable corporations in America pay zero federal taxes and in fact get a tax rebate,” Sanders said in a Senate floor speech ahead of the vote. Sanders had proposed his repeal as an amendment to the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act currently under debate in the Senate.

Full Story: On The Hill: 22 Dems Join GOP To Save Big Oil’s Federal Tax Breaks.

Surprises in store for economists

Dean Baker : Some analysts are shocked that US retail sales have declined. Have they lost their grasp of basic economic concepts?

The commerce department reported that retail sales in May were down by 1.2% from April. This surprised most economists who had expected a modest increase. The media were filled with accounts of economists trying to explain why consumers were still reluctant to open up their wallets and spend in a big way. It would have been much more interesting to hear accounts of why economists were surprised.

There is always a large random element in month-to-month movements in retail sales or any other economic variable. Therefore no one is ever going to be able to explain these changes with any precision. (The data are also subject to large revisions, so it is entirely possible that revised data will look very different from the report released last week (pdf).)

Nonetheless, there is little basis for the surprise shown by so many economic analysts. With few exceptions these analysts failed to see the $8tn housing bubble, the collapse of which sank the economy. Remarkably, even now they apparently cannot understand its importance.

Full Story: Surprises in store for economists | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

23-Mile Oil Plume Headed for Dry Tortugas. And More Spill Science Updates

A compilation of spill science for 14 June 2010 that might otherwise be hard to see camouflaged against the clutter of headlines.

* By slowly increasing the percentage of water flow down the main stem of the Mississippi, oil can be held offshore longer, giving response crews more time to deal with it before it poses a greater threat to sensitive wildlife and marsh and mangrove habitats, suggests an Audubon coastal scientist.

* The six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has waylaid the research of an oceanographer at Louisiana State University, who uses ROVS attached to deepwater oil rigs to video strange creatures living up to 8,000 feet below the surface. Just when we need their underwater eyes to see the marine life most affected by the spill, the ROVs are all being redeployed to shut down exploratory wells so the rigs can move on to drill in other waters.

Full Story: 23-Mile Oil Plume Headed for Dry Tortugas. And More Spill Science Updates | Mother Jones.

Battle the Corporatocracy by Demanding Sustainability

John Perkins:

“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.” (Thoreau)

Being a father has been one of the seminal events in my life and to have the joy of being a grandparent has just doubled the blessing. It has also made me even more aware of my responsibility to my grandson and his sisters and brothers around our precious planet.

All of us are anxiously waiting a fix to the devastating oil spill that BP created in one of our most environmentally fragile regions in North America. Let us also not forget the terrible destruction Chevron/Texaco caused in the Ecuadorian Amazon (as of this writing, more than 400 times the toxic wastes of the BP disaster), Shell in the Congo, Exxon in Alaska, and all the other tragedies that result from drilling, mining, cutting, and dredging. As I frequently discuss in media interviews and public speeches, it is our job to be in a true relationship with the environment. Just as a father guides his children toward maturation, we must do the same for the environment. If we want to save our lands, forests, air, and water, we must dream actively of this better world.

While we encourage organic farmers and many types of companies to turn toward green technology, we still are not doing nearly enough. Every one of us must alter our dream, must continually re-create ourselves and the societies we form. We must rescue our dreams of this sustainable and just world from the clutches of sociopathic CEOs, public relations con artists, greed-driven corporate policies, and the form of predatory capitalism all of these promote.

Full Story: John Perkins: Battle the Corporatocracy by Demanding Sustainability.

Is Blackwater’s Erik Prince Moving to the United Arab Emirates?

Jeremy Scahill:

Sources close to Blackwater and its secretive owner Erik Prince claim that the embattled head of the world's most infamous mercenary firm is planning to move to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Middle Eastern nation, a major hub for the US war industry, has no extradition treaty with the United States. In April, five of Prince's top deputies were hit with a fifteen-count indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, weapons and obstruction of justice charges. Among those indicted were Prince's longtime number-two man, former Blackwater president Gary Jackson, former vice presidents William Matthews and Ana Bundy and Prince's former legal counsel Andrew Howell.

Full Story: Is Blackwater’s Erik Prince Moving to the United Arab Emirates? | The Nation.

Closing BP’s Escape Routes

Robert Weissman:

BP generates enough cash to absorb its liabilities from the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.

But that doesn’t mean it will.

One of the benefits of the corporate form is that it gives giant corporations the ability to escape liability. BP may or may not choose to capitalize on such escapes, but it would be foolish to presume that it won’t. That’s why President Obama’s call for the company to establish a $20 billion escrow account is such a positive and needed — if still inadequate — step.

Consider first the liabilities that BP may face. No one really knows what the damage from the oil gusher or the overall costs to BP may ultimately be. Some analysts are now throwing around numbers of $70 billion on the upper end — but it’s not hard to see how the ultimate cost to BP could rise even higher.

Full Story: Closing BP’s Escape Routes | CommonDreams.org.

U.S. ‘On A Collision Course With The Future’ In Terms Of Projected Demand For Educated Workers

A landmark report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce forecasts an uneven relationship between colleges and the job market. Although more future jobs will require advanced education, colleges are not doing enough to prepare their students for the projected workforce.

Inside Higher Ed talked to the Georgetown center’s director:

The colleges that most students attend “need to streamline their programs, so they emphasize employability,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Georgetown center.

Carnevale acknowledged that such a shift would accept “a dual system” in which a select few receive an “academic” college education and most students receive a college education that is career preparation. “We are all offended by tracking,” he said. But the reality, Carnevale said, is that the current system doesn’t do a good job with the career-oriented track, in part by letting many of the colleges on that track “aspire to be Harvard.” He said that educators have a choice: “to be loyal to the purity of your ideas and refuse to build a selective dual system, or make people better off.”

Full Story: U.S. ‘On A Collision Course With The Future’ In Terms Of Projected Demand For Educated Workers.

Volcker: New Government Powers Won’t Be Able To Dismantle Megabanks; Too Big To Fail Lives Despite Reform Bill

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker believes the centerpiece of the administration’s effort to end Too Big To Fail — the perception that the nation’s largest banks will always be bailed out when in trouble — will not actually apply to megabanks.

In a September 2009 speech on Wall Street, President Barack Obama said that the administration’s preferred way to dismantle failing systemically-important firms is a new “resolution authority” outside the normal bankruptcy process. The authority, which would enable regulators to wind down failing financial behemoths, “is intended to put an end to the idea that some firms are ‘too big to fail,’” Obama said.

His top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, has said that ending Too Big To Fail is the administration’s “central objective” in reforming the financial system, and that resolution authority is the “most crucial” part of that plan.

But on Monday, during a discussion on CNBC, Volcker, the head of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, said the proposed authority is a “workable proposition for anything short of these biggest banks.”

Full Story: Volcker: New Government Powers Won’t Be Able To Dismantle Megabanks; Too Big To Fail Lives Despite Reform Bill.

Oil Spill Estimate Increased To 35K-60K Barrels A Day

Just hours before the president addresses the nation from the Oval Office, the White House has sent out findings of a new scientific study which pegs the rate of oil flowing into the Gulf at roughly seven to twelve times the initial estimate.

According to the work of a group of government and independent scientists under the direction of Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, the amount of oil now being unleashed into the Gulf is between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day. This is a vast increase from the early estimates of roughly 5,000 barrels a day. It is also much more than the revised estimates that pegged the flow at a low end of 12,00 barrels, with a high end of 19,000 to 25,000 barrels.

It is a striking reflection of just how much ecological damage has been caused so far and a damaging illustration of how out of touch (or deliberately misleading) the team at BP was in the immediate wake of the spill.

If the oil has been spilling at this rate from the outset, it means that anywhere between 1.96 million and 3.36 million barrels of oil has gushed into the Gulf. In the Exxon Valdez crisis, a total of 250,000 barrels spilled into the waters off the coast of Alaska.

Meanwhile, BP says that it is only collecting between 15,000 and 18,000 barrels a day.

Full Story: Oil Spill Estimate Increased To 35K-60K Barrels A Day.

OPS: OK,  A barrel of oil=42 gallons

42 x 60,000 = 2,520,000 per day.   that’s 138,000,000 gallons so far

Next month they will raise the “estimate” again. Bet me.

BP halts oil leak recovery for 5 hours after lightning strike

BP temporarily suspended the collection of crude oil from the runaway Deepwater Horizon well for nearly five hours Tuesday after a small fire was spotted at the top of the derrick of the Discoverer Enterprise drill ship.

In a statement, BP said the fire, which was extinguished, preliminarily was attributed to lightning that struck the ship at about 9:30 a.m. Central time. No one was injured, and recovery operations were resumed, BP said, at 2:15 p.m.

The incident underscores the precariousness of the recovery efforts. In its newest recovery plan, BP noted that hopes of collecting as much as 80,000 barrels of oil a day from the well once four ships are at the site in mid July would founder if a hurricane approaches and operations must cease.

Full Story: BP halts oil leak recovery for 5 hours after lightning strike | McClatchy.

OPS: And how many days will they halt recovery when the first Hurricane hits?

Climate bill could mean 540,000 new jobs per year

New rules to cap US carbon emissions and promote clean energy could create as many as 540,000 US jobs a year, a green group claimed Tuesday, as the BP oil spill fueled debate over reform.

With the massive Gulf of Mexico slick pushing energy reform to the top of the US political agenda, ClimateWorks — a climate lobby group — said reforms could also help the struggling US economy.

Offering lawmakers the tantalizing prospect of curbing emissions while helping the economy, the report's authors said cutting 2005 emissions levels by 17 percent by 2020 would create or save 440,000 jobs a year.

The United States is still battling to escape from the grasp of a debilitating recession that has cost over eight million jobs and pushed the unemployment rate close to ten percent.

Full Story: Group: Climate bill could mean 540,000 new jobs per year | Raw Story.

Lawrence O’Donnell To Host MSNBC 10PM Show

Lawrence O’Donnell will host the 10PM hour on MSNBC, the network announced Tuesday.

O’Donnell will develop a show to round-out the network’s primetime lineup; currently, a repeat of the 8PM show, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” airs in the 10PM timeslot, after “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

“Lawrence O’Donnell is an incredible talent, who our audience has gotten to know throughout the years, most recently as Keith Olbermann’s principal guest host on ‘Countdown,’” MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in the announcement. “It’s great to have another anchor of his caliber on the network,” said Griffin. “This makes us a bigger and better network.”

“I’ve had a part-time job at MSNBC for 14 years,” O’Donnell, who has been an MSNBC political analyst since the network launched in 1996, added. “Now that the network and I have gotten to know each other, I’m thrilled to be going full time.”

Full Story: Lawrence O’Donnell To Host MSNBC 10PM Show.

After Years Claiming He’s ‘Not A Journalist,’ Beck Calls Himself A ‘Journalist’ Without ‘Formal Training’

In a recent interview with USA Today, Fox News host Glenn Beck was asked to define what he does. “I’m a little of everything,” replied Beck, saying that included being a “‘concerned dad,’ ‘faith-based guy,’ ‘businessman,’ ‘entertainer’ and, after a long pause, ‘journalist.’” “I don’t have formal training as a journalist, but I think that works to my advantage,” said Beck.

Though not shocking, Beck’s claim to be “a journalist” is surprising, given how often he has rhetorically shielded himself by saying, “I’m not a journalist.” In fact, as recently as April 5, 20

Full Story: Think Progress » After Years Claiming He’s ‘Not A Journalist,’ Beck Calls Himself A ‘Journalist’ Without ‘Formal Training’.

Financial lobbyists whine to Wall Street Journal about not having easy access to lawmakers.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers began House-Senate negotiations last week in the final push for comprehensive Wall Street reform. Since the start of this year, the financial industry has invested over $28 million in a platoon of lobbyists to weaken the overhaul and “protect the status quo.” Denied an inital opportunity through “backroom negotiations,” lobbyists “pinned their hopes” on the conference process for face time with key lawmakers. One lobbyist preferred the “behind the scenes” conference to the transparency of the Senate floor, saying “let’s have a few wise fathers sit around the table in some quiet room” to determine the details. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that the stigma of this “lobbying army” is preventing them from “get[ting] through the door”:

Wall Street’s lobbying army is marching around Washington in a push to shape the final financial-overhaul bill. But it has gotten harder to get through the door with some lawmakers.

One bank has complained that it no longer has access to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.), whose schedule has filled up to accommodate negotiations with his Senate counterparts during the next two weeks. [...]

Full Story: Think Progress » Financial lobbyists whine to Wall Street Journal about not having easy access to lawmakers..

BP hires Goldman Sachs as an adviser, possibly to avoid a takeover.

As BP continues to come under fire for its incompetence in cleaning up its own spill, the company is also ramping up legal and public relations efforts to try to rescue its tarnished reputation. Today, Reuters reports that the petroleum corporation has hired investment banks Blackstone Group, Credit Suisse Group, and Goldman Sachs as advisers, although the matter the banks are advising on is unknown. The Independent on Sunday speculated that BP hired Goldman “to fend off any potential takeover attempts” of the oil company. The choice of Goldman is sure to raise eyebrows as the investment bank is currently facing fraud charges from the SEC. The oil spill likely helped BP supplant Goldman as one of the most reviled companies operating in America.

Full Story: Think Progress » BP hires Goldman Sachs as an adviser, possibly to avoid a takeover..

Help Not Wanted: BP rejects expert volunteers.

BP has rejected the help of thousands of volunteers, many with expert training and experience in handling offshore oil disasters and oil spill cleanup. Yesterday, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd interviewed Don Abrams of OilSpillVolunteers.com, who collected the names of nearly 8,000 volunteers in the first weeks after BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion, and tried repeatedly to contribute their expertise to mitigating this national disaster. Many of the volunteers Abrams had organized have certification in the federal government’s official Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard (HAZWOPER), and were ready and able to train others:

On May 13, we turned over a list of about a hundred highly qualified people to BP, including people with two to three decades of offshore oil experience, people with experience in spill clean ups, people who are HAZWOPER instructors. As of about two days ago, I contacted about half of those people, and none of them have been contacted by BP.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Help Not Wanted: BP rejects expert volunteers..

After making ‘American English’ the official language of Texas, GOP recruits Latinos in Spanish.

This weekend, delegates of the Texas Republican Party voted to include a provision in their state party platform advocating for an immigration law similar to Arizona’s SB-1070. The platform also proposes “making American English the official language of Texas and the United States.” Nonetheless, the first video of a YouTube campaign aimed at attracting more Latinos to the party that was launched yesterday…in Spanish.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » After making ‘American English’ the official language of Texas, GOP recruits Latinos in Spanish..

US oil firms ‘unprepared’ for major offshore disaster

Major oil firms drilling off the US coastline are as unprepared as BP for a large-scale spill, the head of a Congressional panel has said.

Edward Markey told the House energy and commerce sub-committee Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell all have identical response plans to BP.

BP’s US chief Lamar McKay and four other oil bosses gave evidence amid accusations BP took shortcuts.

President Barack Obama is to make a TV address later from the White House.

He will use the prime-time speech, at 2000 (0000 GMT), to outline the next steps his administration will take against the spill.

Those are reported to include new steps to restore the Gulf Coast ecosystem and explicit demands to ensure BP fully compensates those affected.

Full Story: BBC News – US oil firms ‘unprepared’ for major offshore disaster.

Treat Palestinians Like Jews

Robert Scheer

It was an act of international terrorism, pure and simple. There can be no valid claims of self-defense on the part of Israeli commandos who attacked a ship of protesters in international waters, killing nine civilians and kidnapping more than 600 others—including 15 international reporters who were prevented from filing their stories by a nation that claims to be the beacon of democracy in the Mideast.

Trust me, I do not come to this viewpoint lightly. This is an issue I have written about with anguish ever since I visited Gaza and the West Bank immediately after the Six-Day War 43 years ago, and the fact that those apartheid zones still stand in oppressive isolation from the norms of human rights is a sad commentary on our profession. There is no subject on which American journalists so disgrace themselves by embracing a double standard or about which our politicians are permitted the kind of hypocritical cop-out once again demonstrated by the tepid response of the Obama administration.

If nothing else, this assault on decency by the Israeli government was clearly intended to derail the peace talks that President Barack Obama has encouraged. But instead of calling Israel on its savagery, the U.S. is virtually alone in the world in its embarrassingly mild

Full Story: Robert Scheer: Treat Palestinians Like Jews – Robert Scheer’s Columns – Truthdig.

Congressional report clears ACORN of wrongdoing — after group forced to disband

When a duo of right-wing provocateurs posing as a pimp and prostitute released selectively-edited videos trying to impugn the community activist group ACORN, both Democrats and Republicans condemned the organization.

Congress then voted to cut off federal funding for the group (a decision that was later ruled unconstitutional). Following negative press and Congress’ vote, ACORN effectively disbanded Apr. 1 and reorganized under new names.

But a just-issued report by the Government Accountability Office that reviewed ACORN’s federal funding at the behest of Congress found little grist for the mill for politicians or right-wing bloggers looking to bash the now-defunct advocacy group for the poor.

Full Story: Congressional report clears ACORN of wrongdoing — after group forced to disband | Raw Story.

Rawl challenges primary election results

Thousands of South Carolina voters remain shocked by the completely unexpected results of last week’s primary election, but probably none are more shocked than one of the losing candidates.

And it’s not the unforeseen loss that surprises him, but the many instances of questionability that occurred that day, instead.

And it’s not just the volume of peculiar errors that bother him, but the mere concept of a precedent this could set, too, and that could leave these thousands of South Carolina voters only to watch by the wayside in future elections as the power of their individual votes goes further out to sea.

And that’s why Vic Rawl, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, decided he wasn’t going to stand it any longer.

Rawl filed a formal protest with the South Carolina Democratic Party on June 14. The complaints on which this protest is based include documentation of voting machine irregularities.

Full Story: Rawl challenges primary election results.

The Message from U.S. Politicians to American Companies: Either Go Bankrupt or Move Out!

Wake up! Where are our jobs? They are being shipped overseas along with our wealth. Too many of our dollars spent on manufactured goods are spent directly on imports. In some industries like electronics, computers, transportation equipment, and machinery, the amount spent on foreign goods gets even higher!

How Did This Happen?

China now has accumulated trillions of U.S. dollars of currency reserves, of which nearly $800 billion are in U.S. treasury bonds. This has happened through their escalating balance of trade surpluses with America – they sell to us much more than we sell to them. In the process, China has been instrumental in putting many of our American manufacturers out of business.

Most of the lobbying firms include ex-elected and appointed government officials at the highest levels of government with intimate knowledge of what it takes to have legislation passed for the benefit of their sponsors, who may pay them up to 20 times or more as lobbyists than they earned as government employees. You can presume your representatives are not representing you at all when you observe what is happening to us – when you see what your representatives are allowing foreign countries to do to us.

Full Story: The Message from U.S. Politicians to American Companies: Either Go Bankrupt or Move Out! | Economy In Crisis.

Ag Department Cuts Ties with U.S. Food Inspector in China

An investigation of the company’s Chinese operation found at least 10 different facilities in which a conflict of interest was evident.

One of the top American inspectors of organic foods in China has been banned from operating there by the U.S. Agriculture Department after conflicts were discovered, The New York Times reports.

The Nebraska-based Organic Crop Improvement Association, a private contractor for the Agriculture Department, allegedly partnered with a Chinese government agency and used its officials to inspect state-controlled farms. The agents were given the ultimate decision on whether or not a food product would receive the USDA certified label that customers would eventually see in stores.

China, one of the largest exporters of agricultural products to the U.S. at $3 billion worth of goods a year, has 669 certified organic producers. OCIA was responsible for inspecting roughly one-third of those operations, according to The New York Times.

Full Story: Ag Department Cuts Ties with U.S. Food Inspector in China | Economy In Crisis.

US Congress to tell BP boss: you broke rules, cut costs and it ended in disaster

• CEO Tony Hayward warned he faces grilling

• Obama compares impact of oil spill with 9/11

BP is being accused by a US congressional committee of ignoring warnings, violating its own industry guidelines, and choosing risky procedures in the hope of cutting costs and saving time in the days leading up to the catastrophic explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, was served notice on Monday by the committee on energy and commerce that it intends to subject him to the most rigorous inquisition the company has yet faced in the 56-day-old crisis. A letter from the committee’s chairman, Henry Waxman, said “time after time, it appears BP made decisions that increased the risk of a blowout to save the company time or expense”.

Hayward’s hearing will take place on Thursday, towards the end of a crucial week in which the tensions between US politicians and BP are likely to escalate.

Full Story: US Congress to tell BP boss: you broke rules, cut costs and it ended in disaster | Environment | The Guardian.

50-Year Oil Spill Lingers in Brooklyn

Until the current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, this was the largest oil spill in U.S. History. It took several decades to happen, and even longer to clean up. It’s the oil spill that sent by some EPA estimates more than 30 million gallons of crude and petro-chemicals underneath the streets in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. Clean Skies Lee Patrick Sullivan went to the streets of Brooklyn to check on the on going clean up of this massive spill.

No “under God” in Porkys Pledge of Allegiance

Prior to 1954 the words “under God” were not in the pledge of allegiance. They were added under pressure from Christian leaders in a time of heightened nationalism and Communist fear in America. This period in American history was heavily authoritarian and ripe with the automaton conformity of it's citizens. Today, only 3/4 of Americans believe in the Christian god mentioned in the pledge. Therefore, tens of millions of US citizens are left out.

Interestingly, the pledge was written by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist Socialist minister. He wrote the original Pledge in August 1892 as a tribute to the 400th anniversary of Columbus' “discovery” of the continent and for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. It was meant to bring a sense of national solidarity to schoolchildren and citizens. His original pledge also included the word equality alongside liberty and justice. It was not included in the official pledge. It should be noted the official pledge was adopted prior to both Civil and Woman's Rights in America.

If we are truly a inclusive country, with liberty, justice and equality for all, the pledge should revert to it's original form.

Dems Carve Out NRA Exemption in Campaign Finance Bill

House Democrats have offered to exempt the National Rifle Association from a sweeping campaign-finance bill, removing a major obstacle in the push to roll back the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling.

The NRA had objected to some of the strict financial disclosure provisions that Democrats have proposed for corporations and politically active nonprofits and that had kept moderate, pro-gun Democrats from backing the legislation.

But if the NRA signs off on the deal, the bill could come to the House floor as early as this week. The NRA said it would not comment until specific legislative language is revealed.

Full Story: Democrats: Breakthrough on campaign finance bill – John Bresnahan – POLITICO.com.

Jobs Bill: No Guarantee Congress Will Pass Must-Pass Legislation This Week

Doctors are sending white lab coats to Washington to protest a 21-percent cut in Medicare reimbursement rates taking effect due to Congress’s ongoing failure to push through urgent, must-pass jobs legislation — but there’s still no guarantee that it will pass this week.

The pay cut to doctors who see older folks is just one of the many nickel-and-dime consequences of the latest episode of congressional dithering in the face of expiring domestic aid programs. It’s the third episode this year, basically a rerun of the previous two, in which deficit reduction is pitted against the poor, old and jobless.

So far, according to data from the Department of Labor, 323,400 people who have been out of work for six months or longer have prematurely exhausted their unemployment benefits. By the end of this week, 903,000 will have missed checks. When the president finally signs the bill, benefits will be paid retroactively, but it’s the long-term unemployed — people who have spent half a year on $320 a week — who are more likely to have dipped into savings and therefore least able to get by with no income.

Full Story: Jobs Bill: No Guarantee Congress Will Pass Must-Pass Legislation This Week.

Obama’s Treasury Dept Working To Defeat Derivatives Proposal ‘Of Utmost Importance’ To Reforming Wall Street

A Senate proposal to force banks to shed their lucrative yet risk-laden derivatives units — which is vehemently opposed by Wall Street — is gaining steam, picking up the support of some regional Federal Reserve chiefs with more on the way.

Yet President Barack Obama’s Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, continues to oppose the measure, Senate aides say, who add that Treasury is supporting Wall Street over Main Street by opposing the measure considered of “utmost importance” to financial stability.

“It shows the access of the major Wall Street banks in the Treasury Department in spades,” one Senate aide said on the condition of anonymity. Assistant Treasury Secretary for Financial Institutions Michael S. Barr is said to be leading Treasury’s efforts.

Senate aides say that more letters of support from other regional Fed presidents are on the way.

Treasury is joined in its opposition to the measure by the Federal Reserve’s Washington-based Board of Governors and the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Sheila Bair.

Full Story: Obama’s Treasury Dept Working To Defeat Derivatives Proposal ‘Of Utmost Importance’ To Reforming Wall Street.

Biggest radiation threat is due to medical scans

Americans get most medical radiation in world; dose has grown sixfold

We fret about airport scanners, power lines, cell phones and even microwaves. It’s true that we get too much radiation. But it’s not from those sources — it’s from too many medical tests.

Americans get the most medical radiation in the world, even more than folks in other rich countries. The U.S. accounts for half of the most advanced procedures that use radiation, and the average American’s dose has grown sixfold over the last couple of decades.

Too much radiation raises the risk of cancer. That risk is growing because people in everyday situations are getting imaging tests far too often. Like the New Hampshire teen who was about to get a CT scan to check for kidney stones until a radiologist, Dr. Steven Birnbaum, discovered he’d already had 14 of these powerful X-rays for previous episodes. Adding up the total dose, “I was horrified” at the cancer risk it posed, Birnbaum said.

Full Story: Biggest radiation threat is due to medical scans – Health care- msnbc.com.

As businesses collapse, claimants still waiting for checks from BP

The oil giant says 20,000 of the 42,000 claims filed have been paid. But many affected financially by the oil spill report no responses, answers or relief.

Real estate agent Mike Reynolds had two desirable beachfront condos in escrow when the tide of crude from the Deepwater Horizon spill washed over his business and left it looking about as appetizing as an oiled crab.

“I lost $20,000 in commission,” Reynolds said. “The guy called and said he’d never be able to make any money off of them. He walked away from a $10,000 earnest-money check.”

Just a few miles east of Reynolds’ Gulf Shores condos, restaurant owner Matt Shipp has seen his Orange Beach business plummet by 90%, even before thick masses of oily seaweed painted the white sand beach Saturday. He put in a claim for $35,000 in lost business for May, and after more than 40 days of phone calls and faxes, got approved for $18,000. When will he get the money, he asked BP’s adjuster, the fourth one to whom he had been passed.

Full Story: As businesses collapse, claimants still waiting for checks from BP – latimes.com.

German government threatened with collapse

• German coalition faces trouble on several fronts

• Election of new president could prove to be catalyst

German chancellor Angela Merkel‘s centre-right coalition government looked to be close to collapse today, weakened by a string of disagreements and intense infighting over austerity cuts, policy reform and the departure of senior conservatives.

Less than eight months after it took office, the government was given only a narrow chance of running to a full term by the majority of Germans, 53% of whom said in a poll they expected it to fall.

“Either we get things sorted out in Berlin, or it will soon be the end for the coalition,” said Jorg-Uwe Hahn, head of the Hessen branch of the Free Democrats (FDP), the junior coalition allies of the Christian Democrat Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU. Renate Künast, leader of the opposition Greens, said: “The phrase ‘new elections’ is in the head and the heart of anyone who is thinking in a politically responsible way.”

Full Story: Angela Merkel’s government threatened with collapse | World news | The Guardian.

Moody’s Latest To Downgrade Greek Debt To Junk : NPR

Moody’s Investors Service slashed Greece’s credit rating to junk status on Monday in a new blow to the debt-ridden country that is under intense international scrutiny after narrowly avoiding default last month.

A Moody’s statement said it was cutting Greece’s government bond ratings by four notches to Ba1 from A3, with a stable outlook for the next 12-18 months. It was the second of the three major agencies to accord Greek bonds junk status. Standard & Poor’s did the same in late April.

The downgrades reflect concern that the country could fail to meet its obligations to cut its deficit and pay down its debt – which the Greek government says is out of the question.

Finance Ministry officials in Athens had no immediate reaction to the rating cut, which came as a delegation from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union started an interim review of the country’s efforts to pull itself out of a major debt crisis.

Full Story: Moody’s Latest To Downgrade Greek Debt To Junk : NPR.

BP May Lose U.S. Oil Leases, Contracts After Spill

BP Plc may lose control of its U.S. oil and natural gas wells and be barred from doing business with the federal government as punishment for the worst oil spill in U.S. history, industry and regulatory analysts said.

President Barack Obama and lawmakers are debating penalties that would cripple the company’s ability to do business in the U.S. as public outrage intensifies. In addition to BP’s culpability in the Gulf of Mexico spill, a 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery that killed 15 workers and a 2006 pipeline leak that dumped 200,000 gallons of crude at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, will figure in the debate, said Michael Wara, associate professor of environmental law at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

“The government weighs whether there is a pattern and practice,” Wara said. “They’ll consider whether BP runs these incredibly complicated systems, where accidents can and sometimes do happen, or whether the company has a culture that disfavors safety and environmental compliance.”

Full Story: BP May Lose U.S. Oil Leases, Contracts After Spill (Update2) – BusinessWeek.

Under pressure, BP suddenly finds ‘quicker’ solution

Under intense US pressure, energy giant BP presented a new plan to roughly triple the amount of oil it is capturing from a ruptured Gulf of Mexico well by the end of June, to more than 50,000 barrels a day.

“After being directed by the administration to move more quickly, BP is now stepping up its efforts to contain the leaking oil,” the official said Monday on condition of anonymity.

“They have now outlined a path to contain more than 50,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of June, two weeks earlier than they originally suggested,” the official said.

The oil company is currently siphoning up about 15,000 barrels of oil a day to a ship on the surface, about half of the 25,000 to 30,000 barrels believed to be streaming into the Gulf.

Full Story: Under pressure, BP suddenly finds ‘quicker’ solution | Raw Story.

‘Discovery’ of Afghan riches a pro-war PR scam?

A New York Times report announcing the US has found $1 trillion-worth of mineral deposits in Afghanistan has some observers wondering if the news is part of a public-relations effort to bolster support for the Afghanistan war as the mission’s death toll continues to climb.

An article in Sunday’s New York Times announces that “previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.”

The article cites an “internal Pentagon memo” as saying Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium” — the mineral used in the production of rechargeable batteries, such as those found in cell phones and laptops. It cites “a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists” as having made the discovery.

Full Story: ‘Discovery’ of Afghan riches a pro-war PR scam? | Raw Story.

McChrystal Faces Massive Failure in Afghanistan in Next Few Months

The Afghan population in the Taliban heartland is not cooperating with U.S. and NATO forces.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal confronts the specter of a collapse of U.S. political support for the war in Afghanistan in coming months comparable to the one that occurred in the Iraq War in late 2006.

On Thursday, McChrystal’s message that his strategy will weaken the Taliban in its heartland took its worst beating thus far, when he admitted that the planned offensive in Kandahar City and surrounding districts is being delayed until September at the earliest, because it does not have the support of the Kandahar population and leadership.

Equally damaging to the credibility of McChrystal’s strategy was the Washington Post report published Thursday documenting in depth the failure of February’s offensive in Marja.

The basic theme underlined in both stories – that the Afghan population in the Taliban heartland is not cooperating with U.S. and NATO forces – is likely to be repeated over and over again in media coverage in the coming months.

Full Story: McChrystal Faces Massive Failure in Afghanistan in Next Few Months | | AlterNet.

BP Is Destroying Evidence and Censoring Journalists

BP is using federal agencies to shield itself from public accountability and is actually disappearing oiled wildlife.

While President Obama insists that the federal government is firmly in control of the response to BP’s spill in the Gulf, people in coastal communities where I visited last week in Louisiana and Alabama know an inconvenient truth: BP — not our president — controls the response. In fact, people on the ground say things are out of control in the gulf.

Even worse, as my latest week of adventures illustrate, BP is using federal agencies to shield itself from public accountability.

For example, while flying on a small plane from New Orleans to Orange Beach, the pilot suddenly exclaimed, “Look at that!” The thin red line marking the federal flight restrictions of 3,000 feet over the oiled Gulf region had just jumped to include the coastal barrier islands off Alabama.

Full Story: BP Is Destroying Evidence and Censoring Journalists | Environment | AlterNet.

Paul On Mountaintop Removal: ‘I Don’t Think Anyone’s Going To Be Missing A Hill Or Two Here And There’

One of the themes of U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul’s (R-KY) campaign has been that businesses are burdened with overregulation, with Paul even decrying the anti-discrimination provisions imposed on private businesses in the Civil Rights Act.

Now, Crooks and Liars has unearthed an interview Rand Paul gave in 2009 where the candidate aired these strident views with respect to mountaintop removal. When asked about the environmentally disastrous process, Paul told the interviewer that he thinks “whoever owns the property can do with the property as they wish, and if the coal company buys it from a private property owner and they want to do it, fine.” To justify his hands-off approach to environmental regulation, Paul then went on to explain that mountaintop removal isn’t that bad, anyway, saying, “I don’t think anybody’s going to be missing a hill or two here and there”:

INTERVIEWER: What about mountaintop removal?

PAUL: I think whoever owns the property can do with the property as they wish, and if the coal company buys it from a private property owner and they want to do it, fine. The other thing I think is that I think coal gets a bad name, because I think a lot of the land apparently is quite desirable once it’s been flattened out. As I came over here from Harlan, you’ve got quite a few hills. I don’t think anybody’s going to be missing a hill or two here and there.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Paul On Mountaintop Removal: ‘I Don’t Think Anyone’s Going To Be Missing A Hill Or Two Here And There’.

Rep. Broun says clean energy legislation will cause southerners to die from hyperthermia.

Late last week, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) went to the floor of the House to slam clean energy legislation. As part of his bizarre rant against a progressive energy bill, the congressman said that, as a result of the bill, people throughout the “southeast and southwest” who “depend on air condition just to live” will no longer be able to afford it. Broun went on to claim that these people will then go into hyperthermia, where their body temperatures skyrocket, and then “people are gonna die because of that”:

BROUN: A lot of old people in Georgia and Florida and all out through the southeast and southwest they’re depending upon air condition just to live. And if their electricity goes sky high, and the energy bill is gonna make that happen if it ever passes. And a lot of people aren’t gonna be able to afford to run their air condition anymore. And a lot of people are gonna have a hard time with, hyperthermia is what we call in medicine as a medical doctor, their body temperature is gonna go up. They’re gonna get dehydration and people are gonna have a lot of problems and it’s gonna have a greater impact on our health care system and people are gonna die because of that. And it’s gonna kill jobs too.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Rep. Broun says clean energy legislation will cause southerners to die from hyperthermia..

Operator At BP Call Center Says Company Never Does Anything With The Calls: We’re Just A ‘Diversion’

To demonstrate that it’s responsibly taking care of the oil spill and listening to public complaints, BP has touted the fact that it has set up call centers to handle the response. However, one of the operators at the BP Call Center in West Houston has revealed that she and the other 100 employees are just PR props; BP isn’t actually doing anything with the thousands of calls it receives:

“We take all your information and then we have nothing to give them, nothing to give them,” said Janice.

Janice said calls about the oil disaster are non-stop and that operators are just warm bodies on the other end of the phone.

“We’re a diversion to stop them from really getting to the corporate office, to the big people,” said Janice. … Because the operators believe the calls never get past them, some don’t even bother taking notes.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Operator At BP Call Center Says Company Never Does Anything With The Calls: We’re Just A ‘Diversion’.

After Balancing His Budget With The Stimulus, Perry Again Says He’ll Reject Federal Funding

When the economic recovery act (i.e. the stimulus) was initially passed, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) garnered a lot of headlines and the adoration of conservatives for loudly proclaiming that he would reject a portion of the funding meant to help states extend unemployment benefits. Though Perry was eventually forced by the Texas state legislature to accept the funding, he continued to rail against it.

Perry’s blustering belied the fact that Texas was only able to balance its budget because of the Recovery Act. And now that Congress is contemplating a tax extenders package that includes $24 billion to aid states with their Medicaid costs, Perry is up to his old tricks:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who was one of six governors who considered turning down stimulus dollars last year, may also reject the new round of funds. Perry’s office said Washington’s push for more spending was exacerbating healthcare problems. “This temporary [Medicaid] proposal, like their new health care bill, spends money they don’t have,” Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said.

Full Story: Think Progress » After Balancing His Budget With The Stimulus, Perry Again Says He’ll Reject Federal Funding.

E-mail from BP engineer called Deepwater Horizon rig a ‘nightmare well’ six days before explosion.

Tomorrow, the chief executives of the five big oil companies — including BP’s Tony Hayward — are going to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. According to an e-mail released by that Committee today, a BP drilling engineer warned that the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was a “nightmare well” that had caused the company problems in the past. The e-mail came just six days before the well exploded:

Full Story: Think Progress » E-mail from BP engineer called Deepwater Horizon rig a ‘nightmare well’ six days before explosion..

Boldly going nowhere: Nasa ends plan to put man back on Moon

NASA has begun to wind down construction of the rockets and spacecraft that were to have taken astronauts back to the Moon — effectively dismantling the US human spaceflight programme despite a congressional ban on its doing so.

Legislators have accused President Obama’s Administration of contriving to slip the termination of the Constellation programme through the back door to avoid a battle on Capitol Hill.

Constellation aimed to build upon what was arguably America’s greatest technological achievement, the first lunar landing of 1969, by launching new expeditions to the Moon and to Mars and worlds beyond. Mr Obama proposed in February that it should be scrapped because it was “over budget, behind schedule and lacking in innovation”, but he has met opposition in Congress, which has yet to approve his plan.The head of Nasa, Major-General Charlie Bolden — an Obama appointee — has now written to aerospace contractors telling them to cut back immediately on Constellation-related projects costing almost $1 billion (£690 million), to comply with regulations requiring them to budget for possible contract termination costs.

Full Story: Boldly going nowhere: Nasa ends plan to put man back on Moon – Times Online.