I Have Contempt For Most Of The Senate

But Not Jeff Merkley.

Is This Really A Good Idea?

Controlled Burns in the Gulf, originally uploaded by Deepwater Horizon Response.

Epic Fail

But the plan to save the walruses worked.

In the 77 days since oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has skimmed or burned about 60 percent of the amount it promised regulators it could remove in a single day.

He Zeus!

Perhaps worse than Bush. Glenn Greenwald:

Last week, I interviewed Mother Jones' Mac McClelland, who has been covering the BP oil spill in the Gulf since the first day it happened. She detailed how local police and federal officials work with BP to harass, impede, interrogate and even detain journalists who are covering the impact of the spill and the clean-up efforts. She documented one incident which was particularly chilling of an activist who -- after being told by a local police officer to stop filming a BP facility because "BP didn't want him filming" -- was then pulled over after he left by that officer so he could be interrogated by a BP security official. McClelland also described how BP has virtually bought entire Police Departments which now do its bidding: "One parish has 57 extra shifts per week that they are devoting entirely to, basically, BP security detail, and BP is paying the sheriff's office."

We have become a police state working to help foreign corporations. Corporations are not citizens. They should not have the rights of citizens.

Oil Sucks

230 killed in oil tanker spill in Congo.

They described scenes of devastation in the town of Sange, where houses were burned and bodies littered the streets. Some people died while trying to steal fuel leaking from the tanker, but most were killed at home or watching World Cup soccer in cinemas.

Many of the bodies were charred beyond recognition.

United Nations helicopters began airlifting injured people to hospital, while Congo's army, which lost a number of men in the blast, has sent soldiers in to help with the rescue.

"Our latest numbers are 230 dead and 196 injured," Madnodje Mounoubai, a spokesman for the U.N. mission, said. Congo's government also gave the same number of dead.

Marcellin Cisambo, governor of South Kivu province, where the incident took place, said the blast occurred when the fuel truck overturned, leaked fuel and then later exploded.

It was not immediately clear what caused the initial accident or later blast, but local people said the truck, which was part of a convoy, stopped when the road seemed to crumble, toppling the vehicle and spilling fuel. Fire then erupted.

This Is Just So Wrong

BP is dumping sand on Grand Isle to try and cover up the oil. But what is really more hideous is that you can not go on the island without a BP minder.

Not Surprising

Advertisers lie.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Just 2 percent of the growing number of self-proclaimed green products on store shelves make completely legitimate claims on their labels, a report by consulting firm TerraChoice Environmental Marketing said on Wednesday.

The remainder commit "greenwashing" sins, that is they mislead consumers about the environmental benefits of a product or the practices of a company, said TerraChoice, which runs the Canadian government's eco-labeling program and counts companies as diverse as Canon and Husky Energy among its customers.

It is good that people want green products. It sucks that corporations lie.

Wow!

The government guide lines on nutrition allow for this.

Here is a daily diet that meets those nutrition guidelines: Breakfast: 1 cup Fruit Loops; 1 cup skim milk; 1 package M&M milk chocolate candies; fiber and vitamin supplements. Lunch: Grilled cheddar cheeseburger. Dinner: 3 slices pepperoni pizza, with a 16-ounce soda and 1 serving Archway sugar cookies.

This helps explain why 12-year-old schoolchildren develop thickening of their carotid arteries to the brain, and 80 percent of 20-year-old soldiers, dying in combat, are found to have coronary artery heart disease.

That is what we get for letting industry set our nutritional guide lines.

Via La Vida Lacavore

I Take Offense

At the headline of this article. "US energy future hits a snag in rural Pennsylvania" The article is about gas production fowling the ground water. The future of energy is wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy sources. Gas, oil and coal are the past. We need to stop using them. Especially if they are destroying the ground water. We can live without gas. We can not live without water. A resource that is getting scarce

.

Ron and Jean Carter suspected there was a leak when the water supply to their trailer home started to taste and smell bad after Cabot started drilling 200 yards (meters) away.

Not wanting to risk the health of a new grandchild living with them, the 70-year-old retirees scraped together $6,500 for a water purification system.

"It was kind of funny that the water was good in July but after they drilled, it wasn't," said Ron Carter.

Tim and Debbie Maye, a truck driver and post office worker who have three teenage children, have been cooking and drinking only bottled water since their well water turned brown in November after Cabot started drilling.

But she can't afford bottled water for her animals. Her cats have been losing fur and projectile vomiting because they lick drips from the spigot that carries water from their well. Her three horses -- one of which is losing its hair -- drink as much as 50 gallons a day.

"I tell my husband, 'I'm going out to poison the horses,'" she said.

The drilling in Dimock has released methane into the water supply, a fact acknowledged by Cabot and state regulators.

Some homeowners said they were able to ignite their well water. In one case, a gas buildup blew the cap off a well.

"The well was capped with six to eight inches of concrete," said Norma Fiorentino, 66. "The explosion broke it into three big pieces and blew a huge hole in the ground."

This type of gas harvesting known as fracking, must stop. Everywhere it is done the water becomes fouled. The corporate assholes put all kinds of nasty chemicals in the ground. Which chemicals you ask? Well, they will not tell us it is proprietary. We can not tell you because our competitors might just find out. Or most likely it is such a nasty chemical brew that it is illegal to put them in the ground.

Media Tax Fraud

Jameson Foser from Media Matters

When is a tax cut for 98 percent of taxpayers portrayed as a tax increase? When some of the small handful of people whose taxes will go up happen to control the nation's news media.

Last week, President Obama unveiled a budget outline that extends the Bush tax cuts for all but the top two percent of taxpayers and makes permanent a tax credit of up to $800 for low- and middle-income workers that was included in the recent stimulus package, among other tax cuts. [...]

Except it is not a tax increase. It is what is in the current law. If Obama and congress do nothing, the taxes go up.

If the expiration, on schedule, of tax cuts that were always scheduled to expire is described as a policy of raising taxes, that makes a mockery of the entire tax policy debate of the past decade. It rigs tax debates in favor of Republicans, who find it easier to argue for tax cuts for the wealthy if they can argue that the cuts won't cost very much -- by making them "temporary" -- but who then get to argue that the scheduled expiration that they included in order to make the cuts look affordable would constitute a tax increase. The GOP gets to have it both ways, describing tax cuts as temporary when it helps them, and pretending they were intended to be permanent when it helps them. It's no great surprise Republicans want to have it both ways -- but that doesn't mean the media should go along.

Republicans are not honest. Do not trust them with anything.

Economic News

From the good doctor. Who points to this Krugman post.

And the insistence on offering the same plan over and over again, with only cosmetic changes, is itself deeply disturbing. Does Treasury not realize that all these proposals amount to the same thing? Or does it realize that, but hope that the rest of us won’t notice? That is, are they stupid, or do they think we’re stupid?

I don’t know which possibility is worse.

The good doctor says,"I think they are stupid"

Also, ABC wants to misinform.

This is stunningly wrong.

The ABC article is based on the premise that an individual's entire income is taxed at the same rate. If that were the case, it would be possible for a family earning $249,999 to have a higher after-tax income than a family earning $255,000, because the family earning $249,999 would pay a lower tax rate.

But that isn't actually how income tax works.

In reality, a family earning $255,000 will pay the higher tax rate only on its last $5,001 in income; the first $249,999 will continue to be taxed at the old rate. So intentionally lowering your income from $255,000 to $249,999 is counter-productive; it will result in a lower after-tax income.

The people ABC quoted don't seem to understand that. Worse, ABC doesn't seem to understand it, either.

Again from the good doctor. "Some times I can't tell if media outlets are playing stupid or if they are stupid."

Free Speech

Ezra Klein

The nice thing about America is that the First Amendment guarantees everyone a voice. But only money assures you volume.

But my blog goes up to eleven!

Fire More People

The good doctor points to this article about AIG and how poorly it was run. I want more people fired.

At its peak, the A.I.G. credit-default business had a “notional value” of $450 billion, and as recently as September, it was still over $300 billion. (Notional value is the amount A.I.G. would owe if every one of its bets went to zero.) And unlike most Wall Street firms, it didn’t hedge its credit-default swaps; it bore the risk, which is what insurance companies do.

It’s not as if this was some Enron-esque secret, either. Everybody knew the capital requirements were being gamed, including the regulators. Indeed, A.I.G. openly labeled that part of the business as “regulatory capital.” That is how they, and their customers, thought of it.

There’s more, believe it or not. A.I.G. sold something called 2a-7 puts, which allowed money market funds to invest in risky bonds even though they are supposed to be holding only the safest commercial paper. How could they do this? A.I.G. agreed to buy back the bonds if they went bad. (Incredibly, the Securities and Exchange Commission went along with this.) A.I.G. had a securities lending program, in which it would lend securities to investors, like short-sellers, in return for cash collateral. What did it do with the money it received? Incredibly, it bought mortgage-backed securities. When the firms wanted their collateral back, it had sunk in value, thanks to A.I.G.’s foolish investment strategy. The practice has cost A.I.G. — oops, I mean American taxpayers — billions.

I realize some of the management has been fired. Anyone that worked in credit default swaps should be fired and they should be stopped. Anyone who signed off on credit default swaps should be fired. The same with 2a-7 puts. If these things are still going on they need to fire management again and the board of directors again. Also, now that we have spent 150 billion and are heading into the quarter trillion range all stock holders, bond holders, anyone with a financial interset need to be wiped out. They gambled on a poorly managed company and lost.

Not Good!

Judges decided mountain top removal is just fine.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. Court of Appeals on Friday overturned a lower court ruling that had banned surface, or mountaintop, mining in West Virginia, according to court documents.

The ruling was hailed by the coal mining companies who have turned to mountaintop mining as an economical alternative to traditional underground mines in Appalachia where production is declining.

The environmentalists who brought the original case said they would assess their next legal move, but vowed to fight on against the mining method which basically slices the top off hills and mountains.

Stuart Parnell Is A Killer!

Stuart Parnell is the owner of Peanut Corporation of America. The company that killed at least eight people. I just found out he owns a plant in Texas that was shipping salmonella laced peanut butter until yesterday. He knew he was doing it from the Georgia plant and now the Texas plant how many people must he kill before the government arrests the man. He should get life in prison.
To make grolaw at They Gave Us A Republic happy Stuart Parnell is a rat bastard. I think you should click through and read his take on Mr Parnell.

Total Scumbags!

Two judges plead guilty to sending kids to a private prison for cash. Of course, the article says that is not in their plea deal. But that is what the scumbags did. So far none of the corporate assholes have been charged. They need to go to prison too. It should be illegal to have private prisons. One girl got three months for a mock website that made fun of a school administrator. It is not clear if prosecutors were involved. I predict law suits. Put that company out of business.
Via TPM

Evil Bastards

I had forgotten about the right wing domestic terrorist Jim Adkisson. But dday at Hullabaloo has a post reminding us how the right wing hates America. This was not some random act of violence but egged on by the morally bankrupt conservative movement, that is led by the drug addled Rush Limbaugh. dday links to Sara at Orcinus who ends her post with this.

Among Adkisson's ranting was a clear statement: "This was an act of political protest." Which means that it was, by definition and his own admission, an act of domestic terrorism.

Our radio hate talkers incited a man to commit an act of terrorism. Just sit a minute and take that in. And the next time you hear them foaming on about how liberals are "soft on terrorism," reflect on the fact that they'd better hope to hell we don't get any more serious about it -- because if we do, their asses are going to be the first ones in the dockets.

If you do not remember Jim Adkisson, he was the guy in Tennessee who killed several people in a liberal church.

About Time

The FDA has launched a criminal probe of the Peanut Corporation of America.

Federal health officials have begun a criminal investigation into the actions of the Peanut Corporation of America, which they said knowingly sold contaminated peanut butter and peanut products to major food makers.

The investigation is being conducted by the Food and Drug Administration and the Justice Department, according to Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the food center at the F.D.A.

The agency rarely discloses criminal investigations that are in progress, but did so in this case after several influential members of Congress demanded a criminal investigation in recent days.

I am not opposed to people making a profit. I am opposed to people who worship profit so much that they kill. I am opposed to people who worship profit so much they injure and kill their workers. I am opposed to people that worship profit so much they destroy the environment. I believe workers should be able to profit from their labor.

Violations At 94% of Nursing Homes

The Bush administration is not exactly known for its oversight of for profit businesses.

WASHINGTON — More than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year, and for-profit homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes, federal investigators say in a report issued on Monday.[...]
“For-profit nursing homes had a higher average number of deficiencies than the other types of nursing homes,” Mr. Levinson said. “In 2007, for-profit nursing homes averaged 7.6 deficiencies per home, while not-for-profit and government homes averaged 5.7 and 6.3, respectively.”

Toxic Bottles

Blackberries in Seabeck, originally uploaded by seanfraga.

Canada is likely to list bisphenol-a as toxic.

The Canadian government is said to be ready to declare as toxic a chemical widely used in plastics for baby bottles, beverage and food containers as well as linings in food cans.

A person with knowledge of the government’s chemical review program spoke on the condition he not be named because of a confidentiality agreement. He said the staff work to list the compound, called bisphenol-a, or B.P.A., as a toxic chemical was complete and was recently endorsed by a panel of outside scientists.

A public announcement by Health Canada may come as early as Wednesday but could be delayed until the end of May. Canada would be the first country to make a health finding against B.P.A., which has been shown to disrupt the hormonal systems of animals. The department’s decision was first reported in The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, on Tuesday.

The corporation that makes the stuff already has an it is safe website up.