http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/29/96779/goldman-admits-it-had-bigger-role.html#ixzz0sMNx7tIe
Oh what the heck it's only a case of perjury, if we can overlook money laundering for the Mexican drug cartels, this shouldn't even register on the attention scale.
Reversing its oft-repeated position that it was acting only on behalf of its clients in its exotic dealings with the American International Group, Goldman Sachs now says that it also used its own money to make secret wagers against the U.S. housing market.
A senior Goldman executive disclosed the "bilateral" wagers on subprime mortgages in an interview with McClatchy, marking the first time that the Wall Street titan has conceded that its dealings with troubled insurer AIG went far beyond acting as an "intermediary" responding to its clients' demands
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/29/96779/goldman-admits-it-had-bigger-role.html#ixzz0sOz7cnkO
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
BP disaster response plan didn't include hurricanes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/30/bp-oil-spill-cleanup-did_n_630859.html
No hurricane disaster plan
Somehow I'm not surprised
Common sense says one was required
So how many other offshore drilling companies haven't got one either since it doesn't seem to be a requirement in obtaining a drilling permit?
Rep. Edward Markey says BP's disaster response plan for an oil spill doesn't mention hurricanes or tropical storms.
Markey says the omission is yet another example of what the oil giant was not prepared to handle.
No hurricane disaster plan
Somehow I'm not surprised
Common sense says one was required
So how many other offshore drilling companies haven't got one either since it doesn't seem to be a requirement in obtaining a drilling permit?
Rep. Edward Markey says BP's disaster response plan for an oil spill doesn't mention hurricanes or tropical storms.
Markey says the omission is yet another example of what the oil giant was not prepared to handle.
Oil spill visits get partisan
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39225.html
So now not even government is allowed to see the Gulf damage?
This is gettin a little freaky kids.
I don't accept the excuse that it's denied over travel funding, that's about as bogus as they come.
How many people went to Copernhagen last year? How many people does Obama travel with?
Nancy still has access to her private plane as far as I know, but now they can't find money so Congress can go and view the damage from the offshore oil well blowout themselves.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) wanted to fly 10 lawmakers down to the Gulf of Mexico to see the damage caused by BP’s gigantic oil spill first hand.
House Democrats said no.
Scalise’s trip was rejected for a variety of bureaucratic and logistical reasons, but it has also opened a new vein of partisan squabbling over who should be allowed to arrange a trip to view the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Scalise wants to organize a trip so lawmakers can fully grasp the impact before they vote on oil drilling regulations. And he doesn't want to do it through a committee, because the members don't fit neatly into specific panels — they stretch across committee, and even partisan, lines.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39225.html#ixzz0sMEwld2W
So now not even government is allowed to see the Gulf damage?
This is gettin a little freaky kids.
I don't accept the excuse that it's denied over travel funding, that's about as bogus as they come.
How many people went to Copernhagen last year? How many people does Obama travel with?
Nancy still has access to her private plane as far as I know, but now they can't find money so Congress can go and view the damage from the offshore oil well blowout themselves.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) wanted to fly 10 lawmakers down to the Gulf of Mexico to see the damage caused by BP’s gigantic oil spill first hand.
House Democrats said no.
Scalise’s trip was rejected for a variety of bureaucratic and logistical reasons, but it has also opened a new vein of partisan squabbling over who should be allowed to arrange a trip to view the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Scalise wants to organize a trip so lawmakers can fully grasp the impact before they vote on oil drilling regulations. And he doesn't want to do it through a committee, because the members don't fit neatly into specific panels — they stretch across committee, and even partisan, lines.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39225.html#ixzz0sMEwld2W
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
US accepts Gulf oil spill aid from 12 countries
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_accepts_Gulf_oil_spill_aid_from__06292010.html
The United States will accept offers from 12 foreign countries to help clean up and contain the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said on Tuesday.
"The United States will accept 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries and international bodies, including two high speed skimmers and fire containment boom from Japan," a US State Department statement said.
"We are currently working out the particular modalities of delivering the offered assistance," it said, adding that details would be "forthcoming once these arrangements are complete."
Offers of boom to contain oil and collect it off the surface of the water have been accepted from Canada, Mexico, Norway and Japan, said a spokeswoman from the Unified Area Command, an entity headed by the US Coast Guard that is coordinating with BP on the oil spill response.
Skimmers have been accepted from Mexico, Norway, France and Japan and a sweeping arm system has been accepted from the Netherlands, spokeswoman Gina Ruoti told AFP.
Non-material offers of assistance are coming from the European Union and International Maritime Organization, she added, but was unable to say how much the assistance would be.
A total of 27 countries have offered assistance to the US
The United States will accept offers from 12 foreign countries to help clean up and contain the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said on Tuesday.
"The United States will accept 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries and international bodies, including two high speed skimmers and fire containment boom from Japan," a US State Department statement said.
"We are currently working out the particular modalities of delivering the offered assistance," it said, adding that details would be "forthcoming once these arrangements are complete."
Offers of boom to contain oil and collect it off the surface of the water have been accepted from Canada, Mexico, Norway and Japan, said a spokeswoman from the Unified Area Command, an entity headed by the US Coast Guard that is coordinating with BP on the oil spill response.
Skimmers have been accepted from Mexico, Norway, France and Japan and a sweeping arm system has been accepted from the Netherlands, spokeswoman Gina Ruoti told AFP.
Non-material offers of assistance are coming from the European Union and International Maritime Organization, she added, but was unable to say how much the assistance would be.
A total of 27 countries have offered assistance to the US
How to run drug money? Be a large bank
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2460-How-To-Run-Drug-Money-Be-A-Large-Bank.html
This goes against everything that the government has stood for in "THE WAR ON DRUGS".
How much over the decades has it cost the taxpayer to fund that war?
How many prisons had to be built for people sentenced to incarceration for the simple act of being caught in the purchase or the selling of drugs?
Enormous amounts of money have been poured in to fight this so called war, which in itself amounts to a veritable feast for the "Large Banks". They make out all the way around.
What's a little blood on the border when it means so much for "The Banks" circle of life?
WHERE ARE THE GODDAMN COPS AND WHY DO WE AS AMERICANS SIT STILL FOR THIS CRAP?
Oh, so the banks don't just bilk investors and rip off municipalities, they also help Mexican Gangs run drugs?
This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.
The admission came in an agreement that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia struck with federal prosecutors in March, and it sheds light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years.
That's nice. Guns and ammunition cost money - lots of it. Getting that money requires some means of transporting it and "laundering" it. For that, we turn to the largest financial institutions in the world, who, it turns out, have never been prosecuted for these felonious acts.
“Wachovia’s blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations,” says Jeffrey Sloman, the federal prosecutor who handled the case.
Blatant disregard? Sounds like something you'd say at a sentencing hearing, right? Well, no....
No big U.S. bank -- Wells Fargo included -- has ever been indicted for violating the Bank Secrecy Act or any other federal law. Instead, the Justice Department settles criminal charges by using deferred-prosecution agreements, in which a bank pays a fine and promises not to break the law again.
‘No Capacity to Regulate’
Large banks are protected from indictments by a variant of the too-big-to-fail theory.
Indicting a big bank could trigger a mad dash by investors to dump shares and cause panic in financial markets, says Jack Blum, a U.S. Senate investigator for 14 years and a consultant to international banks and brokerage firms on money laundering.
The theory is like a get-out-of-jail-free card for big banks, Blum says.
“There’s no capacity to regulate or punish them because they’re too big to be threatened with failure,” Blum says. “They seem to be willing to do anything that improves their bottom line, until they’re caught.”
This goes against everything that the government has stood for in "THE WAR ON DRUGS".
How much over the decades has it cost the taxpayer to fund that war?
How many prisons had to be built for people sentenced to incarceration for the simple act of being caught in the purchase or the selling of drugs?
Enormous amounts of money have been poured in to fight this so called war, which in itself amounts to a veritable feast for the "Large Banks". They make out all the way around.
What's a little blood on the border when it means so much for "The Banks" circle of life?
WHERE ARE THE GODDAMN COPS AND WHY DO WE AS AMERICANS SIT STILL FOR THIS CRAP?
Oh, so the banks don't just bilk investors and rip off municipalities, they also help Mexican Gangs run drugs?
This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.
The admission came in an agreement that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia struck with federal prosecutors in March, and it sheds light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years.
That's nice. Guns and ammunition cost money - lots of it. Getting that money requires some means of transporting it and "laundering" it. For that, we turn to the largest financial institutions in the world, who, it turns out, have never been prosecuted for these felonious acts.
“Wachovia’s blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations,” says Jeffrey Sloman, the federal prosecutor who handled the case.
Blatant disregard? Sounds like something you'd say at a sentencing hearing, right? Well, no....
No big U.S. bank -- Wells Fargo included -- has ever been indicted for violating the Bank Secrecy Act or any other federal law. Instead, the Justice Department settles criminal charges by using deferred-prosecution agreements, in which a bank pays a fine and promises not to break the law again.
‘No Capacity to Regulate’
Large banks are protected from indictments by a variant of the too-big-to-fail theory.
Indicting a big bank could trigger a mad dash by investors to dump shares and cause panic in financial markets, says Jack Blum, a U.S. Senate investigator for 14 years and a consultant to international banks and brokerage firms on money laundering.
The theory is like a get-out-of-jail-free card for big banks, Blum says.
“There’s no capacity to regulate or punish them because they’re too big to be threatened with failure,” Blum says. “They seem to be willing to do anything that improves their bottom line, until they’re caught.”
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Florida to try new method for keeping oil from shore
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/27/1703519/florida-to-try-new-methods-for.html
Have they thought about the gas and how the air curtain will affect that and what the consequences of it will actually be are
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist on Sunday announced two new efforts -- funded by oil giant BP -- to keep crude from the state's shores.
The first effort will begin with three barges, and could grow to as many as nine, configured in the shape of a boom to protect Destin Pass in the state's western panhandle. The barges would funnel the oil to an area where it can be skimmed, according to a press release issued by Crist's office, which did not give a date for the project to begin.
The second effort involves creating an underwater ``air curtain'' of bubbles that would push oil from the depths to the surface.
BP also is drilling two relief wells that technicians hope will pierce and cap the gushing oil well. Drilling on the wells began in May and is expected to be complete in August.
``The relief wells continue on track and are making good progress,'' David Nicholas, a BP spokesman said Sunday.
Nicholas said BP already has located the point at which the relief wells will intercept the existing well, by using sensitive electronic equipment that detects differences in the rock's electromagnetic field.
Have they thought about the gas and how the air curtain will affect that and what the consequences of it will actually be are
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist on Sunday announced two new efforts -- funded by oil giant BP -- to keep crude from the state's shores.
The first effort will begin with three barges, and could grow to as many as nine, configured in the shape of a boom to protect Destin Pass in the state's western panhandle. The barges would funnel the oil to an area where it can be skimmed, according to a press release issued by Crist's office, which did not give a date for the project to begin.
The second effort involves creating an underwater ``air curtain'' of bubbles that would push oil from the depths to the surface.
BP also is drilling two relief wells that technicians hope will pierce and cap the gushing oil well. Drilling on the wells began in May and is expected to be complete in August.
``The relief wells continue on track and are making good progress,'' David Nicholas, a BP spokesman said Sunday.
Nicholas said BP already has located the point at which the relief wells will intercept the existing well, by using sensitive electronic equipment that detects differences in the rock's electromagnetic field.
Friday, June 25, 2010
USF scientists find long line of oil 6 inches under the sand at Pensacola Beach
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/usf-scientists-find-long-line-of-oil-6-inches-under-the-sand-at-pensacola/1104804
It just keeps getting better and better with no end in sight
The sugar-sand beach here appeared cleaner Thursday, after workers picked up tar balls overnight with shovels and nets. By noon they had collected 44,955 pounds of tar balls and oil material, according to the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center.
But a University of South Florida geologist made a grim discovery Thursday morning, 24 hours after the worst oil onslaught in Florida so far.
Ping Wang, 43, who has studied beaches for 20 years, dug a narrow trench perpendicular to the shoreline, about a foot deep and 5 feet long. A dark, contiguous vein of oil ran horizontally along the walls of the trench, about 6 inches beneath the surface of the sand.
The sheet of oil which was deposited on the beach at high tide Wednesday and stretched some 8 miles was covered by as much as a foot of sand at high tide Thursday, Wang explained.
"Beaches change very often," he said. Depending on tides and wave action, they constantly lose or accumulate sand.
While picking up tar balls and oil patties from the surface is helpful, Wang's discovery suggests that type of cleaning will be inadequate.
"This is going to be hard to clean up," he said. "It's going to need to be a much larger scale effort than what we're seeing."
Wang, working with a team of geologists from USF, dug trenches at various spots along the beach on the Gulf Islands National Seashore and found the buried, unbroken vein each time.
It just keeps getting better and better with no end in sight
The sugar-sand beach here appeared cleaner Thursday, after workers picked up tar balls overnight with shovels and nets. By noon they had collected 44,955 pounds of tar balls and oil material, according to the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center.
But a University of South Florida geologist made a grim discovery Thursday morning, 24 hours after the worst oil onslaught in Florida so far.
Ping Wang, 43, who has studied beaches for 20 years, dug a narrow trench perpendicular to the shoreline, about a foot deep and 5 feet long. A dark, contiguous vein of oil ran horizontally along the walls of the trench, about 6 inches beneath the surface of the sand.
The sheet of oil which was deposited on the beach at high tide Wednesday and stretched some 8 miles was covered by as much as a foot of sand at high tide Thursday, Wang explained.
"Beaches change very often," he said. Depending on tides and wave action, they constantly lose or accumulate sand.
While picking up tar balls and oil patties from the surface is helpful, Wang's discovery suggests that type of cleaning will be inadequate.
"This is going to be hard to clean up," he said. "It's going to need to be a much larger scale effort than what we're seeing."
Wang, working with a team of geologists from USF, dug trenches at various spots along the beach on the Gulf Islands National Seashore and found the buried, unbroken vein each time.
Cop Fired for Putting Paper Bag on Perp's Head
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Cop-Fired-for-Putting-Paper-Bag-on-Perps-Head-97146339.html
So now we treat all criminals as if they were terror detainees?
What's up with the hood and when did it become a standard use?
The incident that got him fired happened Nov. 1, when a man, Gerald Feldhaus, was arrested outside Yolo Restaurant on Las Olas for trespassing and resisting arrest.
"He was spitting and screaming as he would look and yell at other people," Wezkiewicz told investigators.
Rather than use a department-issued hood designed specifically for prisoner control, Wezkiewicz used a brown paper bag.
"Poor judgment prevailed concerning his decision to utilize a brown paper bag," Capt. Rick Maglione wrote in a report on the incident.
Claiming Wezkiewicz "shed a negative light" on the department, the report said using the hood instead would not "be falsely perceived as an attempt to humiliate an individual."
So now we treat all criminals as if they were terror detainees?
What's up with the hood and when did it become a standard use?
The incident that got him fired happened Nov. 1, when a man, Gerald Feldhaus, was arrested outside Yolo Restaurant on Las Olas for trespassing and resisting arrest.
"He was spitting and screaming as he would look and yell at other people," Wezkiewicz told investigators.
Rather than use a department-issued hood designed specifically for prisoner control, Wezkiewicz used a brown paper bag.
"Poor judgment prevailed concerning his decision to utilize a brown paper bag," Capt. Rick Maglione wrote in a report on the incident.
Claiming Wezkiewicz "shed a negative light" on the department, the report said using the hood instead would not "be falsely perceived as an attempt to humiliate an individual."
Don't taze my granny
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/60261.html
This is just no longer acceptable. These situations are not accidents. They are the results of intense police training. The question is: Whose format of training are they being taught by?
This situation makes it quite obvious that there is no room for independent thought allowed for otherwise this bed ridden woman would have never been tazed.
Lonnie Tinsley of El Reno, Oklahoma made a nearly fatal mistake last December 22 when he went to check on his grandma, Lona Vernon.
Concerned that Lona hadn’t taken her medications, Lonnie called 911 in the expectation that an emergency medical technician would be dispatched to the apartment to evaluate the bedridden 86-year-old woman.
Instead, that call for help was answered by nearly a dozen armed tax-feeders employed by the El Reno Police Department.
Understandably alarmed — and probably more than a little disgusted — by the presence of uninvited armed strangers in her home, Lona ordered them to leave. This directive, issued by a fragile female octogenarian confined to a hospital-style bed and tethered to an oxygen tank, was interpreted as “aggressive” behavior by Officer Thomas Duran, who ordered one of his associates : “Taser her!”
This is just no longer acceptable. These situations are not accidents. They are the results of intense police training. The question is: Whose format of training are they being taught by?
This situation makes it quite obvious that there is no room for independent thought allowed for otherwise this bed ridden woman would have never been tazed.
Lonnie Tinsley of El Reno, Oklahoma made a nearly fatal mistake last December 22 when he went to check on his grandma, Lona Vernon.
Concerned that Lona hadn’t taken her medications, Lonnie called 911 in the expectation that an emergency medical technician would be dispatched to the apartment to evaluate the bedridden 86-year-old woman.
Instead, that call for help was answered by nearly a dozen armed tax-feeders employed by the El Reno Police Department.
Understandably alarmed — and probably more than a little disgusted — by the presence of uninvited armed strangers in her home, Lona ordered them to leave. This directive, issued by a fragile female octogenarian confined to a hospital-style bed and tethered to an oxygen tank, was interpreted as “aggressive” behavior by Officer Thomas Duran, who ordered one of his associates : “Taser her!”
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Judge denies Obama admin stay on drill ban ruling
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Judge-denies-Obama-admin-stay-rb-3471663315.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
Well it seems there is no power in the White House, unless it has to do with taking away more of your rights as a citizen, or pledging your tax payments to clean up more corporate3 catastrophes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A judge refused on Thursday to put on hold his decision that blocked the Obama administration from enforcing its six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Well it seems there is no power in the White House, unless it has to do with taking away more of your rights as a citizen, or pledging your tax payments to clean up more corporate3 catastrophes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A judge refused on Thursday to put on hold his decision that blocked the Obama administration from enforcing its six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Shale gas pollution fears leave Americans with another energy headache
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/rowenamason/100006602/shale-gas-pollution-fears-leave-americans-with-another-energy-headache/
And just when you thought the incompetence couldn't get any worse
Still politically scorched from BP’s giant Gulf of Mexico spill, it couldn't be a worse time for America’s oil giants to find themselves roasting in another environmental firestorm.
But new flames of controversy are on the horizon – in fact, literally emanating from the drinking water of US citizens living near so-called “shale gas” fields.
A controversial documentary, Gaslands, which was aired on television channel HBO this week, shows one Colorado homeowner bending over his tap, holding a lighter with outstretched arm and igniting his chemical-laden water.
And just when you thought the incompetence couldn't get any worse
Still politically scorched from BP’s giant Gulf of Mexico spill, it couldn't be a worse time for America’s oil giants to find themselves roasting in another environmental firestorm.
But new flames of controversy are on the horizon – in fact, literally emanating from the drinking water of US citizens living near so-called “shale gas” fields.
A controversial documentary, Gaslands, which was aired on television channel HBO this week, shows one Colorado homeowner bending over his tap, holding a lighter with outstretched arm and igniting his chemical-laden water.
Soros tells Germany to step up to its responsibilities, or leave EMU
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/currency/7849965/Soros-tells-Germany-to-step-up-to-its-responsibilities-or-leave-EMU.html
So what's it to you George?
"German policy is becoming a danger that could destroy the European Project. A collapse of the euro cannot be excluded," he told the German weekly Die Zeit.
"Unless Germany changes policy, its withdrawal from the currency union would be helpful for the rest of Europe. At the moment Germany is pushing its neighbours into deflation: this threatens a long phase of stagnation, leading to nationalism, social unrest, and zenophobia. It endangers democracy," he said.
So what's it to you George?
"German policy is becoming a danger that could destroy the European Project. A collapse of the euro cannot be excluded," he told the German weekly Die Zeit.
"Unless Germany changes policy, its withdrawal from the currency union would be helpful for the rest of Europe. At the moment Germany is pushing its neighbours into deflation: this threatens a long phase of stagnation, leading to nationalism, social unrest, and zenophobia. It endangers democracy," he said.
Maywood to layoff all city employees and dimantle the police dept.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/06/sheriffs-dept-to-patrol-maywood-while-city-employees-now-face-lay-offs.html
Small town life can no longer afford itself, coming to a city near you.
"You guys had the power to change it and you didn't," said City Treasurer Lizeth Sandoval, 28, who addressed the council as a resident. "You single-handedly destroyed the city."
The city of Maywood will lay off all city employees and begin contracting police services with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department effective July 1, officials said.
In addition to contracting with the Sheriff's Department, the Maywood City Council voted unanimously Monday night to lay off an estimated 100 employees and contract with neighboring Bell, which will handle other city services such as finance, records management, parks and recreation, street maintenance and others. Maywood will be billed about $50,833 monthly, which officials said will save $164,375 annually.
"We will become 100% a contracted city," said Angela Spaccia, Maywood's interim city manager.
Deputies from the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station will begin patrolling the 1.2-square-mile city by the end of the month, said Capt. Bruce Fogarty of the Sheriff's Contract Law Enforcement Bureau. The annual cost of providing those services for the small city is estimated at $3.6 million, Fogarty said.
Small town life can no longer afford itself, coming to a city near you.
"You guys had the power to change it and you didn't," said City Treasurer Lizeth Sandoval, 28, who addressed the council as a resident. "You single-handedly destroyed the city."
The city of Maywood will lay off all city employees and begin contracting police services with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department effective July 1, officials said.
In addition to contracting with the Sheriff's Department, the Maywood City Council voted unanimously Monday night to lay off an estimated 100 employees and contract with neighboring Bell, which will handle other city services such as finance, records management, parks and recreation, street maintenance and others. Maywood will be billed about $50,833 monthly, which officials said will save $164,375 annually.
"We will become 100% a contracted city," said Angela Spaccia, Maywood's interim city manager.
Deputies from the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station will begin patrolling the 1.2-square-mile city by the end of the month, said Capt. Bruce Fogarty of the Sheriff's Contract Law Enforcement Bureau. The annual cost of providing those services for the small city is estimated at $3.6 million, Fogarty said.
Live feed from Skandi ROV2
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/html/Skandi_ROV2.html
BP took off the containment cap and we have free flow.
We're in trouble kids.
Ah the reason why. Apperently one of the robotic subs hit it.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=TX-PAR-EEX47&show_article=1
Subsea operational update:
• For the last 12 hours on June 22 (noon to midnight), approximately 8,470 barrels of oil were collected and approximately 5,180 barrels of oil and 27.2 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared.
• The June 22 rate for the first 12 hours (midnight to noon) for the Q4000 was understated yesterday, actual flared volume was approximately 5,245 barrels.
On June 22, total oil recovered was approx. 27,090 barrels:
approx. 16,665 barrels of oil were collected,
approx. 10,425 barrels of oil were flared,
and approx. 54.4 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared.
Total oil recovered from both the LMRP Cap and Q4000 systems since they were implemented is approx. 325,700 barrels. An additional 22,000 barrels were collected from the RIT tool earlier in May bringing the total recovered to approx. 347,700 barrels.
• The next update will be provided at 6:00pm CDT on June 23, 2010.
BP took off the containment cap and we have free flow.
We're in trouble kids.
Ah the reason why. Apperently one of the robotic subs hit it.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=TX-PAR-EEX47&show_article=1
Subsea operational update:
• For the last 12 hours on June 22 (noon to midnight), approximately 8,470 barrels of oil were collected and approximately 5,180 barrels of oil and 27.2 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared.
• The June 22 rate for the first 12 hours (midnight to noon) for the Q4000 was understated yesterday, actual flared volume was approximately 5,245 barrels.
On June 22, total oil recovered was approx. 27,090 barrels:
approx. 16,665 barrels of oil were collected,
approx. 10,425 barrels of oil were flared,
and approx. 54.4 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared.
Total oil recovered from both the LMRP Cap and Q4000 systems since they were implemented is approx. 325,700 barrels. An additional 22,000 barrels were collected from the RIT tool earlier in May bringing the total recovered to approx. 347,700 barrels.
• The next update will be provided at 6:00pm CDT on June 23, 2010.
Inmates Get Homebuyer Tax Credits: Gov't Report
http://www.cnbc.com/id/37870056
A little milking of the cash cow.
Nearly 1,300 prison inmates wrongly received more than $9 million in tax credits for homebuyers despite being locked up when they claimed they bought a home, a government investigator reported Wednesday.
The investigator said 241 of the inmates were serving life sentences.
In all, more than 14,100 taxpayers wrongly received at least $26.7 million in tax credits that were meant to boost the nation's slumping housing markets, said the report by J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.
Some taxpayers received the credit for homes purchased before the tax break was started. In other cases, multiple taxpayers improperly used the same home to claim multiple credits. Investigators found one home that was used by 67 taxpayers to claim credits.
"This is very troubling," George said. "Congress created and modified the homebuyer credit to stimulate the economy and help taxpayers achieve the American dream, not to line the pockets of wrongdoers."
The Internal Revenue Service says it is taking steps to get the money back.
The agency noted that more than 2.6 million taxpayers claimed the tax credit through April—claiming $18.7 billion in credits—with only a tiny fraction going to prison inmates or other scofflaws.
Investigators also found 87 IRS employees who may have improperly claimed the credit, though the review was ongoing.
A little milking of the cash cow.
Nearly 1,300 prison inmates wrongly received more than $9 million in tax credits for homebuyers despite being locked up when they claimed they bought a home, a government investigator reported Wednesday.
The investigator said 241 of the inmates were serving life sentences.
In all, more than 14,100 taxpayers wrongly received at least $26.7 million in tax credits that were meant to boost the nation's slumping housing markets, said the report by J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.
Some taxpayers received the credit for homes purchased before the tax break was started. In other cases, multiple taxpayers improperly used the same home to claim multiple credits. Investigators found one home that was used by 67 taxpayers to claim credits.
"This is very troubling," George said. "Congress created and modified the homebuyer credit to stimulate the economy and help taxpayers achieve the American dream, not to line the pockets of wrongdoers."
The Internal Revenue Service says it is taking steps to get the money back.
The agency noted that more than 2.6 million taxpayers claimed the tax credit through April—claiming $18.7 billion in credits—with only a tiny fraction going to prison inmates or other scofflaws.
Investigators also found 87 IRS employees who may have improperly claimed the credit, though the review was ongoing.
Oil rain: BP's black gold lands on Louisiana?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THJ9T6EYnFE
This is so sad, but it's not from a water spout it's from the burning of the oil in the gulf.
You can bet there will be health consequences for all that's living that come in contact with it.
This is so sad, but it's not from a water spout it's from the burning of the oil in the gulf.
You can bet there will be health consequences for all that's living that come in contact with it.
Judge who nixed drilling ban has oil investments
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Judge-who-nixed-drilling-ban-apf-1298553772.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=
Oh now I understand the lack of common sense in regards to his decision, it hurts his bottom line to have the ban on drilling.
Obviously he could give a crap less that NONE of the drilling companies has an emergency plan that works.
This is how our lives are run, decisions made by who owns what, and how it affects their stock portfolio.
The Louisiana judge who struck down the Obama administration's six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has reported extensive investments in the oil and gas industry, according to financial disclosure reports. He's also a new member of a secret national security court.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, a 1983 appointee of President Ronald Reagan, reported owning less than $15,000 in stock in 2008 in Transocean Ltd., the company that owned the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
Feldman overturned the ban Tuesday, saying the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too.
Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure report -- the most recent available -- also showed investments in Ocean Energy, a Houston-based company, as well as Quicksilver Resources, Prospect Energy, Peabody Energy, Halliburton, Pengrowth Energy Trust, Atlas Energy Resources, Parker Drilling and others. Halliburton was also involved in the doomed Deepwater Horizon project.
Feldman did not respond to requests for comment and to clarify whether he still holds some or all of these investments.
He's one of many federal judges across the Gulf Coast region with money in oil and gas. Several have disqualified themselves from hearing spill-related lawsuits and others have sold their holdings so they can preside over some of the 200-plus cases.
Oh now I understand the lack of common sense in regards to his decision, it hurts his bottom line to have the ban on drilling.
Obviously he could give a crap less that NONE of the drilling companies has an emergency plan that works.
This is how our lives are run, decisions made by who owns what, and how it affects their stock portfolio.
The Louisiana judge who struck down the Obama administration's six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has reported extensive investments in the oil and gas industry, according to financial disclosure reports. He's also a new member of a secret national security court.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, a 1983 appointee of President Ronald Reagan, reported owning less than $15,000 in stock in 2008 in Transocean Ltd., the company that owned the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
Feldman overturned the ban Tuesday, saying the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too.
Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure report -- the most recent available -- also showed investments in Ocean Energy, a Houston-based company, as well as Quicksilver Resources, Prospect Energy, Peabody Energy, Halliburton, Pengrowth Energy Trust, Atlas Energy Resources, Parker Drilling and others. Halliburton was also involved in the doomed Deepwater Horizon project.
Feldman did not respond to requests for comment and to clarify whether he still holds some or all of these investments.
He's one of many federal judges across the Gulf Coast region with money in oil and gas. Several have disqualified themselves from hearing spill-related lawsuits and others have sold their holdings so they can preside over some of the 200-plus cases.
Judge who nixed drilling ban has oil investments
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Judge-who-nixed-drilling-ban-apf-1298553772.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=
Oh now I understand the lack of common sense in regards to his decision, it hurts his bottom line to have the ban on drilling.
Obviously he could give a crap less that NONE of the drilling companies has an emergency plan that works.
This is how our lives are run, decisions made by who owns what, and how it affects their stock portfolio.
The Louisiana judge who struck down the Obama administration's six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has reported extensive investments in the oil and gas industry, according to financial disclosure reports. He's also a new member of a secret national security court.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, a 1983 appointee of President Ronald Reagan, reported owning less than $15,000 in stock in 2008 in Transocean Ltd., the company that owned the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
Feldman overturned the ban Tuesday, saying the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too.
Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure report -- the most recent available -- also showed investments in Ocean Energy, a Houston-based company, as well as Quicksilver Resources, Prospect Energy, Peabody Energy, Halliburton, Pengrowth Energy Trust, Atlas Energy Resources, Parker Drilling and others. Halliburton was also involved in the doomed Deepwater Horizon project.
Feldman did not respond to requests for comment and to clarify whether he still holds some or all of these investments.
He's one of many federal judges across the Gulf Coast region with money in oil and gas. Several have disqualified themselves from hearing spill-related lawsuits and others have sold their holdings so they can preside over some of the 200-plus cases.
Oh now I understand the lack of common sense in regards to his decision, it hurts his bottom line to have the ban on drilling.
Obviously he could give a crap less that NONE of the drilling companies has an emergency plan that works.
This is how our lives are run, decisions made by who owns what, and how it affects their stock portfolio.
The Louisiana judge who struck down the Obama administration's six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has reported extensive investments in the oil and gas industry, according to financial disclosure reports. He's also a new member of a secret national security court.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, a 1983 appointee of President Ronald Reagan, reported owning less than $15,000 in stock in 2008 in Transocean Ltd., the company that owned the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
Feldman overturned the ban Tuesday, saying the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too.
Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure report -- the most recent available -- also showed investments in Ocean Energy, a Houston-based company, as well as Quicksilver Resources, Prospect Energy, Peabody Energy, Halliburton, Pengrowth Energy Trust, Atlas Energy Resources, Parker Drilling and others. Halliburton was also involved in the doomed Deepwater Horizon project.
Feldman did not respond to requests for comment and to clarify whether he still holds some or all of these investments.
He's one of many federal judges across the Gulf Coast region with money in oil and gas. Several have disqualified themselves from hearing spill-related lawsuits and others have sold their holdings so they can preside over some of the 200-plus cases.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Judge block Gulf offshore drilling moratorium
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Judge-block-Gulf-offshore-apf-2120468600.html?x=0
Judge Feldman obviously hasn't read any of the oil companies disaster plans, had he done so he would have found out that none of them have one, they all read the same, and BP is proving that it doesn't work.
Feldman says in his ruling that the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reasoning for the moratorium. He says it seems to assume that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger
Judge Feldman obviously hasn't read any of the oil companies disaster plans, had he done so he would have found out that none of them have one, they all read the same, and BP is proving that it doesn't work.
Feldman says in his ruling that the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reasoning for the moratorium. He says it seems to assume that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger
Monday, June 21, 2010
Report finds US tax money funding insurgents
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/21/96286/report-finds-us-tax-money-may.html
Looks like our government might be in a little trouble here.
The Supreme Court did actually just say that it is a crime to provide "material support" to foreign terrorist organizations, even if the help takes the form of training for peacefully resolving conflicts.
So that makes it not OK to bribe the Taliban for safe passage, no matter what it's for.
And actually the taxpayer is actually getting stuck paying for private security contractors who are committing illegal acts by funding the enemy?
Only in America folks
By the way I'd watch that first amendment stipulation, it's kinda dicey
WASHINGTON — Private security contractors protecting the convoys that supply U.S. military bases in Afghanistan are paying millions of dollars a week in "passage bribes" to the Taliban and other insurgent groups to travel along Afghan roads, a congressional investigation released Monday has found.
The payments, which are reimbursed by the U.S. government, help fund the very enemy the U.S. is attempting to defeat and renew questions about the U.S. dependence on private contractors, who outnumber American troops in Afghanistan, 130,000 to 93,000.
Court Affirms Ban on Aiding Groups Tied to Terror
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/us/politics/22scotus.html?hp
In a case pitting free speech against national security, the Supreme Court on Monday upheld a federal law that makes it a crime to provide “material support” to foreign terrorist organizations, even if the help takes the form of training for peacefully resolving conflicts.
What does the Supreme Court ruling on the federal terrorism law mean for free speech rights?
.Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority in the 6-to-3 decision, said the law’s prohibition of providing some types of intangible assistance to groups the State Department says engage in terrorism did not violate the First Amendment
Looks like our government might be in a little trouble here.
The Supreme Court did actually just say that it is a crime to provide "material support" to foreign terrorist organizations, even if the help takes the form of training for peacefully resolving conflicts.
So that makes it not OK to bribe the Taliban for safe passage, no matter what it's for.
And actually the taxpayer is actually getting stuck paying for private security contractors who are committing illegal acts by funding the enemy?
Only in America folks
By the way I'd watch that first amendment stipulation, it's kinda dicey
WASHINGTON — Private security contractors protecting the convoys that supply U.S. military bases in Afghanistan are paying millions of dollars a week in "passage bribes" to the Taliban and other insurgent groups to travel along Afghan roads, a congressional investigation released Monday has found.
The payments, which are reimbursed by the U.S. government, help fund the very enemy the U.S. is attempting to defeat and renew questions about the U.S. dependence on private contractors, who outnumber American troops in Afghanistan, 130,000 to 93,000.
Court Affirms Ban on Aiding Groups Tied to Terror
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/us/politics/22scotus.html?hp
In a case pitting free speech against national security, the Supreme Court on Monday upheld a federal law that makes it a crime to provide “material support” to foreign terrorist organizations, even if the help takes the form of training for peacefully resolving conflicts.
What does the Supreme Court ruling on the federal terrorism law mean for free speech rights?
.Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority in the 6-to-3 decision, said the law’s prohibition of providing some types of intangible assistance to groups the State Department says engage in terrorism did not violate the First Amendment
Germany Rejects Obama’s Call on Growth, Stoking G-20 Conflict
http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a_NaXNJXVrTs
-- Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government rebuffed U.S. calls to focus on bolstering growth over debt reduction, setting a course for conflict at the Group of 20 summit in Canada this week.
“Nobody can seriously dispute that excessive public debts, not only in Europe, are one of the main causes of this crisis,” Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters in Berlin today alongside Merkel. “That’s why they have to be reduced.”
-- Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government rebuffed U.S. calls to focus on bolstering growth over debt reduction, setting a course for conflict at the Group of 20 summit in Canada this week.
“Nobody can seriously dispute that excessive public debts, not only in Europe, are one of the main causes of this crisis,” Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters in Berlin today alongside Merkel. “That’s why they have to be reduced.”
Sunday, June 20, 2010
BP oil spill: BP threatens partner Anadarko with legal action
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7842308/BP-oil-spill-BP-threatens-partner-Anadarko-with-legal-action.html
As the oil major came under renewed attack at the weekend for its handling of the Deepwater Horizon blow-out, it emerged that BP's 25pc joint-venture partner in the leaking Deepwater Horizon well, Anadarko, has refused to contribute to the multi-billion dollar clean-up bill. BP has threatened legal action.
A spokesman for BP said the company had "not decided" what action it would take against Anadarko. However, Tony Hayward, chief executive, said: "Other parties besides BP may be responsible for costs and liabilities arising from the oil spill and we expect those parties to live up to their expectations."
His comments came after Jim Hackett, Anadarko's chief executive, signalled the company would not pay any costs relating to the disaster because BP's behaviour had revealed "gross negligence or wilful misconduct". He added: "The mounting evidence clearly demonstrates that this tragedy was preventable and the direct result of BP's reckless decisions and actions."
Mitsui, the Japanese group that owns 10pc of the well, has made no decision on whether to admit liability for its share of cost.
As the oil major came under renewed attack at the weekend for its handling of the Deepwater Horizon blow-out, it emerged that BP's 25pc joint-venture partner in the leaking Deepwater Horizon well, Anadarko, has refused to contribute to the multi-billion dollar clean-up bill. BP has threatened legal action.
A spokesman for BP said the company had "not decided" what action it would take against Anadarko. However, Tony Hayward, chief executive, said: "Other parties besides BP may be responsible for costs and liabilities arising from the oil spill and we expect those parties to live up to their expectations."
His comments came after Jim Hackett, Anadarko's chief executive, signalled the company would not pay any costs relating to the disaster because BP's behaviour had revealed "gross negligence or wilful misconduct". He added: "The mounting evidence clearly demonstrates that this tragedy was preventable and the direct result of BP's reckless decisions and actions."
Mitsui, the Japanese group that owns 10pc of the well, has made no decision on whether to admit liability for its share of cost.
Germany and France examine 'two-tier' euro
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/7837874/Germany-and-France-examine-two-tier-euro.html
Germany and France are examining ways of creating a "two-tier" euro system to separate stronger northern European countries from weaker southern states.
A European official has told The Daily Telegraph the dramatic option was being examined at cabinet level.
Senior politicians believe their economies need to be better protected as they could not cope with another crisis on a par the one in Greece.
Related Articles
Analysis: Spain could test the euro to its limit
Poland vows to press ahead with plans to join euro
Asian stocks fall on bubble fears
Senator Edward Kennedy
German consumer confidence rises for fifth month
View from the lab: continental driftThe creation of a "super-euro" zone would initially include France, Germany, Holland, Austria, Denmark and Finland.
The likes of Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and even Ireland would be left in a larger rump mostly Mediterranean grouping.
The official said French and German officials had first spent months examining how to exclude poor-performing states from the euro but decided it was not feasible.
A two-tier monetary system in the 16-member euro zone is being examined as a "plan B".
"The philosophy is the stronger countries might need to move away from countries they can't afford to bail-out," said the official. "As a way of containing the damage, they may have to do something dramatic, though obviously in the short term implementation is difficult.
"It's an act of desperation. They are not talking about ideal solutions but the
Germany and France are examining ways of creating a "two-tier" euro system to separate stronger northern European countries from weaker southern states.
A European official has told The Daily Telegraph the dramatic option was being examined at cabinet level.
Senior politicians believe their economies need to be better protected as they could not cope with another crisis on a par the one in Greece.
Related Articles
Analysis: Spain could test the euro to its limit
Poland vows to press ahead with plans to join euro
Asian stocks fall on bubble fears
Senator Edward Kennedy
German consumer confidence rises for fifth month
View from the lab: continental driftThe creation of a "super-euro" zone would initially include France, Germany, Holland, Austria, Denmark and Finland.
The likes of Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and even Ireland would be left in a larger rump mostly Mediterranean grouping.
The official said French and German officials had first spent months examining how to exclude poor-performing states from the euro but decided it was not feasible.
A two-tier monetary system in the 16-member euro zone is being examined as a "plan B".
"The philosophy is the stronger countries might need to move away from countries they can't afford to bail-out," said the official. "As a way of containing the damage, they may have to do something dramatic, though obviously in the short term implementation is difficult.
"It's an act of desperation. They are not talking about ideal solutions but the
Friday, June 18, 2010
Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder's vows to target financial fraud
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/17/AR2010061703538.html
People making business judgements and taking risks and having them go badly, kinda fits the BP scenario to doesn't it.
And if it's OK for "The Banks" then I'm sure that they'll show the same leniency toward BP, hence Joe Barton's apology
The blunt words of administration officials have triggered debate over whether they have gone too far in appearing to promise difficult cases that critics say might never be filed, in part because they would essentially criminalize an entire business model in the financial industry.
"The attorney general got out ahead of the facts and the evidence in saying, 'We're going to go down to Wall Street with a pitchfork and roust those fat cats out of their offices and put them in jail,' " said Tim Coleman, who prosecuted major fraud cases before leaving the Justice Department five years ago. "This was a case, in general, of people making business judgments and taking risks and having them go badly. That's not criminal misconduct."
People making business judgements and taking risks and having them go badly, kinda fits the BP scenario to doesn't it.
And if it's OK for "The Banks" then I'm sure that they'll show the same leniency toward BP, hence Joe Barton's apology
The blunt words of administration officials have triggered debate over whether they have gone too far in appearing to promise difficult cases that critics say might never be filed, in part because they would essentially criminalize an entire business model in the financial industry.
"The attorney general got out ahead of the facts and the evidence in saying, 'We're going to go down to Wall Street with a pitchfork and roust those fat cats out of their offices and put them in jail,' " said Tim Coleman, who prosecuted major fraud cases before leaving the Justice Department five years ago. "This was a case, in general, of people making business judgments and taking risks and having them go badly. That's not criminal misconduct."
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Iceland rewrites law to create haven for investigative reporting
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/iceland-rewrites-law-to-create-haven-for-investigative-reporting-2002591.html
Iceland has passed a sweeping reform of its media laws that supporters say will make the country an international haven for investigative journalism.
The new package of legislation was passed unanimously at 4am yesterday in one of the final sessions of the Icelandic parliament, the Althingi, before its summer break.
Created with the involvement of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, it increases protection for anonymous sources, creates new protections from so-called "libel tourism" and makes it much harder to censor stories before they are published.
"It will be the strongest law of its kind anywhere," said Birgitta Jonsdottir, MP for The Movement party and member of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, which first made the proposals. "We're taking the best laws from around the world and putting them into one comprehensive package that will deal with the fact that information doesn't have borders any more."
Because the package includes provisions that will stop the enforcement of overseas judgements that violate Icelandic laws, foreign news organisations are said to have expressed an interest in moving the publication of their investigative journalism to Iceland. According to Ms Jonsdottir, Germany's Der Spiegel and America's ABC News have discussed the possibility.
Iceland has passed a sweeping reform of its media laws that supporters say will make the country an international haven for investigative journalism.
The new package of legislation was passed unanimously at 4am yesterday in one of the final sessions of the Icelandic parliament, the Althingi, before its summer break.
Created with the involvement of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, it increases protection for anonymous sources, creates new protections from so-called "libel tourism" and makes it much harder to censor stories before they are published.
"It will be the strongest law of its kind anywhere," said Birgitta Jonsdottir, MP for The Movement party and member of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, which first made the proposals. "We're taking the best laws from around the world and putting them into one comprehensive package that will deal with the fact that information doesn't have borders any more."
Because the package includes provisions that will stop the enforcement of overseas judgements that violate Icelandic laws, foreign news organisations are said to have expressed an interest in moving the publication of their investigative journalism to Iceland. According to Ms Jonsdottir, Germany's Der Spiegel and America's ABC News have discussed the possibility.
Stimulus Bond Program Has Unforeseen Costs
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/business/economy/16bonds.html?src=me&ref=business
Another coo for the banks and another turn of the SCREW to the US taxpayers.
Now whose bright idea was this, as if we even have to ask.
This is the type of service you can expect when your government is run by the "Banking System".
They are supposed to help states and cities that are short of cash build roads, schools and bridges.
States and cities have embraced these taxable bonds to borrow money at what they assume are favorable interest rates. The federal government pays 35 percent of the interest costs on the bonds, a huge potential saving.
But questions about this multibillion-dollar program are piling up.
For one, Wall Street banks are charging larger commissions for selling Build America Bonds than they do for normal municipal bonds, increasing the costs to the states and cities. For another, the new bonds may be priced too cheaply, enabling quick-footed investors to turn a fast profit as the prices climb, but raising interest costs for taxpayers.
Those imbalances have caught the eye of the Internal Revenue Service, which is asking municipalities whether the bonds are being priced and sold correctly.
As if all this were not enough, Wall Street banks — which have pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from the program — are now releasing research reports warning that states’ financial woes may make the bonds less attractive. Some banks are even telling investors how to bet against Build America Bonds.
Another coo for the banks and another turn of the SCREW to the US taxpayers.
Now whose bright idea was this, as if we even have to ask.
This is the type of service you can expect when your government is run by the "Banking System".
They are supposed to help states and cities that are short of cash build roads, schools and bridges.
States and cities have embraced these taxable bonds to borrow money at what they assume are favorable interest rates. The federal government pays 35 percent of the interest costs on the bonds, a huge potential saving.
But questions about this multibillion-dollar program are piling up.
For one, Wall Street banks are charging larger commissions for selling Build America Bonds than they do for normal municipal bonds, increasing the costs to the states and cities. For another, the new bonds may be priced too cheaply, enabling quick-footed investors to turn a fast profit as the prices climb, but raising interest costs for taxpayers.
Those imbalances have caught the eye of the Internal Revenue Service, which is asking municipalities whether the bonds are being priced and sold correctly.
As if all this were not enough, Wall Street banks — which have pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from the program — are now releasing research reports warning that states’ financial woes may make the bonds less attractive. Some banks are even telling investors how to bet against Build America Bonds.
Texas Lawmaker Apologizes to BP CEO for '$20 Billion Shakedown'
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/06/17/17greenwire-texas-lawmaker-apologizes-to-bp-ceo-for-20-bil-57728.html
I'm ashamed that people like Joe Barton work for "The People" of the United States.
It's quite obvious where his loyalty lies.
Recent estimates have Deep Horizon gushing forth 2 million gallons of oil a day, with no end in sight.
The costs of this disaster can't even begin to be estimated until the oil has stopped flowing. The 20 billion dollar deposit is a drop in the bucket compared to what the real costs will actually be, if and when, the oil finally does stop flowing.
In an unexpected move, a top House Republican today offered an apology to BP PLC for what he called a White House "shakedown" of the British oil giant.
Texas Rep. Joe Barton, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said that President Obama went too far in pressuring BP to fund a $20 billion escrow account to pay for environmental and economic damages resulting from the ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
"I am ashamed of what happened at the White House yesterday," Barton said. "I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would consider a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown."
Barton said that it was unfair for the White House to press for the fund at the same time that Attorney General Eric Holder is considering criminal charges against the oil company.
"There is no question that BP is liable for the damages, but we have a due process system," he said. "I'm not speaking for anyone else, but I apologize."
I'm ashamed that people like Joe Barton work for "The People" of the United States.
It's quite obvious where his loyalty lies.
Recent estimates have Deep Horizon gushing forth 2 million gallons of oil a day, with no end in sight.
The costs of this disaster can't even begin to be estimated until the oil has stopped flowing. The 20 billion dollar deposit is a drop in the bucket compared to what the real costs will actually be, if and when, the oil finally does stop flowing.
In an unexpected move, a top House Republican today offered an apology to BP PLC for what he called a White House "shakedown" of the British oil giant.
Texas Rep. Joe Barton, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said that President Obama went too far in pressuring BP to fund a $20 billion escrow account to pay for environmental and economic damages resulting from the ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
"I am ashamed of what happened at the White House yesterday," Barton said. "I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would consider a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown."
Barton said that it was unfair for the White House to press for the fund at the same time that Attorney General Eric Holder is considering criminal charges against the oil company.
"There is no question that BP is liable for the damages, but we have a due process system," he said. "I'm not speaking for anyone else, but I apologize."
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell
There is an overwhelming sense that the big oil companies act as if they are beyond the law. Bassey said: "What we conclude from the Gulf of Mexico pollution incident is that the oil companies are out of control.
"It is clear that BP has been blocking progressive legislation, both in the US and here. In Nigeria, they have been living above the law. They are now clearly a danger to the planet. The dangers of this happening again and again are high. They must be taken to the international court of justice."
There is an overwhelming sense that the big oil companies act as if they are beyond the law. Bassey said: "What we conclude from the Gulf of Mexico pollution incident is that the oil companies are out of control.
"It is clear that BP has been blocking progressive legislation, both in the US and here. In Nigeria, they have been living above the law. They are now clearly a danger to the planet. The dangers of this happening again and again are high. They must be taken to the international court of justice."
Lawmakers blast oil companies in hearing
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Oil-companies-turn-on-BP-at-rb-838221863.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=
- U.S. lawmakers blasted major oil companies on Tuesday for "virtually worthless" and "cookie cutter" plans to handle a deepwater oil disaster as top industry executives testified on BP's massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Summoned before the House of Representatives subcommittee on energy and environment, executives from five major oil companies defended their own drilling practices as they sought to stave off the prospect of restrictive new regulations on the industry.
The hearings are a significant risk to BP and to the future of U.S. offshore drilling, as lawmakers begin to consider legislative options to address the Gulf oil spill and to possibly increase the penalties companies will face.
Lawmakers did not seem convinced that the other four major oil companies -- Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell -- had better contingency plans than BP. BP is struggling to contain oil that has gushed from a ruptured well for nearly two months in the worst spill in U.S. history.
Representative Bart Stupak, a Democrat and one of the lawmakers heading a probe of the disaster, criticized the companies' response plans for offshore accidents. He singled out Exxon Mobil for having a 40-page media response strategy, including pre-written talking points.
"Exxon Mobil's plan appears more concerned about public perception than wildlife protection given the fact that their media plan is fives times longer than its plan for protecting wildlife," said Stupak, adding that all of the companies' plans were "virtually worthless when an actual spill occurs."
- U.S. lawmakers blasted major oil companies on Tuesday for "virtually worthless" and "cookie cutter" plans to handle a deepwater oil disaster as top industry executives testified on BP's massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Summoned before the House of Representatives subcommittee on energy and environment, executives from five major oil companies defended their own drilling practices as they sought to stave off the prospect of restrictive new regulations on the industry.
The hearings are a significant risk to BP and to the future of U.S. offshore drilling, as lawmakers begin to consider legislative options to address the Gulf oil spill and to possibly increase the penalties companies will face.
Lawmakers did not seem convinced that the other four major oil companies -- Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell -- had better contingency plans than BP. BP is struggling to contain oil that has gushed from a ruptured well for nearly two months in the worst spill in U.S. history.
Representative Bart Stupak, a Democrat and one of the lawmakers heading a probe of the disaster, criticized the companies' response plans for offshore accidents. He singled out Exxon Mobil for having a 40-page media response strategy, including pre-written talking points.
"Exxon Mobil's plan appears more concerned about public perception than wildlife protection given the fact that their media plan is fives times longer than its plan for protecting wildlife," said Stupak, adding that all of the companies' plans were "virtually worthless when an actual spill occurs."
Gulf Coasters skeptical of Obama, BP promises
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100615/D9GBL8CG0.html
Watching oil flow through Perdido Pass in Alabama's Gulf Coast, former Navy firefighter Clayton Ard said he wished Obama would break up the unified command responding to the crisis and let local governments handle it with more autonomy.
"It's just a huge bureaucracy that's slowing things down. ... We want to stop the oil now, but we can't do anything," Ard said.
The breached well has dumped as much as 114 million gallons of oil into the Gulf under the worst-case scenario described by scientists - a rate of more than 2 million a day. BP has collected 5.6 million gallons of oil through its latest containment cap on top of the well, or about 630,000 gallons per day.
To trap more oil faster
Watching oil flow through Perdido Pass in Alabama's Gulf Coast, former Navy firefighter Clayton Ard said he wished Obama would break up the unified command responding to the crisis and let local governments handle it with more autonomy.
"It's just a huge bureaucracy that's slowing things down. ... We want to stop the oil now, but we can't do anything," Ard said.
The breached well has dumped as much as 114 million gallons of oil into the Gulf under the worst-case scenario described by scientists - a rate of more than 2 million a day. BP has collected 5.6 million gallons of oil through its latest containment cap on top of the well, or about 630,000 gallons per day.
To trap more oil faster
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
AP Exclusive: Scuba Diving in the Gulf Oil Spill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGX7krQYI_4&feature=player_embedded
http://www.katu.com/news/photos/95866799.html
It's a sad day that the lies of BP are even allowed to still be presented as the truth.
Why are no fly overs allowed, because it would prove NOAA right and BP is still trying to save face.
The American public and the rest of the world have the right to know the full scope of this catastrophe.
BP contradicts government claim on oil plumes
Company's COO says apparent differences may be due to semantics
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37588890/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/
BP’s chief operating officer Doug Suttles denied reports of underwater plumes of oil Wednesday, one day after government scientists confirmed the existence of oil beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.
"We haven’t found any large concentrations of oil under the sea. To my knowledge, no one has," Suttles said on NBC News’ TODAY show.
On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said its researchers found subsurface oil as far as 142 miles from the leaking Gulf well. It was the first government confirmation of undersea oil near BP's blown-out well a mile beneath the ocean.
http://www.katu.com/news/photos/95866799.html
It's a sad day that the lies of BP are even allowed to still be presented as the truth.
Why are no fly overs allowed, because it would prove NOAA right and BP is still trying to save face.
The American public and the rest of the world have the right to know the full scope of this catastrophe.
BP contradicts government claim on oil plumes
Company's COO says apparent differences may be due to semantics
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37588890/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/
BP’s chief operating officer Doug Suttles denied reports of underwater plumes of oil Wednesday, one day after government scientists confirmed the existence of oil beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.
"We haven’t found any large concentrations of oil under the sea. To my knowledge, no one has," Suttles said on NBC News’ TODAY show.
On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said its researchers found subsurface oil as far as 142 miles from the leaking Gulf well. It was the first government confirmation of undersea oil near BP's blown-out well a mile beneath the ocean.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Defense attorney: Blagojevich 'didn't take a dime'
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9G7B3I81&show_article=1
So why is Blagojevich being tried?
The barter system seems to be standard procedure in DC.
Blagojevich has pleaded not guilty to trying to sell or trade President Barack Obama's former Senate seat. He also denies that he plotted to turn his power as governor into a moneymaking scheme for himself and insiders.
Sestak confirms White house job offer to drop out of race
http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0510/Sestak_confirms_WH_job_offer_to_get_out_of_Senate_race.html
W.H. faces a second job offer controversy
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/3/white-house-faces-second-job-offer-controversy/
So why is Blagojevich being tried?
The barter system seems to be standard procedure in DC.
Blagojevich has pleaded not guilty to trying to sell or trade President Barack Obama's former Senate seat. He also denies that he plotted to turn his power as governor into a moneymaking scheme for himself and insiders.
Sestak confirms White house job offer to drop out of race
http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0510/Sestak_confirms_WH_job_offer_to_get_out_of_Senate_race.html
W.H. faces a second job offer controversy
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/3/white-house-faces-second-job-offer-controversy/
Monday, June 7, 2010
Finance Panel Accuses Goldman of Stalling
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703303904575292530057313818.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
It would seem none of the big boys feels to comfortable playing the game of "Show and Tell"
A commission probing the financial crisis denounced Goldman Sachs Group Inc., saying the firm first dragged its feet over requests for information then dumped hundreds of millions of pages of documents on the panel.
Commission chairman Philip Angelides last week.
.The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission issued a subpoena to Goldman, demanding that the firm provide a key for identifying customer names and a way of matching up specific documents to the commission's requests for information. The subpoena also demanded documents concerning Goldman's mortgage-backed derivative securities, which are central in current federal probes of the firm.
It would seem none of the big boys feels to comfortable playing the game of "Show and Tell"
A commission probing the financial crisis denounced Goldman Sachs Group Inc., saying the firm first dragged its feet over requests for information then dumped hundreds of millions of pages of documents on the panel.
Commission chairman Philip Angelides last week.
.The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission issued a subpoena to Goldman, demanding that the firm provide a key for identifying customer names and a way of matching up specific documents to the commission's requests for information. The subpoena also demanded documents concerning Goldman's mortgage-backed derivative securities, which are central in current federal probes of the firm.
Brazil to your bank: How derivatives circle globe
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Brazil-to-your-bank-How-apf-2418761829.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=
Derivatives enable your life to be effected by being nothing more than a side bet.
Assmann is perpetually worried he will run short of cash if prices for his crops fall. So he tries to pay for some of his supplies at the start of the growing season with a fixed amount of soybeans that will be collected at the end.
His suppliers don't want to take on the risk of falling prices, either. But last month Philadelphia chemical maker FMC Corp. agreed to send Assmann all the insecticides and herbicides he needs in exchange for a third of his expected harvest.
Making the barter possible: A separate derivative that FMC, without Assmann's knowledge, got a bank to design. That side bet is designed to make sure FMC won't lose a penny if soybean prices fall.
"They seem very complicated," Assmann, 39, said when told about the derivative. "A poultry company here lost a lot of money in derivatives. I don't fully understand them."
Neither do most people, even though trade in many things we buy every day would slow or even stop without them.
Derivatives are private bets between two parties on how the value of assets like crops or measures like interest rates will change in the future. Most aren't traded on exchanges, and they're hard to value.
There's a derivative for nearly everything. You can bet that the Standard & Poor's 500 index will be higher in a year or the dollar will fall in value. You can bet that people of a certain age will die off faster than expected. A few creative financiers once devised a derivative that allowed you to bet on the value of future royalties from old David Bowie songs. Others came up with one to bet on how many basketball games the Utah Jazz would win in a year. And, yes, you can bet on soybeans in all their varieties -- crushed or ground, solid or oil, normal-sized or miniature.
For all the positives that investors see in derivatives, the investments can also be dangerous. Dubbed "financial weapons of mass destruction" by billionaire Warren Buffett, derivatives have been behind nearly every recent financial blowup from the bankruptcy of Orange County, Calif., in 1994 to the collapse of the housing market.
Derivatives enable your life to be effected by being nothing more than a side bet.
Assmann is perpetually worried he will run short of cash if prices for his crops fall. So he tries to pay for some of his supplies at the start of the growing season with a fixed amount of soybeans that will be collected at the end.
His suppliers don't want to take on the risk of falling prices, either. But last month Philadelphia chemical maker FMC Corp. agreed to send Assmann all the insecticides and herbicides he needs in exchange for a third of his expected harvest.
Making the barter possible: A separate derivative that FMC, without Assmann's knowledge, got a bank to design. That side bet is designed to make sure FMC won't lose a penny if soybean prices fall.
"They seem very complicated," Assmann, 39, said when told about the derivative. "A poultry company here lost a lot of money in derivatives. I don't fully understand them."
Neither do most people, even though trade in many things we buy every day would slow or even stop without them.
Derivatives are private bets between two parties on how the value of assets like crops or measures like interest rates will change in the future. Most aren't traded on exchanges, and they're hard to value.
There's a derivative for nearly everything. You can bet that the Standard & Poor's 500 index will be higher in a year or the dollar will fall in value. You can bet that people of a certain age will die off faster than expected. A few creative financiers once devised a derivative that allowed you to bet on the value of future royalties from old David Bowie songs. Others came up with one to bet on how many basketball games the Utah Jazz would win in a year. And, yes, you can bet on soybeans in all their varieties -- crushed or ground, solid or oil, normal-sized or miniature.
For all the positives that investors see in derivatives, the investments can also be dangerous. Dubbed "financial weapons of mass destruction" by billionaire Warren Buffett, derivatives have been behind nearly every recent financial blowup from the bankruptcy of Orange County, Calif., in 1994 to the collapse of the housing market.
Goldman joins FCIC's dirty dozen
http://wallstreet.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/06/07/goldman-joins-fcics-dirty-dozen/?source=yahoo_quote
First Warren now Goldman.
Why the non-compliance?
Just exactly what is it that they have to hide?
Or is it the simple fact that they think they are to important to have to be questioned for their actions?
The firm is the proud recipient of one of just 12 subpoenas issued by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission since its creation last year
The FCIC, the congressionally-appointed body charged with assembling an authoritative explanation for the financial meltdown by year-end, said Monday that it subpoenaed Goldman Sachs (GS) "for failing to comply with a request for documents and interviews in a timely manner."
First Warren now Goldman.
Why the non-compliance?
Just exactly what is it that they have to hide?
Or is it the simple fact that they think they are to important to have to be questioned for their actions?
The firm is the proud recipient of one of just 12 subpoenas issued by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission since its creation last year
The FCIC, the congressionally-appointed body charged with assembling an authoritative explanation for the financial meltdown by year-end, said Monday that it subpoenaed Goldman Sachs (GS) "for failing to comply with a request for documents and interviews in a timely manner."
Bhopal bosses handed down 2 year prison term
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7809111/Bhopal-disaster-bosses-handed-down-two-years-in-prison.html
Remember this? The worst industrial accident in history.
And all the responsible got was
2 years for twenty thousand lives
What kind of justice was that?
The same kind you can expect to doled out to BP
Scant
An Indian court has sentenced seven former employees of Union Carbide to two years imprisonment for negligence that led to the 1984 Bhopal gas leak, which killed more than 20,000
The Union Carbide plant accidentally released toxic gases into the air shortly after midnight on December 3, 1984. Poisonous fumes drifted over nearby slums, killing around 3,500 people within three days, according to the official estimate. The final toll may never be known but campaigners claim the numbers of deaths has climbed above 20,000.
An inquiry found that 40 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere after a flood of water into a containment tank triggered a chemical reaction.
Survivors and relatives of the gas leak and activists chanted slogans outside the courthouse calling the verdict an instance of 'too little, too late'.
Remember this? The worst industrial accident in history.
And all the responsible got was
2 years for twenty thousand lives
What kind of justice was that?
The same kind you can expect to doled out to BP
Scant
An Indian court has sentenced seven former employees of Union Carbide to two years imprisonment for negligence that led to the 1984 Bhopal gas leak, which killed more than 20,000
The Union Carbide plant accidentally released toxic gases into the air shortly after midnight on December 3, 1984. Poisonous fumes drifted over nearby slums, killing around 3,500 people within three days, according to the official estimate. The final toll may never be known but campaigners claim the numbers of deaths has climbed above 20,000.
An inquiry found that 40 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere after a flood of water into a containment tank triggered a chemical reaction.
Survivors and relatives of the gas leak and activists chanted slogans outside the courthouse calling the verdict an instance of 'too little, too late'.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Dallas Fed's Fisher Rages Against TBTF, Says Only Way To Remove Systemic Risk Is Shrinking The Megabanks
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/dallas-feds-fisher-rages-against-tbtf-says-only-way-remove-systemic-risk-shrinking-megabanks
In a speech before the SW Graduate School of Banking, Dallas Fed's Richard Fisher comes out swinging, blasting his boss Ben Bernanke and his policy of globalized moral hazard: "Let me make my sentiments clear: It is my view that, by propping up deeply troubled big banks, authorities have eroded market discipline in the financial system. It is not difficult to see where this dynamic leads—to more pronounced financial cycles and repeated crises." And just in case listeners missed the point, he followed up: "Just this morning, the Washington Post summarized the impasse that inevitably blocks treatment of the TBTF pathology. In an article on preparation for this weekend’s Group of 20 talks on bank reform, it was noted that “some” participants “remain hesitant to lean too hard on banks they consider vital to their national economies.” This hesitancy only perpetuates the problem: The longer authorities delay the process, the more engrained behemoth financial institutions become; the more engrained they become, the less extricable they are. And so the debilitating disease of TBTF spreads. What appears “vital” becomes “viral” and grows ever more threatening to financial stability and economic stability."
Fischer implicitly supports Ted Kaufman's proposal, which failed in the corrupt and Chris Dodd subservient Senate, that had proposed a very sensible size limitation on banks:
In a speech before the SW Graduate School of Banking, Dallas Fed's Richard Fisher comes out swinging, blasting his boss Ben Bernanke and his policy of globalized moral hazard: "Let me make my sentiments clear: It is my view that, by propping up deeply troubled big banks, authorities have eroded market discipline in the financial system. It is not difficult to see where this dynamic leads—to more pronounced financial cycles and repeated crises." And just in case listeners missed the point, he followed up: "Just this morning, the Washington Post summarized the impasse that inevitably blocks treatment of the TBTF pathology. In an article on preparation for this weekend’s Group of 20 talks on bank reform, it was noted that “some” participants “remain hesitant to lean too hard on banks they consider vital to their national economies.” This hesitancy only perpetuates the problem: The longer authorities delay the process, the more engrained behemoth financial institutions become; the more engrained they become, the less extricable they are. And so the debilitating disease of TBTF spreads. What appears “vital” becomes “viral” and grows ever more threatening to financial stability and economic stability."
Fischer implicitly supports Ted Kaufman's proposal, which failed in the corrupt and Chris Dodd subservient Senate, that had proposed a very sensible size limitation on banks:
Research Links Genetically Modified Food To Long Term Sterility
http://www.psfk.com/2010/06/research-links-genetically-modified-food-to-long-term-sterility.html
Can you say population control?
A new study done by Russian scientists suggests that Genetically Modified Food may cause long term sterility, that is, sterility in second and third generations. The scientists used hamsters for this research and divided them into groups. One group of hamsters was fed a normal diet without any soy products, a second group was fed non-GMO (genetically modified organism) soy, the third ate GM soy and the fourth group was fed an even higher amount of GM soy than the third.
Each group produced about seven to eight litters of baby hamsters each without any problems. But when the researchers selected new breeding pairs from the offspring, the second generation had a slower growth rate and reached their sexual maturity later than normal. They also had a mortality rate, five times higher than the hamsters who didn’t eat soy. Even more shocking was the fact that nearly all of the third generation GM soy eating hamsters were sterile and also experienced hair growing inside their mouths.
Genetically modified food has received much criticism earlier too, with studies linking them to problems with birth weight and infant mortality.
Can you say population control?
A new study done by Russian scientists suggests that Genetically Modified Food may cause long term sterility, that is, sterility in second and third generations. The scientists used hamsters for this research and divided them into groups. One group of hamsters was fed a normal diet without any soy products, a second group was fed non-GMO (genetically modified organism) soy, the third ate GM soy and the fourth group was fed an even higher amount of GM soy than the third.
Each group produced about seven to eight litters of baby hamsters each without any problems. But when the researchers selected new breeding pairs from the offspring, the second generation had a slower growth rate and reached their sexual maturity later than normal. They also had a mortality rate, five times higher than the hamsters who didn’t eat soy. Even more shocking was the fact that nearly all of the third generation GM soy eating hamsters were sterile and also experienced hair growing inside their mouths.
Genetically modified food has received much criticism earlier too, with studies linking them to problems with birth weight and infant mortality.
OSHA Says Cleanup Workers Don't Need Respirators .
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704764404575286180491707288.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news
Common sense tells you this bullshit.
BP is burning oil and spraying chemical dispersant's from airplanes and OSHA really believes that there is no need for workers to use a respirator because it's minimal exposure?
Who bought off OSHA is what I want to know.
I guess this now makes it ok to burn tires again....right?
The head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Thursday said workers hired by BP PLC to clean up spilled oil don't need respirators, despite complaints from some employees and lawmakers about toxic fumes.
David Michaels, assistant secretary for the Department of Labor's OSHA, said in an interview Thursday that based on test results so far, cleanup workers are receiving "minimal" exposure to airborne toxins. OSHA will require that BP provide certain protective clothing, but not respirators.
Questions about widely publicized complaints from cleanup workers are likely to continue. Two members of Congress on Thursday demanded that BP provide respirators for workers.
Common sense tells you this bullshit.
BP is burning oil and spraying chemical dispersant's from airplanes and OSHA really believes that there is no need for workers to use a respirator because it's minimal exposure?
Who bought off OSHA is what I want to know.
I guess this now makes it ok to burn tires again....right?
The head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Thursday said workers hired by BP PLC to clean up spilled oil don't need respirators, despite complaints from some employees and lawmakers about toxic fumes.
David Michaels, assistant secretary for the Department of Labor's OSHA, said in an interview Thursday that based on test results so far, cleanup workers are receiving "minimal" exposure to airborne toxins. OSHA will require that BP provide certain protective clothing, but not respirators.
Questions about widely publicized complaints from cleanup workers are likely to continue. Two members of Congress on Thursday demanded that BP provide respirators for workers.
Report condemns swine flu experts' ties to big pharma
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/04/swine-flu-experts-big-pharmaceutical
The end results of a conflict of interest.
World wide taxpayer rape
Trio of scientists who urged stockpiling had previously been paid, says report
Scientists who drew up the key World Health Organisation guidelines advising governments to stockpile drugs in the event of a flu pandemic had previously been paid by drug companies which stood to profit, according to a report out today.
An investigation by the British Medical Journal and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the not-for-profit reporting unit, shows that WHO guidance issued in 2004 was authored by three scientists who had previously received payment for other work from Roche, which makes Tamiflu, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), manufacturer of Relenza.
City analysts say that pharmaceutical companies banked more than $7bn (£4.8bn) as governments stockpiled drugs. The issue of transparency has risen to the forefront of public health debate after dramatic predictions last year about a swine flu pandemic did not come true.
The end results of a conflict of interest.
World wide taxpayer rape
Trio of scientists who urged stockpiling had previously been paid, says report
Scientists who drew up the key World Health Organisation guidelines advising governments to stockpile drugs in the event of a flu pandemic had previously been paid by drug companies which stood to profit, according to a report out today.
An investigation by the British Medical Journal and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the not-for-profit reporting unit, shows that WHO guidance issued in 2004 was authored by three scientists who had previously received payment for other work from Roche, which makes Tamiflu, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), manufacturer of Relenza.
City analysts say that pharmaceutical companies banked more than $7bn (£4.8bn) as governments stockpiled drugs. The issue of transparency has risen to the forefront of public health debate after dramatic predictions last year about a swine flu pandemic did not come true.
Census Worker Claims Job Numbers Are Being Inflated
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/06/03/census_worker_claims_job_numbers_are_being_inflated.html
"What they do is hire you, they train you like a few weeks -- 35, 40 hours of training and give you six hours of productive work and lay you off." a former Census named "Maria" tells FOX News. "Maria" further explains they rehire you so it counts as a new job.
U.S. Economy: Payrolls Trail Forecasts in Sign Growth May Cool
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ar_thYFiXUk4
American companies hired fewer workers in May than forecast and workers dropped out of the labor force, indicating government support is still needed to spur economic growth.
Private payrolls rose by 41,000, Labor Department figures showed today, trailing the 180,000 gain forecast by economists. Including government workers, employment rose by 431,000, boosted by a jump in hiring of temporary census workers. The jobless rate fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent
"What they do is hire you, they train you like a few weeks -- 35, 40 hours of training and give you six hours of productive work and lay you off." a former Census named "Maria" tells FOX News. "Maria" further explains they rehire you so it counts as a new job.
U.S. Economy: Payrolls Trail Forecasts in Sign Growth May Cool
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ar_thYFiXUk4
American companies hired fewer workers in May than forecast and workers dropped out of the labor force, indicating government support is still needed to spur economic growth.
Private payrolls rose by 41,000, Labor Department figures showed today, trailing the 180,000 gain forecast by economists. Including government workers, employment rose by 431,000, boosted by a jump in hiring of temporary census workers. The jobless rate fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Gulf of Mexico oil spill: BP fits cap on ruptured wellhead
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7802390/Gulf-of-Mexico-oil-spill-BP-fits-cap-on-ruptured-wellhead.html
Keep your fingers crossed kids
We need all the luck we can get
The US Coast Guard confirmed that British-based BP had successfully attached the cylindrical well cap onto the jagged top of the crippled wellhead assembly using underwater robots, CNN reported.
"The placement of the containment cap is another positive development in BP's most recent attempt to contain the leak," Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said in the statement while adding that it would take "some time" to gauge the cap's ability to stem the oil, CNN said.
Even if successful, this is only a temporary and partial fix and we must continue our aggressive response, operations at the source, on the surface and along the Gulf's precious coastline," Mr Allen added, according to CNN.
Keep your fingers crossed kids
We need all the luck we can get
The US Coast Guard confirmed that British-based BP had successfully attached the cylindrical well cap onto the jagged top of the crippled wellhead assembly using underwater robots, CNN reported.
"The placement of the containment cap is another positive development in BP's most recent attempt to contain the leak," Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said in the statement while adding that it would take "some time" to gauge the cap's ability to stem the oil, CNN said.
Even if successful, this is only a temporary and partial fix and we must continue our aggressive response, operations at the source, on the surface and along the Gulf's precious coastline," Mr Allen added, according to CNN.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
BP Revised Permits Before Blast
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704490204575278952784008676.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEADNewsCollection
5 minutes, do you think they even had time to register what that change actually was before they decided to go ahead and allow BP to do it?
Yeah I'd say at this point that there is no doubt a criminal probe needs to be started.
Just a week before the Deepwater Horizon exploded, BP PLC asked regulators to approve three successive changes to its oil well over 24 hours, according to federal records reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
The unusual rapid-fire requests to modify permits reveal that BP was tweaking a crucial aspect of the well's design up until its final days.
One of the design decisions outlined in the revised permits, drilling experts say, may have left the well more vulnerable to the blowout that occurred April 20, killing 11 workers and leaving crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.
Journal Community
..The Minerals Management Service approved all the changes quickly, in one instance within five minutes of submission
5 minutes, do you think they even had time to register what that change actually was before they decided to go ahead and allow BP to do it?
Yeah I'd say at this point that there is no doubt a criminal probe needs to be started.
Just a week before the Deepwater Horizon exploded, BP PLC asked regulators to approve three successive changes to its oil well over 24 hours, according to federal records reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
The unusual rapid-fire requests to modify permits reveal that BP was tweaking a crucial aspect of the well's design up until its final days.
One of the design decisions outlined in the revised permits, drilling experts say, may have left the well more vulnerable to the blowout that occurred April 20, killing 11 workers and leaving crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.
Journal Community
..The Minerals Management Service approved all the changes quickly, in one instance within five minutes of submission
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)