The WAWG Blog

Crazy in Arizona – Videographer Dennis Gilman attended last weekend’s “Phoenix Rising” rally in Phoenix last weekend and made this amazing video. You really have to watch it to believe it.

My favorite moment is the woman who believes there is a “radical Islamic Mexican Catholic movement” that “has been taking over our nation and getting rid of and killing American citizens”.

Republicans Try to Weaken Enforcement of Clean Air Act – A Republican-led resolution would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from moving ahead with rules under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other major sources.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and the White House said the resolution would force the EPA to rescind standards for emissions from future-model cars and light trucks that it came up with earlier this year with the Transportation Department. The result, she said, would be a need for the country to consume an extra 455 million barrels of oil.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the measure, “a great big gift to big oil” that would “increase pollution, increase our dependence on foreign oil and stall our efforts to create jobs” in the clean energy sector.

UPDATE: The Republican resolution was voted down.

BP Censoring Media, Destroying Evidence – BP is using federal agencies to shield itself from public accountability. For example, while flying on a small plane from New Orleans to Orange Beach, the pilot suddenly exclaimed, “Look at that!” The thin red line marking the federal flight restrictions of 3,000 feet over the oiled Gulf region had just jumped to include the coastal barrier islands off Alabama.

“There’s only one reason for that,” the pilot said. “BP doesn’t want the media taking pictures of oil on the beaches. You should see the oil that’s about six miles off the coast,” he said grimly. We looked down at the wavy orange boom surrounding the islands below us. The pilot shook his head. “There’s no way those booms are going to stop what’s offshore from hitting those beaches.”
BP knows this as well — boom can only deflect oil under the calmest of sea conditions, not barricade it — so they have stepped up their already aggressive effort to control what the public sees.

At the same time I was en route to Orange Beach, Clint Guidry with the Louisiana Shrimp Association and Dean Blanchard, who owns the largest shrimp processor in Louisiana, were in Grand Isle taking Anderson Cooper out in a small boat to see the oiled beaches. The U.S. Coast Guard held up the boat for 20 minutes – an intimidation tactic intended to stop the cameras from recording BP’s damage.

With oil undisputedly hitting the beaches and the number of dead wildlife mounting, BP is switching tactics. In Orange Beach, people told me BP wouldn’t let them collect carcasses. Instead, the company was raking up carcasses of oiled seabirds. “The heads separate from the bodies,” one upset resident told me. “There’s no way those birds are going to be autopsied. BP is destroying evidence!”

American Family Association Claims ‘Gay Sex = Domestic Terrorism’ – In opposition to repealing the U.S. Military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, the American Family Association (AFA) declared in a Thursday blog headline: “Gay sex = domestic terrorism”. In the article, the AFA states, “If open homosexuals are allowed into the United States military, the Taliban won’t need to plant dirty needles to infect our soldiers with HIV. Our own soldiers will take care of that for them.” However, gays are serving in the military now. The current “head-in-the-sand” policy, doesn’t allow anyone to admit it, or ask about it. The premise of the AFA argument is non-existent.

Humble Oil Predicted the Future in Their 1962 Ad – In 1962 Humble Oil (now Exxon-Mobile) ran an ad in Life Magazine that stated, “EACH DAY HUMBLE SUPPLIES ENOUGH ENERGY TO MELT 7 MILLION TONS OF GLACIER!”

To Republicans, Young Means Not So Young – The National Republican Congressional Committee, this means coming up with a group of so-called Young Guns, a changing roster of candidates who represent, in the party’s eyes, a “new generation of conservative leaders.” In fact, the current crop of the 22 Young Guns looks very much like the old generation of conservative leaders. These upstarts together average an age of 49.6 years old. More than half of the Young Guns, have celebrated the big 5-0, and are already eligible for an AARP membership.
(Republicans like to come up with great-sounding labels for things that aren’t what the labels would lead you to believe. – JLV)

Regards,

Jim

Chamber Of Commerce Says Taxpayers Should Help Pay For BP Spill Cleanup; Republican Leader Agrees – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce typically doesn’t put itself out there as a big fan of socialism. But that all changes when we’re talking about risk and liability. In those cases, they love socialism to death! And that’s basically how Chamber President Tom Donohue is framing his call to put a greater share of the oil spill price tag on you and me:
“It is generally not the practice of this country to change the laws after the game,” said Tom Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “. . . Everybody is going to contribute to this clean up. We are all going to have to do it. We are going to have to get the money from the government and from the companies and we will figure out a way to do that.”

In response to a question from TPMDC, House Minority Leader John Boehner said he believes taxpayers should help pick up the tab for the clean up:

“I think the people responsible in the oil spill–BP and the federal government–should take full responsibility for what’s happening there,” Boehner said at his weekly press conference this morning.

Later, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel tried to soften Boehner’s statement: “Boehner made a general statement about who is responsible for the spill, and the federal government oversight was clearly lacking, but he has said repeatedly that BP is responsible for the cost of the cleanup.”

Republican Sharron Angle’s World of Paranoia – In Nevada, the Republican Party has just nominated a former state legislator named Sharron Angle, one of the Tea Party’s favorite daughters, and, it seems, a full-time resident of the paranoid alternate universe.

Angle, it turns out, is some kind of member, or at least sympathizer with, a group called the Oath Keepers, an organization of current and former members of the armed forces, police and firefighters. (So it’s not clear exactly how she even qualifies, since she’s none of those things, but that’s beside the point.) The Oath Keepers are organized around a list of ten orders that they have sworn never to carry out. But, the ten orders are things that only a very paranoid person would be worried about. The Oath Keepers and their sympathizers desperately want to think that the constitutional order has broken down, and some titanic clash is on the way.
[They are part of the fringe of the fringe. Sharon Angle is probably a member of The John Birch Society – see related links at the end of this posting.]

More Angles on Angle

• Angle Proposes that U.S. ‘Deregulate’ Big Oil
• Angle Pushed For Scientology-Based Saunas & Massages In Nevada Prisons
• Angle Advocates Abortion-Causes-Breast-Cancer Myth
• Angle Embraces Oath Keepers Group’s Warning Of ‘Giant Concentration Camps’
• Angle Favors Abolishing Social Security

Lame Stunt: Rick Perry Signs Peace Treaty with Coyote – Texas Governor Rick Perry made an attempt at peace with coyotes throughout Texas, and even the world, when he signed a peace treaty with the San Antonio Spurs mascot at a Valero Energy Corp. event.

Perry claims to have been protecting his daughter’s dog when he pulled his Ruger .38 from the elastic waistband of his jogging shorts and forever changed the relationship between Republicans and coyotes throughout the nation.

How to Drive TeaBaggers Even More Crazy 😉
· In regards to their insane “birther” claims, get their attention and hit them where it hurts. Require that every customer produce a birth certificate before eating at Cracker Barrel.
· Create off-the-wall programs like “Guns for Cinnabons” where they can trade in their firearms for warm, gooey pastries. It’ll be like “Sophie’s Choice” — but with frosting.
· Ask them if they can tell you where to find a copy of the Constitution en Español. Their eyes will roll back in their cabezas.
· Replace all photos of Rand Paul with RuPaul — you know, someone less cartoonish.

Regards,

Jim

John Culberson Says Gulf Oil Spill is a ‘Statistical Anomaly’ – In a letter to President Obama, Culberson says that the “Deepwater Horizon incident was a terrible human tragedy with devastating environmental consequences,” but not terrible enough for President Obama to take the drastic action of halting such operations for six months. The letter asked Obama to view the ongoing BP oil spill in its “proper historical context as a statistical anomaly.”

(See, it’s no big deal. Just let BP keep not following procedures and using faulty equipment. Hey, wasn’t 9/11 just a statistical anomaly? – JLV)

BP’s Approved Spill Plan ‘Riddled With Omissions And Glaring Errors’ – Professor Peter Lutz is listed in BP’s 2009 response plan for a Gulf of Mexico oil spill as a national wildlife expert. He died in 2005.

Under the heading “sensitive biological resources,” the plan lists marine mammals including walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals. None lives anywhere near the Gulf.

The names and phone numbers of several Texas A&M University marine life specialists are wrong. So are the numbers for marine mammal stranding network offices in Louisiana and Florida, which are no longer in service. (people needed to be called in case of a spill)

BP PLC’s 582-page regional spill plan for the Gulf, and its 52-page, site-specific plan for the Deepwater Horizon rig are riddled with omissions and glaring errors, according to an Associated Press analysis that details how BP officials have pretty much been making it up as they go along. The lengthy plans approved by the federal government last year before BP drilled its ill-fated well vastly understate the dangers posed by an uncontrolled leak and vastly overstate the company’s preparedness to deal with one.

In Apparent Lie, BP Continues to Deny Existence of Underwater Oil Plumes – Appearing on no less than three major networks Wednesday, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles continued to deny the existence of oil plumes underneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Suttles’ comments came despite the fact that government and university scientists confirmed Tuesday they had found large plumes of oil.

BP Well May be Spewing 100,000 Barrels a Day, Scientist Says – A University of California researcher and member of the Obama Administration’s Flow Rate Technical Group said Monday that BP’s leaking Gulf oil well could be leeching 20 times as much oil as the company originally claimed. Leifer cited satellite data that appeared to show the leaking well’s flow was increasing over time. He also noted that BP’s decision to drill open a pipe in an effort to place a “hat” on the damaged well had substantially increased the amount of oil that may be spewing into the sea.

Wife Says Minuteman Founder Threatened to Shoot Her, Her Family and the Cops – In seeking a protection order in April, Alena Simcox, 30, the third wife of onetime Minuteman chief Chris Simcox, alleged that she found her husband heavily drunk after she returned from a shopping trip last November. He had a gun, she said, and “repeatedly pointed it at me, saying he was going to kill me, and my kids, and the police.”

In a second alleged 2009 incident, his wife wrote, “On our wedding anniversary, he was drinking and angry. Got a revolver gun and loaded with kids present. Then proceeded to ask me to shoot him.’ I said no,’ so then he said he would shoot the entire family and cops.”

His first wife accused him of trying to molest their teenage daughter, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that has warned about extremism in the Minuteman movement.

His second wife filed an emergency motion to obtain full custody of their teenage son because it seemed Chris Simcox was undergoing a mental breakdown and growing dangerous following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the SPLC reported in 2005, based on an examination of court records in Los Angeles.

Voting Machines Problems Have Not Gone Away – By Brad Friedman

Two years ago, in June of ’08, the ES&S “InkaVote Plus” e-vote system in Los Angeles County misprinted 4 out of 12 of my own votes.

Today, as I tried to vote on the same system, the failure was even worse. Incredibly. And not just because I cover issues of Election Integrity for a “living.”

I spent more than two and a half hours not casting a vote on the system before eventually I, the poll workers, and, apparently, the folks at the L.A. County Registrar’s central help desk call center, simply gave up. A complete and total failure of the e-voting system for disabled voters in the nation’s largest voting jurisdiction.

Conservatives Say You Should Work for Your Money, But Billionaire’s Kids are Getting $9 Billion Tax Free – Dan L. Duncan built an empire of natural gas processing plants and pipelines that made him the richest person in Houston, died in late March of a brain hemorrhage at 77. His business relied on infrastructure that was made possible with our tax dollars. But thanks to the efforts of conservatives, his kids won’t pay any taxes on his fortune. For them, it’s money for nothing. [Common Wealth – Key to Our Democracy and Threatened by a Growing Aristocracy]

Utah Firing Squad Member Says the Death Penalty is Nothing More Than Sending a Defective Product Back to the Manufacturer – Yes, Utah still uses a firing squad. But one Utah executioner says, “”The death penalty is nothing more than sending a defective product back to the manufacturer. Let him fix it.” He also says, “”I’ve shot squirrels I’ve felt worse about,” and “There’s just some people we need to kick off the planet.”

But is a firing squad cruel? Not according to this guy. He says it is not like the scenes depicted in movies, with a condemned man tied to a stake and smoking a last cigarette before being riddled with bullets in a gruesome spectacle. Instead, the inmate is strapped into a chair 17 feet away with a target pinned to his chest. (Oh, that’s different? Does he still get a cigarette? – JLV)

Texas Republican Convention – Still Crazy After All These Years – The Texas Republican Convention delegates doesn’t seem keen on a ‘sensible immigration policy.’ A 65-year-old Houston insurance agent caused a ruckus Tuesday by presenting his “sensible immigration policy” — a proposal that the Texas reverse course and support a path to legalization — to Republican Party party faithful gathered in Dallas to prepare for their state convention. Adams’ proposal drew heated responses. Sara Legvold, a delegate from Keller, was among those to speak against Adams’ proposal. “No compromises, no guest work, until we have our borders under control,” she said. “I want to deport everybody who is illegal — children, dogs, pets, birds.”

Keith Houser of Southlake hopes to add a measure that requires the top two leaders in the U.S. to be “natural born” citizens, meaning that both parents are citizens. His measure would require presidential and vice presidential candidates to submit proof to be listed on the Texas ballot. “This is our shot across the bow,” Houser said. “Mr. Obama, if you are going to run again, the state of Texas will not recognize you.”

And Dorrie O’Brien, a Grand Prairie delegate, submitted a plank calling for Texas Republicans to support the Constitution “against any Islamic threat of, or actual subversion by, the Sharia law adherents living in the United States of America and the rest of the world.”

Good Advice for Dealing with Conservatives Without Conscience – “It’s time to put away those Marquess of Queensbury rules. Stop smiling as they lie to your face. But don’t get caught in some distraction (the last vestige of a Republican scoundrel: focus on some picayune aspect and steer the conversation away from anything of substance for which they have no defense). Keep hold of your head, your calm and your facts.”

Regards,

Jim

Records Show That Rick Perry Did No Scheduled State Work on One-Third of Business Days – The governor’s official work calendar for this year and an open records request showed that Texas Governor Rick Perry performed no scheduled state work on 24 of 72 business days. That’s one-third of the work week without phone calls or meetings. The calendar covered January, March, April and most of May. The February record has not yet been released.

On some of those days that the governor did conduct state business, the work consisted of a single phone call or a press conference. Now, this period obviously covers the weeks leading up to the March primary and its aftermath. The calendars don’t include political events, speeches and fundraising, which have been occupying most of Perry’s schedule.

George W. Bush Joins Facebook 😉 – The media is all, um, a’twitter over George W. Bush’s “new” Facebook page. But they failed to mention his first whack at it, back in February, 2009. I remember it like it was yesterday…

George is now friends with Condi Rice, Karl Rove, Sean Hannity, Antonin Scalia and Tom DeLay
George W. Bush is sayin’ howdy! My first post—wOOt! What’s up? 3:08pm February 23
Scooter Libby at 3:09pm February 23 – Why didn’t you pardon me, you prick?
Sarah Palin at 3:09pm February 23 – Thanks but no thanks. I’d rather pal around with terrorists.
Mitch McConnell at 3:10pm February 23 – Now I can say it—you really sucked.

Tom DeLay invited you to join the Bitter Aging Texans Group
George is now friends with Dana Perino, Tony Blair and King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud

Grover Norquist at 3:11pm February 23 – I told you to reduce the size of the government so you could drown it in the bathtub. You grew the size of the government, toweled it off, then blew up the bathtub. Your dad’s right–you got hit with a special kind of dumbstick.
Scooter Libby, Sarah Palin and Mitch McConnell like this comment

Condi Rice at 3:12pm February 23 – Friends 4evuh!!! {{{Mr. President}}}
Dick Cheney at 3:13pm February 23 – Why didn’t you pardon Scooter you prick???
Scooter Libby likes this comment

General Colin Powell (Ret.) sent you a bucket of virtual maggots.

Elizabeth Dole at 3:14pm February 23 – Here—have a hot cuppa STFU
Bob Dole likes this comment

Michael Steele at 3:15pm February 23 – Facebook is the only party in town, baby. Mainly because you KILLED OURS!!!

John McCain wants to send you a virtual can of coal slag and a bag of rusty nails
Norm Coleman just threw a shoe at you.

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud at 3:35pm February 23 – Where is the Scrabble page? I wish to play Scrabble now.
Scooter Libby likes this comment

Regards,

Jim

Arizona City Councilman/Talk-Show Host Doesn’t Like Black or Brown Faces on Mural – The leader of a group of artists says he was ordered to lighten the skin tones of children depicted in an outdoor mural covering two walls of a Prescott, Arizona elementary school because of complaints that the faces appeared too ethnic. City Councilman Steve Blair had used his radio talk show to start a campaign for the mural to be removed.

“We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars,” R.E. Wall told AZCentral. “We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics).”

Update: Prescott eNews is reporting that Steve Blair has been fired from his talk show with radio station KYCA. The order to lighten the faces on the mural has been rescinded.

Bernie Madoff Says “F–k My Victims” – Unregulated free enterprise at its freeist and greed at its greediest.

Liz Cheney Rushes to Defend Halliburton, Ignores Gov’t Fraud Allegations – On ABC’s This Week, Liz Cheney ridiculed Arianna Huffington for her statement that Halliburton defrauded the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, federal agencies have repeatedly accused Halliburton and its former subsidiary, KBR, of fraud with regard to its work in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Regards,

Jim

People Wishing for American Failure Prior to SpaceX Launch – While waiting for the historic launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket today, spaceflightnow.com was running a live web chat where viewers could ask questions and make comments. Among the comments I saw were: “I hope it blows up”, “SpaceX sucks”, “F**k Obama”, and “My husband works at NASA and they’re having a good laugh because it won’t work.” After the successful launch and insertion of the the SpaceX capsule into orbit, all those types of comments suddenly stopped. As the moderator of the website remarked, “All those haters are eating Falcon feathers.”
– Jim

Fox News Lies About SpaceX Being Given Federal Funds – Fox News reported after the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch: “Also, this is important to note, I can tell you that, ah …, SpaceX was awarded federal funds, about 1.6 billion dollars back in 2008, close to two billion dollars, and the government, by giving it out, that the company, that amount of money, said to a degree, it had great confidence.” The Fox lie starts at about 3:20 into the video at the link above.

SpaceX won a NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract – The truth is that in 2008, SpaceX won a NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract for resupplying the International Space Station, but no money was paid to SpaceX by the U.S. government, and NASA will only pay SpaceX after the completion of successful missions. The development of the Falcon 9 and today’s flight was totally paid for by SpaceX. The worth of all 12 planned cargo deliveries to the ISS is $1.6 billion. CRS involves legally binding contracts, which means the supplier (SpaceX) would be liable if it failed to perform.

And $1.6 billion is only 80% of $2 billion; not close enough for rocket science, but, apparently close enough for Fox News.

Rick Perry’s School Finance Record

* The “margins tax” Perry created was supposed to pay for education, but it turned out to be a windfall for oil and gas producers, who paid $78 million less in taxes under the new business tax in 2008 than they paid under the old tax in 2007. (Source: Houston Chronicle via Off the Kuff)

* Perry’s school finance scheme also froze state funding for education at 2006 levels. While oil companies profited, many Texans paid more as many local districts were forced to lay off teachers, cut class offerings, and raise local taxes. Since Perry’s tax scheme took effect in 2006, 230 Texas school districts have been forced to raise local property taxes. (Source: Houston Chronicle)

* In 2008, Perry’s tax scheme fell $1.4 billion short of projected revenue collections, leaving a gaping hole in the state budget that was only rescued by the federal stimulus funding Perry opposed, funds Democrats used to pass a Democrat-driven school finance bill during the last legislative session. (Source: Brownsville Herald)

The $1.4 billion shortfall that Texas Democrats temporarily fixed in 2009 is expected to double in size to $2.8 billion in 2011. The Republicans have no plan to fix that shortfall, and both Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison are signing a bogus anti-tax pledge, guaranteeing they will continue to do nothing to solve the school finance crisis.

The following three gifts are from Conservatives [without conscience] and unregulated free enterprise:

South Pole Has Warmest Year on Record – The South Pole experienced its warmest year on record in 2009, according to newly released data from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The previous record high was minus 54.4 F (minus 48 C), recorded in 2002.

 

Greenland Rising Rapidly as Ice Melts – The ice is melting so fast in Greenland that the giant island is rising noticeably as the weight is lifted. In some spots, the land is rising 1 inch per year. A vast ice cap covers much of Greenland, in some places up to 1.2 miles (2 km) thick. The ice, in place for eons, presses down the land, making the elevation at any given point lower than it would be sans ice. Scientists have documented on Greenland and elsewhere that when longstanding ice melts away, the land rebounds. Even the European Alps are rising as glaciers melt.

 

2nd Deepest Lake Now Warmer Than in Past 1,500 Years -Lake Tanganyika, the second oldest and the second-deepest lake in the world, is warmer than it has been in more than 1,500 years, a new analysis released today finds.

Regards,

Jim

Arizona Governor Lies About Her Father’s Death – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer made the following comment to The Arizona Republic newspaper while talking about the criticism she has taken since signing the new immigration law that makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally:

“Knowing that my father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany, that I lost him when I was 11 because of that… and then to have them call me Hitler’s daughter. It hurts. It’s ugliness beyond anything I’ve ever experienced.”

However, the death of her father came 10 years after World War II had ended. During the war, he worked as a civilian supervisor for a naval munitions depot in Hawthorne, Nev. He died of lung disease in 1955 in California.

Michele Bachmann: Hypocrisy Queen – Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a darling of the tea party movement and a loyal ally to House Republican leadership, is known for decrying almost every form of government action as socialism. But despite her opposition to government, Bachmann took to the floor of the House of Representatives on Friday afternoon to slam President Obama for lacking “competence” because he did not use the government to seize ships to deal with BP’s oil spill. “Where were the boats that could have been commandeered to be sent into this region to deal with the oil plume,” Bachmann thundered with characteristic disgust.

A Random Thought: If Bush were still president, the BP CEO would have a Medal of Freedom by now.

It’s Not a Crime if You’re a Republican. – So Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduces an amendment making it a crime to lie about your military service, and just days later, a Republican senate candidate is caught misrepresenting his military service.

The question is: Does the bill apply to Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) in the same way it applied to the original target — Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D)? Would Kirk have committed a crime?

The answer, according to Hatch’s office, is no.

Ex-Florida Republican Chairman Charged with Grand Theft – The former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida was arrested Wednesday for allegedly running a scam bilking money from the party.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement took Jim Greer, 47, into custody at his Orlando-area home. He is charged with one count of organized scheme to defraud, four counts of felony grand theft and one count of money laundering, said William Shepherd, Florida’s statewide prosecutor.
Greer funneled party money to a company called Victory Strategies that he controlled and concealed his relationship with, investigators said. On Greer’s orders, the Republican Party of Florida paid Victory for campaign work, most of which was never performed, and gave the company a 10 percent cut of major donations. Greer got about $125,000 from the scam, Florida statewide prosecutor William Shepherd said.

Regards,

Jim

BP CEO Says There Are No Plumes of Oil; Disregards Scientists – During a tour of a BP PLC staging area for cleanup workers, CEO Tony Hayward said the company’s sampling showed “no evidence” that oil was suspended in large masses beneath the surface. He didn’t elaborate on how the testing was done.

Hayward said that oil’s natural tendency is to rise to the surface, and any oil found underwater was in the process of working its way up.

“The oil is on the surface,” Hayward said. “There aren’t any plumes.”

Scientists from several universities have reported plumes of what appears to be oil far from the site of BP’s leaking wellhead, which is more than 5,000 beneath the surface.

Those findings – from the University of South Florida, the University of Georgia, Southern Mississippi University and other institutions – were based on video images and initial observations of water samples taken in the Gulf over the last several weeks. They continue to be analyzed.
One researcher said Sunday that their findings are bolstered by the fact that scientists from different institutions have come to similar conclusions after doing separate testing.

“There’s been enough evidence from enough different sources,” said marine scientist James Cowan of Louisiana State University, who reported finding a plume last of oil last week about 50 miles from the spill site. Cowan said oil reached to depths of at least 400 feet.

Free Enterprise Isn’t Free – There are Huge Externalized Costs

John Stossel Calls for Repeal of Public Accommodations Section of Civil Rights Act – From Fox News:

KELLY: Rand Paul is a libertarian. You are a libertarian. He is getting excoriated for suggesting that the Civil Rights act — what he said was, “Look it’s got 10 parts, essentially; I favor nine. It’s the last part that mandated no discrimination in places of public accommodation that I have a problem with, because you should let businesses decide for themselves whether they are going to be racist or not racist. Because once the government gets involved, it’s a slippery slope.” Do you agree with that?

STOSSEL: Totally. I’m in total agreement with Rand Paul. You can call it public accommodation, and it is, but it’s a private business.

…

STOSSEL: because private businesses ought to get to discriminate. And I won’t won’t ever go to a place that’s racist and I will tell everybody else not to and I’ll speak against them. But it should be their right to be racist.

It’s time to hold FOX accountable

U.S. Kills Al-Qaeda’s Number 3 for Nine Thousandth Time – The US confirmed today that it has killed al-Qaeda’s number three for the nine thousandth time, setting a new world’s record for killing the number three man in a terrorist organization.

“No matter how many times you do it, it’s always a special feeling when you nail their number three,” a U.S. military official said today. “I’m sure I’ll feel this way when we do it for the 9001st time.”

The termination of al-Qaeda’s number three sets up a power vacuum within al-Qaeda, with candidates to replace the fallen Mustafa Abu al-Yazid scrambling to remove themselves from consideration.

According to one candidate within the terror group, “The words no al-Qaeda member ever wants to hear are, ‘Congratulations – you’re our new number three.'”

Regards,

Jim

The table below is mostly from an October 4, 2007 News Release from the conservative Tax Foundation. They point out that the richest 1% of the tax payers pay more in total taxes than the poorer 90 percent – those that make less than $103,912 a year. (These data are for tax year 2005.)

The last three rows of this table were extrapolated from the original table and added to show the bottom 90, 95 and 99 percentile groups. Adding these rows shows that the bottom 99 percent pay 54 percent more in taxes than the top 1 percent. I think the top 1 percent should pay as much in taxes as the bottom 99 percent – and it won’t cost them that much, see below.

What the Tax Foundation didn’t mention in the article, see new table below, is that the average income for the top 1% is $1,200,280 and the average income for everyone else is $45,064. No wonder the top 1% pay such a large portion of total taxes collected – they earn, on average, 27 times more than the bottom 99 percent and earn at least $364,657 a year. Factor in that their effective tax rate is only 2.4 times greater than the rest of us, and you can realize just how much empathy we should feel for them. (Data in this table were extrapolated from the one above.)

Making the richest 1 percent pay the same in total taxes as all the rest of us would raise their effective tax rate from 23.1 percent to 35.6 percent. At that rate, the average income for the mega rich, after paying taxes, would only be $773,039. The poorest among the top 1 percent would be left with just $237,077. How could they possibly survive? What real need would they have to give up?

As I wrote in a previous posting, “It’s time we all realize that … tax cuts favoring the very wealthy are not what America needs.”

Glenn Beck Attacks Obama’s Daughter – It took talk show host Glenn Beck all of two days to go from announcing that the families of politicians are a no-go zone for pundits — to mocking 11-year-old Malia Obama on the air.

During a press conference Thursday, President Barack Obama highlighted public concern over the Gulf Coast oil spill disaster by recounting an anecdote in which his 11-year-old daughter Malia peeked her head around the door and asked, “Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?”

But for talk show host Glenn Beck, the comment was an opportunity to mock Malia and suggest the Obamas’ education standards aren’t up to snuff.

“That’s the level of their education, that they’re coming to … daddy and saying ‘Daddy, did you plug the hole yet?'” Beck said on his radio show Friday.

Beck launched into a surprisingly long skit with his co-host Pat Gray, imitating Malia Obama’s voice as she asked a series of baffling questions of her “father.”

“Daddy, why do you hate black people so much?” Beck as Malia asks at one point.
“I’m part white, honey,” Gray responds as Obama.

In another segment, “Malia” says, “Daddy you’re a puppet. did you know that? … Mommy said your presidency is like a puppet show. Somebody has their hand in your back.”

On Wednesday, Beck told his radio audience, “Leave peoples’ families alone.” He had been referring to the recent feud between Sarah Palin and her new next-door neighbor, author Joe McGinniss, who is writing a book about Palin.

For some conservative commentators, the Obama children appear to be fair game. Last summer, the right-wing news forum Free Republic was criticized for allowing commenters to call Malia a “typical street whore” and “ghetto street trash” after she appeared in public wearing a peace sign.

Energy Villains In Your Government – Moving away from our addiction to oil seems like a difficult task, but when you see members of Congress fighting to maintain the status quo, it seems impossible. While the Gulf oil spill has given some pause on the expansion of oil drilling, it has emboldened others, who have used the spill to make a case for, of all things, expanded oil drilling. We’ve compiled seven of the worst clean energy offenders in Congress for their efforts to go out of their way to stand up for the oil industry and block clean energy legislation.

Lisa Murkowski – Lisa Murkowski is a ranking member on the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and she has a clear stance– her voting record shows her relentless efforts to clear paths for oil drilling while disregarding the consequences. In the past eight years, Murkowski has received $426,989 from the oil and gas industries, leading many to question her ulterior motives in pushing for more oil drilling. She has spoken out against the EPA regulating greenhouse gases from major industries under the Clean Air Act and created her own “Dirty Air Act,” which is slated to be voted on June 10. Murkowski has also called for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, stating that she would not support the newly-released American Power Act if it did not allow for it. Murkowski most recently blocked a bill to increase the liability cap for oil spills from $75 million to $10 billion.

 

John Boehner – John Boehner has made it his mission to stand in the way of energy reform. Just last year, Boehner attempted to block a vote on the American Clean Energy and Security Act by reading from the 300-page bill for more than an hour. Boehner has consistently voted down clean energy legislation, from investing in homegrown biofuels to tax credits for renewable energy. Similar to Landrieu, Boehner used the Gulf oil spill tragedy to draw attention to expanded drilling: ““This tragedy should remind us that America needs a real, comprehensive energy plan, like Republicans’ ‘all-of-the-above’ strategy,” Boehner said. This Sierra Club ad conveys Boehner’s cozy relationship with Big Oil.

 

Mary Landrieu – Mary Landrieu has had a mixed record on energy– all the way back in 1999, she voted yes to defund renewable and solar energy, and has voted in favor of oil and gas expansion on most issues, with the occasional vote for in favor of renewable energy. However, her commitment to expanding oil drilling was apparent when, even as the BP oil rig was gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening her state’s coastlines, Mary Landrieu insisted that we “not react with fear” and “not to retreat” from oil drilling expansion. “We must continue to drill,” Landrieu said in a speech.

 

Sam Graves – Sam Graves is currently serving his fourth term in the House of Representatives. In that time, he has repeatedly voted against legislation that promotes clean energy. He voted no on tax credits for renewable electricity in September of 2008, as well as on tax incentives for energy production and conservation earlier that year. He also voted no on enforcing limits on CO2 global warming pollution in June of 2009. And even amid the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, Graves made a statement promoting oil drilling:

“The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is a perfect example of how we can drill safely and in an environmentally responsible way on land we already control. ANWR is the size of South Carolina and it holds millions of barrels of oil. Contrary to what some might have you believe, we would only need to make a footprint the size of Kansas City International Airport within ANWR in order to access those reserves.”

 

Lamar Smith – Lamar Smith was elected to the House of Representatives in 1986. voted along the same lines as Graves on limiting CO2 emissions, renewable electricity, and energy production/conservation, in addition to voting against investing in homegrown biofuels. The Providence Journal reported in 2008 that Smith had written the Federal Aviation Administration in an effort to sabotage Cape Wind, the offshore wind farm that gained approval last month, by “bringing up the sort of bogus air-safety concerns that the Oyster Harbors Club crowd has pressed to protect members’ idea of the perfect summer view from their houses and yachts. Mr. Smith is a rich Texas congressman.” Smith allegedly spends most of his time at his Cape Cod residence.

 

Michele Bachmann – Michele Bachmann has made some wild assertions to further her agenda of continuing business as usual when it comes to energy. She was a leading advocate for the expansion of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve after gas prices hiked to $4/gallon in the summer of 2008. She went so far as to claim that drilling in the ANWR would be beneficial to the wildlife (caribou in particular): “Some suggestions are that perhaps we would see an enhancement of wildlife expansion because of the warmth of the pipeline,” Bachmann said in a radio interview. In 2008, Bachmann introduced the “Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act” to stop the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs, making baseless arguments that fluorescent light bulbs are more polluting. She voted against the American Clean Energy & Security Act and got herself a “People’s Choice” award on the League of Conservation Voters’ 2010 Dirty Dozen list, which targets candidates for Congress who consistently vote against clean energy in areas where LCV could have an impact. “Representative Bachmann’s landslide win as the ‘People’s Choice’ clearly shows voters are fed up with her over-the-top, anti-science rhetoric in which she continually parrots the talking points of Big Oil and other corporate polluters,” Tony Massaro, LCV Senior Vice President for Political Affairs, said.

 

Blanche Lincoln – Blanche Lincoln cosponsored Murkowski’s “Dirty Air Act that takes aim at EPA regulations on greenhouse gases. Lincoln has been the top recipient of oil and gas money in the Senate since 2005. Lincoln was honored at a Women in Government Relations soiree earlier this month, and one of the major sponsors was BP, along with other major oil companies including Shell and ConocoPhillips. Lincoln also made it onto the League of Conservation Voters’ Dirty Dozen list, and was recently targeted by the Sierra Club and Moveon.org for her support of Murkowski’s legislation and being sympathetic to polluters.

Palin’s Death Panel

The Crude Continues to Spew

Regards,

Jim