The Luckiest Man in Nevada

09 Wednesday Jun 2010

Posted by in Conservatives, Politics, Republicans

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I hope Harry Reid made a stop this morning at Caesar’ s Palace or the Golden Nugget and put down a very large wager on his favorite game of chance. In spite of approval ratings hovering in the 30’s, Sen. Reid has to feel like the luckiest man in the state of Nevada after the results of last night’s Republican primary contest to decide his challenger in November. Who woulda thunk that of the 2 leading candidates to go up against Sen. Reid the sane one was the “Chickens for Checkups” lady. Meet the winner, Sharron Angle:

“On her website — full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors — Angle declares: “Like a soldier going to war, I am fighting for my country, the Constitution and a free society.” And as part of this effort, Angle reportedly wants to go to the Senate to fight to privatize Social Security; store nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain; eliminate the federal income tax; pull the country out of the United Nations; and allow unlimited campaign contributions.

Angle has voiced support for Prohibition, believes the U.S. Department of Education is “unconstitutional,” and wants to ban nearly all abortions.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, a conservative paper, conducted a survey that identified Angle as the Nevada Assembly’s “Worst Member.” Twice.“

Running for Senator from Nevada on a platform of prohibition? Sounds like a winning issue to me. But there’s more, much more. From TPMDC:

“The peculiar ideology of Sharron Angle, the Republican nominee challenging Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada, is perhaps no better illustrated than by her embrace of the patriot group Oath Keepers, whose membership of uniformed soldiers and police take an oath to refuse orders they see as unconstitutional — including enforcement of gun laws, violations of states’ sovereignty, and “any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.”

Back in April, Angle told TPMDC she was a member of the Oath Keepers at a press gaggle in Washington. On Monday, we decided to call Angle’s campaign to confirm her relationship to the group. Angle’s husband, Ted, picked up the phone.

“We support what the organization stands for,” he told us. “Sharron does.”

More TPMDC:

“Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle earlier in her career spoke out strongly against fluoride… Angle, the tea party favorite who is taking on Sen. Harry Reid, tends to be skeptical of government programs, and her opposition to fluoridation of municipal water supplies back in the late 1990s is no exception.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported in April 1999 that the state assembly, of which Angle was a member, voted 26-16 for a bill that required fluoridation in two counties including the cities of Reno and Las Vegas… While another member of the Assembly suggested opponents of the measure were worried about the financial implications of fluoridation, the Review-Journal reported: “Angle said she simply does not like fluoride.” Angle added she believed most fluoride used in water supplies could contain “lead, arsenic, [or] mercury.”

Doo-wacka-doo-wacka-doo-wacka-doo-wacka-doo. (Apologies to Roger Miller).

With Gregg on Finance Reform Committee Prospects Aren’t Good

08 Tuesday Jun 2010

Posted by in economy, Financial Crisis, financial reform, financial regulation, lobbyists, Politics, special interests, too big to fail, Wall Street

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Financial reform is once again on the agenda as the House—Senate conference committee attempts to reconcile the differences between the 2 bills beginning on Thursday. This article from McClatchy doesn’t give me reason to be optimistic about the outcome:

“A group of lawmakers who are about to write an historic overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system has been stacked carefully with veteran compromisers — and one wild card.”

“Veteran compromisers.” To me, that translates into someone who doesn’t stand for anything. A typical politician with a moistened finger of one hand in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, while the other hand reaches for the largest campaign contribution.

“That’s Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., a flinty Yankee individualist who briefly was set to be President Barack Obama’s commerce secretary before he changed his mind. Gregg’s expected to be the leading proponent of GOP and financial sector views, and therefore a key player in shaping the final legislation.”

An “individualist” who is “expected to be the leading proponent of GOP and financial sector views?” Can you say oxymoron? More like a party-line hack who is in the pocket of the financial sector to the tune of $710,000 from financial industry PACs, and who has a 78% approval rating by the US Chamber of Commerce for his pro-business voting record.

“Gregg, who’s retiring from the Senate after this year, thinks some features of the legislation that initially passed the Senate and the House of Representatives amount to dangerous liberalism. He’s unenthusiastic about expanding government oversight of banks and other financial institutions, and creating a powerful new agency to protect consumers’ financial interests.”

In other words, Gregg is for the status quo. No new regulation necessary, leave it in the hands of private business. That’s worked so well in the Gulf of Mexico, why not do the same for Wall Street. “Dangerous liberalism?” Can it be any more dangerous than the hands-off, let the market fix itself attitude that nearly led to Great Depression, Part II?

“This bill doesn’t break down conservative-liberal. This bill breaks down populist-rational,” he said. He cited a desire in both parties to punish Wall Street and show voters that Congress can get tough with the financial sector, but he fears that could go too far.

Wrong, Senator. It breaks down along what’s in the best interest of the people vs. what’s in the best interest of the big bankers, and it’s pretty clear what side you come down on there. Go too far? These greedy SOBs nearly caused the collapse of our economy and  put millions of people out of work. Is there such a thing as going too far?

“Financial interests, which also fear the bill will overreach, hope Gregg can bridge differences. “He will help to serve as an honest broker to achieve consensus among the conferees,” said Scott Talbott, the chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, the trade group for big financial firms.

“Honest broker.” Right. As honest as $710,000 will allow. And as usual, Democrats are sending the fox an engraved invitation to the henhouse:

“Democrats say that not only will Gregg be invited in, he also could become a crucial voice as deliberations progress.”

Which tells me one of two things. Either Democrats have a serious case of amnesia and don’t remember that no matter what Republicans say, they are there to block what they can and weaken the rest until it amounts to nothing, or Democrats on the committee don’t want real reform and Gregg is their useful idiot.

I think the latter is more likely.

“How Do You Write a Check for Something Like This?”

02 Wednesday Jun 2010

Posted by in BP, Deepwater Horizon, Environment, Gulf Oil Spill, oil exploration

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That question, asked by a BP contract worker who took reporters from the New York Daily News into areas BP wants to keep off-limits, and this accompanying photo of a decomposing dolphin on Queen Bess Island, put in a nutshell the unfolding environmental nightmare along the Gulf Coast.


How do you write a check for something like this?

“When we found this dolphin it was filled with oil. Oil was just pouring out of it. It was the saddest darn thing to look at,” said a BP contract worker who took the Daily News on a surreptitious tour of the wildlife disaster unfolding in Louisiana.

His motive: simple outrage.

“There is a lot of coverup for BP. They specifically informed us that they don’t want these pictures of the dead animals. They know the ocean will wipe away most of the evidence. It’s important to me that people know the truth about what’s going on here,” the contractor said.

“The things I’ve seen: They just aren’t right. All the life out here is just full of oil. I’m going to show you what BP never showed the President.”…The grasses by the shore were littered with tarred marine life, some dead and others struggling under a thick coating of crude.”When you see some of the things I’ve seen, it would make you sick,” the contractor said. “No living creature should endure that kind of suffering.”

[…]

“Those pelicans are supposed to have white heads. The black is from the oil. Most of them won’t survive,” the contractor said.

“They keep trying to clean themselves. They try and they try, but they can’t do it.”

The contractor has been attempting to save birds and turtles.

“I saw a pelican under water with only its wing sticking out,” he said. “I grabbed it and lifted it out of the water. It was just covered in oil. It was struggling so hard to survive. We did what we could for it.

How do you write a check for something like this?

“He said he recently found five turtles drowning in oil. “Three turtles were dead. Two were dying and not dead yet. They will be,” he said. As the boat headed back amid the choppy waves, a pod of dolphins showed up to swim with the vessel and guide it to land…”They know they are in trouble. We are all in trouble,” the contractor said.

How does BP write a check for something like this? They can’t.

“Audacity” is the New “Uppity”

26 Wednesday May 2010

Posted by in Congress, financial reform, health care, Obama, Politics, Republicans

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President Obama held a meeting with Senate Republicans yesterday–no cameras present. I would assume GOP senators learned a lesson from the dressing-down their House counterparts took in January with cameras rolling and insisted on that. Afterward, Bob Corker of Tennessee and Pat Roberts of Kansas gave their versions of what transpired, and what they allegedly said to the president.

Corker spoke with Greg Sargent of The Plum Line:

“He got all uppity I felt like there was a degree of audacity in him being there today, after passing his third large partisan bill,” Corker told me, insisting Republicans had been stiff-armed by the White House on financial reform, health care, and the stimulus.

“I told him I felt like a prop afer the actions they had taken regarding bipartisanship,” Corker said. “It hit a nerve.” Corker added that Obama came back at him with “quite a lengthy response,” but he declined to share what, precisely, the president said.”

(Memo to President Obama: Limit your responses to Republican questions to short catchy phrases and words of no more than 2 syllables, they’re used to listening to Palin and get easily confused).

Hit a nerve, Bob? I can’t imagine why. Probably because you and your colleagues in the Senate have been nothing but road blocks to everything since day one of President Obama’s administration. (Latest case in point, Sen. Inhofe blocking the lifting of the liability cap on BP.) The president has taken a lot heat from his base for going too far in accommodating Republicans who in spite of those consolations have, with few exceptions, voted against everything. Yeah, I guess that statement might have “hit a nerve.”

Here’s what hits the GOP’s nerve. Their plan from Inauguration Day in January of 2009 was to block any and all legislation. In spite of their obstructionism, two major pieces  of the president’s agenda have been passed (the stimulus package and health care reform) and another (financial reform) is in conference committee.

What Sen. Roberts had to say is so ridiculous it’s barely worth a mention, but it’s a good example of the pervasive Republican attitude toward the president.

“He needs to take a Valium before he comes in and talks to Republicans,” Sen. Pat Roberts (Kan.) told reporters. “He’s pretty thin-skinned.”

Sen. Roberts, have a little respect please. At least try and fake it when you’re speaking to the national media and not at a Tea Party whinefest rally.

No BOP for Palin’s Mouth?

24 Monday May 2010

Posted by in Deepwater Horizon, Gulf Oil Spill, McCain, Politics, Sarah Palin

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If there is an afterlife, where the deeds done during one’s time on earth are the basis for either reward or punishment, I wouldn’t want to be one John Sidney McCain. His payment for unleashing upon an unsuspecting country the natural disaster known as Sarah Palin will surely be severe, and deservedly so.

To use a comparison to another ongoing national tragedy, Sen. McCain drilled a well in a remote area without any means of shutting off the flow if the worst-case scenario occurred. As is the case in the Gulf of Mexico, the blowout preventer on Palin’s mouth is broken and her ignorance will apparently continue to gush out and pollute our airwaves for years to come.

The latest from the egomaniacal, self-serving, self-aggrandizing, money-grubbing, ‘it’s all about me,’ funeral crashing, camera hound, that is the former half-term Governor of Alaska. The Deepwater Horizon of politics:

“Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul is feeling what it is like to be Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate said Sunday, comparing the media’s preoccupation with Paul’s recent statements about the 1964 Civil Rights Act to her own treatment in the press.

Palin said that Paul is seeing firsthand how “gotcha” politics work after the libertarian-leaning Republican spent days on defense spelling out his support for the Civil Rights Act and the government’s role in regulating how private businesses can deal with their customers.

“One thing that we can learn in this lesson that I have learned and Rand Paul is learning now is don’t assume that you can engage in a hypothetical discussion about constitutional impacts with a reporter or a media personality who has an agenda, who may be prejudiced before they even get into the interview in regards to what your answer may be — and then the opportunity that they seize to get you,” Palin told “Fox News Sunday.”

First of all Sarah, I doubt you can spell hypothetical, much less have an iota of an inkling of a clue as to what it means. Stick to simple words for simple minds please. Stuff like ‘You betcha’ and ‘drill, baby, drill.’

Moreover, Rand Paul and Sarah Palin are two of a kind. Whether it’s Paul spouting his views of a make-believe libertarian utopia to his Ayn Rand inspired followers, or Palin in her Tea Party cocoon where dim-witted crowds lap up her inane babblings, both seem to take offense, and run away, when asked to explain and defend their statements. Or in Palin’s case, when confronted with a tough, ruthless, agenda-driven, prejudiced interviewer like Katie Couric, and asked those “gotcha” questions like what newspapers do you read or name a Supreme Court decision.

BP to EPA: Screw You

22 Saturday May 2010

Posted by in BP, Deepwater Horizon, Environment, Gulf Oil Spill

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Just who’s in charge here? The EPA tells BP to use a “less toxic” dispersant. BP’s response? Screw you:

“BP has told the Environmental Protection Agency that it cannot find a safe, effective and available dispersant to use instead of Corexit, and will continue to use that chemical application to help break up the growing spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP was responding to an EPA directive Thursday that gave BP 24 hours to identify a less toxic alternative to Corexit — and 72 hours to start using it — or provide the Coast Guard and EPA with a “detailed description of the alternative dispersants investigated, and the reason they believe those products did not meet the required standards.”

BP spokesman Scott Dean said Friday that BP had replied with a letter “that outlines our findings that none of the alternative products on the EPA’s National Contingency Plan Product Schedule list meets all three criteria specified in yesterday’s directive for availability, toxicity and effectiveness.”

Dean noted that “Corexit is an EPA pre-approved, effective, low-toxicity dispersant that is readily available, and we continue to use it.”

Your move, EPA.

655,000 Gallons Later, EPA “Concerned” About Dispersants

20 Thursday May 2010

Posted by in BP, Deepwater Horizon, Environment, Gulf Oil Spill, Politics

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If we’ve learned anything at all from this Deepwater Horizon disaster, it’s the complete incompetence of every government agency anywhere near this cluster****. From the Department of the Interior, to the Minerals Management Service, and now extending to the EPA( Environmental Protection Agency), or  should that be the CPA ( Corporate Protection Agency). It would be funny if the consequences weren’t so dire.

“The Environmental Protection Agency informed BP officials late Wednesday that the company has 24 hours to choose a less toxic form of chemical dispersants to break up its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to government sources familiar with the decision, and must apply the new form of dispersants within 72 hours of submitting the list of alternatives.

The move is significant, because it suggests federal officials are now concerned that the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants could pose a significant threat to the Gulf of Mexico’s marine life. BP has been using two forms of dispersants, Corexit 9500A and Corexit 9527A, and so far has applied 600,000 gallons on the surface and 55,000 underwater.”

NOW they’re concerned? After 655,000 gallons of this crap have been dumped into the Gulf? It gets better (or worse). Apparently the EPA relied on BP’s own testing  before giving the OK:

“After BP conducted three rounds of testing, federal officials approved the use of underwater dispersants late last week…”

So the EPA didn’t see a problem with letting BP test and then dump an unprecedented amount of dispersant into the Gulf of Mexico? Dispersant  purchased from a company whose board of directors includes an 11-year member of the board at BP?

Add the name Lisa P. Jackson, EPA administrator, to the list of those who should be fired.

Goldman’s “Clients” Interests Always Come First” (Snicker)

20 Thursday May 2010

Posted by in economy, Financial Crisis, Goldman Sachs, too big to fail, Wall Street

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The giant vampire squid gets the gold mine:

“Goldman Sachs makes more money from trading than any other Wall Street firm. In the first quarter, the bank’s $7.39 billion in revenue from trading fixed-income, currencies and commodities dwarfed the $5.52 billion made by its closest rival, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp. In equities, Goldman Sachs’s $2.35 billion in revenue was about 50 percent higher than its nearest competitor.”

Their clients, whose “interests always come first” (now tell me the one about Goldilocks and the bears) get the shaft:

“Goldman Sachs Group Inc. racked up trading profits for itself every day last quarter. Clients who followed the firm’s investment advice fared far worse.

Seven of the investment bank’s nine “recommended top trades for 2010” have been money losers for investors who adopted the New York-based firm’s advice, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from a Goldman Sachs research note sent yesterday. Clients who used the tips lost 14 percent buying the Polish zloty versus the Japanese yen, 9.4 percent buying Chinese stocks in Hong Kong and 9.8 percent trading the British pound against the New Zealand dollar.”

And these are the people who want to get their hands on your 401k.

Oil Reaches Louisiana Coastal Marshes

20 Thursday May 2010

Posted by in BP, Deepwater Horizon, Environment, Gulf Oil Spill, Politics

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Is this what BP CEO Tony Hayward meant when he said “the overall environmental impact of this will be very, very modest?” Video from CBS News shows oil beginning to come ashore in the coastal marshes of Louisiana:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

And it’s only the beginning. This chart from McClatchy shows what could happen now that oil is starting to reach the Gulf of Mexico’s loop current: 

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

19 Wednesday May 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, BP, Clinton, Congress, Deepwater Horizon, Energy, Environment, Gulf Oil Spill, Obama administration, oil exploration, Politics

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I read the news today:

Arlen Specter switched parties because he couldn’t win the Republican primary, now he loses the Democratic primary to Joe Sestak. This just in Arlen, it’s not about party this year, the key word is “incumbent.” You’re 80 years old, you’ve been in the Senate for 30 years. Your time is up.

Mitch McConnell’s hand-picked candidate to succeed Jim Bunning got smoked by Tea Party favorite Rand Paul in the Republican senatorial primary in Kentucky. Once again, connections to the party establishment, regardless of which party, is the kiss of death this election season.

The latest example of why the anti-incumbent mood exists. Eight-term Congressman Mark Souder announced his resignation after an affair with one of his staffers was exposed.

I defer to the experts on the Gulf oil spill, but this smells like a cover-up to me:

“The Obama administration is actively trying to dismiss media reports that vast plumes of oil lurk beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, unmeasured and uncharted.

But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose job it is to assess and track the damage being caused by the BP oil spill that began four weeks ago, is only monitoring what’s visible — the slick on the Gulf’s surface — and currently does not have a single research vessel taking measurements below.”

As does this:

“BP, the company in charge of the rig that exploded last month in the Gulf of Mexico, hasn’t publicly divulged the results of tests on the extent of workers’ exposure to evaporating oil or from the burning of crude over the gulf, even though researchers say that data is crucial in determining whether the conditions are safe.

Moreover, the company isn’t monitoring the extent of the spill and only reluctantly released videos of the spill site that could give scientists a clue to the amount of the oil in gulf.”

Also on the spill:

“Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledged Monday that the federal government doesn’t have the resources or expertise to deal with an oil spill 5,000 feet below the sea, and must largely depend on oil companies to deal with an incident of such magnitude.”

So if the government agencies don’t have the “resources or expertise” to deal with the consequences of offshore drilling, why do they permit it to take place and just trust that the oil companies will be to “deal with an incident of such magnitude?” Sounds to me like expecting the arsonist to help put out the fire.

And finally, a grim milestone in Afghanistan.

“On Tuesday, the toll of American dead in Afghanistan passed 1,000, after a suicide bomb in Kabul killed at least five United States service members. Having taken nearly seven years to reach the first 500 dead, the war killed the second 500 in fewer than two.”

This following General McChrystal’s assessment that “nobody is winning” in Afghanistan and Secretary of State Clinton’s pledge to Hamid Karzai of “a long-term U.S. commitment” there.

Oh boy.