Big Oil: Big profits and tax cuts from us, to boot

How much is enough? The top five oil companies in the country raked in $70 billion--that's billion--in profits the first HALF of this year. These are some of the most profitable companies in the nation and so, the world. But here's a dirty little secret they don't want us to emphasize--they get tax subsidies. Here's another not-so-secret secret--the Republicans and Right Wingers have been fighting in the last few months to have these same wealthy companies KEEP those tax subsidies--tax breaks. "Big Oil" is sqealing like a stuck pig, too, over the mere POSSIBILITY that they might lose $400 million in subsidies. It's time to stand up, folks. It's time we speak out. This is insanity. We're being gouged at the pump and then giving them tax breaks, to boot. Sound sensible to you? Links: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/big-oil-profits_n_913452.html; http://consumerist.com/2011/04/big-oil-companies-sucked-up-much-higher-profits-than-they-did-a-year-ago.html; http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/04/28/207983/big-oil-profits/

The Gulf's fine. BP told us so

Oh, yeah?

Officials remain baffled over source of oil slick as Louisiana coastline is oiled again

Suckers.

Link to original story:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110322/ts_yblog_thelookout/officials-remain-baffled-over-source-of-oil-slick-as-louisiana-coastline-is-oiled-again

Dolphin deaths on the Gulf Coast

Scientists are doing the work now on dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico--it seems 53 of them have washed up on beaches dead when the norm is far lower at 2 per year, from what I've read.

Scientists scrutinize rise in baby dolphin deaths

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Scientists are trying to figure out what killed 53 bottlenose dolphins - many of them babies - so far this year in the Gulf of Mexico, as five more of their carcasses washed up Thursday in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

It's likely to be months before they get back lab work showing what caused the spontaneous abortions, premature births, deaths shortly after birth and adult deaths said Blair Mase, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's stranding coordinator for the Gulf Coast.

Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, said he'd never seen anything like the calf deaths, or found word of anything like it in 30 years of records from his area - Alabama, Mississippi and east Louisiana.

I have to say, however, that, given the whole oil spill ordeal and the dispersants put on the Gulf, it seems difficult to believe that there wouldn't be a correlation between these deaths and the nightmare that was the oil spill. 

No conclusion, for sure and no "presumed guilty" but it sure seems highly likely, don't you think?

For now, we'll stay tuned.

Links:  http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEAD_DOLPHINS?SITE=JRC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wildlife/scientists-investigating-dolphin-deaths-in-gulf-say-bp-oil-spill-is/1153647

Things we need to remember from 2010

Sure, it's one thing to "move on" and get on with the new year and that's fine but there are things from this year just past we need to remember, in part so they're handled and the people are not forgotten.  In part, too, so people who are responsible aren't let "off the hook" for their responsibilities.

Herewith, then, are some of the biggest:

--In January of last year, the desperately poor people of Haiti were struck by a devastating earthquake, from which they are still recovering.  They deserve to not be forgotten;

--The BP oil disaster which began at the end of April.  We certainly can't forget this happened.  We can't forget the devastation, both natural and economic, at least, that it reeked on the Gulf region.  We can't forget that so many millions of barrels of oil gushed into the area and we can't forget that it's still down there, doing more harm.  We have to hold BP responsible for all the damage inflicted, and truly for years;

--We can't forget the April earthquake that struck the island Sumatra in Indonesia and the devastation that wrought.  These people need our help--the help of all of us in the world;

--We can't forget the October earthquake on that same island of Sumatra and for the same reasons as above;

--Then there was the October tsunami that struck--again--Indonesia.  These people had a rough, rough year;

--Then there was Hurricane Tomas that then struck already-hurting Haiti.  It's crucial we don't forget--and so, abandon--the Haitian people.

--We need to remember that our health care system is badly, badly broken and needs fixing.  Too many big businesses are sucking far too much money out of our personal, individual accounts and out of the national budgets.  That and too many people are either going without care or simply, worst case scenario, dying.  It's badly fixed and needs fixing and as soon as possible.  What little remedy we got this year with the Health Care Reform Act of 2010 should absolutely not be revoked and should, instead, be augmented with more stipulations, beginning with a "public option" for insurance;

--Finally, we need to remember that we're all Americans and that we're in a bit of one heckuva bad economy right now and that we need to be Americans and work together to solve our problems.  And for you and me, the "person on the street", if you will, that's all well and good but what we really need to get in this new year is representatives in government--particularly in the US House of Representatives--that want and need our government to work for all of us, the people, and not just for the representatives and not simply against the opposing political party.  We don't have enough time on our clock to waste with in-fighting between these political parties.

There is no doubt more but I thought these the "biggest of the big" and things that needed to be kept in mind, in case we can help any or all of these people in the new year.

It seems crazy that we fight all these obscene wars around the world when we should be taking all that manpower, materiel and just plain money and start just helping each other with all the natural disasters we face each year, let alone the poverty, homelessness, disease and starvation.

But that would make too much sense, right?

Let's hope it's a happy new year, indeed.

Links:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Tomas_(2010)
http://yearinreview.yahoo.com/2010/us_natural_disasters#Natural Disasters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:2010_natural_disasters
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100905151748AAONyZk
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69P0QN20101026
http://sickothemovie.com/checkup/

Some Hallowe'en education from Bill Maher

Oct. 29, 2010 New Rule: No Tea Party Halloween

It can't get any better said than that.

Sadly true.

The Final lesson from Deepwater Horizon and the Gulf

Let's face facts, kids--BP won. While watching the news this morning, I saw one of their ads, showing a Black woman--from Louisiana herself, she said--doing her best job to make sure the oil slick mess would be cleaned up and all done right and well. Right then, I knew BP had won. Though they had soiled and spoiled hundreds of square miles of the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf coast beaches and killed untold amounts of sea life, they are successfully painting the picture on TV and in the media that they are the "good guys" in all this and that they've "done right" and good by everyone in the Gulf and America. Forget their short-sighted money saving and carelessness that caused all this pollution and killing of wildlife, they tell that they're cleaning up the Gulf and treating everyone down there "A-okay" so, gosh, what's your problem, America? So they'll get away with this debacle. Indeed, they apparently already have. And it will happen again. Maybe by BP and maybe not but it will happen again. Americans just don't learn from history. Or facts.

Quote of the day--on the disappearing intellectual

In a media scape and public sphere that view criticism, dialog and thoughtfulness as a liability, such anti-intellectuals abound, providing commentaries that are nativist, racist, reactionary and morally repugnant. But the premium put on ignorance and the disdain for critical intellectuals is not monopolized by the dominant media, it appears to have become one of the few criteria left for largely wealthy individuals to qualify for public office. One typical example is Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who throws out inanities such as labeling the Obama administration a "gangster government." Bachmann refuses to take critical questions from the press because she claims that they unfairly focus on her language. She has a point. After all, it might be difficult to support statements such as the claim that "the US government used the census information to round up the Japanese [Americans] and put them in concentration camps." Another typical example can be found in Congressman Joe Barton's apology to BP for having to pay for damages to the government stemming from its disastrous oil spill. This "upscaling of ignorance" gets worse. Richard Cohen, writing in The Washington Post about Sen. Michael Bennett, was shocked to discover that he was actually well-educated and smart but had to hide his qualifications in his primary campaign so as to not undermine his chance of being re-elected. Cohen concludes that in politics, "We have come to value ignorance." He further argues that the notion that a politician should actually know something about domestic and foreign affairs is now considered a liability. Link to original post (good, important read): http://www.truth-out.org/the-disappearing-intellectual-age-economic-darwinism61287

The price of a gallon of gas

We need to transition to clean fuel, that's all there is to it and we need to get at it as soon as possible. The country that masters this technology first, will have a significant advantage indefinitely. THAT's the kind of war--a technological one--that we need to win. Have a great weekend, y'all.

Republicans (and a lotta honkies) aren't gonna' like this

Don't look now but President Obama got some "wins" this week, folks. The oil spill in the Gulf is stopped (we're pretty sure) and BP is still handing out money and trying to clean up its image, at the same time--and that's all good for this President. Added to that, we're getting the last of our combat troops out of Iraq just now (well, except for the 50,000 Dick Cheney always wanted over there indefinitely, to secure our oil supply). And then, finally today, as if that weren't enough, as if there weren't enough things going right for this President, it's been announced this morning that Israel and the Palestinians are close to resuming peace talks, thanks to Secretary of State Clinton, this White House and administration, along with, no doubt, a lot of other people. Sure, we're still going to heck in a handbasket in a lot of ways--economically, above most all others it seems--but for a week of news, that's pretty good stuff for a President. Maybe he can even enjoy his weekend and his 10 days of "r and r" out at Martha's Vineyard. Have a great weekend, y'all. Links to posts: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama; http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_us_mideast

Quote of the day--on the Senate and the energy bill going through now

"This is a political commercial bill," said of the efforts on energy. "We do them too. We do political commercial amendments. This is a political commercial bill. This is 'Republicans love BP.' They won't help clean up the Gulf. They want to defend their Big Oil buddies. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And we're going to have our own oil spill bill, showing we do want to clean it up, blah, blah, blah, blah." --Senator Lindsey ("I'm not gay") Graham (R-SC)

Quote of the day--on our mistaken direction

When a dictatorial president takes us to ill-begotten wars, the solution becomes simply to find a better president -- as if the problem were one of leadership rather than an underlying structural impetus to make war. When those wars go badly, both in fact and perception, we announce a “surge” that will escalate an already-lost conflict in an attempt to somehow “win” it. Better technology is the answer to too much technology. A new pill can cure the ailments produced by the pills we’ve been taking. Weeds and pests become resistant to our biocides, so let’s make them even stronger -- and the same logic goes for our antibiotics. The economy crashes and consumes vast resources, so we’ll prop it up with an infusion of even more resources. And on and on. Link to original post: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/20-1

More proof of why we need government, regulation and corporate oversight

In Monday's hearing before a joint panel from the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy (formerly the Minerals Management Service), Richard Godfrey, a lawyer for BP, testified that a September 2009 audit showed there was “overdue planned maintenance considered excessive—390 jobs amounting to 3,545 man hours.” Link to original post: http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/bp-attorney-rig-had-390-overdue-maintenance-items

More weak media coverage on the BP Gulf spill

The big story this Monday morning from "big media" that all the outlets seem to be repeating.. uh, covering...is that BP says their "Oil cap will be attached today." Okay, fine. But what they DON'T tell us is that it's been DISCONNECTED SINCE SATURDAY SO GUESS WHERE THE OIL IS GOING, FOLKS. Right, straight into the Gulf. LOTS more oil. LOTS more tar balls. Lots more oil slicks. Then, that's not enough, there's also this: "The BP executive was careful to keep expectations grounded, stressing that once the cap is in place, it will take days to know whether it can withstand the pressure of the erupting oil and feed it through pipes to surface ships." Then they add this: "The testing should last about 48 hours..." Right. Two days of testing. Again, keep in mind, in the meantime, GUESS WHERE THE OIL IS GOING? Lest we get overly optimistic, they add the following capper in the article: "Even if the tests show the cap is successfully holding in the oil, it will not be the final fix for the blown well. That will have to wait until one of two relief wells reaches the leaking well from underground and can inject heavy drilling mud and cement to form a permanent plug. BP expects one relief well will do the job, but it's drilling a second as a backup. Officials have offered varying estimates for when that work will be done, but mid-August is the most common timeframe. Just to be a total party-pooper and put the ultimate damper on your Monday, starting your workweek, scientists are postulating that BP's little mess down there in the Gulf may be cataclysmic for life--and humankind--in general: "...the BP oil spill could release massive amounts of methane gas and, as an end result, blow out the entire seabed, leading to “massive venting” and large fissures in the sea bottom. This, in turn, would kill us all just as other mass extinctions wiped out life on earth during similar ruptures 251 million years ago and 55 million years ago. The bottom line: BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling operation may have triggered an irreversible, cascading geological Apocalypse that will culminate with the first mass extinction of life on Earth in many millions of years. You should go to this second link, below, and read about this as it documents that some of the events are already beginning, they believe. Here's hoping the scientists are wrong. Happy Monday, folks. Link to original posts: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100712/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-have-triggered-a-world-killing-event

Inside the American Petroleum Institute

In defense of "Big Oil"

Is there anyone for whom this doesn't seem true?

As a nation, we are becoming more and more accustomed to a sense of helplessness. We no longer rise to the great challenges before us. It’s not just that we can’t plug the oil leak, which is the perfect metaphor for what we’ve become. We can’t seem to do much of anything. --Bob Herbert, columnist, The New York Times Link to original quote here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/opinion/22herbert.html?src=me&ref=general

"Peak oil": here already? (guest post)

After BP oil spill, 'peak' oil seems nearer than ever By David R. Francis David R. Francis Mon Jun 21, 12:23 pm ET .The oil that's flooded into the Gulf of Mexico has created big concerns about the environmental and economic damage. Another serious outcome has gotten far less attention: peak oil. By prompting President Obama to suspend deep-water drilling in US offshore waters, the Gulf oil spill is pushing up the date at which the world's conventional oil production peaks. By itself, the United States suspension would bring forward that date only a little. But if other nations with offshore oil output or potential also stop risky offshore exploration and drilling, it could speed the arrival of peak oil at a more alarming rate. Without alternative supplies of energy to offset it, a decline in oil production would send shock waves through the world, rattling economies and politics alike. Competition for resources could be fierce. In a geological sense, the world is still awash in oil. The US Geological Survey estimates 3,000 billion barrels of conventional crude are buried in the world, about a 46-year supply if no more oil is found, according to the National Center for Policy Analysis, a public-policy research firm in Dallas. The problem is getting oil out of the ground. Much oil is inaccessible – or so expensive to drill that it's not feasible even if oil prices surged. Sometimes the environmental risks (think BP's Deepwater Horizon fiasco) may be too high. Estimates vary on when oil production will climax. Take your pick. Peak oil: •Happened five years ago, holds Matthew Simmons, chairman emeritus of Simmons & Co. International, a Houston investment-banking firm for the energy industry. •Will be reached within five years – or "we may have already reached it," says Richard Miller, a London consulting geologist who up until 2008 worked for BP preparing private reports on prospects for peak oil. •Will happen around 2025, according to Leo Drollas, chief economist of the Centre for Global Energy Studies in Lon­don. He figures the world has 6 million barrels per day (b.p.d.) of unused conventional oil output capacity, about 4 million of that in Saudi Arabia. In addition, Canada has about 170 billion barrels in its oil sands, and Vene­zuela has some 400 billion barrels of heavy oils, more than Saudi Arabia's conventional oil reserves. A lot more oil could be discovered on land if, say, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, and Venezuela offered reasonable financial terms for international oil companies to come in, Dr. Drollas maintains. Considering the nationalism prevalent in such countries, an open-door policy for foreign oil companies "isn't going to happen," says Dr. Miller. Furthermore, he notes that output from existing oil fields is declining at a rate of 2 million to 3 million b.p.d. a year. Usually production starts to fall after about a third of the oil has been extracted. In the Gulf of Mexico, the decline can be fast. Another major BP platform, Thunder Horse, was brought into production 18 months ago at 250,000 b.p.d. It was already down to 80,000 b.p.d. before being recently shut down for maintenance, says Mr. Simmons. More than 700 other platforms in the Gulf produce an average of only 40 b.p.d. (The costs of disposing of a platform are large.) Typically, production losses are offset by new finds. The International Energy Agency has calculated that it would take the discovery of six new fields the size of those in Saudi Arabia to maintain current world oil output through 2030, Miller says. "I don't know where they [the fields] are hiding," he adds. •David R. Francis writes a weekly column. Link to original post: http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100621/cm_csm/307446

Quotes from and on BP's--and America's--Gulf oil spill

--Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that the spill, which is ravaging beaches and wildlife, will not be contained until the leak is fully plugged and that even afterward "there will be oil out there for months to come." The disaster, which began with an oil rig explosion in mid-April, will persist "well into the fall," Allen said. A containment cap placed on the gusher near the sea floor trapped about 441,000 gallons of oil Saturday, BP spokesman Mark Proegler said, up from around 250,000 gallons of oil Friday. It's not clear how much is still escaping; an estimated 500,000 to 1 million gallons of crude is believed to be leaking daily. --BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward: "We're going to clean up the oil, we're going to remediate any environmental damage and we are going to return the Gulf coast to the position it was in prior to this event," he told the BBC. CG Adm Allen on "Fox News Sunday" that he doesn't "want to create any undue encouragement" and that "we need to underpromise and overdeliver." The oil is coating and miring waterfowl in the sticky mess, and dead birds and dolphins are washing ashore. Scientists say the wildlife death toll remains relatively modest, though, because the Deepwater Horizon rig was 50 miles off the coast and most of the oil has stayed in the open sea. The oil has steadily spread east, washing up in greater quantities in recent days. Small tar balls have washed up as far east as Fort Walton Beach, about a third of the way across the Florida Panhandle. Government officials estimate that roughly 23 million to 49 million gallons have leaked into the Gulf and say they are using a variety of strategies to curb its spread. "What we're doing right now is bringing all the skimming equipment in the United States that's not being used for anything else and bringing it to bear down there," Allen said on ABC's "This Week." At Pensacola Beach, Buck Langston and his family took to collecting globs of tar instead of sea shells on Sunday morning. They used improvised chopsticks to pick up the balls and drop them into plastic containers. Ultimately, the hoped to help clean it all up, Langston said. "Yesterday it wasn't like this, this heavy," Langston said. "I don't know why cleanup crews aren't out here." With no oil response workers on Louisiana's Queen Bess Island, Plaquemines Parish coastal zone management director P.J. Hahn decided he could wait no longer, pulling an exhausted brown pelican from the oil, slime dripping from its wings. "We're in the sixth week, you'd think there would be a flotilla of people out here," Hahn said. "As you can see, we're so far behind the curve in this thing." Link to original post: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100606/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_1063 For photos of the after effects of the spill: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_sc2694

Quote of the day--where we are now

“We are staring into our future and it does not work. The gush of filth” (BP’s Gulf Oil spill) “is a reminder that we have surrendered our independence to a technology we cannot master. Our energies are misdirected to expensive foreign wars whose purposes grow ever more obscure. We rail at one another in “cultural’ clashes irrelevant to our real problems.” “Meanwhile, the clockwork precision of our classical constitution has ground to a halt—depending as it does on consensus that no longer exists. Taking the long view, this is how republics die. ‘Someone’ clearly has to do ‘something.’ What do you propose?” --“Tony” from an article in yesterday’s New York Times, “Generations in the Balance” Link to original post: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/opinion/20judt.html?th&emc=th

Top 10 Dumbest Quotes About the Gulf Oil Spill

The Most Ridiculous and Delusional Statements About BP's Oil Spill Disaster

By Daniel Kurtzman, About.com Guide

1. "We're sorry for the massive disruption it's caused their lives. There's no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back." —BP chief executive Tony Hayward, on the oil spill disaster that claimed 11 lives and has spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, May 31, 2010

2. "I think the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest." —Tony Hayward, interview with Sky News television, May 18, 2010

3. "What better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig? I'm just noting the timing, here." —Rush Limbaugh, suggesting that "environmentalist whackos" deliberately blew up the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in order to stop offshore drilling, April 29, 2010

4. "Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country's energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It's catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it." —Sarah Palin, blaming the Gulf oil spill disaster on "extreme environmentalists," Facebook message, June 2, 2010

5. "The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there. It's natural. It's as natural as the ocean water is." —Rush Limbaugh, May 3, 2010

6. "There's a good question today if you are standing on the Gulf, and that is: Where is the oil?" —FOX News anchor Brit Hume, scoffing at the BP oil spill disaster, May 16, 2010

7. "What I don't like from the president's administration is this sort of, 'I'll put my boot heel on the throat of BP. I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business. I've heard nothing from BP about not paying for the spill. And I think it's part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it's always got to be someone's fault instead of the fact that sometimes accidents happen." —Rand Paul, the conservative Tea Party candidate who won the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky, May 21, 2010

8. "From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented." —Texas Gov. Rick Perry, May 3, 2010

9. "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume." —Tony Hayward, May 14, 2010

10. Yeah, of course I am." —Tony Hayward, when asked if he sleeps at night, Forbes, May 18, 2010

Link to original post:
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/stupidquotes/a/gulf-oil-spill-quotes.htm