Daily Topics - Wednesday - June 2 2010
By louisehartmann
Quote: "Our oceans are dying, and without life in our oceans, life on land will perish." -- Dr. Keith Martin, Member of Parliament-Vancouver Island, Canada
Hour One - Who should Eric Holder send to prison? Activist & Attorney Mike Papantonio www.ringoffireradio.com
Plus....Republicans want Billionaires to only pay 15% income tax "to protect minorities and fight cancer"
and....under CAFTA a mining company is SUING El Salvador!!
Hour Two - When are Republicans going to stop whitewashing Bush's letting 3000 people die on 9/11, 1000 die in Katrina, and millions of lives destroyed to "stimulate our economy with war" - by using phrases like "Obama's Katrina"??? Dan Gainor www.businessandmedia.org
Hour Three - The BP Homicide and Ecocide shows the failure of Libertarian and Objectivist ideas...right? Alex Epstein www.aynrand.org
Plus LABOR SEGMENT - More toxic crap for kids from China...just another reason to bring jobs back to America!! Scott Paul Executive Director-Alliance for American Manufacturing www.americanmanufacturing.org
Comments
#2
Tom Engelhardt mentioned two books that will be out in the fall. Andrew Bacevich and Chalmers Johnson have written these books. We have brilliant minds who can resolve our problems but who is listening and reading about the great ideas and books? We seem to be a nation filled with dunces and stupidity.
#3
Although I'm completely disgusted with BP, I'm almost feeling sorry for them. The failure of their dome, was sort of strange, the insertion tube just couldn't be taken seriously any way, but the saw binding on them halfway through the pipe cut, that's just sad.
I'm still wondering why, if they want to cap the pipe that close to the pipe flange coupling, they didn't try to unbolt (or cut) the bolts first then bolt their new assembly to the existing flange.
Just seems to be a logical way to make the connection.
N
#4
I hope that God will welcome me into heaven. If I am in heaven, I will look down upon our nation with a heavy heart. Can heaven really be a happy place with all the pain and suffering that I will witness for the United States of Hell and for all of the other countries?
#5
I do not feel sorry for BP. I feel sorry for all the people whose livelihood is shattered and for all the dead animal and plant life.
#6
We are both predator and prey.
#7
THOM:
While I agree that we do not need a Conserva-DEM in the White House, President Barak Obama IS a Conserva-DEM.
Rahm is only a symptom of the issue . . . It is like losing a leg to gangrene and complaining that your toe nails are turning blue.
#8
re: Aerosol word equivalent for underwater, Atomizing comes to mind (at least its a far more ominous word to use, word associates with Atomic Bomb).
Sounds scary to me, "THEY'RE ATOMIZING THE OIL IN THE GULF" just sounds volatile saying it out loud.
N
#9
Too big to be held accountable.
This has to end, for all parties that can be said about (especially political hacks).
N
#10
OH give me an f'n break Mr. Gainor, if Bush & Dick were in charge right now, they would be colluding with BP to cover up everything. Media outlets wouldn't be able to get within 50 miles of the coast let alone seeing the oil on the water. Just like they put a media black out on Galveston when a hurricane wreaked havoc there.
What an unbelievable statement.
N
#11
@Nels,
I think the correct word is, "Emulsify." Or to create an "Emulsion."
#12
Dan Gainor mentions only the oil companies are “in this together” . . . while spewing talking points that are largely FALSE or off topic. Listen to what he is actually saying. It sounds as if Gainor is emotionally stressed. Is it just my listening or has Dan gone screechy? The being faced with the catastrophic failure of one personal philosophy can be stressful . . .
Oh . . . Yeah . . . Sorry. Now for the disclaimer: I am sure that Dan Gainor is a good person and kind to animals . . . Although, perhaps, only by mistake . . . Because as a strict Libertarian living in collection of individuals, the feelings and thoughts of other apparently animated human shaped beings are totally superfluous to the only human that exists in his reckoning . . . himself.
#13
Leaving this oil to leak for two years is an impractical conspiracy theory. After about six months or so, whether or not its still going, the public will tire of the story and stop paying attention. Besides, if its going on that long, the oil companies get weaker and weaker on their position. Case in point, what's the latest you've heard about Tea Partiers?
N
#14
BP just hired Dark Sith Lord Cheney’s Press Secretary . . .
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/bp_hires_former_dick_cheney_spox_to_run_pr_ops.php
#15
By the way, what's the latest estimate on oil spewing from the pipe now? Obviously they have succeed in increasing the flow, so how much more flow is there?
N
#16
I think we can agree that the Dittoheads who listen to and agree with El Rushbo have all had "Limbaughtomies."
#17
Eric Holder’s DoJ carries the Baby Bush Administration’s water yet again:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/bush_era_us_attorney_cleared_of_wrongdoing.php
#18
A Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Wal-Mart) ad I can get behind:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/anti-lincoln-ad-attacks-big-oil-blanche-video.php
#20
Hi Thom, remember when you were in the north suburbs of Chicago, I told you our congressman Mark Kirk was somewhat disingenuous (shall we say). Turned out this last one was a doozy. We've been reporting on this for two weeks. Please check out the blog: www.ellenofthetenth.blogspot.com.
#21
rladlof, I just have to say, Cheney is no Sith Lord, he's more of a Hutt Boss. Just like Jabba, fat, cruel and lazy, with is pet Salacious Bush cackling away while sitting cozily by his masters ass. Making him into a Sith is just an insult to the Sith (even though they are fictitious group).
Trust me, just picture Jabba and Salacious and super impose Cheney and Bush's faces on them in your mind, you'll know instantly that I've got something here.
N
#22
@MAXROT: I have always considered Jabba to be a minor petty thug of the John “The Boner” Boehner ilk . . . Lots of threats and shady-arse deals but not big delivery.
Cheney, a fearful little man who hid in dark places and wholesale killed folk through inaction and the control of government . . . seems so much more the Senator/Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine with a Bonzo the Chimp playing Darth Vader.
#23
Epstein makes the point that a congregate of citizens should examine an industry with regard to the potential that the industry may cause more harm than good. I think that's socialism.
#24
@rladlof, well I can see a reasonable argument for Cheney being Palpatine-ish, Bush though just doesn't make a good Vadar analogy, for one, Vadar didn't shirk military duty.
I still think Jabba is a reasonable comparison, Han Solo was 10x more worried about Jabba than he was about the Empire and he had to know he had a price on his head after aiding in the Death Star Destruction. He could hide from the Empire, but not Jabba, so that tells me, Jabba was no petty thug. I would even postulate that the bounty hunters at his disposal are no different than Blackwater being at Cheney's beck and call. Besides, Cheney likes to be compared to the Sith, it makes him feel powerful. I wonder if his wife would gleefully give John Stewart a Jabba doll if he oft made the Jabba/Cheney comparison... I doubt it. Anyway I also think Cheney is a petty thug when all is said and done.
N
#25
@MAXROT: Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palpatine
#26
Japan politics shaken by PM Hatoyama's resignation
Hatoyama said he would resign because of a funding scandal and his failure to keep a campaign promise to move Marine Corps Air Station Futenma off the southern island of Okinawa, a flip-flop that infuriated Okinawans and defined Hatoyama for many Japanese voters as a weak leader unable to stand up to Washington.
"He created a lot of distrust, both within Japan and in Washington," said Tomoaki Iwai, a professor of political science at Tokyo's Nihon University. "I think it was the base issue that brought him down, and the funding scandal sealed his fate."
--------
I had heard that the sinking of the South Korean vessel had caused the Japanese PM to allow the US to keep the base.
-------
#27
How is the Gulf Oil spill, the State of Florida and Al Gore related? The answer is not global warming, the answer is the 2000 Presidential election and the theft of the American presidency by George W. Bush and the U.S. Supreme Court (and the Republican Party in the State of Florida). If Al Gore was elected President in 2000, there would have been no secret Dick Cheney energy meetings or watering down of environmental/gas exploration regulations. As an environmental advocate, a President Gore would have stood for stricter regulations and oversight on oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere minimizing the likelihood of a catastrophe like the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Unfortunately for the (Republicans and others in the) State of Florida, which is now in the pathway of the giant oil plumes, the chickens have come home to roost. Maybe the Florida Republicans have saved some of those dimpled chads to soak up all the oil coming their way.
#28
There's a poll on Huffington Post today, following a short article that summarizes a longer piece in which Jon Friedman anoints Brian Williams "the Water Cronkite of the 21st Century". The poll question asked whether or not you agree with that assertion.
I do not agree, because I feel that the current news-for-profit media environment prohibits the kind of unbiased journalism we came to expect from Mr. Cronkite. Thus, until and unless the wall between the network's ad sales departments and their news divisions is rebuilt, there CANNOT be another Walter Cronkite.
#29
re: #27: before we beatify Al Gore, does anybody remember the first official act of the "Environmental Vice President"?.....He went to China to sell them a few millon Buicks.
#30
So, when are we going to put God on trial for all of these attacks?
#31
@Gene: I understand Cheney and Rove are drafting indictments as we speak....
#32
@rladlof, I have read through that wiki and counter with this one. Just read the first paragraph under the heading: Characterization. (You can read the whole page if you want, but this one paragraph emphasizes and adds to my point all the more)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabba_the_hutt
N
#33
Epstein doesn’t seem to understand that regulatory agencies are there for a reason, and it is certainly serves more purpose that to “restrict private liberties”. I work in civil engineering, for example. Personally, I’d prefer to refer to regulatory standards and deal with a regulatory review board than to go to Epstein’s magic civilian court system to prove a design is safe, or worse just design something by the seat of my pants and have someone end up getting killed because of it.
Without regs, what are we supposed to do… make it up as we go along? Calculate everything by hand that you’d usually just grab the regs for and look up?
If I’m installing fire hydrants and a fire chief is buying new fire hoses, how do we know what sizes to get and how far apart the hydrants need to be if its not regulated? Oh, and the fire chief would sure need to beef up his staff, because I can guarantee you that there wouldn’t be a heck of a lot of sprinkler systems (or ever smoke detectors for that matter) in buildings if there weren’t regulations specifying that they had to be there.
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Please enjoy reading his speech!
http://original.antiwar.com/engelhardt/2010/06/01/living-in-the-51st-state-of-denial/