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Raspberries, Keith ... really? Not crosshairs like Sister Sarah's “lock-and-load” to thin out the liberal herd Facebook page? Must be those conservative management suits freaking that your viewers are as unhinged as the Tebaggers and half-witted Beckistas. Aw, shoot.Saturday, May 15, 2010
Keith Flattens Sister Sarah for Cheap Catty Shot at Rachel Maddow
Hey you know, when Rachel and by extension, MSNBC, are singled out for moronic ad hominem attacks You’ve struck a nerve, even if one has to endure the awful trailer-trash diction. Oh yes, that woman is an idiot.
Friday, May 14, 2010
BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Disaster Ticker Added
Scroll down the right column to check the second-by-second size of the oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico from the BP/Deepwater Horizon/Halliburton oil rig explosion, based on best estimates, from the most conservative (toss 'em) to the worst case predictions (closer to the truth). Experts now estimate the oil spill is at least 10 times worst than initial corporate and Coast Guard figures, or roughly the Exxon Valdez spill every five days. When President Obama compelled BP to release underwater video of the actual spill, experts were able to add to satellite imagery and other calculations to get a much more accurate picture of the volume being released -- tragically, it is pushing the worst case predictions.
This is a corporate crime of staggering proportions, beginning with the criminal negligence which resulted in the loss of eleven lives, and it must not go unpunished. To the ultimate extent of the law yet to be written. Senate and House Big Oil prostitutes, Lisa Murkowski, David Vitter, Mary Landrieu, Dan Burton -- to name a few -- step aside and stay out of the people's way. This is a crisis, a human tragedy, and an ecological catastrophe. Senator Murkowski, in particular, coming to the defense of corporate criminals as you have, is itself a criminal action.
Here is the video BP didn't want us to see:
This is a corporate crime of staggering proportions, beginning with the criminal negligence which resulted in the loss of eleven lives, and it must not go unpunished. To the ultimate extent of the law yet to be written. Senate and House Big Oil prostitutes, Lisa Murkowski, David Vitter, Mary Landrieu, Dan Burton -- to name a few -- step aside and stay out of the people's way. This is a crisis, a human tragedy, and an ecological catastrophe. Senator Murkowski, in particular, coming to the defense of corporate criminals as you have, is itself a criminal action.
Here is the video BP didn't want us to see:
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Quotable: President Obama on Republicans
“Their basic attitude has been, if Democrats lose, we win. After they drove the car in the ditch, made it as difficult as possible for us to pull it back, now they want the keys back. No. They can't drive. We don't want to have to go back in the ditch.”
Matthews Throws a Strike, MSM Still Drags Behind
Dick Cheney’s responsibility for the Gulf Oil spill has been carried to its logical conclusion by Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball. Matthews called for Cheney to testify under oath and reveal what he knows of those secret meetings he held as Vice President with oil and gas tycoons, while still being compensated by Halliburton (one of three companies involved in the spill). Well done, Chris.
Cheney’s responsibility was first broached by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and covered in progressive blogs, including this one: “Cheney has cause to lay low. His filthy fingers may be all over the right’s propaganda campaign, but the truth of Cheney’s responsibility and potential criminal liability is far more sinister.”
Cheney’s responsibility was first broached by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and covered in progressive blogs, including this one: “Cheney has cause to lay low. His filthy fingers may be all over the right’s propaganda campaign, but the truth of Cheney’s responsibility and potential criminal liability is far more sinister.”
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Secondly, now we learn that the Gulf oil spill is 10 times worse than previously reported. Was this reported before now by the mainstream media? No one in the MSM, it seems, questioned the Coast Guard’s appalling underestimate of the real magnitude of the oil spill. Like herd automatons, the MSM simply kept reporting that the spill was between 3 and 4 million gallons of oil and could, could if it continues unabated reach Exxon Valdez proportions, as BP testified before Congress and continued its feverish attempts to stanch the volcanic flow of oil poisoning Gulf waters and the ocean beyond. The question that must be asked is, why this colossal, collective lack of journalistic curiosity, across the board, about whether the Coast Guard’s figures were reliable and correct? On 5/10, this blog reported:Secessionist Texas governor Rick Perry called the oil spill “an act of God.” Barbour went further: “I think the most important thing is for people not to panic and not to assume the worst. Some in the news media keep forcing this on the public as the equivalent of Exxon Valdez. Well, the difference is just enormous.”If we can do it, why can’t the mainstream media earning the big bucks do their journalistic due diligence? We don’t trust them with our news, and neither should you. To get accurate, unfiltered information outside the mainstream grid, stay tuned. Right here, right now.
Really? The Exxon Valdez spill released 10.9 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound, of which only 10% of the oil was recovered and the ecology and wildlife remains devastated. The three leaks in the BP oil disaster have been releasing an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day (Coast Guard estimate). Skytruth, a nonprofit organization tracking the oil spill estimates it’s more like 26,000 barrels of oil a day, based on satellite imagery and scientific studies.
On May 1, eleven days into the Gulf crisis, according to Dr. Ian McDonald of FSU, estimates of the oil slick indicated that 12.12 million gallons of oil, at a minimum have been released into the Gulf of Mexico, surpassing the Exxon Valdez spill. Five days later, at a rate of 1.1 million gallons a day, the spill will have reached 17.6 million gallons released into the Gulf, tragically making the Exxon Valdez oil spill a distant second.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
This Is Why He's Known as Bill-O the CLOWN
Bill-O claims most Americans can’t name the nine SCOTUS Justices . . . But he really means ‘Factor’ viewers, including the HOST!
Quotable: Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) on the BP et al Gulf Oil Catastrophe
“Oh my God, what have we done.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer – Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment
“Right now, by their own admission, BP is largely making it up as they go. They’re engaging in a series of elaborate and risky science experiments at the bottom of the ocean. And after the failure of the containment dome, we are now hearing of plans to stuff the blowout preventor full of a mixture of golf balls, old tires, and other junk. When we heard the best minds were on the case we expected MIT and not the PGA. We already have one hole in the ground and now their solution is to shoot a hole-in-one.”
Rep. Ed Markey - Chairman, House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment
Jon Stewart Is a Genius: Watch Him Shred the Right for Trying to Link the Prez to GWB's Failures
Which begs the question: These wingnuts are tacitly admitting what a dismal, disastrous failure George W. Bush’s eight-year nightmare on the American people was; n’est pas?
It’s fascinating to see the wingnuts recall every single FUBAR of the Bush regime (installed by a SCOTUS putsch) with its corresponding (often one-word) notorious description: ‘Katrina’; ‘mission accomplished’; ‘Harriet Meyers’; ‘Iraq; ‘9/11’; ‘Enron’; ‘Heckuva job, Brownie’ moment; ‘My Pet Goat’ moment; ‘deficits’; ‘recession’; ‘war’ . . . and still they pine for the days of America’s dismal failure with ‘I miss Bush’ billboards –- the ultimate exercise in right wing echo chamber denial.
To make matters worst, these wingnuts incessantly lie about the fact that the stimulus has worked, that 290,000 jobs were created in April (the most in 4 years), that the unemployment rate while unacceptablty high at 9.9% is still lower than the highest recorded under Reagan at 10.8%, and that tax rates under President Obama are the lowest they’ve been in 60 years, back when ‘Give ‘em Hell’ Harry Truman, a great Democrat, was president.
Try telling this to the Teabaggers, as was shown in an earlier post, and they’ll simply refuse to believe it. Well, that’s really grown-up for people whose average age ranges from 45 and up. Most of them probably were alive when taxes were as low as they are today. Maybe they’re suffering from a form of political and civics Alzheimer’s. Or, as Harry Truman used to say:
It’s fascinating to see the wingnuts recall every single FUBAR of the Bush regime (installed by a SCOTUS putsch) with its corresponding (often one-word) notorious description: ‘Katrina’; ‘mission accomplished’; ‘Harriet Meyers’; ‘Iraq; ‘9/11’; ‘Enron’; ‘Heckuva job, Brownie’ moment; ‘My Pet Goat’ moment; ‘deficits’; ‘recession’; ‘war’ . . . and still they pine for the days of America’s dismal failure with ‘I miss Bush’ billboards –- the ultimate exercise in right wing echo chamber denial.
To make matters worst, these wingnuts incessantly lie about the fact that the stimulus has worked, that 290,000 jobs were created in April (the most in 4 years), that the unemployment rate while unacceptablty high at 9.9% is still lower than the highest recorded under Reagan at 10.8%, and that tax rates under President Obama are the lowest they’ve been in 60 years, back when ‘Give ‘em Hell’ Harry Truman, a great Democrat, was president.
Try telling this to the Teabaggers, as was shown in an earlier post, and they’ll simply refuse to believe it. Well, that’s really grown-up for people whose average age ranges from 45 and up. Most of them probably were alive when taxes were as low as they are today. Maybe they’re suffering from a form of political and civics Alzheimer’s. Or, as Harry Truman used to say:
“I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell.”
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Monday, May 10, 2010
Big Oil’s Last Stand, Right’s Ideological Pushback Amid Worst Environmental Disaster in U.S. History
As the BP environmental catastrophe unfolds in the Gulf of Mexico, observers struggle with words to describe its enormity. One called it “America’s Chernobyl;” another described it as “a teaching moment;” and President Obama said “your government will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to stop this crisis.” Environmentalists are stunned. Curiously muted, their minds a jumble of tasered synapses trying to wrap around this calamity and make sense of it, contextualize it.
Republicans and Democrats in-name-only were quick to come to the rescue –- of BP and Big Oil, their biggest donors. DINO Hall of Fame inductee Mary Landrieu, senator from Louisiana, the state whose ecology and coastal economy lies in the path of devastation, along with Republican governors Rick Perry of Texas and Haley Barbour of Mississippi spoke up for their corporate constituents.
A Confederacy of Oil Barons Serving Transnational Corporations
Senator Landrieu said, “you’ve got to put this accident in perspective. The last thing we have to do is shut the oil and gas industry down.” Her first instinct as a politician was to shelter BP and Big Oil instead of her constituents, her people, the state’s coastal economy and ecology, which could be devastated for decades. Louisiana’s other senator, Republican David Vitter (better known for his diaper fetish and extreme right wing views) lamented that “BP is spread too thin.”
The fishing industry alone in the Gulf region accounts for about 20 percent of U.S. commercial fishing. It provides about 1 in 17 jobs in the region. Fishers are particularly vulnerable and this crisis may drive many into bankruptcy. They were barely recovering from Hurricane Katrina when the oil spill disaster struck.
Secessionist Texas governor Rick Perry called the oil spill “an act of God.” Barbour went further: “I think the most important thing is for people not to panic and not to assume the worst. Some in the news media keep forcing this on the public as the equivalent of Exxon Valdez. Well, the difference is just enormous.”
Really? The Exxon Valdez spill released 10.9 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound, of which only 10% of the oil was recovered and the ecology and wildlife remains devastated. The three leaks in the BP oil disaster have been releasing an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day (Coast Guard estimate). Skytruth, a nonprofit organization tracking the oil spill estimates it’s more like 26,000 barrels of oil a day, based on satellite imagery and scientific studies.
On May 1, eleven days into the Gulf crisis, according to Dr. Ian McDonald of FSU, estimates of the oil slick indicated that 12.12 million gallons of oil, at a minimum have been released into the Gulf of Mexico, surpassing the Exxon Valdez spill. Five days later, at a rate of 1.1 million gallons a day, the spill will have reached 17.6 million gallons released into the Gulf, tragically making the Exxon Valdez oil spill a distant second.
This catastrophic disaster is entirely man-made, not Perry’s and the industry’s “act of God.” It was not caused by nature, high seas, a hurricane, or any other phenomenon that could properly be ascribed for purposes of assigning liability to “an act of God.” Perry wasn’t being pious; he was protecting his corporate donors/owners and Texas’s oil and gas polluters.
BP/Halliburton Deadly Pollution Record (Only the Most Recent)
Where is Dick Cheney? One of the more curious aspects of this environmental catastrophe is the absence of Big Oilman Dick Cheney from the public eye. In the first days of the crisis, Cheney’s surrogates fanned out in a full-court media press to spread disinformation and propaganda, even trying to deflect blame onto President Obama by calling it “Obama’s Katrina.” This charge is so patently absurd and irresponsible that it fell of its own weight when the media, for once, did a good job debunking it. Cheney’s fingerprints are all over the misinformation campaign, but he remains out of sight, hunkered down in an undisclosed location.
Cheney has cause to lay low. His filthy fingers may be all over the right’s propaganda campaign, but the truth of Cheney’s responsibility and potential criminal liability is far more sinister.
The explosions in both the BP Australian and Gulf oil rig (operated by BP subcontractor Deepwater Horizon) increasingly point to Halliburton as the main culprit for faulty cementing. The process is meant to prevent oil and natural gas from escaping by filling gaps between the outside of the well pipe and the inside of the hole bored into the ocean floor. The wife of one of the rig workers killed in the explosion has filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming Halliburton is culpable: The company “prior to the explosion, was engaged in cementing operations of the well and well cap and, upon information and belief, improperly and negligently performed these duties, which was a cause of the explosion.”
Halliburton confirmed it had finished cementing 20 hours prior to the Gulf rig explosion, just as it had finished cementing the Australian rig when it blew on August 21, 2009. As the Australian government inquiry into what is called the Monera spill continues, a Halliburton cementer with 20 years on the job testified: “Q: have you been taught in, training or otherwise become aware that problems with cementing are the number one cause of blowouts?” A: “No, I wasn‘t aware of that.” From 1996 to 2006, 18 of the 39 offshore blow-outs have been caused by bad cementing, according to the U.S. industry regulator, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), an agency of the Interior Department.
Why is this significant?
Halliburton’s alleged criminal negligence was aided and abetted by former CEO Dick Cheney’s even more valuable service to the energy industry as a powerful poison pill government insider gutting the very regulatory agencies (Interior-MMS) responsible for public interest oversight and regulation of these transnational corporations. Cheney bagged $44 million during his five-year tenure with Halliburton before becoming Vice President. As Vice President Cheney remained on the company’s payroll. After all, he is a valued corporate asset, having ensured that Halliburton’s entrails reach into every nook and cranny of Iraq-Afghanistan war profiteering.
Deregulation by the Numbers: An Avoidable Catastrophe
Burn this into memory, deregulators and global warming deniers and laissez-faire capitalist ideologues and limited government libertarians: Based on the facts, proper industry safety standards, oversight, and regulatory protocols would have prevented the catastrophe inexorably poisoning the Gulf. The craven history of Cheney’s secret meetings with energy industry tycoons -- to divvy up the deregulatory spoils, line his pockets with present and future IOUs, and gut the Interior Department and its industry enforcement arm, MMS, staffing them with cronies and (literally) industry whores -- leads directly to the Gulf oil disaster.
To hear the industry shills describe it, the oil spill poisoning the Gulf waters as it makes landfall is as benign, warm and cuddly as “chocolate milk.” Rep. Gene Taylor, one more Mississippi Democrat in the pocket of the oil and gas industry, said: “A lot of people are scared and I don’t think they should be” because “What I want people to know is, this isn’t Katrina, this is not Armageddon. The farther you get from the spill, that chocolate milk looking spill starts breaking up into smaller pieces.”
That’s like saying you’ll take your almond coffee mocha with almond-smelling cyanide and that “chocolate milk” chemical dispersant. In yet another outrage perpetrated on the public, epecially affected populations in the direct path of the oil slick, BP has refused to disclose the composition of the dispersants used in the spill, because it is a competitive trade secret protected by law. But if it’s Corexit or a product of similar composition, it contains 2-butoxyethanol, a compound that causes headaches, vomiting, and “reproductive problems in high doses.”
Aside from its devastating, long-term impact on marine life and the delicate ecosystem in the Gulf, a review by the Alaska Community Action on Toxics determined that a version of Corexit, widely used in the Exxon Valdez spill “was later linked with health impacts in people including respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders.” According to the Pro Publica article reporting on the oil spill’s chemical health hazard, “the evaporation process can also concentrate the toxic compounds left behind, particularly oil-derived compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs.”
In contrast to Rep. Taylor’s upbeat “the good news is it’s not in the marshes where the juvenile shrimp are, and it’s tending to break up naturally,” a Coast Guard crew described the smell emanating from the oil spill at the mouth of the Mississippi Delta as “nasty.” Reports are starting to come in from Florida, in Kissimmee and Orlando that a “strange scent in the air” was detected which wasn’t there four hours before. In St Petersburg, a “heavy oil smell hung in the air. Wind was coming from the NNW. At first it smelled like a tiki-torch, but by 11 pm it was overwhelming. It gave me a horrible headache, and the people I spoke with had headaches as well. It was thick enough to taste in the air.” Similar first-person accounts are surfacing all over the region. Follow them here.
The Right’s Response to Catastrophe: Despicable and Irresponsible
No sooner had disaster struck in the Gulf of Mexico that the right wing propaganda machine went into full coverup and mobilization mode in a rush to absolve BP and the oil industry of any responsibility while, absurdly, shifting the blame to President Obama. Here is a synopsis of the right wing’s fierce industry-protectant propaganda campaign, unmatched by any legitimate media outlets:
Blame Obama. So what else is new. After the absurd charge (even for the right) that this was “Obama’s Katrina” fizzled, Dick Cheney surrogates Dana Perrino (Bush-Cheney’ s certifiably ignorant former press secretary) and Michael ‘Helluva job’ Brownie (the disgraced FEMA administrator when Katrina struck) were dispatched to Fox “News” to spread despicable accusations and rumors. Claiming, falsely, that President Obama’s response to the oil spill was delayed, Brown told Neil Cavuto of Fox: “It’s pure politics. This president has never supported big oil. He has never supported offshore drilling. And now he has an excuse to shut it back down.”
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs replied:
Embrace the Conspiracy. Dana Perrino doubled down on Rush Limbaugh’s wild conspiracy that “environmentalist wackos” blew up the oil rig because they were upset with the “timing” of the President’s drilling announcement “so, what better way to head off more oil drilling and nuclear plants then by blowing up a rig? I’m just, I’m just noting the timing here.” Perrino: “I’m not trying to introduce a conspiracy theory, but was this deliberate? You have to wonder if there was sabotage involved.”
Minimize the Damage, Shift Blame to Environmentalists. Saying tasteless and insensitive things is nothing new for Rush Limbaugh. Neither, for that matter, is spouting flat-out irresponsible lies. To sound authoritave, Limbaugh keeps repeating “British Petroleum,” unaware that the company changed its name to “BP” to represent a more PR-friendly “beyond petroleum” public image. A small point, perhaps, but illustrative of what a damn fool the imbecile blowhard is.
He said: “oil has a tough time surviving. This many gallons of oil seeps from the floor of the Gulf every day. It never surfaces because it gets eaten alive. But it seeps from the ocean floor at this amount, not as concentrated as what is coming from this well.” Absolute nonsense, followed by, “[Some] people are saying, don’t panic, the sea will take care of the oil spill, [meanwhile rather than work with] British Petroleum, they are enemy.” Well, one can’t work with “British Petroleum” because that company does not exist -- it is now listed as “BP.”
Maintain Strict Media Silence About Who the Real Culprits Are: The Bush-Cheney Regime. How many stories has right wing media done about the gutting of Interior-MMS under Bush-Cheney and the rampant deregulation that may have a direct causal connection to this massive environmental catastrophe by not requiring installation of a $500,000 redundant acoustic switch? Answer -- almost none. One notable exception is the Wall Street Journal. Still, the right wing media has been silent on the Cheney connection, after a brief flurry of trying to blame President Obama.
Double Down on the Outworn and Discredited Slogan, “drill, baby, drill.” According to Media Matters, “Fox News has long history of aggressively advocating for offshore drilling.” And it shows. Sister Sarah posted on her juvie Facebook page, “How could I still believe in drilling America's domestic supply of energy after having seen the devastation of the Exxon-Valdez spill? I continue to believe in it because increased domestic oil production will make us a more secure, prosperous, and peaceful nation.”
She fails to mention the 2006 BP oil spill on the Alaskan tundra, the impact of global warming on her state, and the fact that oil is a fungible commodity which continues to fuel our enemies and adversaries. We cannot drill our way out of dependence on foreign oil. Essentially, offshore drilling is a profit-gouging government subsidy to line the pockets of Big Oil transnational coporations like BP, with a horrific, irreversible toll on our environment.
Finally, Coordinate the Message. From Limbaugh to Fox, these operate as propagandists for Big Oil, with coordinated talking points meant to create a narrative friendly to BP, that minimizes the catastrophic damage this company and its powerful cronies are causing to the environment, limits liability, and promotes offshore drilling. Guess who’s behind this? The Chamber of Commerce (last seen running racist ads against Blanche Lincoln opponent, Bill Halter) and -- none other than Teabagger undrewriters, Dick Armey’s astroturf front group, Freedomworks.
A (Very) Brief History of Corporatism v. Environmentalism
In 1962 Rachel Carson published her seminal work, Silent Spring, which sounded the alarm against the lethal threat to animal life and humans posed by the widespread use of pesticides in our environment. Carson was viciously attacked by a concerted chemical industry campaign that spent more than a quarter-million (real money in 1962) to discredit her. In many ways the attacks continue to this day; attacks by libertarian laissez-faire ideologues whose small government mantra spurred the deregulation craze.
Sound familiar? Corporate malfeasance and criminality is exposed, industry responds with campaign to attack the messenger, limit its liability, feed pocketed politicians and right wing media its propaganda talking points, spend whatever it takes to distort the truth and fool public opinion. BP said it will pay compensation for “legitimate and objectively verifiable claims for property damage, personal injury and commercial losses.”
BP has placed a price tag on its responsibility for devastating the Gulf states coastal economy: $5,000. BP representatives descended like locusts on the region circulating a “settlement agreement” among Gulf Coast residents offering payments up to $5,000 in exchange for signing a waiver in which the victim agrees not to sue the company. When the media got wind of this, BP CEO Tony Hayward backpedaled, claiming it was a “misstep.” Indeed. A misstep with at least six missing zeros.]
Congress to the Rescue -- NOT!
This week BP, Halliburton and Deepwater Horizon executives prepare to be grilled by three Congressional committees. In a preview of what we can expect, PolitiFact rated statements by Lamar McKay, chairman and president of BP America, on ABC News’ This Week as “barely true.” McKay claimed his letter to MMS recommended improvements around safety regulations, but most of the letter, said PolitiFact, “suggests ways of making regulation less of a burden for BP. Certainly this is an ‘improvement’ from BP’s perspective, but we don’t see how it makes safety ‘the number one priority.’”
Predictably, perhaps, the Democratic members will posture for the cameras and ask tough questions, while the industry executives dissemble and express contrition. Even Republicans may get into the act of sounding tough. The question is, what will happen when the gavels bang the hearings closed? Federal Law limits BP’s liability to a measly $75 million drop in the bucket. Florida’s Bill Nelson is one of three Democratic senators introducing legislation to raise that liability dramatically to $10 billion, retroactively applicable to BP.
What the public needs to assess from Congress is, (1) will the Nelson legislation pass; and (2) will Congress enact tougher regulations and controls on deep-sea offshore oil drilling, at least to come in line with standards imposed for North Sea and Brazil offshore rigs. BP is the ultimate insider’s insider corporation, greasing every wheel from the President to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on down to the most junior representative. Unless there is a groundswell of public support and outrage, a public campaign demanding stringent environmental controls and fines on polluters, the chances of BP skating as devastation continues in the Gulf are about 70-30 percent.
Paul Krugman said, “antigovernment ideology remains all too prevalent, despite the havoc it has wrought. In fact, it has been making a comeback with the rise of the Tea Party movement. If there’s any silver lining to the disaster in the Gulf, it is that it may serve as a wake-up call, a reminder that we need politicians who believe in good government, because there are some jobs only the government can do.”
Is This Still Our Land?
Georgianne Nienaber said: “Words alone cannot express how dire the situation is for all life in the Gulf of Mexico.”
In 1945 or thereabouts, Woodie Guthrie wrote a song that Bruce Springsteen, a great troubador of our time, described as “the greatest song ever written about America.” He said:
Whose America is it, anyway?
Republicans and Democrats in-name-only were quick to come to the rescue –- of BP and Big Oil, their biggest donors. DINO Hall of Fame inductee Mary Landrieu, senator from Louisiana, the state whose ecology and coastal economy lies in the path of devastation, along with Republican governors Rick Perry of Texas and Haley Barbour of Mississippi spoke up for their corporate constituents.
A Confederacy of Oil Barons Serving Transnational Corporations
Senator Landrieu said, “you’ve got to put this accident in perspective. The last thing we have to do is shut the oil and gas industry down.” Her first instinct as a politician was to shelter BP and Big Oil instead of her constituents, her people, the state’s coastal economy and ecology, which could be devastated for decades. Louisiana’s other senator, Republican David Vitter (better known for his diaper fetish and extreme right wing views) lamented that “BP is spread too thin.”
The fishing industry alone in the Gulf region accounts for about 20 percent of U.S. commercial fishing. It provides about 1 in 17 jobs in the region. Fishers are particularly vulnerable and this crisis may drive many into bankruptcy. They were barely recovering from Hurricane Katrina when the oil spill disaster struck.
Secessionist Texas governor Rick Perry called the oil spill “an act of God.” Barbour went further: “I think the most important thing is for people not to panic and not to assume the worst. Some in the news media keep forcing this on the public as the equivalent of Exxon Valdez. Well, the difference is just enormous.”
Really? The Exxon Valdez spill released 10.9 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound, of which only 10% of the oil was recovered and the ecology and wildlife remains devastated. The three leaks in the BP oil disaster have been releasing an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day (Coast Guard estimate). Skytruth, a nonprofit organization tracking the oil spill estimates it’s more like 26,000 barrels of oil a day, based on satellite imagery and scientific studies.
On May 1, eleven days into the Gulf crisis, according to Dr. Ian McDonald of FSU, estimates of the oil slick indicated that 12.12 million gallons of oil, at a minimum have been released into the Gulf of Mexico, surpassing the Exxon Valdez spill. Five days later, at a rate of 1.1 million gallons a day, the spill will have reached 17.6 million gallons released into the Gulf, tragically making the Exxon Valdez oil spill a distant second.
This catastrophic disaster is entirely man-made, not Perry’s and the industry’s “act of God.” It was not caused by nature, high seas, a hurricane, or any other phenomenon that could properly be ascribed for purposes of assigning liability to “an act of God.” Perry wasn’t being pious; he was protecting his corporate donors/owners and Texas’s oil and gas polluters.
BP/Halliburton Deadly Pollution Record (Only the Most Recent)
- In 2005, an explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery (third-largest in the country) and fires ripped through the giant site, killing 15 workers, injuring 180 others, as 43,000 people fled for their lives into indoor shelters. The investigation determined the blast was caused by failure “at all levels of the BP Corporation” including, significantly, repeated cost-cutting safety and maintenance violations. A “criminal investigation” by the Bush-Cheney Justice Department resulted in a $50 million fine against the company for violating the Clean Air Act. One EPA administrator said the fine was but a slap on the wrist, a “laghingstock” for a company with profits in excess of $17 billion in 2007. The Justice Department slammed the door on EPA continuing a criminal probe of BP.
- In 2006 BP was at it again, drawing criminal investigations from the EPA and Justice Department for two massive corroded oil pipe leaks into the Alaskan tundra of 200,000 gallons of oil. BP’s contemptuous “compliance” with the Alaska U.S. Attorney’s office request for a “surgical” release of documents was to scan 62 million pages. EPA Special Agent in Charge Scott West remembers thinking, “Holy shit, I cant breathe.” If he and his woefully understaffed three or four people printed out all of the pages “it would have filled a warehouse.”
- In 2009 an oil rig exploded into a fireball off the coast of Australia, dumping thousands of barrels of oil into the pristine fishing waters of the region over a ten-week period. The cause, as suspected in the Gulf oil disaster, was a faulty cementing job by Halliburton. The World Wildlife Fund called the spill one of Australia’s worst environmental disasters, ruining 80% of the catch for some fishermen.
Where is Dick Cheney? One of the more curious aspects of this environmental catastrophe is the absence of Big Oilman Dick Cheney from the public eye. In the first days of the crisis, Cheney’s surrogates fanned out in a full-court media press to spread disinformation and propaganda, even trying to deflect blame onto President Obama by calling it “Obama’s Katrina.” This charge is so patently absurd and irresponsible that it fell of its own weight when the media, for once, did a good job debunking it. Cheney’s fingerprints are all over the misinformation campaign, but he remains out of sight, hunkered down in an undisclosed location.
Cheney has cause to lay low. His filthy fingers may be all over the right’s propaganda campaign, but the truth of Cheney’s responsibility and potential criminal liability is far more sinister.The explosions in both the BP Australian and Gulf oil rig (operated by BP subcontractor Deepwater Horizon) increasingly point to Halliburton as the main culprit for faulty cementing. The process is meant to prevent oil and natural gas from escaping by filling gaps between the outside of the well pipe and the inside of the hole bored into the ocean floor. The wife of one of the rig workers killed in the explosion has filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming Halliburton is culpable: The company “prior to the explosion, was engaged in cementing operations of the well and well cap and, upon information and belief, improperly and negligently performed these duties, which was a cause of the explosion.”
Halliburton confirmed it had finished cementing 20 hours prior to the Gulf rig explosion, just as it had finished cementing the Australian rig when it blew on August 21, 2009. As the Australian government inquiry into what is called the Monera spill continues, a Halliburton cementer with 20 years on the job testified: “Q: have you been taught in, training or otherwise become aware that problems with cementing are the number one cause of blowouts?” A: “No, I wasn‘t aware of that.” From 1996 to 2006, 18 of the 39 offshore blow-outs have been caused by bad cementing, according to the U.S. industry regulator, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), an agency of the Interior Department.
Why is this significant?
Halliburton’s alleged criminal negligence was aided and abetted by former CEO Dick Cheney’s even more valuable service to the energy industry as a powerful poison pill government insider gutting the very regulatory agencies (Interior-MMS) responsible for public interest oversight and regulation of these transnational corporations. Cheney bagged $44 million during his five-year tenure with Halliburton before becoming Vice President. As Vice President Cheney remained on the company’s payroll. After all, he is a valued corporate asset, having ensured that Halliburton’s entrails reach into every nook and cranny of Iraq-Afghanistan war profiteering.
Deregulation by the Numbers: An Avoidable Catastrophe
Burn this into memory, deregulators and global warming deniers and laissez-faire capitalist ideologues and limited government libertarians: Based on the facts, proper industry safety standards, oversight, and regulatory protocols would have prevented the catastrophe inexorably poisoning the Gulf. The craven history of Cheney’s secret meetings with energy industry tycoons -- to divvy up the deregulatory spoils, line his pockets with present and future IOUs, and gut the Interior Department and its industry enforcement arm, MMS, staffing them with cronies and (literally) industry whores -- leads directly to the Gulf oil disaster.
- In 2000 MMS requested industry advice on problems related to the cementing used around deep sea well caps to stop blowouts. The oil industry never produced recommendations, and no regulation was put in place. When the Bush-Cheney oil regime took office, they put the brakes on comprehensive safety regulation by MMS, which considered a safety redundant device, called an acoustic trigger “essential” and proposed to mandate them on all Gulf oil rigs.
Acoustic triggers, are mandated for major offshore rig operators off the coast of Brazil and in Norway’s North Sea operations. BP has voluntarily installed this safeguard in its North Sea rigs. All the world’s major companies use the device. It is a remotely triggered shutoff switch that activates when the manual switch fails. This device, which costs $500,000 was not installed in the BP Deepwater Horizon rig. It could have prevented the BP Gulf oil disaster.
- The number of drill site inspections carried out by the MMS fell by 41 percent between 2005 and 2009, even as the number of drill rigs operating in U.S. waters increased. The number of penalties issued by MMS for regulatory violations fell from 66 in 2000 to 20 last year.
- Illustrating BP’s awesome political clout, In June of 2009, the MMS, now under Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (whose appointment was criticized by environmentalists for being too cozy with the oil industry) exempted BP from producing a legally mandated environmental impact study for the site where Deepwater Horizon would drill. Obama was earlier warned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that MMS studies approving offshore drilling were not reliable.
To hear the industry shills describe it, the oil spill poisoning the Gulf waters as it makes landfall is as benign, warm and cuddly as “chocolate milk.” Rep. Gene Taylor, one more Mississippi Democrat in the pocket of the oil and gas industry, said: “A lot of people are scared and I don’t think they should be” because “What I want people to know is, this isn’t Katrina, this is not Armageddon. The farther you get from the spill, that chocolate milk looking spill starts breaking up into smaller pieces.”
That’s like saying you’ll take your almond coffee mocha with almond-smelling cyanide and that “chocolate milk” chemical dispersant. In yet another outrage perpetrated on the public, epecially affected populations in the direct path of the oil slick, BP has refused to disclose the composition of the dispersants used in the spill, because it is a competitive trade secret protected by law. But if it’s Corexit or a product of similar composition, it contains 2-butoxyethanol, a compound that causes headaches, vomiting, and “reproductive problems in high doses.”Aside from its devastating, long-term impact on marine life and the delicate ecosystem in the Gulf, a review by the Alaska Community Action on Toxics determined that a version of Corexit, widely used in the Exxon Valdez spill “was later linked with health impacts in people including respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders.” According to the Pro Publica article reporting on the oil spill’s chemical health hazard, “the evaporation process can also concentrate the toxic compounds left behind, particularly oil-derived compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs.”
In contrast to Rep. Taylor’s upbeat “the good news is it’s not in the marshes where the juvenile shrimp are, and it’s tending to break up naturally,” a Coast Guard crew described the smell emanating from the oil spill at the mouth of the Mississippi Delta as “nasty.” Reports are starting to come in from Florida, in Kissimmee and Orlando that a “strange scent in the air” was detected which wasn’t there four hours before. In St Petersburg, a “heavy oil smell hung in the air. Wind was coming from the NNW. At first it smelled like a tiki-torch, but by 11 pm it was overwhelming. It gave me a horrible headache, and the people I spoke with had headaches as well. It was thick enough to taste in the air.” Similar first-person accounts are surfacing all over the region. Follow them here.
The Right’s Response to Catastrophe: Despicable and Irresponsible
No sooner had disaster struck in the Gulf of Mexico that the right wing propaganda machine went into full coverup and mobilization mode in a rush to absolve BP and the oil industry of any responsibility while, absurdly, shifting the blame to President Obama. Here is a synopsis of the right wing’s fierce industry-protectant propaganda campaign, unmatched by any legitimate media outlets:
Blame Obama. So what else is new. After the absurd charge (even for the right) that this was “Obama’s Katrina” fizzled, Dick Cheney surrogates Dana Perrino (Bush-Cheney’ s certifiably ignorant former press secretary) and Michael ‘Helluva job’ Brownie (the disgraced FEMA administrator when Katrina struck) were dispatched to Fox “News” to spread despicable accusations and rumors. Claiming, falsely, that President Obama’s response to the oil spill was delayed, Brown told Neil Cavuto of Fox: “It’s pure politics. This president has never supported big oil. He has never supported offshore drilling. And now he has an excuse to shut it back down.”
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs replied:
Embrace the Conspiracy. Dana Perrino doubled down on Rush Limbaugh’s wild conspiracy that “environmentalist wackos” blew up the oil rig because they were upset with the “timing” of the President’s drilling announcement “so, what better way to head off more oil drilling and nuclear plants then by blowing up a rig? I’m just, I’m just noting the timing here.” Perrino: “I’m not trying to introduce a conspiracy theory, but was this deliberate? You have to wonder if there was sabotage involved.”
Minimize the Damage, Shift Blame to Environmentalists. Saying tasteless and insensitive things is nothing new for Rush Limbaugh. Neither, for that matter, is spouting flat-out irresponsible lies. To sound authoritave, Limbaugh keeps repeating “British Petroleum,” unaware that the company changed its name to “BP” to represent a more PR-friendly “beyond petroleum” public image. A small point, perhaps, but illustrative of what a damn fool the imbecile blowhard is.
He said: “oil has a tough time surviving. This many gallons of oil seeps from the floor of the Gulf every day. It never surfaces because it gets eaten alive. But it seeps from the ocean floor at this amount, not as concentrated as what is coming from this well.” Absolute nonsense, followed by, “[Some] people are saying, don’t panic, the sea will take care of the oil spill, [meanwhile rather than work with] British Petroleum, they are enemy.” Well, one can’t work with “British Petroleum” because that company does not exist -- it is now listed as “BP.”
Maintain Strict Media Silence About Who the Real Culprits Are: The Bush-Cheney Regime. How many stories has right wing media done about the gutting of Interior-MMS under Bush-Cheney and the rampant deregulation that may have a direct causal connection to this massive environmental catastrophe by not requiring installation of a $500,000 redundant acoustic switch? Answer -- almost none. One notable exception is the Wall Street Journal. Still, the right wing media has been silent on the Cheney connection, after a brief flurry of trying to blame President Obama.
Double Down on the Outworn and Discredited Slogan, “drill, baby, drill.” According to Media Matters, “Fox News has long history of aggressively advocating for offshore drilling.” And it shows. Sister Sarah posted on her juvie Facebook page, “How could I still believe in drilling America's domestic supply of energy after having seen the devastation of the Exxon-Valdez spill? I continue to believe in it because increased domestic oil production will make us a more secure, prosperous, and peaceful nation.”
She fails to mention the 2006 BP oil spill on the Alaskan tundra, the impact of global warming on her state, and the fact that oil is a fungible commodity which continues to fuel our enemies and adversaries. We cannot drill our way out of dependence on foreign oil. Essentially, offshore drilling is a profit-gouging government subsidy to line the pockets of Big Oil transnational coporations like BP, with a horrific, irreversible toll on our environment.
Finally, Coordinate the Message. From Limbaugh to Fox, these operate as propagandists for Big Oil, with coordinated talking points meant to create a narrative friendly to BP, that minimizes the catastrophic damage this company and its powerful cronies are causing to the environment, limits liability, and promotes offshore drilling. Guess who’s behind this? The Chamber of Commerce (last seen running racist ads against Blanche Lincoln opponent, Bill Halter) and -- none other than Teabagger undrewriters, Dick Armey’s astroturf front group, Freedomworks.
A (Very) Brief History of Corporatism v. Environmentalism
In 1962 Rachel Carson published her seminal work, Silent Spring, which sounded the alarm against the lethal threat to animal life and humans posed by the widespread use of pesticides in our environment. Carson was viciously attacked by a concerted chemical industry campaign that spent more than a quarter-million (real money in 1962) to discredit her. In many ways the attacks continue to this day; attacks by libertarian laissez-faire ideologues whose small government mantra spurred the deregulation craze.
“Carson was violently assailed by threats of lawsuits and derision, including suggestions that this meticulous scientist was a ‘hysterical woman’ unqualified to write such a book. A huge counterattack was organized and led by Monsanto Company, Velsicol, American Cyanamid — indeed, the whole chemical industry — duly supported by the Agriculture Department as well as the more cautious in the media.”When Ralph Nader published his 1965 bestseller, Unsafe at Any Speed, an indictment of the U.S. auto industry’s abysmal safety standards, GM’s response was to aggressively try to smear Nader. GM hired private detectives to tap his phones and look into his past, and prostitutes to entrap him. Nader sued, winning a decision that expanded tort law to cover “overzealous surveillance.”
-Time Magazine, 1999
Sound familiar? Corporate malfeasance and criminality is exposed, industry responds with campaign to attack the messenger, limit its liability, feed pocketed politicians and right wing media its propaganda talking points, spend whatever it takes to distort the truth and fool public opinion. BP said it will pay compensation for “legitimate and objectively verifiable claims for property damage, personal injury and commercial losses.”
BP has placed a price tag on its responsibility for devastating the Gulf states coastal economy: $5,000. BP representatives descended like locusts on the region circulating a “settlement agreement” among Gulf Coast residents offering payments up to $5,000 in exchange for signing a waiver in which the victim agrees not to sue the company. When the media got wind of this, BP CEO Tony Hayward backpedaled, claiming it was a “misstep.” Indeed. A misstep with at least six missing zeros.]Congress to the Rescue -- NOT!
This week BP, Halliburton and Deepwater Horizon executives prepare to be grilled by three Congressional committees. In a preview of what we can expect, PolitiFact rated statements by Lamar McKay, chairman and president of BP America, on ABC News’ This Week as “barely true.” McKay claimed his letter to MMS recommended improvements around safety regulations, but most of the letter, said PolitiFact, “suggests ways of making regulation less of a burden for BP. Certainly this is an ‘improvement’ from BP’s perspective, but we don’t see how it makes safety ‘the number one priority.’”
Predictably, perhaps, the Democratic members will posture for the cameras and ask tough questions, while the industry executives dissemble and express contrition. Even Republicans may get into the act of sounding tough. The question is, what will happen when the gavels bang the hearings closed? Federal Law limits BP’s liability to a measly $75 million drop in the bucket. Florida’s Bill Nelson is one of three Democratic senators introducing legislation to raise that liability dramatically to $10 billion, retroactively applicable to BP.
What the public needs to assess from Congress is, (1) will the Nelson legislation pass; and (2) will Congress enact tougher regulations and controls on deep-sea offshore oil drilling, at least to come in line with standards imposed for North Sea and Brazil offshore rigs. BP is the ultimate insider’s insider corporation, greasing every wheel from the President to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on down to the most junior representative. Unless there is a groundswell of public support and outrage, a public campaign demanding stringent environmental controls and fines on polluters, the chances of BP skating as devastation continues in the Gulf are about 70-30 percent.
Paul Krugman said, “antigovernment ideology remains all too prevalent, despite the havoc it has wrought. In fact, it has been making a comeback with the rise of the Tea Party movement. If there’s any silver lining to the disaster in the Gulf, it is that it may serve as a wake-up call, a reminder that we need politicians who believe in good government, because there are some jobs only the government can do.”
Is This Still Our Land?
Georgianne Nienaber said: “Words alone cannot express how dire the situation is for all life in the Gulf of Mexico.”
In 1945 or thereabouts, Woodie Guthrie wrote a song that Bruce Springsteen, a great troubador of our time, described as “the greatest song ever written about America.” He said:
“It gets right to the heart of the promise of what our country was supposed to be about. If you talk to some of the unemployed workers … or a lot of people out there whose jobs are disappearing … I don’t know if they’d feel like this song is true anymore. I’m not sure that it is, but I know that it ought to be. [W]ith countries, just like with people, it’s easy to let the best of yourself slip away.”
THIS LAND IS YOUR LANDIs it still true? It’s slipping away as surely as that gusher of black death continues to spew its poison into the Gulf. Death in the color of chocolate milk. But one thing I know. It’s still worth fighting for. And fight for it we must, with every last fiber of our being.
words and music by Woody Guthrie
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the Gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me.
As I was walkin', I saw a sign there
And that sign said no tress passin'
But on the other side it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
Whose America is it, anyway?
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Nazi Cop Tasers Phillies Fan . . .
Question is, how come the trigger-happy fascists haven't tasered this critter?
The Goldman Sachs Slam: Wall Street's Love Letter to America
“We are Wall Street. It’s our job to make money. Whether it’s a commodity, stock, bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn’t matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I didn’t hear America complaining when the market was roaring to 14,000 and everyone’s 401k doubled every 3 years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I’ve never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.Well now the market crapped out, & even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well, here we are.
Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you’re only going to hurt yourselves. What’s going to happen when we can’t find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We’re going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work till 10pm or later. We’re used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don’t take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don’t demand a union. We don’t retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we’ll eat that.
For years teachers and other unionized labor have had us fooled. We were too busy working to notice. Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping? We’re going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and whine just like you that we are so-o-o-o underpaid for building the youth of America. Say goodbye to your overtime and double time and a half. I’ll be hitting grounders to the high school baseball team for $5k extra a summer, thank you very much.
So now that we’re going to be making $85k a year without upside, Joe Mainstreet is going to have his revenge, right? Wrong! Guess what: we’re going to stop buying the new 80k car, we aren’t going to leave the 35 percent tip at our business dinners anymore. No more free rides on our backs. We’re going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways. Our money was your money. You spent it. When our money dries up, so does yours.
The difference is, you lived off of it, we rejoiced in it. The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee might get their way and knock us off the top of the pyramid, but it’s really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat a**es land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.
We aren’t dinosaurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply…will he? and will they?”
Anonymous
Stop whining, Mr. Shitty. You guys are so predictable. You produce nothing, build nothing, contribute nothing of value. We will survive just fine without your conspicuous consumption and pathetic insecure whines. Before they come for you and your band of sociopaths, your ignorance of Democratic Party history (thank you) dooms you to the same fate as your shitty little forbears; to be controlled and regulated and sent scurrying into the dark corners and away from the disinfecting light like so many roaches:
“The moneychangers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit. Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.”- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Inaugural Address/March 1933
(And he was your worst nightmare for, oh . . . a generation or so, before Truman came along, at which point you were, like, docile and potty trained. The same pattern obtains here. If you’re lucky you might even share a cell with fellow psychopath Bernie Madoff, Wall Street boytoy.)
This Oil Catastrophe in the Gulf is so Devastating we Need Some Comedy Relief . . .
Jon Stewart to the rescue:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Beyond Awful | ||||
| ||||
Friday, April 30, 2010
The Beck-Matthews Mind Meld: Please Don’t Say ‘NAZI’ (Whine . . .)
Trekkies will tell you that the Vulcan mind meld is a telepathic link between two individuals, also known as a psionic (telepathic) technique for “synaptic pattern displacement” generally not used on “aliens” in which “those in meld share consciousness in a kind of Gestalt.” Well, it’s happened in the psionic world of bioelectric energy fields modulating delta wave frequencies to meld the minds of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and Fox’s psychotic dark energy madman, Glenn Beck. They may not be Vulcan, as both are quite often illogical and irrational, and one, at least, is clinically insane. Yet what other explanation is there for this:
Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth . . .
First, let’s define our terms. There is a common derogatory derivative of “Nazi” which means a thug or a person who holds extreme racist and authoritarian views and acts out those views with brutality. It is also a 60s derogatory term for law enforcement that was of that generation and is practically alien (pun intended) to most anyone under 40 or so today.
Then, there is the proper historical reference to the Nazi Party of 1930s Germany, which advocated right wing authoritarian nationalist government (fascism) based on a racist ideology, anti-Semitism, and a belief in the superiority of the Aryan race or, as the founder and board member of FAIR, the group that boasts authorship of the Arizona legislation, prefers to say: “European-American society and culture.”
Based upon the historical reference, the term “Nazi” as applied to this law “is a very fair comparison,” according to Colorado Congressman Jared Polis (D), who is Jewish. “I hope that we’re not headed on the same trajectory that Nazi Germany was,” he said. “But this was a very recent experience for Jewish Americans and Jews worldwide and it’s something that when we see similarities we start ringing alarm bells.”
Let’s tick off the similarities, shall we, Chris: (1) authoritarian – grants law enforcement unconstitutional authority to detain citizens without proper identification; (2) racist – despite claims to the contrary by the Governor, it codifies racial profiling, which is illegal and unconstitutional precisely because it’s racist; (3) nationalist – not only in intent which is to empower the police to determine nationality (who is and is not an American) based on appearance or other factors, such as behavior, and criminalize those persons unable to prove their citizenship.
These are all characteristics common to the Nazi regime of the 1930s, before the mass killings and exterminations, and of most authoritarian fascist regimes whose methods of maintaining order and squelching dissent began with expanded police authority to detain, question, and jail citizens precisely for reasons such as not having proper identification.
Speaking for this blog, the term “Nazi” is used solely to reference the Arizona law -- not the person of the governor or any law enforcement officer or any other person -- and appropriately so. In his semi-coherent rant, Chris conflates “Nazi” with “Hitler” or “Hitlerian,” which is strictly a right wing canard against President Obama. But it isn’t used in any references to the Arizona law as a Nazi law that I’ve seen and are linked below, because it doesn’t apply. This isn’t about a charismatic dictator or hurling derogatory terms about.
Not surprisingly, Chris Matthews is completely wrong. But don’t take my word for it. Some time ago, Chris said the person he’d most like to have dinner with was the Pope. In light of recent events, would you care to revise your remark, Chris? Might I suggest the less pontifical Cardinal Archbishop of LA Roger Mahony. He said of the Arizona law:
Chris Matthews has a habit of saying ridiculous things. Once he analogized President Obama’s clash with political opponents to “cowboys and indians.” When the Frank Luntz lies were finally exposed on his network, after more than a year of giving Luntz and his memos a pass, and then only because the President mentioned it, Chris boosted Luntz’s “recognition” with great merriment, not once noting that Luntz is an admitted and proud LIAR. Nor did he draw the distinction between honorable political consultants who “spin” but have scruples and unscrupulous punks like Luntz, who LIE for a living.
Discussing the Nevada Senate race, Chris boasted of having met Republican Sue Lowden and talked her up, until one guest correctly pointed out that Lowden repeatedly touted bartering chickens for healthcare as a viable proposal. Chris called it a “blow to the midsection” as if mentioning what she said and reiterated somehow distorts her views. Why?
Matthews should worry less about how blogs and alternative outlets of information that he disdains choose to report the news, and more about the restrictions imposed by his own network on its news readers and assorted commentators, such as a virtual prohibition on using the words “Nazi” and “fascism” and “liar.” If Chris consumes less inside-the-beltway POLITICO gossip from rumormongers who drag themselves onto Hardball or Andrea Mitchell looking like they’ve been on an all-night binge, he might even catch that scent of donuts-and-coffee fascism wafting across the fruited plain.
I believe in calling a spade a spade. The use of euphemistic language only clouds our political discourse and can lead to hideous consequences. The radical right wing has never had a problem using hate speech, distortions, and propaganda -- all techniques developed by the Nazis and other fascist or authoritarian states -- to promote a dangerous, divisive, racist and violent agenda. We cannot effectively oppose the radical right wing with euphemisms and civil discourse. When Republicans and wingnuts lie we should call them liars. When they make bigoted or racist remarks we should call them bigots and racists. And when they pass laws reminiscent of Nazi Germany we should call them Nazi laws.
This country was never immune from the influence and appeal of fascism and the Nazi ideology. From experiments in eugenics to racist exhortations of right wing radio demagogue Father Coughlin (the Rush Limbaugh of his day); from the America First movement to neo-Nazi rallies in Madison Square Garden headlined by Charles Lindbergh (the Sarah Palin of his day); from McCarthyism (fascism by another name) to the militias and Oklahoma City bombing; from the Birchers to the Birthers to the Teabaggers -- fascism in all its manifestations, from neo-Nazi racism to extremist right wing xenophobia, has been a dark and sinister stain on this nation's fabric.
When fascism rears its ugly head, we are compelled to call it out. We cannot count on the corporate media to do what it has not done since the days of Watergate -- which is to be a watchdog of our democracy.
THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth . . .
First, let’s define our terms. There is a common derogatory derivative of “Nazi” which means a thug or a person who holds extreme racist and authoritarian views and acts out those views with brutality. It is also a 60s derogatory term for law enforcement that was of that generation and is practically alien (pun intended) to most anyone under 40 or so today.
Then, there is the proper historical reference to the Nazi Party of 1930s Germany, which advocated right wing authoritarian nationalist government (fascism) based on a racist ideology, anti-Semitism, and a belief in the superiority of the Aryan race or, as the founder and board member of FAIR, the group that boasts authorship of the Arizona legislation, prefers to say: “European-American society and culture.”
Based upon the historical reference, the term “Nazi” as applied to this law “is a very fair comparison,” according to Colorado Congressman Jared Polis (D), who is Jewish. “I hope that we’re not headed on the same trajectory that Nazi Germany was,” he said. “But this was a very recent experience for Jewish Americans and Jews worldwide and it’s something that when we see similarities we start ringing alarm bells.”
Let’s tick off the similarities, shall we, Chris: (1) authoritarian – grants law enforcement unconstitutional authority to detain citizens without proper identification; (2) racist – despite claims to the contrary by the Governor, it codifies racial profiling, which is illegal and unconstitutional precisely because it’s racist; (3) nationalist – not only in intent which is to empower the police to determine nationality (who is and is not an American) based on appearance or other factors, such as behavior, and criminalize those persons unable to prove their citizenship.
These are all characteristics common to the Nazi regime of the 1930s, before the mass killings and exterminations, and of most authoritarian fascist regimes whose methods of maintaining order and squelching dissent began with expanded police authority to detain, question, and jail citizens precisely for reasons such as not having proper identification.
Speaking for this blog, the term “Nazi” is used solely to reference the Arizona law -- not the person of the governor or any law enforcement officer or any other person -- and appropriately so. In his semi-coherent rant, Chris conflates “Nazi” with “Hitler” or “Hitlerian,” which is strictly a right wing canard against President Obama. But it isn’t used in any references to the Arizona law as a Nazi law that I’ve seen and are linked below, because it doesn’t apply. This isn’t about a charismatic dictator or hurling derogatory terms about.
Not surprisingly, Chris Matthews is completely wrong. But don’t take my word for it. Some time ago, Chris said the person he’d most like to have dinner with was the Pope. In light of recent events, would you care to revise your remark, Chris? Might I suggest the less pontifical Cardinal Archbishop of LA Roger Mahony. He said of the Arizona law:
- “I can't imagine Arizonans now reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation.”
- Reverend Al Sharpton was “one of many speakers at the rally to compare the law to apartheid, Nazi Germany and the segregation-era South. Sharpton said he would mobilize people from across the country to march in Arizona and get arrested if necessary to fight the new law.”
- Rep. Connie Mack, Republican of Florida: “This law of ‘frontier justice’ -– where law enforcement officials are required to stop anyone based on “reasonable suspicion” that they may be in the country illegally –- is reminiscent of a time during World War II when the Gestapo in Germany stopped people on the street and asked for their papers without probable cause. It shouldn’t be against the law to not have proof of citizenship on you.”
Chris Matthews has a habit of saying ridiculous things. Once he analogized President Obama’s clash with political opponents to “cowboys and indians.” When the Frank Luntz lies were finally exposed on his network, after more than a year of giving Luntz and his memos a pass, and then only because the President mentioned it, Chris boosted Luntz’s “recognition” with great merriment, not once noting that Luntz is an admitted and proud LIAR. Nor did he draw the distinction between honorable political consultants who “spin” but have scruples and unscrupulous punks like Luntz, who LIE for a living.
Discussing the Nevada Senate race, Chris boasted of having met Republican Sue Lowden and talked her up, until one guest correctly pointed out that Lowden repeatedly touted bartering chickens for healthcare as a viable proposal. Chris called it a “blow to the midsection” as if mentioning what she said and reiterated somehow distorts her views. Why?
Matthews should worry less about how blogs and alternative outlets of information that he disdains choose to report the news, and more about the restrictions imposed by his own network on its news readers and assorted commentators, such as a virtual prohibition on using the words “Nazi” and “fascism” and “liar.” If Chris consumes less inside-the-beltway POLITICO gossip from rumormongers who drag themselves onto Hardball or Andrea Mitchell looking like they’ve been on an all-night binge, he might even catch that scent of donuts-and-coffee fascism wafting across the fruited plain.
I believe in calling a spade a spade. The use of euphemistic language only clouds our political discourse and can lead to hideous consequences. The radical right wing has never had a problem using hate speech, distortions, and propaganda -- all techniques developed by the Nazis and other fascist or authoritarian states -- to promote a dangerous, divisive, racist and violent agenda. We cannot effectively oppose the radical right wing with euphemisms and civil discourse. When Republicans and wingnuts lie we should call them liars. When they make bigoted or racist remarks we should call them bigots and racists. And when they pass laws reminiscent of Nazi Germany we should call them Nazi laws.
This country was never immune from the influence and appeal of fascism and the Nazi ideology. From experiments in eugenics to racist exhortations of right wing radio demagogue Father Coughlin (the Rush Limbaugh of his day); from the America First movement to neo-Nazi rallies in Madison Square Garden headlined by Charles Lindbergh (the Sarah Palin of his day); from McCarthyism (fascism by another name) to the militias and Oklahoma City bombing; from the Birchers to the Birthers to the Teabaggers -- fascism in all its manifestations, from neo-Nazi racism to extremist right wing xenophobia, has been a dark and sinister stain on this nation's fabric.
When fascism rears its ugly head, we are compelled to call it out. We cannot count on the corporate media to do what it has not done since the days of Watergate -- which is to be a watchdog of our democracy.
THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Glenn Beck TV Audience Down by One-Third Since January
Good news for America’s average IQ! (See inverted chart below, tracing this nation’s growing intelligence.) Imagine that, millions of people actually spending more time with their families, perhaps reading a good book instead of watching the insanely paranoid carney crier . . . That big spike happened the day after passage of healthcare reform. Our tweet of the day said:
“GOP posts FAQ, Q: What will tomorrow be like? A: A blue sun, lava on ground, and demons flying around everywhere.” When Armageddon didn’t happen, most Beckistas came to their senses; he must be down to the true believers. First, major advertisers dropped this maniac. Now, as viewership drops precipitously, even Fox “News” is distancing itself from their house loco.
Indications are the Teabagger rabble is going south (metaphorically speaking, of course) as fast as this idiot’s ratings.
“GOP posts FAQ, Q: What will tomorrow be like? A: A blue sun, lava on ground, and demons flying around everywhere.” When Armageddon didn’t happen, most Beckistas came to their senses; he must be down to the true believers. First, major advertisers dropped this maniac. Now, as viewership drops precipitously, even Fox “News” is distancing itself from their house loco.
Indications are the Teabagger rabble is going south (metaphorically speaking, of course) as fast as this idiot’s ratings.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Republican Parasites in the Senate Block Senate Vote on Financial Reform for Third Time
The United States Senate cannot at this moment be called “the world’s greatest deliberative body” -- a reach at the best of times -- but rather America’s whorehouse, in which Senate Republicans en masse line up to service the 1,500 lobbyist vultures who have descended on Capitol Hill. So far only one DINO, Senator Ben Nelson, has joined the kept Senators in their House of ill-repute, which makes it 29 lobbyists for each Republican Senator.
Madam Mitch McConnell, Wall Street's sock puppet, continues to preach the Orwellian line that the $50 billion liquidation fund to permit the orderly failure of financial institutions, firing of management, with shareholders taking the loss, is a “taxpayer bailout” per Frank “Goebbels” Luntz’s BIG LIE talking point. Obviously, even the most obtuse taxpayer understands that a fund financed by Wall Street banks without a nickel of taxpayer’s money for purposes of an orderly liquidation, analogized by NJ Democratic Senator Menendez to a funeral fund, is not a taxpayer bailout. Quite the contrary, (to the second argument by Republicans, that such a fund encourages risky behavior) existence of such a fund actually discourages players from engaging in risky behavior. Once the players realize there is a process in place to liquidate “too big to fail” institutions, it is no longer an abstraction in which bailouts or else are the only options left to governments and taxpayers held over the barrel of another financial collapse.
Madam McConnell is the Senate’s most dedicated disciple of George Orwell. Quick rule of thumb to decipher McConnell-speak: Everything Mitch says is the opposite of what it means, a kind of yin-yang word association. When Madam Mitch says:
Madam Mitch McConnell, Wall Street's sock puppet, continues to preach the Orwellian line that the $50 billion liquidation fund to permit the orderly failure of financial institutions, firing of management, with shareholders taking the loss, is a “taxpayer bailout” per Frank “Goebbels” Luntz’s BIG LIE talking point. Obviously, even the most obtuse taxpayer understands that a fund financed by Wall Street banks without a nickel of taxpayer’s money for purposes of an orderly liquidation, analogized by NJ Democratic Senator Menendez to a funeral fund, is not a taxpayer bailout. Quite the contrary, (to the second argument by Republicans, that such a fund encourages risky behavior) existence of such a fund actually discourages players from engaging in risky behavior. Once the players realize there is a process in place to liquidate “too big to fail” institutions, it is no longer an abstraction in which bailouts or else are the only options left to governments and taxpayers held over the barrel of another financial collapse.Madam McConnell is the Senate’s most dedicated disciple of George Orwell. Quick rule of thumb to decipher McConnell-speak: Everything Mitch says is the opposite of what it means, a kind of yin-yang word association. When Madam Mitch says:
“Wall Street” he means “Main Street”; “taxpayer bailout” means “Wall Street bailout”; “small business” means “BIG banks and transnational corporations”; “unintended consequences” means “intended consequences to my biggest corporate donors”; “written by a few guys in a room” means “Republican obstructionism and non-cooperation”; “jammed through the Senate” means “60-vote supermajority”; “massive” means “comprehensive”; “President Obama said the biggest beneficiaries of this bill are on Wall Street” means “President Obama said that by setting out clear rules of the road and ensuring transparency and fair dealings, we will actually promote a more vibrant market”; “supporters of this bill have locked up the support of Goldman Sachs” means “Wall Street elites, banks, and hedge fund managers held a secret meeting with moi, Madam McConnell to pay me mucho diñero to prevent regulations that stop bailouts”; “traditional derivatives” means “synthetic derivatives does not mean traditional derivatives”; “homeowners and small business owners in Kentucky” means “transnational corporations and Wall Street banks”; “recent performance of the Democratic Majority” means (petulantly) “how dare you call me on Frank Luntz talking points”; “a lot of people want more than a verbal assurance, they want proof” means (projection) “take our word for it, Wall Street doesn’t need more regulation, they’ve given me verbal assurances, a wink and a nod and (have I mentioned this?) mucho, mucho diñero”; “the Fertilizer Institute and Kentucky farmers will be punished by this bill” means “straw man, Wall Street will be punished by this bill”; “Americans want this bill fixed” means “Wall Street wants this bill killed or watered down”; “verbal assurances” means “written regulatory rules of the road”; “Consumer Financial Protection Agency” means “massive government overreach”; “U.S. Chamber of Commerce means Goldman Sachs and Citigroup (don’t be fooled by Republican bait-and-switch -- Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, shameless denizen of the best little whorehouse in Texas), and all the umbrella organizations cited by Republicans” means “Wall Street, transnational corporations, right wing Astroturf groups such as Freedomworks, the major Republican Party business, anti-financial (kill the bill) regulation donor base”; “Americans expect us to prove we’re doing what we say we’re doing” means “stop kvetching, Democrats, I’m only doing what my Wall Street donors expect me to do”; “I don’t blame them one bit” means “I don’t blame them (“Wall Street ”) one bit”; “after all, isn’t that how the legislative process is supposed to work” means “we’re gonna shatter the all-time filibuster record in the service of our corporate owners, and we don’t care because the SCOTUS ruling corporatizing the U.S. government will give us one-party rule, i.e. fascism, without accountability or consequences”; “major legislation is proposed, the American people get to take a look at it, they let us know how it would affect them, and then we weigh those concerns against the various problems at hand” means “major legislation is proposed, Wall Street lobbyists get to take a look at it, Wall Street lobbyists let us know how it would affect them, and then we weigh those Wall Street lobbyist concerns against the various problems at hand”; “The authors of this bill may believe some of these concerns are misplaced. But they’re going to have to prove it” means “FILIBUSTER TODAY, FILIBUSTER TOMORROW, FILIBUSTER FOREVER! (Insert Rebel yell.)”A typical Senate floor speech by Madam Mitch McConnell, deconstructed. Oh, and “My constituents” means “not Kentucky,” but a certain street in New York City. Any questions? Teabaggers?
Arizona Law Knifes GOP in the Back: THANK YOU, Governor Brewer and Gramps McCain!
It’s already starting: The Nazi anti-immigration law passed in Arizona threatens to rip the Republican Party to shreds months before the November election. A law that most astute political observers (with the cynical focus lacking in the public at large) recognize as the mother of all voter suppression statutes may, if it stands, artificially boost Republican turnout by intimidating non-white Democratic voters from showing up at the polls. Any law that compels voters of a certain caste to produce proof of citizenship will surely have a dampening effect on turnout for Democratic (non-white) constituencies.
Here’s the political context. Politics, as they say, is local, until it becomes nationalized. Here, the interests of Arizona’s right wing Republican extremists stands to heap disaster on the national party. Governor Jan Brewer, Arizona’s former secretary of state, ascended to the state’s highest office after it was vacated by Janet Napolitano, President Obama’s current Homeland Security Secretary. Brewer is locked in a tight election for governor with Arizona’s Democratic Attorney General, Terry Goddard. It was a tight race, that is, until the Wicked Witch of the West unleashed her Flying Monkey Right police to terrorize Arizona citizens.
Since Arizona’s Nazi bill was signed into law, Goddard jumped ahead of Brewer, 47 to 44 percent. Latino voters are flocking to Goddard. His support among Latinos more than doubled since September. Goddard now leads Brewer among Latinos by 71 to 25 percent. Even among party-identified voters, Brewer trails Goddard: 73 percent of Republicans favor Brewer to 88 percent of Democrats for Goddard.
Arizona is turning into a pariah state that is increasingly toxic to the rest of the nation:
Welcome to “Jaime” Crow, 2010. If Jim Crow laws in the 50s and 60s were all about making African Americans jump though hoops to exercise their right to vote, Arizona’s anti-immigration law is a tacit recognition of the growing influence and importance of Latino voters, particularly to the Democratic Party. With this Arizona law –- which was drafted by an out-of-state Birther, Chris Kobach, who is running for secretary of state in Kansas -– the extremist controlling right wing of the Republican Party has written off the Latino vote and will focus instead on suppressing Latino turnout in November.
This calculation spells doom for Republican hopes of retaking the House or Senate. Most objective political observers, in either party, recognize this strategy as a train wreck of immense proportions for the Republican Party. In fact, many Republicans are running for the tall grass and away from the Arizona law as fast as they can. Marco Rubio, darling of the Teabaggers, is compelled to protect his Latino flank as the son of Cuban immigrants and oppose the Arizona law in a pretzel-like twist that also criticizes President Obama. Rubio can only pray that the Teabaggers who saw him as “such a nice young man” before SB 1070 won’t now turn on him as the ultimate Beckista mole, secret friend to invading hordes south of our borders. Jeb Bush, whose brother’s single progressive domestic initiative was a sincere effort to enact comprehensive immigration reform, has come out against the Arizona law. As has the despicable political sharpie Karl Rove.
Illustrating just how serious a political mine field this Nazi law is for Republicans, even former Colorado Congressman and presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, who ran on an anti-immigration plank and was a featured speaker at the Tea Party Convention, worries the Arizona law has gone too far. Meanwhile, Gramps McCain is deciding on yet another political facial to make it look as if he’s for the law at the same time that he’s against it. Blaming the President after you introduced the immigration reform bill you’re now running away from won’t cut it, Gramps.
Which brings us to the Teabaggers. This rabble of scared, angry, low-information white voters has caused mini-electoral convulsions within GOP ranks throughout the country. In Florida they backed Rubio and threaten to force moderate Governor Charlie Crist to run for the Senate as an independent. In Utah, distinguished conservative Senator Bob Bennett is threatened with political decapitation by a know-nothing Teabagger insurgency supporting nonentity candidates. Senator Bennett’s crime? Apart from not being a wingnut, his length of service and seniority in Washington -- a tradition dating back to the first days of the Republic -- is suddenly a career-ending political liability. In Idaho Teabaggers endorsed a Democrat, giving Republicans there conniptions.
The Republican Party does not handle chaos and disorganization well. Indeed, the Democrats hold the advantage in this area. But when Will Rogers famously said, “I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat,” he could not have anticipated the state of disarray the Republican Party finds itself in today.
Here’s the political context. Politics, as they say, is local, until it becomes nationalized. Here, the interests of Arizona’s right wing Republican extremists stands to heap disaster on the national party. Governor Jan Brewer, Arizona’s former secretary of state, ascended to the state’s highest office after it was vacated by Janet Napolitano, President Obama’s current Homeland Security Secretary. Brewer is locked in a tight election for governor with Arizona’s Democratic Attorney General, Terry Goddard. It was a tight race, that is, until the Wicked Witch of the West unleashed her Flying Monkey Right police to terrorize Arizona citizens.
Since Arizona’s Nazi bill was signed into law, Goddard jumped ahead of Brewer, 47 to 44 percent. Latino voters are flocking to Goddard. His support among Latinos more than doubled since September. Goddard now leads Brewer among Latinos by 71 to 25 percent. Even among party-identified voters, Brewer trails Goddard: 73 percent of Republicans favor Brewer to 88 percent of Democrats for Goddard.
Arizona is turning into a pariah state that is increasingly toxic to the rest of the nation:- In New York, Mayor Mike Bloomberg said: “[M]any people from around the world may think twice before visiting Arizona and subjecting themselves to potential run-ins with the police. As a city, New York may well benefit from another state undermining its own international competitiveness -– we’re happy to have those businesses and tourists come here.”
- Colorado Congressman Jared Polis, who is Jewish, said the law is reminiscent of Nazi Germany: “I think it’s a very fair comparison and I hope that we’re not headed on the same trajectory that Nazi Germany was. But this was a very recent experience for Jewish Americans and Jews worldwide and it’s something that when we see similarities we start ringing alarm bells.”
- In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on official travel to Arizona. A measure was introduced in the city assembly condemning the Arizona law as an “affront” to our Constitution.
Welcome to “Jaime” Crow, 2010. If Jim Crow laws in the 50s and 60s were all about making African Americans jump though hoops to exercise their right to vote, Arizona’s anti-immigration law is a tacit recognition of the growing influence and importance of Latino voters, particularly to the Democratic Party. With this Arizona law –- which was drafted by an out-of-state Birther, Chris Kobach, who is running for secretary of state in Kansas -– the extremist controlling right wing of the Republican Party has written off the Latino vote and will focus instead on suppressing Latino turnout in November.This calculation spells doom for Republican hopes of retaking the House or Senate. Most objective political observers, in either party, recognize this strategy as a train wreck of immense proportions for the Republican Party. In fact, many Republicans are running for the tall grass and away from the Arizona law as fast as they can. Marco Rubio, darling of the Teabaggers, is compelled to protect his Latino flank as the son of Cuban immigrants and oppose the Arizona law in a pretzel-like twist that also criticizes President Obama. Rubio can only pray that the Teabaggers who saw him as “such a nice young man” before SB 1070 won’t now turn on him as the ultimate Beckista mole, secret friend to invading hordes south of our borders. Jeb Bush, whose brother’s single progressive domestic initiative was a sincere effort to enact comprehensive immigration reform, has come out against the Arizona law. As has the despicable political sharpie Karl Rove.
Illustrating just how serious a political mine field this Nazi law is for Republicans, even former Colorado Congressman and presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, who ran on an anti-immigration plank and was a featured speaker at the Tea Party Convention, worries the Arizona law has gone too far. Meanwhile, Gramps McCain is deciding on yet another political facial to make it look as if he’s for the law at the same time that he’s against it. Blaming the President after you introduced the immigration reform bill you’re now running away from won’t cut it, Gramps.
Which brings us to the Teabaggers. This rabble of scared, angry, low-information white voters has caused mini-electoral convulsions within GOP ranks throughout the country. In Florida they backed Rubio and threaten to force moderate Governor Charlie Crist to run for the Senate as an independent. In Utah, distinguished conservative Senator Bob Bennett is threatened with political decapitation by a know-nothing Teabagger insurgency supporting nonentity candidates. Senator Bennett’s crime? Apart from not being a wingnut, his length of service and seniority in Washington -- a tradition dating back to the first days of the Republic -- is suddenly a career-ending political liability. In Idaho Teabaggers endorsed a Democrat, giving Republicans there conniptions.
The Republican Party does not handle chaos and disorganization well. Indeed, the Democrats hold the advantage in this area. But when Will Rogers famously said, “I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat,” he could not have anticipated the state of disarray the Republican Party finds itself in today.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
RACIST ARIZONA
Here’s an eye-opener for those of you who may be fence-sitters, or misinformed, about Arizona’s anti-immigration law, SB 1070. The individuals who drafted and introduced this heinous Nazi legislation present the profile of the most despicable racists (not proto-racists or bigots) populating the dark, filthy underbelly of this country. Russell Pearce, who introduced the bill, is a declared Holocaust denier and palled around with a neo-Nazi. Chris Kobach, who authored the bill, is a Birther linked to the hideously anti-American organization with the oh-so benign acronym “FAIR” (Federation for American Immigration Reform).
Founded by opthalmologist (M.D.) John Tanton in 1979, FAIR traces his racist ideology to Nazi eugenics monsters like Dr. Joseph Mengele. FAIR has received more than $1 million in contributions from a group called the Pioneer Fund that was formed “in the Darwinian-Galtonian evolutionary tradition and the eugenics movement” to fund research that shows the “superiority” of white people and promotes genes of people “deemed to be descended predominantly from white persons who settled in the original thirteen states prior to the adoption of the Constitution.”
Tanton frames the immigration issue in survivalist terms for whites: “to govern is to populate … Will the present majority peaceably hand over its political power to a group that is simply more fertile? … As whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion?”
Decades before Oliver Stone’s “JFK,” an obscure gem of a film about President Kennedy’s assassination opened in 1973 to substantial controversy. “Executive Action” was told entirely from the conspirators’ perspective, postulating a military-industrial complex conspiracy by transnational capitalist tycoons with ties to black ops CIA operatives. “Executive action” is a term used by the CIA at the time. The amoral, unemotional tone of the narrative enhances the chilling impact of the film. In his last role as a Texas oil baron (lead conspirator Robert Foster), Robert Ryan delivers a sinister monologue, one whose words seem lifted straight out of Tanton’s sick writings: “I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority and a clear one at that.”
Needless to say, Foster’s insane racist nightmare never came to pass, but Vietnam cost the lives of 58,000 Americans. The film is a cautionary tale of speculative nonfiction about the tragic consequences of extremist ideology driving government policy.
Founded by opthalmologist (M.D.) John Tanton in 1979, FAIR traces his racist ideology to Nazi eugenics monsters like Dr. Joseph Mengele. FAIR has received more than $1 million in contributions from a group called the Pioneer Fund that was formed “in the Darwinian-Galtonian evolutionary tradition and the eugenics movement” to fund research that shows the “superiority” of white people and promotes genes of people “deemed to be descended predominantly from white persons who settled in the original thirteen states prior to the adoption of the Constitution.”
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Tanton frames the immigration issue in survivalist terms for whites: “to govern is to populate … Will the present majority peaceably hand over its political power to a group that is simply more fertile? … As whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion?”
Decades before Oliver Stone’s “JFK,” an obscure gem of a film about President Kennedy’s assassination opened in 1973 to substantial controversy. “Executive Action” was told entirely from the conspirators’ perspective, postulating a military-industrial complex conspiracy by transnational capitalist tycoons with ties to black ops CIA operatives. “Executive action” is a term used by the CIA at the time. The amoral, unemotional tone of the narrative enhances the chilling impact of the film. In his last role as a Texas oil baron (lead conspirator Robert Foster), Robert Ryan delivers a sinister monologue, one whose words seem lifted straight out of Tanton’s sick writings: “I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority and a clear one at that.”
Needless to say, Foster’s insane racist nightmare never came to pass, but Vietnam cost the lives of 58,000 Americans. The film is a cautionary tale of speculative nonfiction about the tragic consequences of extremist ideology driving government policy.
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