Horror in the Gulf of Mexico

The tragedy that is currently going on in the Gulf of Mexico is going to haunt this country for more years then I care to think about. It is startling to me how many of my fellow citizens fail to understand the absolute catastrophe that this is. Perhaps it is because our press is treating the situation pretty lightly, probably because they are all corporately owned, and if the media isn't hysterical then Americans don't think they have much to worry about.

I can only imagine how freaked out we would all be if a TERRORIST had blown up the oil well in the Gulf that was destroying an eco-system stretching thousands of miles. We would be out for REVENGE! But because it's just another friendly, corporate oil company and because we all realize that we brought it on ourselves we're kind of patting ourselves on the back and calling it a sad accident. Speaking of sad.

And, yes people, this is another chicken coming home to roost from the Bush administration's laissez faire behavior with corporate America. In case you ever wondered what would happen if we allowed the oil companies to pen the United States' energy policy, well wonder no more! Dead miners and dead oil rig workers are just a small price to pay for such enormous profit.

It would be best if we Americans just kept in mind at all times that corporations are sociopaths that our Supreme Court chooses to regard as people! Here are the traits they have in common with human sociopaths who don't have one millionth of the power to inflict hurt:

1. Repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest.(In 2005 BP blew up an oil refinery in Texas City killing 15 people and injuring 170 others).

2. Deceitfulness, repeated lying, use of aliases, conning others for profit. ("Nobody could have anticipated an oil rig accident in the Gulf")

3. Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead. (I think it's called a simple shut off valve that most SANE countries require oil riggers to use - but when the oil companies wrote our energy policy it must have slipped their minds.)

4. Aggressiveness (Wait until the we're so sorry commercials come out and encourage you to buy more gas from them.)

5. Reckless disregard for safety of themselves or others (no need to say more here)

6. Consistent irresponsibility, repeated failure to honor obligations.

7. Lack of remorse, indifference to the suffering of others (within 24 hours had workers sign waivers saying they wouldn't sue.)

Every time you watch a commercial you should keep all of these things in your head, especially #2. Thanks to Pam's House Blend blog for the list of sociopathic tendencies.

While our environment is taking such a beating all the rest of us should do everything we can to keep our own individual impact as slight as possible. No factory farmed meats, reusable grocery bags, etc. Also you should support those that are supporting the people of the gulf coast. Eat Gumbo!

Bush's Chickens are coming home to Roost

Just when I think that I might be going a little overboard worrying about the food we're eating in the United States, something comes up to remind me why I should be paranoid. In another piece of good reporting the New York Times has reported that Kraft, Safeway, Frito-Lay, and B&G foods have been taking bribes from a tomato food processor called SK Foods. According to federal prosecutors the bribes were offered in order to allow SK to sell them tomatoes so full of mold and other defects they would not pass federal tests. Not that we have any kind of inspection system or anything.

This is just another case of the "chickens coming home to roost." For the last decade the party in power didn't believe that business and industry needed to be regulated and so they didn't regulate them. Because as we all know the captains of industry are the most altruistic bunch you are every likely to meet and would no more endanger the American public then drink a martini without an olive, right?

They certainly proved that in the banking industry, unregulated they made a great deal of money for themselves, not so good for the rest of us though. And how can we forget the peanut recall where the product left the farm knowingly contaminated with salmonella and sickened hundreds? Peanuts that were so disgusting that our neighbors Canada refused them entry.

The problem is that inspecting food, airplanes, banks, etc. after the poo has hit the proverbial fan or somebody has died, is like closing the barn door after Elvis has left the building. People enjoy thinking that revelations such as the ammonia in the hamburger of McDonalds & Burger King is an unusual event when in fact basically our entire food industry is self-regulated! It is becoming increasingly evident that unless you know exactly where your food came from it is a total crap shoot.

I visited Krafts website to try and find out exactly how many tomato products they have but was unsuccessful because they have so many brands. But I did find that they consider themselves one of the most trusted names in the food industry. "We've put in place strong food safety and quality systems for our ingredients and our products."

Apparently some of their food brokers didn't get the memo because one of them was recently arrested at a New York airport. Allegedly Robert Watson, a food buyer for Kraft foods, found himself $20,000 short of a fully paid tax bill. So he called his buddy, a tomato broker in California, and asked him for the money. The broker was happy to help out although, being good businessmen, told him it would have to come out of his normal "commissions."

According to the New York Times these tainted shipments involved as many as 55 companies. "In some cases, companies detected problems and sent the product back - but in many cases, according to prosecutors, they did not, and the tainted ingredients wound up in food sold to consumers." That doesn't leave me feeling warm and fuzzy about the food industry.

The good news is we have access to farmers markets. The bad news is that Redmond Saturday market doesn't start until May. In the meantime, buy fresh and local as much as you can. At least you can see if your tomatoes are rotten.

Cap and Trade like Health Bill

I just wrote about the unfortunately compromised Health Care bill passed by the House. It is a bill that started out with the intention to help the American people and by the time it was done the health care lobbyists had turned it into something much less. It is not like there are no good things in the bill and that it isn't an improvement over what we had previously but it is still weak.

It has been weakened by corporate lobbyists. So instead of getting bill that will actually work we get some kind of weird half measure that does as much for the corporate interests involved as it does for the American people. We can't win anymore.

The proof is in the other half measure legislation being put forward in the form of the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill passed by the House. I just did a story at OhMyGov about a couple of EPA attorneys who have done a fantastic You Tube video called "A Huge Mistake." They argue that cap and trade can't work because the corporate interests involved always find a way to get around the new rules and actually turn it around to make a profit from it.

A seemingly innocuous part of the bill called carbon offsets are actually giant loop holes that the corporate interests are ready and anxious to jump through. An example provided by Laurie Williams and Alan Zabel, the two attorneys involved, is "suppose that a landowner is paid not to cut his forest so that it can continue capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Purchasing this offset allows owners of a coal-fired power plant to burn extra coal, above the cap."

The problems with this, says Williams and Zabel, is that somebody like Weyerhauser will just cut down a different forest and somebody else gets to spray more carbons in the air with the offset. It is "untrackable shifting economic activity and perverse incentives such as these are inherent problems for carbon offset that cannot be solved by certification or verification processes."

In some countries where carbon offsets are happening, like Great Britain, corporations actually lobby for them because they've managed to make them profitable without having to give up a thing. In fact, the carbon offsets give the pollutant actual value thus creating an incentive to produce it. Personally, I'm pretty sure that was not the original intention of the legislation but what emerges after it's been modified by corporate interests.

It is a pretty simple equation for the rest of us: Politicians + Corporate Lobbyists = Profits/Campaign funds for both of them. Not much for us but a weak bill that pretends to be something that it isn't.

And the reality is.........................

There are a lot of progressives out there right now who are pretty darn disappointed at the direction the health care bill has taken. They seem to have the impression that they handed the Democrats a majority in the House and Senate and that now, finally, we would be able to take the country in a different direction. Now they can't help wondering how it is that such a weak, corporate and GOP friendly bill is being put forward.


It isn't as if we all didn't just witness a Republican administration without a majority in the last four years still manage to get pretty much whatever it wanted. All they had to do was threaten to call a Democrat unpatriotic and they crumpled like tissue paper. The tax breaks for the wealthy were retained, nobody was ever investigated for ever and ever more obvious crimes, and the beat went on.

The reason is because the Bush administration and his GOP cohorts in the House and Senate never put anything forward that wasn't extremely popular with Corporate America. And if they like it then they'll find Democrats who like it too.

So, why can't the Democrats with a popular President and a super majority in the Senate do the same thing? The truth is that they could if they wanted to. The reality is that they are as deeply owned by corporate interests as their colleagues in the Republican party.

They talk a good game to their constituents and MSNBC but when push comes to shove they are going to take into consideration the interests of the lobbyists who are in their face with money and information 24/7 more than us. We are being given excuses like they just didn't have the votes because the blue dog Dems wouldn't budge. Ever hear that kind of rubbish from Tom Delay?

Personally, I think that Nancy Pelosi is one of the most capable Speakers we've had for a long time but she's not going to challenge the entrenched powers. Perhaps we are expecting too much. This is big legislation after all. Sometimes we get this crazy idea that we actually might have some kind of relevant opinion but we really don't. Not in Corporate America.

Chicken Little needs to Shut up!

Clearly the weekend news programs are hurting for material these days. I mean what is there to talk about outside of the failing economy, the new President's agenda, the occupation of Iraq, the civil war in Afghanistan, and global warming. With so few interesting things to choose from it should come as no surprise that our radar like media chose none of the above.

No, what our ever vigilant media representatives thought it best for the American people to hear was Dick Cheney talking. The fact that his 9% approval ratings indicate a certain loathing for the man by the American people doesn't seem to register on their media minds. Perhaps all a person of former power needs to to is crook his little finger and the media can't help but come running.

Sooooo, what are we left with? The Today show opens on Monday with the most venerable of newsmen, Matt Lauer, trumpeting his opening news headline 'Dick Cheney says we are not as safe as we used to be because we don't torture anymore.'

May I offer this alternative as an opener for the Today show, "The Vice President who said we were going to be nuked by Iraq says we need to keep torturing. More on the Chicken Little story later in the show."

The Science is called Evolution not Darwinism!

I don't want to beat an old horse but there are just some things that I can't let slide. Shocking it may be but this time my beef with the View is not with Ms. Hasselbeck but with her co-host Sherri Shephard. Now Sherri seems like a very nice person whom I also find quite amusing at times. I've wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt but Monday was the last straw.

In a bit of irony I spent some of my Saturday washing floors while listening to the NPR on the radio. I regret that I don't remember the name of the book or the author that was being interviewed but it was about science. The author has written a book about scientific theory in a way that is simple for everybody to understand. The interview was lively, entertaining, and informative. One of the many scientific topics that were touched upon was evolution. The scientist pointed out that even though the media tries to make it an issue the debate about evolution is over in the real world.

Perhaps the ladies on the View should spend some of their time listening to informative and informed people rather than twittering their "friends." To my utter and total disgust on Monday Ms. Walters brought up the recent case in California where a teacher was held responsible for noting to his class that creationism is pseudo science. She then proceeds to talk about this as if it was an open question. Really, Barbara, according to who? If you mean the Christian fundamentalists who are trying to force their religion down everybody's throats then I guess you're right but since when do we take our cues from them?

This discussion is not valid for a public program unless it's Billy Graham where you know your viewers all share your beliefs/delusions. I mean, what is next for the great brains on the View? Maybe we can have Sherri weigh in on whether the earth is flat or not? (Oh wait, she already did that and she wasn't sure???!!!!!) Or how about whether certain types of people of particular shapes and colors have smaller brains than white people? Perhaps a lively discussion about whether or not blood transfusions will change you as a person?

These suggestions are all previously held beliefs that have been scientifically debunked just like this new fake creationism. In the case of creationism as science all I can say is that if your equation has "then a miracle occurs" somewhere in it then it's not science. For these women to indicate otherwise on a major network is both stupid and irresponsible.

When Whoopi popped out with "I just don't know why we can't teach both," apparently nobody from the group was able to point out that we have a separation of church and state and creationism is religion so it would be illegal. I've known Republicans who are more informed than that. But I think Sherri's ignorance and hypocrisy are the most annoying.

Perhaps she should explain to the viewers of the View how she can trust science to operate on her child's eyes and not trust them in the area of Adam and Eve? If the surgeon had told her before the operation that I'm going to do A., B., C., and then I'll hope a miracle occurs because I never bothered to learn it myself, and then if that works I'll proceed to D. Do you think Sherri would have sent her child under the knife based on some kind of hopeful, miracleish kind of operation? I can only assume the answer would be no considering she spends the rest of the time talking about what a wonderful mother she is.

At least Joy Behar had the good sense to point out to her that if she didn't allow her child to learn about evolution then he probably wouldn't get in to college. That pretty much sums up where we are on the debate. It's over everywhere except in some parts of the South and on The View.

Defection of Specter a Reflection of the Times for Republicans

I was pretty amazed when I heard the news of Senator Specters defection to the Democrats. I've always known he was a moderate but I've heard him carry the water for the RNC too many times to believe he was a friend to Democrats. In truth the switch by Specter is more about pointing out the problems with the Republican party than with helping Democrats carry a majority in the Senate.

I've written about this before and I'm hardly a voice in the wilderness since journalists with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC have also talked about it. That is that the Republican party is becoming increasingly far right and thus irrelevant politically. The only news network (and I use the term "news" very, very loosely in this case) that hasn't noticed the precipitous decline is FOX and that isn't much of a surprise.

And what has been so amazing about this whole thing is that it is the Republicans themselves who continue to shovel the hole deeper. It is as if they were all lined up at the top of the water slide ready to watch each other as they leap off and plummet down the shoot while their fellows cheer them on their way. Each time a thoughtful person in line says something like "maybe this isn't such a good idea" they are derided and dismissed as being out of touch with real Republicans.

Even as they watch their poll numbers drop they continue to be just as they always have been. Cut taxes for the rich and corporations, strong military, and citizens are on their own. Despite the fact that those very same citizens decided loudly and clearly they didn't want to do it that way anymore they just don't get it. Apparently the old saying "the definition of insanity is to keep doing things the same way and expect different results" has never crossed any of their desks.

For the Republicans these days it is Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, and the rest of that loony group who sets their agenda. But even though these creeps have high ratings on TV and radio the Republicans should realize that they're still talking to a very small portion of the country. With that being true then it means that they've decided that appealing to only about 20% of America is okay. Call me crazy but you need more than 20% of the vote to win an election.

I am concerned though because in a Democracy you need more than one political party. Our Democracy is already in trouble if we let the free press die off so we can't add this to the mix. I appeal to the saner heads in the Republicans to not be afraid to stand up to the haters and liars and actually try and do something positive for the country.

Specter is just another ugly poll number for the Republican party. He is an indicator of the direction they are heading. Between the poll numbers and the departure of some of their most important members one might think they'd take notice this time. Limbaugh's response of "good riddance and take McCain and his daughter with you," is our indicator that they must really like the view from the bottom. Don't look for any changes soon.