The Existentialist Cowboy: disaster

Showing posts with label disaster. Show all posts

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Oil Industry Lobbied Against Blow-Out Preventer

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

Five hundred grand is chicken feed for the likes of BP/HALLIBURTON. That's how much a blow-out preventer would have cost BP. But the U.S. oil industry 'lobbied' against laws mandating their use.

In psychotic denial, BP asserts its innocence; oil giants remain united against regulations of any type requiring that they be responsible, regulations that would in fact require them to pay damages as a result of incompetence, greed or indifference! This record is unconscionable and follows from a lie called "corporate personhood' --an evil, pernicious doctrine recently espoused and 'made law' by the U.S. Supreme Court.

If 'corporations' were 'persons' as the 'Supreme' court has said they are, then BP and Halliburton would have already been arrested, charged, jailed and awaiting trial on numerous charges. Perhaps it is not too late to lock them all up --board chairman, members of the board, voting stockholders! Lock them all up!

Five ideologues who presume to judge us are, I believe, bought and paid for by a handful of corporations who presume to own the world. I can think of no other explanation for the worst decision since Bush v Gore and Dred-Scott.

If the rule of law is to be restored, the current SCOTUS must be expunged, reformed, by revolution if need be! Lock up the corporate criminals on the U.S. 'high' court!

In the meantime, relatives of workers presumed dead claim that BP and rig owner TransOcean violated "numerous statutes and regulations" issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard. According to a lawsuit filed by Natalie Roshto, whose husband Shane, a deck floor hand, was thrown overboard by the force of the explosion and whose body has not yet been located.

...Sen. Lisa Murkowski [has] blocked a bill that would have raised the maximum liability for oil companies after a spill from a paltry $75 million to $10 billion. The Republican lawmaker said the bill, introduced by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), would have unfairly hurt smaller oil companies by raising the costs of oil production. The legislation is "not where we need to be right now" she said. Murkowski's move came just hours after Washington's top oil lobby, the American Petroleum Institute (API) expressed vociferous opposition to raising the cap. It argued that doing so would "threaten the viability of deep-water operations, significantly reduce U.S. domestic oil production and harm U.S. energy security." API's membership includes large oil companies like ExxonMobil and BP America, as well as smaller ones.

In an article for The Washington Post of June 24 2010, ‘Beyond the BP Oil Spill, A Case of Chronic Pollution,’ author Steve Tracton, states,
‘According to government estimates, as of yesterday anywhere from 39 million to 111 million gallons of crude oil has gushed into the Gulf of Mexico (that excludes captured oil)...2.5 million gallons more continue to spill each day -- that's an Exxon Valdez spill (nearly 11 million gallons total)... every four days.’
Read more at Suite101: BP Oil Spill, BP Shares Plummet as the Environment Is Massacred 'Lobby' is a euphemism for the corporate ownership of the U.S government, indeed, corporate ownership of any government, be it Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Franco's Spain. Corporations --recently created 'persons' by SCOTUS --are not above the law despite the worst efforts of Scalia, Roberts and the other extremists on the U.S. high court. International law, in fact, obligates states to 'regulate' offshore drilling.
Considered to be a “Constitution for the ocean”,10 and adopted by over three-uarters of the 192 member-States of the United Nations,11 the LOSC is the primary, overarching, legally binding, global instrument on the law of the sea. According to the preamble, its Parties intended “to settle all issues relating to law of the sea” and to establish “a legal order for the seas and oceans,” bearing in mind “that the problems of ocean space are closely interrelated and need to be considered as a whole”. The LOSC is not a “framework treaty”; it does not depend for its implementation on the development of annexes and protocols, and “its provisions form an integral whole.”12 It governs all activities, including geoengineering projects, which involve or affect the marine environment.
--Geo-engineering, the Law of the Sea, and Climate Change,The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, [PDF]
States have a responsibility, perhaps a 'duty' to “adopt laws and regulations" to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment. States are required to utilize all means '...at their disposal' to address every issue relating to the marine environment. As stated in the above cited material: "Doing nothing about marine pollution is not an option..!"

But as the gulf catastrophe continues to unfold it would appear that little is done but PR and posturing.
Yet relatives of workers who are presumed dead claim that the oil behemoth BP and rig owner TransOcean violated "numerous statutes and regulations" issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard, according to a lawsuit filed by Natalie Roshto, whose husband Shane, a deck floor hand, was thrown overboard by the force of the explosion and whose body has not yet been located.

Both companies failed to provide a competent crew, failed to properly supervise its employees and failed to provide Rushto with a safe place to work, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The lawsuit also names oil-services giant Halliburton as a defendant, claiming that 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."

BP and TransOcean have also aggressively opposed new safety regulations proposed last year by a federal agency that oversees offshore drilling -- which were prompted by a study that found many accidents in the industry.
--
Big Oil Fought Off New Safety Rules Before Rig Explosion

Monday, November 03, 2008

Hoping to Avoid Another GOP Disaster

If you believe that Sarah Palin is an exemplary product of what can be achieved with the GOP in charge of the nation's education, then --by all means --vote for McCain/Palin.

Considering Sarah Palin's educational achievements. Should she influence the progress of education in this country, your own daughter might come to believe that human beings walked beside dinosaurs only six thousand years ago.

It was on this day four years ago that George W. Bush 'won' a second term with a promise to help the 'democracies' of Afghanistan and Iraq 'grow in strength and freedom'. Only the gullible believed it then. How many believe it now?

He said that 'tax reform, social security and education would be priorities'. Now, on the eve of his departure, a consummation devoutly to be wished, the world wonders what, if anything other than needless death and destruction will be the legacy of the very worst 'President in US history.

2004: George W Bush wins second term
George W Bush has won a second term as president of the United States, beating his Democratic rival, John Kerry, by a comfortable margin.
Mr Bush won about 51% of the vote and at least 274 electoral college votes against John Kerry's 48% and 252 votes.
Results are still awaited in New Mexico and Iowa but they cannot affect the outcome.

Mr Bush's victory was announced after Mr Kerry phoned him at the White House to admit defeat.
In a four-minute conversation, Mr Kerry congratulated the president, while Mr Bush called the Democrat "an admirable, worthy opponent".
Strong mandate
In his victory speech, Mr Bush said, "I am proud to lead such an amazing country and I am proud to lead it forward."
He said tax reform, social security and education would be priorities for his second four-year term.
He also said the US would "help the emerging democracies of Afghanistan and Iraq to grow in strength and freedom". ...

--BBC

What 'tax reforms' but tax breaks for rich folk were achieved by Bush and his endemically crooked GOP? Please tell me how anyone but his shrinking base of elites benefited?Since when are transfers of wealth to the wealthy considered to be 'reform'?

And I think if history is our guide, we've had stronger economies, more wealth creation, under Democratic presidents than we have under Republican presidents. So I don't understand why all my capitalist friends aren't Democrats.
--Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, The Female Joe Lieberman

What did Bush do for 'Social Security' but threaten to put an end to the government's ONLY success story, the ONLY government program to run a surplus, the ONLY government program that works! Significantly, Social Security is the lasting legacy of a democrat --Franklin D. Roosevelt!

I am at a loss to name a single GOP program, a single GOP policy that has ever worked in any way at any time. I can think of NO GOP program that has ever stood the test of time.

A history of the last four years is one of needless bloodshed, empty GOP rhetoric, death, destruction, aggressive war, war crimes and atrocities. At the same time, American educational standards declined, infrastructure crumbled, the rich still get rich upon the backs of the poor. Iraq is the quagmire of death, destruction, torture and atrocities. There is no end in sight! Many write of the 'end of America'.

Even if Bush/GOP calamities had been in any way desirable, a 'stolen election' is unforgivable. Stolen elections are antithetical to Democracy. Democracy is dead at the very moment an election is stolen. From that act of treason by Bush and his partisans follow every other disaster that has befallen this once great country.

Now --if you truly believe that Iraq was a rousing success, that the world now loves the US for the freedom and democracy that it brought to Iraq, then vote for John McCain.

If you are convinced that the poor have made significant progress toward climbing out of poverty, that the absurd 'third world' income disparities that are characteristic of the US have been adequately addressed, then vote for more of the same. Vote for John McCain.

If you are convinced that education has risen above the level of dead last as, in fact, Bush left it in Texas, then vote for more of the same nationwide. Vote for John McCain!

Education is particularly troublesome for Sarah Palin --an example of what can be achieved with the GOP in charge of the nation's education.

If this is what you think education should be then --by all means --vote for McCain/Palin, knowing that what Sarah Palin achieved educationally, your own daughter might equal as a result of a McCain administration.

Your own daughter might come to believe that not only did human beings walk with dinosaurs, seeing Russia from your porch makes one an expert on foreign affairs. I used to live within view of the mountains in Chihuahua. I was, therefore, an expert on Latin American affairs. Don't vote for more of the same. Vote for even worse. Vote for Sarah Palin.

But, because my readership is highly intelligent, I am quite sure that you have concluded, like me, that the GOP and McCain's campaign in particular consists of lies, empty platitudes and a very real record of utter disaster and failure. You would not patronize a doctor who tells you: just keep on doing whatever makes you terminally ill! Therefore, cast the only rational vote that can be cast!

Published Articles

Sunday, September 07, 2008

What Terrifies the Bush Administration

It has been asked what this government is afraid of. Rob Kall of OpEdNews made the point that America's most deadly weapons, formidable contingents of men in arms has failed to prove or demonstrate that the US is "powerful" --only that it is, in fact, afraid!

...the most powerful most deadly weapons and contingents of armed men does not mean that you are powerful, it means that you are afraid. It means that everywhere you go you go in fear. You are too afraid to go about in this world as we all do, with open hands and goodwill, and show up unarmed and with nothing to hide. You have everything to hide.
--And Then We Will Die

What is this 'government' afraid of?

TRUTH!

The Bush administration is absolutely terrified of the truth about its many failures and crimes.

The catastrophic failure in Iraq

Bush policy of Preventive War

So far, the preventive war doctrine has had one real test: the invasion of Iraq. Mr. Bush terrified millions of Americans into believing that forcibly changing the regime in Baghdad was the only way to keep Iraq's supposed stockpiles of unconventional weapons out of the hands of Al Qaeda. Then it turned out that there were no stockpiles and no operational links between Saddam Hussein's regime and Al Qaeda's anti-American terrorism. Meanwhile, America's longstanding defensive alliances were weakened and the bulk of America's ground combat troops tied down in Iraq for what now appears to be many years to come. If that is making this country safer, it is hard to see how. The real lesson is that America dangerously erodes its military and diplomatic defenses when it charges off unwisely after hypothetical enemies.
Before the Iraq fiasco, American leaders rightly viewed war as a last resort, appropriate only when the nation's vital interests were actively threatened and reasonable diplomatic efforts had been exhausted. That view always left room for pre-emptive attacks; America is under no obligation to sit and wait, if it is clear that some enemy is actually preparing to strike first. But it correctly drew the line at preventive wars against potential foes who might, or might not, be thinking about doing something dangerous. As the administration's disastrous experience in Iraq amply demonstrates, that is still the wisest course and the one that keeps America most secure in an increasingly dangerous era.
--New York Times as cited: Pacific Views: A Catastrophic Failure: Bush's Preventive War Policy

Bush's incompetent mismanagement of the economy.[See: The Truth About George] An excerpt:
US Comptroller General David Walker refuted George W. Bush's claims that his administration can cut the federal deficit in half within five years without changing policies. According to the Los Angeles Times, "Bush has argued that by 2006, growth prompted by his $1.7-trillion tax cut plus spending cuts will pare deficits in half." Contrary to Bush's claims, Walker, the nation's chief fiscal officer stated that, "The idea that this is manageable or that we are going to grow our way out of the problem is just flat false." CBSNews.com reports that Walker went on to say that, "It's time to admit that we're in a fiscal hole and to stop digging," yet Bush has refused to change his mind about making the tax cuts permanent. Despite Bush's pledge to not "pass [problems] on to other Presidents and other generations," according to Walker, that's exactly what is about to happen. In an interview with United Press International, Walker grimly states that, "We must begin to come to grips with the dawning fiscal realities that threaten our nation's children's and grandchildren's future." Get more information on how this economic squeeze is forcing states and the federal government to cut back on aid to the nation's poorest families, many of whom are headed by women. Sources: CBSNews.com, "Watchdog Declaring Deficit Crisis," Sept. 17, 2003; Los Angeles Times, "Bush's Economic Growth Forecast Called 'False'," Oct. 7, 2003.
Bush's fraudulent, ham-fisted war on terrorism, in fact, creating 'terrorism' in places where it had not existed before. Primarily, Iraq!
According to the July 2007 National Intelligence Estimate:
Al Qaeda represents a very serious threat to America’s security. “Al Qaeda will remain the most serious terrorist threat to the Homeland, as its central leadership continues to plan high-impact plots.”
- Al Qaeda has reconstituted its ability to strike America and is actively operating and plotting attacks against the United States from its safe haven in Pakistan. “We assess the group has protected or regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability, including a safehaven in the Pakistan Federally Administered Tribal Areas.”
- The war in Iraq is serving as a powerful recruiting tool for al Qaeda, providing the group with access to new resources, operatives and supporters. “We assess that al Qaeda will probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), its most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack the Homeland. In addition, we assess that its association with AQI helps al Qaeda to energize the broader Sunni extremist community, raise resources, and to recruit and indoctrinate operatives, including for Homeland attack.”
To the great detriment of US security, the Bush Administration has failed to grasp the nature of al Qaeda’s continued and resurgent threat and has proven incapable of advancing a viable strategy to respond to it. This NIE is the latest evidence that the Administration is losing ground in the war on terrorism, and that its flawed strategy in Iraq is empowering al Qaeda and making us less safe at home. Recent statements from the President show that the White House continues to be out of step with the intelligence community. It is time that the Bush Administration stop spinning the intelligence, level with the American people, and rethink its national security strategy.
--The Bush Administration Has Not Made America More Secure From Terrorism

When the final analysis is in, it will be clear that Bush has made 'terrorism' worse, just as terrorist incidents were three times more numerous during the Reagan years than during the Clinton administration.

Terrorism is worse under GOP regimes because GOP policies of oppression and exploitation inspire opposition abroad. When the US presence by virtue of CIA assassinations and other atrocities is seen to be oppressive (and it almost always is), PEOPLE will strike back against the oppressive economic and military power in the only way that is left them. If an exploited nation is denied weapons parity, it will resort to guerrilla tactics. Whether it is called 'terrorism' or some other term depends upon whose side you are on. "Terrorism" is a purely political term.

FBI stats, published by the Brookings Institution showed conclusively that terrorism during the regime of Ronald Reagan was three times higher than 'terrorism' under the regime of Bill Clinton.

Domestically, the same principle applies. Domestic 'terrorism' will, of course, increase exponentially if the current oppressive regime defines any opposition its missrule as 'terrorist' in nature. The GOP must not be allowed to get away with dictating this agenda and exploiting its own own incompetence with linguistic legerdemain.

911!

The FBI admits it has has no 'evidence' to support popular myths that some four airliners were hijacked by terrorists and used as weapons on 911. Meanwhile, NTSB, in response to an FOIA request, released Flight data indicating that Flight 77 never dropped below 273 feet after it took off. Simply: it could NOT have crashed into the Pentagon. The same flight data disproves assertions that Flight 77 damaged 40 foot light poles enroute to the crash. It was too high (273 ft) and on a trajectory that differed by 20 degrees the trajectory of whatever it was that damaged the poles. According to NTSB Flight Data Flight 93 could not have crashed in the field in PA.

Their investigation, says the FBI, was based upon mere assumptions: that said flights had, in fact, been hijacked, that Pentagon wreckage really was from Flight 77, that all the said hijackers were killed in the attacks. In fact, the BBC reported that some of he hijackers were still alive. If Bush's outlandish conspiracy theory had been true, that would not have been possible. But ---alive they were! The only explanation consistent with Occam: Bush lied about 911 just as he lied about everything else.

The admissions from the FBI and disclosure from the NTSB pull the rug from beneath a panoply of black-hearted lies by Bush and his administration. The official conspiracy theory of 911 is kaput!

Because the GOP exploits fear and is dependent upon it, it is defined by fear --fear of people, fear of free speech, fear of the truth.