A Few Points While Taking a Little Break

I’ve been following the Senate and House as they work through republican whining and obstruction, and I’m actually quite hopeful that they will get through it all.

One interesting article I read this morning came to light through Wikileaks.

Striking resemblances between BP‘s Gulf of Mexico disaster and a little-reported giant gas leak in Azerbaijan experienced by the UK firm 18 months beforehand have emerged from leaked US embassy cables.

The cables reveal that some of BP’s partners in the gas field were upset that the company was so secretive about the incident that it even allegedly withheld information from them. They also say that BP was lucky that it was able to evacuate its 212 workers safely after the incident, which resulted in two fields being shut and output being cut by at least 500,000 barrels a day with production disrupted for months.

Other cables leaked tonight claim that the president of Azerbaijan accused BP of stealing $10bn of oil from his country and using “mild blackmail” to secure the rights to develop vast gas reserves in the Caspian Sea region.

This rings true for me.  Many of my students — particularly those from Western African nations — complain about the tactics oil companies use to extract their resources.  The countries always get the raw end of the deal and the oil companies make a killing.

Meanwhile, upstanding Senator David Vitter is using an old tactic to screw with the administration.

Sen. David Vitter, R- La., said in a letter to PresidentBarack Obama that he was putting a “hold” on the nomination of Dr. Scott Doney for chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He first wants answers to the tough new policy on offshore drilling announced earlier this month.

It’s sort of like hostage taking, isn’t it?

Perhaps there is some link between the two article?  I tend to side with the administration on this and not either of Louisiana’s senators.

Interior Department spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said Vitter action was “posturing.”

“No amount of political pressure is going to weaken our commitment to delivering strong oversight, strong safety standards and clear rules of the road for offshore oil and gas production,” Barkoff said. Interior says the inspector general’s report was an editing mistake and not an issue of wrongdoing or scientific integrity.

 

 

 

 

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Commander Perry and Berry — We Have Tea Party!

Here’s a tea party leader person trying to be funny (and defend himself against charges of racism):

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Colored People have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing.  Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards.  That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week.  We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.

The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly.  Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for?  What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare?  What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds!  Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.”  What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life?  As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.”  Again, they directly target Colored People.  That means we Colored People would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.”  That is outrageous!    How will we Colored People ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn?  Totally racist!  The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever.  We had a great gig.  Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house.  Please repeal the 13^th and 14^th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Head Colored Person

That’s just precious. (via)

Listening to the previews of the news, it looks like they chose running a Michael Berry profile over mosquitoes biting people in Houston.  When the well is dry . . . of course financial reform passed and BP did something right today, but the local news runs with mosquitoes and Michael Berry.

(Edited for clarity.)

Causiously Optimistic

Perhaps the oil has finally been stopped.  I know that the possibility exists that the well could leak beneath the surface.  The relief well is the only sure hope to stop it completely.

Up until 6:00 p.m., this wasn’t important enough for Michael Berry to talk about because you know what is most important to Michael Berry:  Michael Berry.  Oh, and race baiting.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

The Phoenix Suns are showing their solidarity with those belonging to the rational community.

I don’t trust those snap polls that seem to indicate that a “majority” of Americans support the Arizona law.  It looks like the numbers are based on those who self identify knowing about the law and then taking the percentage of that percentage and applying it to the whole.

Given the passage of the Arizona law and the oil spill in the Gulf, I don’t see how Congress could pass up the opportunity to get both immigration reform and cap and trade done.  Of course, financial reform has been squeezed out of the news, but I expect that to pass.

How’s that hopey changey thing going?  So far so good as far as I can see.