The feds just opened up another 3000 square miles in the Gulf to fishing. They've declared the fish there to be safe, through the sniff test.
Unfreakin' believable.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Total BS, as I have already explained to you in the past, and will do it once again.
Republicans haven't been filibustering anything, only threatening to filibuster.
HarryReid could've actually forced Republicans & turncoat Democratic senators to filibuster. He didn't (& doesn't).
Senate rule 22 gives the Senate Majority Leader (Harry Reid) the discretion to force Republicans to actually filibuster & not just threaten to do it. Filibustering is very hard on those soft, pampered bodies. Reid forced it once (Jim Bunning & extending unemployment) & Bunning caved.
Democrats can even change the supermajority rule (it does NOT have to be done at the beginning of a new Congress, as some argue). It can be done at any time (see page 6 - http://fpc .state.gov/documents/organization/45448. pdf ].
There's not just one way (or even two) for Democrats to get bills passed without Republican votes.
http://www .huffingto npost.com/ 2010/07/27/ezra-klein-how-to-end-then_661234.html
http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid='0E%2C*P%2C%3B%3F %22%20%20%20%0A
http://yglesias.thinkprogress. org/2009/08/hertzberg-on-the-constitutionality-of- the-filibuster/
But Obama & the DLC-controlled DemocraticParty aren't doing that. Because it might actually work to get Democratic voters' legislative agenda made into the law of the land & do good for the People. And that's not what Obama&Company are there for. They're there to do the work of the transnational corporations.
A robust bill with a public option, even expanding Medicare, could have been passed through reconciliation with a president beating the drum for it. Obama could have done to Lieberman and the Blue Dogs what he did to Dennis Kucinich. What was that? What did Obama do when Kucinich (the last hold-out on the Progressive Caucus, all of whom had pledged to vote for a healthcare bill only if it had a public option, and who all caved) was opposing him to the left? Obama flew to Cleveland and held a big rally. Obama rallied Kucinich's constituents against him and he got Kucinich's vote.
Where was that mentality with Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, the other Blue Dogs and even Olympia Snowe?
If the president of the United States had used the bully pulpit against them, a lot of progressives would have respected that and said, "You tried your best".
But Obama didn't try. He cut a deal. Months earlier, cutting the will of the People off at the knees. The public was powerless in the backroom deal.
It was like many other deals that Obama has cut in the close to 2 years he's been in the White House, and they all look remarkably similar. They all favor corporations over the American people. From the $20 billion deal that we now learn is really $3 billion, non-securitized, non-contractual, and predicated on another deal where BP gets to continue risky and dangerous drilling in sensitive deep waters, to the deal he made with Arlen Specter, to throw the weight of the White House behind his election campaign in the primary over real Democrats.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
What we never expected and still can not understand is why a poor or middle class individual would stand against our President and members of Congress fighting to help them.
=====================================
Because it doesn't do what Obama and Democrats were put into power to do: Get affordable, quality medical treatment for all.
Selling insurance policies to a few million more isn't getting them affordable quality medical care.
About Health
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
#1-A public option will never happen as long as Obama is in the White House. That was the deal he made.
#2-You forget that what got watered down got passed through reconciliation. A robust bill with a public option, even expanding Medicare, could have been passed through reconciliation with a president beating the drum for it. Obama could have done to Lieberman and the Blue Dogs what he did to Dennis Kucinich.
What did Obama do when Kucinich (the last hold-out on the Progressive Caucus, all of whom had pledged to vote for a healthcare bill only if it had a public option, and who all caved) was opposing him to the left? Obama flew to Cleveland and held a big rally. Obama rallied Kucinich's constituents against him and he got Kucinich's vote.
Where was that mentality with Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, the other Blue Dogs and even Olympia Snowe? If the president of the United States had used the bully pulpit against them, a lot of progressives would have respected that and said, "You tried your best".
But Obama didn't try. He cut a deal. Months earlier, cutting the will of the People off at the knees. The public was powerless in the backroom deal.
About Health
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Do you remember Obama's press conference on the explosion in the Gulf?
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2010/05/obama_on_b
Do you recall the excuse he gave, about why his Interior Department issued exemptions to BP:
"[T]here is a thorough environmental review as to whether a certain portion of the Gulf should be leased or not. . . . .Under current law, the Interior Department has only 30 days to review an exploration plan submitted by an oil company. That leaves no time for the appropriate environmental review. The result is, they're continually waived. And this is just one example of a law that was tailored by the industry to serve their needs instead of the public's."
It's not true.
http://www.salon.com /news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/03/salazar/index.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05 /31/AR2010053103126. html?hpid= topnews
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama doesn't get a pass on preventing this spill, just as Bush didn't get a pass on preventing 9/11.
Obama let BP happen.
The problems with MMS and the potential for a disaster were long known. Obama came into office after the MMS report came out, and he appointed Ken Salazar, a dude very cozy with Big Oil.
Obama & Salazar didn‘t do anything to change the problems that both knew about when they came into office. When they came into office, they already knew that the agency had experienced a s3x & drug scandal. They knew they agency had such a close relationship with Big Oil that the agency was holding golf & ski junkets paid for by Big Oil in exotic places around the world. They knew the agency, put together by Reagan's Secretary of the Interior James Watt in 1982, was dysfunctional. Nothing has changed since Watt created it, saying, "I‘m going to form this agency with my buddies from Wyoming."
Put Ken 'Cozy-With-Big-Oil' Salazar in as his Secretary of the Interior. Salazar put 53 million offshore acres up for lease in the Gulf in his first year alone. An all time high.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965?RS_show_page=0
Salazar helped open up the Gulf for drilling, including the lease bloc that BP drilled, WHEN HE WAS A SENATOR. He's always been for drilling and Obama & Salazar went full speed ahead as soon as they got in office and then they pushed for more offshore drilling.
Do you know that Ken Salazar was a US Senator prior to becoming Obama's Secretary of the Interior? Do you know what his record was as senator?
As a senator, Salazar voted to end protections that limit offshore oil drilling in Florida's Gulf Coast. http://www.lcv.org/images/client/pdfs/LCV_2006_S
He also voted against increasing fuel-efficiency standards (CAFE) for cars and trucks, a vote that the League of Conservation Voters notes is anti-environment. In the same year, Salazar voted against an amendment to repeal tax breaks for ExxonMobil and other major petroleum companies.
http://www.lcv.org/images/client/pdfs/LCV_Scorec
Salazar was one of only a handful of Democrats to vote against a bill that would require the United States Army Corps of Engineers to consider global warming when planning water projects.
http://www.lcv.org/scorecard/2007.pdf
If Obama were legitimate, if he wasn't a corporate t00I, he would have fired Ken Salazar, an industry hack who had the audacity to say that we shouldn't end Exxon‘s subsidies in a year that Exxon was making $40 billion.
KEEP READING
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Do you remember Obama's press conference on the explosion in the Gulf?
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2010/05/obama_on_b
Do you recall the excuse he gave, about why his Interior Department issued exemptions to BP:
"[T]here is a thorough environmental review as to whether a certain portion of the Gulf should be leased or not. . . . .Under current law, the Interior Department has only 30 days to review an exploration plan submitted by an oil company. That leaves no time for the appropriate environmental review. The result is, they're continually waived. And this is just one example of a law that was tailored by the industry to serve their needs instead of the public's."
If Obama were legitimate, if he wasn't a corporate t00I, he would have fired Ken Salazar, an industry hack who had the audacity to say that we shouldn't end Exxon‘s subsidies in a year that Exxon was making $40 billion.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Salazar put 53 million offshore acres up for lease in the Gulf in his first year alone. An all time high. http://www .rollingst one.com/po litics/new s/17390/11 1965?RS_sh ow_page=0
Salazar helped open up the Gulf for drilling, including the lease bloc that BP drilled, WHEN HE WAS A SENATOR. He's always been for drilling and Obama & Salazar went full speed ahead as soon as they got in office and then they pushed for more offshore drilling.
Do you know that Ken Salazar was a US Senator prior to becoming Obama's Secretary of the Interior? Do you know what his record was as senator?
As a senator, Salazar voted to end protections that limit offshore oil drilling in Florida's Gulf Coast. http://www .lcv.org/i mages/clie nt/pdfs/LC V_2006_Sco recard_fin al.pdf
He also voted against increasing fuel-efficiency standards (CAFE) for cars and trucks, a vote that the League of Conservation Voters notes is anti-environment. In the same year, Salazar voted against an amendment to repeal tax breaks for ExxonMobil and other major petroleum companies.
http://www .lcv.org/i mages/clie nt/pdfs/LC V_Scorecar d_05_FINAL _lores.pdf
Salazar was one of only a handful of Democrats to vote against a bill that would require the United States Army Corps of Engineers to consider global warming when planning water projects. http://www .lcv.org/s corecard/2 007.pdf”
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama doesn't get a pass on preventing this spill, just as Bush didn't get a pass on preventing 9/11.
The problems with MMS and the potential for a disaster were long known. Obama came into office after the MMS report came out, and he appointed Ken Salazar, a dude very cozy with Big Oil.
Obama & Salazar didn‘t do anything to change the problems that both knew about when they came into office. When they came into office, they already knew that the agency had experienced a s3x & drug scandal. They knew they agency had such a close relationship with Big Oil that the agency was holding golf & ski junkets paid for by Big Oil in exotic places around the world. They knew the agency, put together by Reagan's Secretary of the Interior James Watt in 1982, was dysfunctional. Nothing has changed since Watt created it, saying, "I‘m going to form this agency with my buddies from Wyoming."
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
What type of transparency did you expect?
What makes this off limits? Is this in the same category as nuclear codes?
Why wouldn't the American people be entitled to this information? Why wouldn't the people in the region most immediately impacted by the effects of this spill be entitled to this information? If you were a fisherman in Louisiana, wouldn't this information influence the decisions you have to make regarding the rest of your life, and where you want to live it? And for oil people in the region, for that matter. Perhaps they might want to go into another line of work, make some plans, based on what's in that report and how the American people might react as a result.
I'd like to see where you draw the line as to what information in a democracy is none of the People's business.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
"Why would you think you're going to hear anything after November 3rd? If it doesn't get talked about when it's happening, it doesn't get talked about."
It's not that Americans have any less of an attention span than other nationalities; it's that it's news when it happens. The media covers events as they take place, and the immediate reaction. After that, the media's attention gets directed to what's news that day.
Today is when this news came to light, and if it's not dealt with now, if it's put off, you know what happens when it's brought up weeks/months/years down the line: "Oh that's old news, it's been talked about already."
I find it interesting that emmanuel goldstein says, "The Dems aren't going to say anything bad about this...too close to election time".
Why would the Democrats say anything bad about this at any time? This is their bad. You would think, however, that Republicans would be talking about this. Republican politicians, not their voters online, but Republicans running for office.
If anyone ever wanted any proof that there's not a hair's lick of difference between Republicans and the DLC-controlled Democratic Party, that they both work for Big Oil and other transnatinal corporations, this is it.
If anybody is going to a Republican or Democratic candidate's election event in the coming weeks, ask both how they feel about Obama's blocking NOAA's report, paid for with tax dollars. It might make for some interesting television news that has more relevance to the election coverage we're getting now (all Christine O'Donnell & Sharon Angle, all the time -- No substance, just witchcraft and teabaggers).
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Fear-mongering???
The White House prevented scientists, not just those working for NOAA, from getting any data, from gathering their own data.
The White House prevented journalists from actually flying over and documenting the oil volcano and the devastation being wreaked on the Gulf.
The White House allowed US coastal waters to be saturated with a banned toxic dispersant, the only purpose of which is to hide the true amount of oil that was pouring into the Gulf. In the food supply.
kolach is a good example of the "centrist" voter, who is so uncomfortable with conflict that he makes excuses in order to try to "be fair" and "see all sides".
The only 2 sides to this is those on the side of Big Oil, greed, hiding their incompetence and their corruption in order to keep making money off of the People on the other side, a lot of whom are going to be very sick, will d!e, as a result (and won't be able to get medical treatment because of Obama's bailout to Big Insurance & PhRma).
Get your head out of your @$$.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Why would you think you're going to hear anything after November 3rd?
If it doesn't get talked about when it's happening, it doesn't get talked about.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP has been buying up scientists, too, so that they won't be able to testify in coming litigation where BP will fight being held responsible.
Only $3 billion of the $20 billion deal that Obama made (not on paper, no contract, and not securitized) will be seen -- BP stalled paying even that up until about 3 weeks ago.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
People died. Eleven of them initially. Many more to come, from the toxic pollutants (both the oil itself and the millions of gallons of banned dispersant, as yet the precise amount is still being blocked) that Obama allowed BP to release into the Gulf. It's now in the food chain.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
You cannot have a healthy functioning democracy when the government is cherry-picking information it will allow the People to see.
We make decisions based on all information we have at our disposal. We make decisions relating to a whole host of issues based on information like "worst case scenarios", like do we even want to drill offshore at all. And if we do, what are our alternatives for food supplies? And do we want to spend more resources on oversight and inspections, or continue to let oil companies police themselves (or even let BP into the game, given their record of lax standards and a "Go fug urself" attitude towards the US. And perhaps the price we're actually paying for a few people to be stinkin' rich isn't really affording us a lifestyle that's making us happy at all.
You can't possibly be this complacent, lazy, about the governance of this nation. A democratic republic doesn't mean you get to be blissfully ignorant and blindly trust others to keep you and your loved ones safe and well; you have a job to do in this democracy, too.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
BP is the US military's top supplier:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/15/news/companies/BP_governm
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
The same reason why Obama didn't let you know that the White House, from its own feed in the White House Situation Room, knew that BP's low-ball estimate of the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf was a l!e.
Both parties work for the corporations.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Get ready, People.
Obama is about to lift the drilling moratorium in the Gulf, and not one of the corporations drilling in the Gulf, or anywhere else offshore, has a plan in place and ready, as required by law, for a blowout.
BP is already preparing it's riskiest, most dangerous operations yet, in our greatest source of seafood, the waters off of Alaska, and will be at it again soon. BP hasn't changed its ways, not since its ways k!lled 15 at one of their operations in Texas, not since 11 were killed in the Gulf of Mexico.
And just like in the economic meltdown, nobody has been held accountable.
There will be no action, nothing meaningful whatsoever, until the People say, "Enough!"
Hold Obama accountable; get some real action from him. Right now, all he's doing is managing the situation, We The People, with words. Get him off his @$$, General Russell Honore-style, and actually doing something. Enough with the compromising, enough with the concessions to Big Oil.
If Obama isn't doing it now, before an election where he wants your votes, he's never going to be doing it after the election. Now, in the weeks before an election, is the only time that the People get accountability from their elected leaders.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Because you cannot have a healthy functioning democracy when the government is cherry-picking information it will allow the People to see.
We make decisions based on all information we have at our disposal. We make decisions relating to a whole host of issues based on information like "worst case scenarios", like do we even want to drill offshore at all. And if we do, what are our alternatives for food supplies? And do we want to spend more resources on oversight and inspections, or continue to let oil companies police themselves (or even let BP into the game, given their record of lax standards and a "Go fug urself" attitude towards the US. And perhaps the price we're actually paying for a few people to be stinkin' rich isn't really affording us a lifestyle that's making us happy at all.
You can't possibly be this complacent, lazy, about the governance of this nation. A democratic republic doesn't mean you get to be blissfully ignorant and blindly trust others to keep you and your loved ones safe and well; you have a job to do in this democracy, too.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama, in his own words:
Transparency Will Be Touchstone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72g7qmeP1dE
"On transparency", "About inviting the people back into their government again", and "Part of the job of the next American president is making Americans believe that our government is working for them, because right now they don't feel like it's working for them. They feel like it's working for special interests and it's working for corporations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K97hvOOdy_I
"We need a president who sees the government not as a tool to enrich well connected friends and high-priced lobbyists, but as a defender of fairness and opportunity for every single American. That's what this country's been about and that's the kind of president I intend to be:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEMxfme7OQI
"Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public, no more secrecy.....No more secrecy.....":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQbQTrm_pSA
"Clintons did health care the wrong way, behind closed doors":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvyharXBI0Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU0m6Rxm9vU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBtIKgGHYPQ
"The American people are the answer":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2cvru2TH-s
Obama's Transparency Problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IODbwOhZYEM
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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