Bush DoJ Killed BP Probe
Probe Threatened to Net Top Officials Link
If there's a big crime you know the Bush bastards are involved .
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Rush and Brit are right - there's not much oil in the Gulf.
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The tea party's record of failure
RELATED: Latvia is presently embroiled in a molestation scandal in which a former Catholic priest is accused of abusing numerous orphan boys at a school for the mentally handicapped.
So the little ramshackle bayou town of Jean Lafitte, Louisiana has canceled its annual Seafood Festival because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. You might think they're overreacting, since the festival's not until July 30. Except that Lafitte's less than a 100 miles from this:
The Rude Pundit can't get his mind around the fact that the well is still pouring out oil a month later. He can't grasp how BP executives haven't been arrested for, at the minimum, criminal negligence, if not manslaughter, and the well blown up and sealed.
Now all the fishermen and people cleaning up the spill are already getting sick from the fumes and the dispersants being used, which, by the way, were documented after the Exxon Valdez,to cause BRAIN LESIONS AND DEATH.
From Crooks and Liars, linked above.
Marine toxicologist Riki Ott said the chemicals used by BP can wreak havoc on a person's body and even lead to death.
"The volatile, organic carbons, they act like a narcotic on the brain," Ott said. "At high concentrations, what we learned in Exxon Valdez from carcasses of harbor seals and sea otters, it actually fried the brain, (and there were) brain lesions."
OMG.
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Presidential leadership fail
Three weeks after the gusher started, Obama finally tells BP (British Polluters) they need to be more transparent about how much oil is really gushing into the Gulf and the EPA asks them to use a less-toxic form of chemical dispersants to break up the oil. Also, federal officials have told local animal rescue workers who have volunteered to help treat birds affected by the slick and to collect data that would also be used to help calculate penalties for the spill that the work must be done by a company hired by BP.
President Obama?
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Here's a good post by GP on how Social Security actually works and why "fixing it" will end up screwing us like the last "fix" did:
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2. You already "fixed" Social Security, in 1983. In that fix, Ronald Reagan and the Greenspan Commission (yep, Alan Greenspan) recommended increasing Social Security taxes on the middle class, but not on the Big Boys, the wealthy. The declared goal was to put tons of cash into the Social Security Trust Fund — create a huge rainy day stash — for when Boomers started retiring. (If you click the Trust Fund link, watch what happens to the last column, the total amount, starting in 1984.)
Why is it important to understand this?
Everyone making less than $100k per year has been paying for that fix — every working day since 1983. They robbed you once, so they wouldn't have to do it twice. Want them to do it twice?
Take a look at how the tax rates on the rich have steadily decreased over the past 30 years.
"Why do you rob banks?"
"Because that's where the money is."
The rich won't be happy until they've bled us all dry and we come to them, begging for crumbs.
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I've never used an ATM, so I don't know what the fees are. It's true, I don't know how to use one. But I could learn how to do it just like I've . . . I swipe to get my own gas, buy groceries. I know about the holograms.
–Senator Ben Nelson
Those comments came in response to a question about ATM fees. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) has been pushing for a vote on a proposal to cap the fees ATMs charge customers of other banks.
Maybe he should just stick to taking bribes from health insurers. What a moroon.
(TPM)
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Translation: "But because you're white college grads and one of you is fortunate enough to the offspring of a U.S. Attorney, we'll just slap you on the wrists, send you to nuisance court and call it a day. Since I called this an 'extremely serious crime' and made an Extremely Serious Face, no one can accuse me of favorable treatment."
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A Wisconsin bar burns Obama effigy with duct tape wrapped around its neck as crowd laughs and cheers.
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On second attempt, Senate breaks GOP-led filibuster of Wall Street reform bill.
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Nobody's making the house payment, nobody's getting new mortgages
Despite the complete recovery of the American Economy — what, did you miss it? — a record 14% of households with mortgages are currently delinquent. That's more than 7 million households. Another survey says 10% of all mortgages are in default, the highest percentage on record. Don't worry, it gets worse. MORE »
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The "security failure" isn't the foiled terrorist plots; it's the illegal secret torture at Bagram. "US President Barack Obama's national intelligence director has resigned after a 16-month tenure marked by a series of security failures. Adm Dennis Blair said he had informed the president of his resignation, which goes into effect on Friday. His term of office saw the Fort Hood shooting, the Christmas Day bomb plot and the failed Times Square bomb plot. He drew fire for the Christmas Day plot when he said special interrogation teams promised had not yet been formed. This was despite a decision to form the teams months earlier."
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We know without a doubt that the "C" in "CNN" doesn't stand for "Classy" "CNN.com published a story today on Rima Fakih, the Muslim Lebanese-American woman who was just crowned Miss USA, mentioning that some neocon bloggers (namely Debbie Schlussel) have called her a supporter of Hezbollah, which the U.S. classifies as a terrorist organization. ... The headline: "Miss USA: Muslim Trailblazer Or Hezbollah Spy?""