But [BP] chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg has put the company back into the spotlight, this time with embarrassing revelations about his personal life.
The gaffe-prone Swede is said to have begun an affair with a married mother-of-three just as his own marriage collapsed. So enamoured was he with Louise Julian that within days of the oil spill erupting, he allegedly whisked her away for a cruise on board his 77-foot luxury yacht, the Cygnus Montanus II.
Can we just get Sarah Palin elected President so the world can end already? Because all these fuckers are really spinning it out of control and if we "lesser people" don't get to enjoy it, they shouldn't either.
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Under the (Gulf) Radar: Controlling the Spin & Growing the Problem
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BP & GOP attempting history's largest cover-up
President Reagan reduced government regulations that were choking the life out of business in our nation. He certainly didn't lift all regulations so that federal workers could be paid to surf pornography and take gifts from those they were regulating. Given these recent examples of moral license leading to costly burdens on the American taxpayer, fiscal conservatives should rethink their ideas about giving up on the social issues that we at Concerned Women for America, and our half a million members, care about.
Unemployment rate drops to 9.5 percent.
But we lost 125,000 jobs.
But we added 83,000 private sector jobs.
And this clearly means no "double-dip" for now. But contrary to Rick Santelli and the deficit hawks (who vote for corporate welfare regularly) we need a substantive jobs bill. Now.
It's also worth noting that 17 Republican senators who filibustered unemployment benefits and the jobs bill also have double-digit unemployment rates in their home states.
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Drone, Baby, Drone!
The Air Force is deploying a new evolution of American weaponry, pilotless vehicles with the seemingly dull and harmless name of drones, a legacy from when the remotely piloted vehicles mainly loitered for hours in drowsy reconnaissance. Drones have weaponry now, of course, and their recent implementation in Afghanistan and Pakistan raises very serious issues for the little people that, so classically, we weren't consulted or asked about at all.
Like all Air Force platforms drones are prone to basic targeting mistakes, they made the news recently when a convoy of Afghan civilians was blown to smithereens in error, 23 human souls perishing in the letters of reprimand details. But two other factors in this southwestern Asia deployment make their use noteworthy beyond the heinously tragic loss of life: truly scary weaponry potential in the drones themselves and equally frightening political games to keep them in use.
Before we get there I think it's critical to understand how drones are but a tiny fringe element in the almost incalculably vast and powerful American air weaponry arsenal, especially when compared to any other country in the world. Every branch of the Services has a very significant air force with capabilities most Americans are completely unaware of in scope, not just drones in the Air Force. Keep reading: http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/015132.php
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Reagan raised taxes at least 7 times, including the biggest corporate tax hike ever.
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From Andrew Sullivan, who has created a very busy beat for himself tracking Sarah Palin's lies:
From a speech delivered at the International Bowl Expo in Las Vegas yesterday:
Palin recalled her youth when her father set pins in Idaho. "My Dad was on a Thursday night bowling league," she said. "He bonded with his buddies. I have memories of that point of my life which mean very, very much to me."
She must have been quite a precocious little thing because:
Palin was three months old when she left Idaho.Maybe there's some explanation for this that I don't know of yet. But the truth is: Palin constantly makes stuff up to appeal to whatever audience she is in front of.
Update: Here's more that confirms that Palin said she remembered living in Idaho:
Here's the link to the initial account from a reporter who was in the room. He wrote, "Palin recalled her youth when her father set pins in Idaho," and that she said, "My Dad was on a Thursday night bowling league. He bonded with his buddies. I have memories of that point of my life which mean very, very much to me."
And this is from the event host's news release after the speech:
During her keynote speech, Palin spoke of the societal influence of bowling that spans generations of American life. Professing a personal appreciation for the bowling industry, Palin also noted that, during his high school years, her father Chuck Heath Sr. worked as a pin boy and that she herself has fond childhood memories of watching him play in this Thursday night bowling league.
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Jon Stewart, responding to John McCain's catchy new acronym B.I.O.B. (Blame it on Bush): "H.R.W.A.T.P.T.R.T.C.I.T.G — He really Was A Terrible President That Ran The Country Into The Ground."
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If there were ever a villain that we could all rally against (the GOBP excluded), it is BP. They've murdered sea life, plant life, and an ocean. They've killed jobs and in many cases, hope.
There is only so much we can do to rectify that, but thankfully, the Animal Welfare Institute and others are making a little headway. It may be incremental, but at least it's something: http://www.thepoliticalcarnival.net/2010/07/deal-being-finalized-in-bp-burning-sea-turtles-alive-lawsuit/
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Why aren't we arresting BP executives and kicking the company out of the Gulf? "From Washington to the Gulf, politicians and residents wonder why so few skimming vessels have been put to work soaking up oil from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. ... Investment banker Fred D. McCallister of Dallas believes he has the answer. McCallister, vice president of Allegiance Capital Corp. in Dallas, has been trying since June 5 to offer a dozen Greek skimming vessels from a client for the cleanup. ... "By sinking and dispersing the oil, BP can amortize the cost of the cleanup over the next 15 years or so, as tar balls continue to roll up on the beaches, rather than dealing with the issue now by removing the oil from the water with the proper equipment," McCallister testified earlier this week before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. "As a financial adviser, I understand financial engineering and BP's desire to stretch out its costs of remediating the oil spill in the Gulf. By managing the cleanup over a period of many years, BP is able to minimize the financial damage as opposed to a huge expenditure in a period of a few years.""
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Today's post you must read is from Gaius Publius again, on how under the Only Nixon Could Go to China rule, only a Democratic government will dismantle Social Security.
And they want to know why the people who put Barack Obama in office don't plan to show up at the polls this fall? THAT's why.
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If only they could muster that many for peace. "Twenty thousand people have joined a march through Israel calling for the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit, organisers say. Sgt Shalit was captured by Palestinian gunmen four years ago. The demonstrators are halfway through their 12-day march across the country, which will end outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr Netanyahu has offered to free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, but not pay "any price" to the soldier's Hamas captors. Mr Netanyahu made the announcement in a bid to ease mounting pressure from the Israeli public for a prisoner swap. But the move may have backfired, as 20,000 people joined the march on Friday, organisers said."
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Sweet: Utah radio station drops Sean Hannity from its lineup, possibly for being uncivil.
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Senator Hatch will oppose the Kagan nomination 
