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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (73742)	5/6/2010 10:34:51 AM
From: Broken_Clock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Salazar is basically anti-environment. He is big business all the way. I guess the best thing you can say about him is that he was a "bipartisan" appointment. Did you read Palast opinion? Message 26513852

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (73742)	5/6/2010 10:36:51 AM
From: Broken_Clock	Respond to of 149317

Published on Thursday, May 6, 2010 by The Nation One Case Against BP, Wall Street, and War by Tom Hayden The need for greater linkages between the environmental, peace and Wall Street reform movements grow by the day in the face of the epic oil spill caused by British Petroleum, a multinational firm tied to Goldman Sachs and Halliburton in oil wars from the Gulf of Mexico to the Persian Gulf. Peter Sutherland, chairman of BP’s board for the past decade, had headed Goldman Sachs International and, in the 1990s, was a director of the World Trade Organization. Last year Sutherland touted BP’s founders as the “cream of Edwardian society” who organized the Anglo-Persian oil company in 1909 with a concession from the Shah of Persia. Kicked out of Iraq by former president Saddam Hussein in the 1960s, BP recently has been rewarded with the concession to exploit what “could be one of the largest expansions of crude-oil production ever achieved anywhere”, according to the Wall Street Journal. The BP-Halliburton connection was not only forged in Iraq, but in underwater catastrophes in 2009 in Australia’s sea of Timor and explosion two weeks ago of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the southern US coast. Halliburton performed the concrete work that preceded both spills, and the New York Times reports a Halliburton employee has acknowledged “that he made the problem worse” during the Australian spill. As for the recent disaster, Halliburton officials claim it would be “premature and irresponsible to speculate” on the cause. The Goldman Sachs connection remains to be investigated, but it appears Sutherland had a conflict of interest in his dual roles at BP and the Wall Street giant. BP and Goldman were involved heavily in the 1990 and in 2000 in achieving deregulation of energy futures trades from the previous oversight of the Commodities Futures and Exchange Commission (CFTC). As most crude oil futures trades became deregulated, the price of oil skyrocketed from $18 per barrel in 1988 to $36 in 2000, to $110 in 2008. BP’s environmental crimes also include the use of Colombian paramilitaries to protect its jungle pipelines and thousands of air pollution violations at its Carson oil refinery in Los Angeles. BP has asserted that the goal of global warming initiatives should be to stabilize emissions at 500-550 ppm, levels considered shocking by most environmental experts. And yet despite its status as a serial and dangerous polluter, BP has attempted to cultivate a reputation as a “responsible” oil company, famously rebranding itself as BP “Beyond Petroleum” with a $200 million Ogilvy and Mather advertising campaign in 2000, and known for encouraging “dialogues” and “partnerships” with mainstream environmental organizations like the National Wildlife Federation. The current oil spill invites a coming together of many social movements, including those inspired by the recent indigenous gathering in Bolivia and mainstream groups with a new opportunity for principled battle against the Obama administration’s embarrassing energy legislation which green-lights more off-shore drilling. It remains for progressives to move beyond a single-issue focus to make the connections between Wall Street, war, and environmental destruction. © 2010 The Nation Tom Hayden is a former state senator and leader of Sixties peace, justice and environmental movements. He currently teaches at PitzerCollege in Los Angeles. His books include The Port Huron Statement [new edition], Street Wars and The Zapatista Reader.

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (73742)	5/6/2010 10:44:59 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 149317

Read it again, then. Until it sinks in. In the meantime, quit burning oil, cuz they are extracting it so you can support the lifestyle to which you are accustomed. = theoildrum.com == ROCKMAN on May 5, 2010 - 2:00pm I agree lenny. The posting serves to follow the old philosophy: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." If folks don't like what Mr. H says then you better find yourself a cave. As we slide deeper into a PO world such statements will fill the airwaves IMHO. I'll take much upon myself to offer an oil industry view from someone who is not a spokesman for a public company. First, the energy future of the country is not our responsibility. No one offered us the job. The people, through their elective representatives, are responsible. We just adapt to their plan in any way that maximizes our profits. Taxes and regs are just the cost of doing business for us. We'll figure out a way to minimize them and just carry on. Second, we don't really care what you think about us. We've been those "dirty lying bastards" forever. Go ahead...try to hate us more. Can't be done. Na na na na. Third, we are 100% behind the fact that less than 5% of the world's population uses 25% of the energy resources. Without such greed there would be much less demand for our products. Again, we didn't make the rules. The American consumers did with their never ending desire for more stuff. But we're so lucky you're like that. Thank you very much. Fourth, we'll risk as much environmental damage as you allow us. Just like your energy future the environment is not our responsibility...it's yours. If we follow the rules and still spill oil in the water it's because you gave us permission to take that risk. Your call...your responsibility. Fifth, as reserves decline and the country can't meet even basic needs our value and power will increase. You might bitch and scream but you can't do anything about it. Oh, yeah, nationalization. Then the gov't can do for the oil industry what it did for the Post Office and Social Security system. After that fiasco you'll be on your hands and knees begging us to start up biz again. But we'll just laugh. At that point the folks left in the oil patch will have taken theirs to the house and won't care to play this silly game anymore. So we'll just sit on our retirement accounts and watch you tread water in the crap pool of your own making. We might even feel sorry for you but you set the system up so now you deal with it. And finally, the only honest remorse we feel over this whole situation is for those who have and will continue to sacrifice themselves in foreign lands to support our country's effort to maintain BAU. A very sad abuse of our military but, again, we don't get to make the rules.