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A must read ^^^ | Alarming Projection | Gulf Spill Could Go on for Years and Years ^
Global Research - By William Engdahl - Sunday, June 13, 2010

The White House has been resisting releasing any “damaging information” about the oil disaster. Coast Guard and Corps of Engineers experts estimate that if the ocean oil geyser is not stopped within 90 days, there will be irreversible damage to the marine eco-systems of the Gulf of Mexico, north Atlantic Ocean, and beyond [to Europe].

Complete text here
The Obama Administration and senior BP officials are frantically working not to stop the world’s worst oil disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological catastrophe. Senior researchers tell us that the BP drilling hit one of the oil migration channels and that the leakage could continue for years unless decisive steps are undertaken, something that seems far from the present strategy.

In a recent discussion, Vladimir Kutcherov, Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and the Russian State University of Oil and Gas, predicted that the present oil spill flooding the Gulf Coast shores of the United States “could go on for years and years … many years.” [1]

According to Kutcherov, a leading specialist in the theory of abiogenic deep origin of petroleum, “What BP drilled into was what we call a ‘migration channel,’ a deep fault on which hydrocarbons generated in the depth of our planet migrate to the crust and are accumulated in rocks, something like Ghawar in Saudi Arabia.”[2] Ghawar, the world’s most prolific oilfield has been producing millions of barrels daily for almost 70 years with no end in sight. According to the abiotic science, Ghawar like all elephant and giant oil and gas deposits all over the world, is located on a migration channel similar to that in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.

As I wrote at the time of the January 2010 Haiti earthquake disaster,[3] Haiti had been identified as having potentially huge hydrocasrbon reserves, as has neighboring Cuba. Kutcherov estimates that the entire Gulf of Mexico is one of the planet’s most abundant accessible locations to extract oil and gas, at least before the Deepwater Horizon event this April.

“In my view the heads of BP reacted with panic at the scale of the oil spewing out of the well,” Kutcherov adds. “What is inexplicable at this point is why they are trying one thing, failing, then trying a second, failing, then a third. Given the scale of the disaster they should try every conceivable option, even if it is ten, all at once in hope one works. Otherwise, this oil source could spew oil for years given the volumes coming to the surface already.” [4]

He stresses, “It is difficult to estimate how big this leakage is. There is no objective information available.” But taking into consideration information about the last BP ‘giant’ discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, the Tiber field, some six miles deep, Kutcherov agrees with Ira Leifer a researcher in the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara who says the oil may be gushing out at a rate of more than 100,000 barrels a day.[5]

What the enormoity of the oil spill does is to also further discredit clearly the oil companies’ myth of “peak oil” which claims that the world is at or near the “peak” of economical oil extraction. That myth, which has been propagated in recent years by circles close to former oilman and Bush Vice President, Dick Cheney, has been effectively used by the giant oil majors to justify far higher oil prices than would be politically possible otherwise, by claiming a non-existent petroleum scarcity crisis.

Obama & BP Try to Hide

According to a report from Washington investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, “the Obama White House and British Petroleum are covering up the magnitude of the volcanic-level oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and working together to limit BP’s liability for damage caused by what can be called a ‘mega-disaster.’” [6] Madsen cites sources within the US Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, and Florida Department of Environmental Protection for his assertion.

Obama and his senior White House staff, as well as Interior Secretary Salazar, are working with BP’s chief executive officer Tony Hayward on legislation that would raise the cap on liability for damage claims from those affected by the oil disaster from $75 million to $10 billion. According to informed estimates cited by Madsen, however, the disaster has a real potential cost of at least $1,000 billion ($1 trillion). That estimate would support the pessimistic assessment of Kutcherov that the spill, if not rapidly controlled, “will destroy the entire coastline of the United States.”

According to the Washington report of Madsen, BP statements that one of the leaks has been contained, are “pure public relations disinformation designed to avoid panic and demands for greater action by the Obama administration., according to FEMA and Corps of Engineers sources.” [7]

The White House has been resisting releasing any “damaging information” about the oil disaster. Coast Guard and Corps of Engineers experts estimate that if the ocean oil geyser is not stopped within 90 days, there will be irreversible damage to the marine eco-systems of the Gulf of Mexico, north Atlantic Ocean, and beyond. At best, some Corps of Engineers experts say it could take two years to cement the chasm on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. [8]

Only after the magnitude of the disaster became evident did Obama order Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano to declare the oil disaster a “national security issue.” Although the Coast Guard and FEMA are part of her department, Napolitano’s actual reasoning for invoking national security, according to Madsen, was merely to block media coverage of the immensity of the disaster that is unfolding for the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean and their coastlines.

The Obama administration also conspired with BP to hide the extent of the oil leak, according to the cited federal and state sources. After the oil rig exploded and sank, the government stated that 42,000 gallons per day were gushing from the seabed chasm. Five days later, the federal government upped the leakage to 210,000 gallons a day. However, submersibles monitoring the escaping oil from the Gulf seabed are viewing television pictures of what they describe as a “volcanic-like” eruption of oil.

When the Army Corps of Engineers first attempted to obtain NASA imagery of the Gulf oil slick, which is larger than is being reported by the media, it was reportedly denied the access. By chance, National Geographic managed to obtain satellite imagery shots of the extent of the disaster and posted them on their web site. Other satellite imagery reportedly being withheld by the Obama administration, shows that what lies under the gaping chasm spewing oil at an ever-alarming rate is a cavern estimated to be the size of Mount Everest. This information has been given an almost national security-level classification to keep it from the public, according to Madsen’s sources.

The Corps of Engineers and FEMA are reported to be highly critical of the lack of support for quick action after the oil disaster by the Obama White House and the US Coast Guard. Only now has the Coast Guard understood the magnitude of the disaster, dispatching nearly 70 vessels to the affected area. Under the loose regulatory measures implemented by the Bush-Cheney Administration, the US Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service became a simple “rubber stamp,” approving whatever the oil companies wanted in terms of safety precautions that could have averted such a disaster. Madsen describes a state of “criminal collusion” between Cheney’s former firm, Halliburton, and the Interior Department’s MMS, and that the potential for similar disasters exists with the other 30,000 off-shore rigs that use the same shut-off valves. [9]

Silence from Eco groups?... Follow the money

Without doubt at this point we are in the midst of what could be the greatest ecological catastrophe in history. The oil platform explosion took place almost within the current loop where the Gulf Stream originates. This has huge ecological and climatological consequences.

A cursory look at a map of the Gulf Stream shows that the oil is not just going to cover the beaches in the Gulf, it will spread to the Atlantic coasts up through North Carolina then on to the North Sea and Iceland. And beyond the damage to the beaches, sea life and water supplies, the Gulf stream has a very distinct chemistry, composition (marine organisms), density, temperature. What happens if the oil and the dispersants and all the toxic compounds they create actually change the nature of the Gulf Stream? No one can rule out potential changes including changes in the path of the Gulf Stream, and even small changes could have huge impacts. Europe, including England, is not an icy wasteland due to the warming from the Gulf Stream.

Yet there is a deafening silence from the very environmental organizations which ought to be at the barricades demanding that BP, the US Government and others act decisively.

That deafening silence of leading green or ecology organizations such as Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club and others may well be tied to a money trail that leads right back to the oil industry, notably to BP. Leading environmental organizations have gotten significant financial payoffs in recent years from BP in order that the oil company could remake itself with an “environment-friendly face,” as in “beyond petroleum” the company’s new branding.

The Nature Conservancy, described as “the world’s most powerful environmental group,”[10] has awarded BP a seat on its International Leadership Council after the oil company gave the organization more than $10 million in recent years. [11]

Until recently, the Conservancy and other environmental groups worked with BP in a coalition that lobbied Congress on climate-change issues. An employee of BP Exploration serves as an unpaid Conservancy trustee in Alaska. In addition, according to a recent report published by the Washington Post, Conservation International, another environmental group, has accepted $2 million in donations from BP and worked with the company on a number of projects, including one examining oil-extraction methods. From 2000 to 2006, John Browne, then BP's chief executive, sat on the CI board.

Further, The Environmental Defense Fund, another influential ecologist organization, joined with BP, Shell and other major corporations to form a Partnership for Climate Action, to promote ‘market-based mechanisms’ (sic) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmental non-profit groups that have accepted donations from or joined in projects with BP include Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and Audubon. That could explain why the political outcry to date for decisive action in the Gulf has been so muted. [12]

Of course those organizations are not going to be the ones to solve this catastrophe. The central point at this point is who is prepared to put the urgently demanded federal and international scientific resources into solving this crisis. Further actions of the likes of that from the Obama White House to date or from BP can only lead to the conclusion that some very powerful people want this debacle to continue. The next weeks will be critical to that assessment.


F. William Engdahl is the author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order

Opinion | US, Arizona have a choice to make - Weaons going south, people flowing north ^
The Hill - By Rep. Michael Honda (D-Calif.) and Rosario Dawson - Thursday, June 10, 2010

Complete text here
Much has been said aboutArizona’s Senate Bill 1070, allowing state law enforcement officials to stop, question, detain and report individuals based on suspicion of undocumented status. Outrage against this bill is pervasive. Some say it hearkens back to Jim Crow, others say it legalizes racial profiling.

We understand Arizona’s itch to initiate immigration reform given its estimated 460,000 undocumented immigrants, exposure to cross-border drug and gun traffic and frustration with feds foregoing legislation for decades. There are four glaring reasons, however, why this approach is grossly misguided.

Editor- Let's get the gun running part straight. The guns and ammunition are crossing the border going south, not 'immigrating' north. What is the US doing about that - or does our goverment really care? After all weapons are a substantial part of national economies these days and the US 'gifts' and sell that merchandise worldwide. Gun running is, in essence, a part of our underground sales program.

First, the constitutionality of SB 1070 is dubious. The key legal issue, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the National Immigration Law Center – all of whom are challenging the law’s constitutionality – is whether Arizona’s state law interferes with the U.S. government’s duty to handle immigration. This is exactly what sunk Proposition 187, a similar initiative in California.
Proposition 187 was a ballot initiative passed in 1994 and designed to prohibit undocumented immigrants from accessing social services, healthcare and public education. It was found unconstitutional by a federal court on the grounds that regulation of immigration is a federal responsibility. Arizona might soon find, too, that federal law preempts its immigration laws. Already, an Arizona police officer has filed a lawsuit against the bill and Department of Justice Attorney General Holder is suggesting injunctive relief in federal court to prohibit the enforcement of the Arizona statute. Legal precedent alone should be sufficient to shut this bill down based on unconstitutionality.

Second, Arizona’s attempt to fix immigration is financially unsound. Imagine if the U.S. followed Arizona’s footsteps and sent new immigrants packing. (It’s hard to imagine who sends whom packing as we all immigrated at some point in recent history). Rather than giving immigrants a clear path to legal citizenship – because immigrants who become citizens pursue higher-paying jobs and higher education, thus spending more and providing higher tax revenue – imagine sending all undocumented immigrants home. The cost to our economy would be crippling, with losses of $2.6 trillion in gross domestic product during the next 10 years.

Conversely, a commitment to comprehensive reform would net our economy $1.5 trillion over the same period. (This is UCLA data and well proven.) By signing SB 1070, Arizona’s governor thinks she is saving jobs and helping the local economy. The opposite is true. She will run the state further into debt. Arizona already faces one of the most severe state budget crises in America, spending roughly $10.1 billion while collecting only $6.4 billion in revenues.

Third, SB 1070 is ineffective in accomplishing its super-ordinate goal. By treating undocumented immigrants as criminals, it ensures that immigrants without papers stay far from police. This makes it far more difficult for police to do their work, which is why Arizona’s Sahuarita Police Chief John Harris, on behalf of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, came out against the bill. And why Harris and Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik voiced concerns about the law’s vague provisions allowing citizens to sue officials for failing to enforce the bill, putting pressure on police to undertake racial profiling. Either way, this law allows for ample abuse, sends hard-working immigrants into the shadows and undermines the relationship between local law enforcement and the community.

Fourth, the tenor of Arizona’s law takes our nation backward, not forward. With this bill, we are going further from American ideals. Consider the Japanese internment camps post-WWII, in which Rep. Honda was raised, where we dehumanized an entire race that had recently arrived and was actively contributing to our economy.

We have, since then, seen an increase in the freedoms on which this country was founded, from civil rights to women’s rights. This push toward further freedoms must continue. We do that by ensuring that newly arrived immigrants are afforded the same rights and responsibilities as the immigrants who came before them, including a legal path to citizenship.

If Arizona forgets the forbearance and foresight of our founding fathers, then let boycotts become the bearer of bad economic news for Arizona. Already, state and federal officials are calling for boycotts. Boycotts work, and like the African-American civil rights movement that shocked the South with its nonviolent protests, so, too, will the public rise up against Arizona’s draconian legislation.

In the anticipation that Arizona will not be able to save itself, it is absolutely essential that the U.S. Senate move fast to reform immigration. We cannot afford piecemeal approaches state-by-state, nor can we financially afford at the federal level the continued non-citizenship of 12 million undocumented immigrants. It is time we brought these newly arrived immigrants into the light. Not for the purpose of deporting them Arizona-style, but to bring them closer to citizenship American-style.

Honda is the chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Dawson is an actress and co-founder of Voto Latino.

US Dem border lawmakers warn - Violent incidents will come with enforcement ^
The Hill - Sunday, June 13, 2010

Several Democratic lawmakers representing districts along the U.S.-Mexico border say that more violent episodes, such as the recent killing of a Mexican teenager by a U.S. Border Patrol officer, can be expected as the region’s law enforcement is heightened.

The killing of the teenager in the Mexico border city of Ciudad Juarez last week comes on the heels of an incident on May 31 at a San Diego border crossing in which a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer shocked a Mexican man to death.

The two deaths are being investigated by the FBI and have caused an uproar of outrage from the Mexican government, which says that the U.S. officials used levels of force that exceeded what the situation warranted.
The House Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on Border, Maritime, and Global Counterterrorism Chairman Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) is awaiting the results of the FBI’s probe and told The Hill that the subcommittee may launch oversight hearings depending on the results.

The U.S. law enforcement presence along the border shouldn’t be deterred by the incident, Cuellar said, adding that more violence could be expected as the 1,200 National Guard troops that President Barack Obama ordered to the border two weeks ago begin to descend on the region.

“Certainly as you have more presence of Border Patrol and other federal officials on the border you’re going to probably run into more types of incidents like that,” said Cuellar. “Of course we don’t know what the facts are [of the recent killings]. Let’s see what the facts reveal and then we’ll take it from there.”

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), whose district also runs along the U.S.-Mexico border, agreed with Cuellar that more violence could occur in the near future, adding that tensions between the two countries are going to continue to escalate until Congress passes some form of comprehensive immigration legislation.

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International News

- Real clear Politics Daily Rundown ^

Canada's Deepening Democracy Crisis ^
Globall Research - By murray dobbin - May 3, 2010

Canada is in the midst of a crisis in democracy unique in its history. There is simply no other historical example that one can compare it to. It is multi-faceted and it affects every aspect of our national politics and political discourse. It is inexorably eroding the political fabric of the country and therefore our viability as a democratic nation.
First, we have a government so contemptuous of democracy that it is utterly unapologetic in trying to impose on the country an agenda opposed by probably 75 per cent of the population — treating its minority status not as a mandate to work with other parties but as an irritating impediment to re-engineering the country along the lines defined by the U.S. Christian right.

Second, we are amongst a tiny handful of countries still saddled with the absurdly anachronistic voting system that allows for government by executive dictatorship by any party that can get 40 per cent of the vote.

Third, Canada is witnessing a continuing catastrophic decrease in voter turn out with just 59 per cent voting in the October 2008 election — a result which put us 16th out of 17 peer nations. This aspect of the crisis is largely the result of the first two: a deliberate plan by the political right to downsize democracy through relentless partisanship and people’s frustration at seeing their votes count for nothing.

Fourth is the crisis within the Liberal Party and its virtual collapse as a vehicle for nation-building. The era of Trudeau and Turner has been replaced by that of Paul Martin and Ignatieff — cynical servants of the wealthy and spear-carriers for neo-liberal economic policies that are anathema to genuine democracy and nation-building. This internal crisis has led to a ceiling for their popular support of no more than 35 per cent. While one party’s problems may not fully qualify as a crisis in democracy, the absence of a strong centre-left mainstream party puts the fruits of democracy at risk.

BP Official Admits Damage Beneath the Sea Floor Dim Prospects for Stopping the Leak ^
Global Research - By Washingto's Blog - Sunday, June 13, 2010

The evidence is growing stronger and stronger that there is substantial damage beneath the sea floor. Indeed, it appears that BP officials themselves have admitted to such damage. This has enormous impacts on both the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf, and the prospects for quickly stopping the leak this summer.

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United States Government
Obama golfs for four hours in sweltering heat ^
The Hill - By Bridget Johnson - Sunday, June13, 2010

President Barack Obama spent four hours on the golf course Sunday in temperatures that peaked in the low 90s. \.

The president leaves Monday for his fourth trip to the Gulf Coast since the BP oil spill began nearly two months ago. On the trip, the President will visit Gulfport, Miss., Theodore, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla., to survey the response efforts, visit with Gulf residents impacted by the spill and meet with area officials.

Public Comments

Obama sure has his priorities straight. He focuses on lowering his golf handicap and ignores the oil spill. Maybe he has AADD?
BY LIAMD2 on 06/13/2010 at 18:42

While he's out golfing his little woman stays home and works in the truck patch. Why is he bothering to go to the Gulf when everything he needs to know is on the news! Why doesn't he do something? I'm afraid this problem is going to end up on the shelf with the jobs problem.
BY terry gee on 06/13/2010 at 18:44

This President has played more golf than any other since Ike. Even Bush quit playing golf during a time of war and Bush was a decent golfer. Obama is a hack.
BY Jeff on 06/13/2010 at 19:03

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Activism at the Ground Level

The only recognizable feature of hope is action.
-- Grace Paley

"The strength of a democracy is, as in nature, in the roots, not in the flamboyant leaves and flowers that wither and die after a couple of terms in public office."
-- Editor, homosapiens.ki

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Corporate Life

The prison industry in the United Staies | Big business or a new form of slavery? ^
Global Research - By Vicky Pelaez - March 10, 2008

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens." The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world's prison population, but only 5% of the world's people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.

What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?

Editor - This article claims that this is a new form of slavery, and guess what, "most of them are black and Hispanic.

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Economy and Finance

- Bloomberg Economic News ^

Bloomberg Current Worldwide Financial News

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Science and Technology

- Bloomberg Index of Current Science News ^

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Archive of Miscellany

- Dance Video | MICA | "Blame It On The Girls ^

- Musical Group Video | Neville Brothers - Yellow Moon ^

- Out of the Hills | Jesus Is Coming Soon -The Oak Ridge Boys ^

- Musicians mix Coldplay and Taylor Swift together - Enjoy ^

- Music Video | "Democracy Is Coming to the USA" - Leonard Cohen ^

- usic Video | Leonard Cohen | "First We Take Manhattan, Then We Take Berlin ^

- Music Video | Jordan Page - "Listen" | What If This Happened On Your Street? ^

- Music Video | Jordan Page - "Pendulum ^

- Music video - Neville Brothers performing "Fearless ^

- Video - The Arts of Peace vs Violence ^

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