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The Econ Gangs of New York

2010-06-24T11:27:14Z

The factions that are shaping the economic dialog these days are becoming every bit as colorful and distinct as the proto-gangs that once ruled New York’s notorious Five Points area. Their leaders, every bit as bellicose and recognizable.

Here’s a quick idea of who’s who so you can keep up with the discussion:

The Austerians - These are newly-minted deficit hawks, many of whom voted for tax cuts and massive spending bills under the Bush administration without so much as a peep. Dubbed ‘Austerians’ by blogger Mark Thoma (Economist’s View), this gang has found a sudden (upcoming election-related) pang of concern over deficits and our ability to finance them. Critics say the Austerians’ premature tightness will send the economy off a cliff, a la the 1930’s. Their rival gang is the New Jack Keynesians.

The New Jack Keynesians - Politically they tend to be from the left and it’s been said that they’ve never met an expenditure they didn’t like - unless it was for tax cuts to business owners or something that might actually lead to non-government hiring. The gang’s leader is Nobel Prize-winning economistPaul Krugman, they can often be found at their stronghold (Krugman’s soapbox column in the New York Times) chanting ‘Spend, Baby, Spend’ or ‘Deficits Don’t Matter’.

The V-Shapers - A wild-eyed mob of rabble rousers, the V-Shapers may scatter after a particularly messy economic report, but will reappear anytime the S&P 500 closes in the green. The gang is led by Liz Ann Sonders (Charles Schwab) with Larry Kudlow (CNBC) assuming Sergeant-at-Arms duties during most turf wars. V-Shapers are most powerful during corporate earnings season as manipulated bottom-line profit reports against easy comps are their weapon of choice these days.

The Double Dippers - The nomenclature “Double Dipper” can be a bit misleading as many gang members never agreed that the single dip was actually over. Rather, they’ve insistently maintained that minus the effects of quantitative easing, fiscal stimulus and theater-of-the-absurd monetary policy, there never really was a recovery. Michael Pento (Greenfaucet)throws on the leathers and leads this pack, flanked by David Rosenberg (Gluskin Sheff) and Meredith Whitney (eponymous firm). It should be remarked that this gang is growing faster than the others as of this guide’s creation.

The 1 Percenters - This syndicate is united around the belief that the Federal Reserve should immediately raise interest rates to 1 percent from their current level, Eternal Zero. This move, they argue, will demonstrate confidence, pull hesitant home buyers off the sidelines and jolt the banks off of their government debt-spread binge and back to consumer lending. The ringleader here is Kansas City Federal Reserve honcho Thomas Hoenig.

The Inflationsitas - Gang leader Dr. Allan Meltzer (Carnegie Mellon) sees the potential for inflation everywhere he looks. Disregarding the actual data, which shows that we are in fact caught in the throes of a deflationary death spiral in many categories, the Inflationistas have instead decided to “look through the valley” to some point in the future in which the dreaded “printing presses” will cause a severe spike in costs. Meltzer is backed up by the likes of Marc Faber (Gloom, Boom & Doom Report) and virtually every prominent hedge fund manager in the world.

The New Normalers - The mantra that we are in a low growth, high tax, heavily regulated investment world originated with gang leader Bill Gross (Pimco) and his second-in-command Mohamed El-Erian. Many a newsletter writer has flocked to the New Normal standard, most notably John Mauldin (Thoughts From The Frontline). The New Normalers can typically be found casting a wary eye on the European debt turmoil or hard at work at the keyboard, prolifically pecking out multi-thousand word epistles on how things will never be the same again.

The Nihlists - Believe in nothing, man. The core belief here is that nothing can be believed in, not government, not capitalism, not paper money, not brick-and-mortar. There is a hopelessness in this crew’s rhetoric that is so potent that it frightens off even the Double Dippers when their paths cross. Spiritual and intellectual leadership comes from Dow Theorist Richard Russell, who pens such heartwarming chestnuts as “Sell everything you own except your gold” and “Go kiss your relatives goodbye for the last time”. Splinter factions within this group worship gold, guns and potable drinking water, they’ve been stockpiling for nearly 4 years now.

***

These are the Econ Gangs one must watch out for here as we head into the unknown. The melee has been joined in the media and in the markets, but we’re far from declaring any winners just yet

Three Things You Missed in Rolling Stone's McChrystal Profile

2010-06-23T19:24:04Z

by Tom Andrews

Unfortunately, President Obama missed an opportunity today to not only replace an out-of-control general but an out-of-control and failing strategy in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, mainstream media continue to miss the most serious story contained in the now famous Rolling Stone profile.

Admiral Thad Allen Announces the Deaths of Two Oil Cleanup Workers

2010-06-23T17:54:05Z

	Admiral Thad Allen Announces the Deaths of Two Oil Cleanup Workers Admiral Thad Allen Announces the Deaths of Two Oil Cleanup Workers visit: firedoglake.com	From: firedoglake Views: 991 5 ratings
	Time: 00:29	More in News & Politics

America Can’t Solve Crises Because It’s a Company-Owned Town

2010-06-23T17:13:20Z

Published on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 by Black Agenda Report

America Can’t Solve Crises Because It’s a Company-Owned Town

by Glen Ford

The United States can no longer engage effectively in “nation-building” in the one place on Earth it has a right and duty to do so: at home. These are the lessons of the 2010 Gulf oil catastrophe, the 2008 financial meltdown and the 2005 Katrina horror — disasters that history will rightfully conflate as symptomatic of the fundamental crisis of the rule of Capital. The U.S. has become a company town of speculative and extraction enterprises whose social and physical geography the rulers relentlessly appropriate, monetize and despoil – all with obscene abandon.

At the core of the100 or so activists that gathered in New Orleans for an Emergency Summit to Stop the Gulf Oil Catastrophe, last weekend, were veterans of the ravages of Disaster Capitalism following Hurricane Katrina. They had seen up close how Capital and its servants at all levels of government organized themselves as a public-private mob to drive Black and poor people from the city. They were witnesses to the crafting of a corporate consensus that the exiled poor should have no rights that conflicted with the imperatives of Capital — no right to return, no right to reclaim their lives, no rights that cannot be superseded by the claims and ambitions of the oligarchs. They had watched as finance Capital’s urban gentrification agenda was near-instantaneously put on fast-forward in New Orleans to ensure the permanent purging of the poor. A kind of perverse anthem seemed to rise from each corporate celebration of the city’s imminent and profitable rebirth: “Free the land — of Black people!”

Now the land and bayous and sea are made hostile to all life by the depraved indifference of voracious extractors who monetized, securitized and derivitaized the Gulf’s most deeply buried oil deposits years before the accursed Deepwater Horizon rig made its last, fatal thrust. The super-deep reservoirs of the Gulf were sold and their oil futures already leveraged to finance yet more assaults on man and nature, even before President Obama’s flip-flop on off-shore drilling in August, 2008, when he had the Democratic nomination in the bag.

Such world-shaping dealings have nothing to do with you and me, nothing to do with notions of democracy, because democracy does not exist in the United States, where finance capital and its extracting, hoarding, manipulating energy cousin, rule. There is no evidence of democracy anywhere that counts — not in the $14-plus trillion transferred directly to Wall Street, mostly by the quasi-public Federal Reserve, while the real economy in general and Black America in particular were stripped and gutted. No notions of an American social compact could deter the ruling class from acting out its pathologies on its own citizens when Katrina presented the opportunity. And no amount of public disgust at BP has moved Obama to behave as if he is beholden to the majority that elected him — for the simple reason that he is not.

Every element of the American political process is firmly in the hands of the oligarchy. The public only became aware of Barack Obama’s existence after he had been thoroughly vetted by corporate mechanisms of all kinds, including but by no means limited to the corporatist Democratic Leadership Council (see Bruce Dixon, Black Commentator, June 5, 2003). Obama’s informal — but quite binding — “contracts” with the oligarchs were concluded before he set foot in the U.S. Senate. The public was the last to know that the obscure politician Obama had become a “viable” prospect by corporate acclimation in the only “race” that counts — the early, business fund-raising contest. (The corporate consensus included BP, which gave Obama more money than any other candidate, and Wall Street, which was even more generous to the Nation’s First Black President.)

The U.S. government is divorced from the people because it is a creature of Capital. The three recent mega-crises are both the products and the illuminators of that wholly corrupt relationship. It is, therefore, quite logical that the activists of the Emergency Summit to Stop the Gulf Oil Catastrophe appear to direct their demands to both BP and Obama:

1) Stop oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Full compensation, retraining and new employment, including public works, for all affected,

2) The government and entire oil industry must allocate all necessary resources to stop and clean up the spill, prevent oil from hitting shore, protect wildlife, treat injured wildlife, and repair all devastation. Full support, including by compensation, must be given to peoples’ efforts on all these fronts and to save the Gulf.

3) No punishment to those taking independent initiative; no gag orders on people hired, contracted, or who volunteer; those responsible for this crime against the environment and the people should be prosecuted.

4) Full mobilization of scientists and engineers. Release scientific and technical data to the public; no more lying and covering up. Immediately end use of dispersants; full, open scientific evaluation of nature and impact of dispersants. Fund all necessary scientific and medical research.

5) Full compensation for all losing livelihood and income from the disaster.

6) Provide necessary medical services to those suffering health effects of the spill. Protect the health of and provide necessary equipment for everyone involved in clean up operations. Full disclosure of medical and scientific studies about the effects of the oil disaster.

No Nation-Building, Here

We are living in the late stages of overwhelming dominance (hegemony) of finance capital — and, secondarily, the oil and gas money-machines. It is a period characterized by destruction of the domestic manufacturing base and frenzied predation of the public sector. The mission of Capital’s servants in government is, therefore, to assist Wall Street and the energy sector in the fastest possible conversion of natural and social resources to private exploitation.

Those among the public and media that still harbor the illusion that government is there to serve the people, despite seeing so much evidence to the contrary, speak of a national “malaise,” a loss of purpose, a temporary failure or flaw in the national character. What nonsense! What we are witnessing is the destructive behavior of a predatory class that sees its future in trillion-dollar derivative bets; commodification of every conceivable resource (food, water, air?) and manipulation of every commodity market; privatization of every possible state function (schools, safety nets); constant expansion of the “market” in the maintenance of empire; and the “primitive accumulation” of the spoils of war.

For such a class, there is no room, rhyme or reason for anything resembling domestic nation-building, and they will not assign their servants in government to any such project. Worse than simply being on their own, the people face the same oligarchic enemy at the commanding heights of both the public and private sectors: the Democrat and the banks, the Republican and Big Oil, and vice versa – and all of them aligned with the military complex.

The pace of disaster-making is quickening in America, which indicates something very much like “the end is near.”

Maybe these overlapping pyrotechnics of horror — Katrina, the Crash of 2008, the Great Gusher in the Gulf — are necessary to teach Americans the nature of class war, that it is, indeed, hell. At any rate, the oligarchs can be counted on to accelerate the processes of their own demise. It is up to the people to save themselves, through organizing; there are no guarantees.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

OK GOP Gov. Candidate: BP’s Spill Proves Government Should ‘Never Be Involved In The Private Sector’

2010-06-23T17:00:31Z

Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-TX) apology to embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward for the government’s efforts to ensure compensation for Gulf coast residents last week highlighted two competing visions of government. The first is the progressive vision, that says government should aggressively champion the public interest, holding massive corporations accountable. The second, Barton’s, is the reflexive conservative embrace of big corporations.

GOP state senator Randy Brogdon (OK), who is the “tea party favorite” in his race for the Republican nomination for governor in his state, indicated that he fully and absolutely endorses the second vision. Instead of placing blame on BP for the massive environmental and economic disaster that it has caused in the Gulf of Mexico, Brogdon claimed that government is “the problem” and that the spill is a “perfect example of why government should never be involved in the private sector”:

In Oklahoma, where oil and natural gas drive the state’s economy, tea party favorite Randy Brogdon, a Republican candidate for governor, said federal involvement in the BP disaster is only making the situation worse.

“This is a perfect example of why government should never be involved in the private sector,” said Brogdon, a state senator campaigning on limited federal government. “Government is not the solution. It’s the problem. The more government tries to get in and regulate the free market, the worse things become.”

Of course, BP’s oil disaster may have resulted from too little — not too much — government involvement. Although the exact cause of the disaster is still unknown, there is a growing mountain of evidence that suggests BP’s own corporate negligence, combined with Bush-era regulators turning a blind eye to safety violations, are what created the environment that led to the oil spill.

It would be interesting to know exactly what Brogdon means by saying the oil disaster proves that the government should “never” be involved in the private sector. Does Brodgon believe, for example, that BP’s malfeasance should end government regulation of child labor, the minimum wage, food and drug safety, and airline travel?

15 Myths About the Gulf of Mexico Oil Catastrophe

2010-06-23T17:05:13Z

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/bp-gulf-oil-spill-myths-0622?src=rss

http://seizebp.org

Since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig April 20 killed 11 oil rig workers, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to claim the lives of wildlife, like birds and sea turtles, and compromise the fishing and tourism industries, and threaten the culture of the Gulf coast. That, and it’s spawned an awful lot of misconceptions. Here’s a look at a few myths that The Daily Green has been watching:

1. Obama Put a Moratorium on Offshore Oil Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico

Myth. President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a moratorium on new oil deepwater drilling permits, and shut down 33 exploratory deepwater wells on May 6. (A similar moratorium on new shallow water drilling lifted three weeks later. “Shallow” in this context means up to 499 feet deep.) Both orders, however, were vague and left 3,600 existing offshore oil wells active in Gulf waters. Since the spill, 17 new offshore oil drilling projects have been permitted. Even the six-month deepwater moratorium was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge June 22, leaving it void if not overturned on appeal or reinstated on different legal grounds. (Nevermind that the judge has invested in Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded, Halliburton, which handled the faulty cementing of the well, and about a dozen other companies involved in offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.) And Obama has always been a supporter of offshore oil, though some of his environmentalist supporters seem to have forgotten that; he made good on a campaign promise shortly before the BP oil spill started and proposed opening additional offshore waters to oil and gas exploration – in the Gulf of Mexico, along the Atlantic coast and off Alaska. (Permits to start drilling in those new waters have been suspended temporarily.)

2. Boycotting BP Gas Stations Boycotts BP

Myth. Lady Gaga is among the leading proponents of a BP boycott, as musicians on summer tours shun the stations, along with Public Citizen and tens of thousands of Facebook fans of a boycott. But while the brand may be offensive and permanently tainted, BP disinvested in its U.S. gasoline chain in 2007, leaving independent owners invested most heavily in local stations. They pay BP a licensing fee and may (or may not) be more likely to carry BP gasoline, but the economics of wholesale oil and gas is such that BP, Britain’s largest company, is unlikely to suffer much from a retail gas boycott, but BP the local station owner could. Anyway, what’s the better alternative? And unfortunately, oil ends up in a lot of products other than gasoline, under a lot of different brands, making it difficult to avoid one company’s product.

3. Offshore Oil Could Make the U.S. Energy Independent

Myth. The U.S. imports 57% of the oil we burn, and two-thirds of those imports come from politically unstable or hostile countries. As a nation, we spend more than $700 million a day on imported oil (the figure was more than $1 billion as recently as 2008, when oil prices were higher). There isn’t enough oil offshore to offset that imbalance. An analysis by the Energy Information Administration, the most credible government voice on energy issues, predicted that new offshore oil drilling would result in a whopping 3-cent difference in the price of gas by 2030. That’s not to say that renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, are ready to fill in and plug the gap either, unfortunately. If you’re looking for a better path toward energy independence, conservation is the most lucrative avenue. Three pennies not spent on gas are three pennies earned (and three pennies worth of offshore oil not drilled).

4. The Deepwater Horizon Rig Was Uniquely Vulnerable to Disaster

Myth. The facts keep piling up showing negligence – or at the very least, bad decision-making – by BP, and many of those decisions and conditions may be unique to BP, which has been criticized before this for a culture that put profits far ahead of safety and environmental protection. But disaster preparedness by other oil companies drilling in the Gulf, and oversight by the government, is virtually identical. For instance, other companies’ disaster response plans in the Gulf seem to include notes about protecting the walrus and other Arctic creatures that don’t live in the Gulf; unfortunately they don’t include plans to respond to underwater plumes of oil, failed blowout preventers or other real-world issues. And the Mineral Management Service, the agency in charge of regulating energy exploration on federal lands and in federal waters (yes, you own those) was outed repeatedly by its own inspector general of cavorting with oil companies, failing to inspect rigs, waiving requirements for environmental review and otherwise failing its public service mission in favor of its royalty-collecting mission. The MMS determined in 2009 that an environmental review of the Deepwater Horizon rig wasn’t warranted because it would have “minimal or non-existent environmental effects.” The story is the same with hundreds of other drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico – including 49 projects (including two BP projects) exempted from environmental review since the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Clearly, the assumption that these rigs are safe is dead wrong. (Photo: Pacific walrus, by NOAA)

5. Seafood Is Widely Contaminated

Myth. Certainly, oil can make seafood unsafe to eat, and the Gulf of Mexico is the primary source of domestic shrimp and oysters, and a significant source for other popular fish, like red snapper. And roughly one-third of the Gulf has been closed to fishing as the oil spreads. But much of the seafood for sale in the U.S. is imported, and two-thirds of the Gulf remains open to fishing. While fraud can never be fully discounted, there are systems being put in place to inspect Gulf seafood to ensure that it has been caught from clean waters. That said, the story could change as the longterm contamination of the Gulf food chain is studied.

6. The BP Oil Spill Will Lead to a Strong Senate Energy Bill

Myth. The U.S. Senate has been stalled in its efforts to pass an energy and climate bill to match the one passed months ago by the House. A linchpin in the Kerry-Lieberman bill, which would cap carbon emission and invest in clean energy sources, was the expansion of offshore oil drilling. That, along with investment in nuclear power, the shielding of the coal industry from fully owning up to its pollution and other sweeteners were built into the bill to bring Republicans and reluctant Democrats to the table. The catastrophic oil spill will make an energy bill more likely to pass, but without the offshore oil sweetener, a climate bill is not.

7. It’s a “Spill”

Myth. We keep calling it the Gulf oil spill. But it’s a gusher, a geyser, a “four-dimensional catastrophe,” in the words of one fisheries expert: “‘Leak’ is totally wrong. A leak is something you wrap duct tape around and maybe get to next week, next month or next year. The ‘gusher in the Gulf’ sounds way too cute. It’s not exactly a spill: that’s maybe something between your kitchen and your dining room table. ‘Spill’ sounds like a pool. It’s two-dimensional. This is very much a three-dimensional or, rather, a four-dimensional catastrophe,” said Douglas N. Rader, chief ocean scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund. “I think a whole new language is going to have to be developed to discuss accidents – events – environmental catastrophes of this magnitude. Nothing quite like it exists.”

8. The Gulf Coast Will Heal Itself

Myth. While it’s true that natural systems are remarkably regenerative, there’s still evidence of oil spill damage decades after past oil spills of this (or lesser) magnitude. Further, contamination from oil both on the surface and deep underwater could compromise marine ecosystems in surprising ways – leading to tainted seafood, for instance, or degraded wetlands so that coastal communities will be exposed to greater damage from hurricanes and storm surges. Before the spill (even after decades of degradation) the Mississippi Delta provides $47 billion annually in economically valuable “ecological services” – on par with the value of BP. Time will tell how bad and how long the environmental damage will be, but as the oil (hopefully) stops gushing, Gulf of Mexico ecosystems will find a new equilibrium, not return to a previous state.

9. Now We Know How Much Oil Is Spilling

Myth. Just how big is the Gulf oil spill? Recently leaked internal BP documents show that engineers have estimated a worst-case spill rate of 100,000 barrels a day. That’s two-thirds bigger than the worst-case estimate (60,000 barrels) of independent scientists charged by the government with estimating the spill … which was nearly three times the worst-case estimate (25,000 barrels) released by the government in June … which was five times the worst-case estimate (5,000 barrels) released by the government and BP in May … which was itself five times the estimate (1,000 barrels) released by the government and BP in April. The difference between 1,000 barrels and 100,000 barrels is obvious: It’s the difference from being a spill that’s a fraction of the size of the Exxon Valdez spill (previously the worst spill in U.S. history, at 11 million gallons) to a spill that’s many multiples of that infamous spill.

10. The Gulf of Mexico Is Most at Risk from Offshore Oil Spills

Myth. While the Gulf of Mexico holds all of U.S. offshore oil sites currently, President Obama wants to open the Arctic to offshore oil drilling for the first time. Environmental groups are trying to stop the plan, arguing that not only are ecosystems there fragile – think polar bears, seals and, yes, walruses – but a cleanup in icy waters would be even more difficult than in the Gulf of Mexico, and the icy waters themselves would inhibit the (slow, but natural) breakdown of oil. The Interior Department did halt Shell’s plans to start drilling this year, but it’s not a permanent ban. As for which is more vulnerable, it’s a difficult call; the point is that a spill in either place has the potential to devastate entire regions.

11. Shrimp and Pelicans Represent Wildlife at Risk From the Oil Spill

Myth. While shrimp and oil-soaked pelicans have become icons of the Gulf oil spill, there is a huge range of wildlife at risk, from the Kemp’s ridley turtle (five of the world’s seven sea turtles spend time in the Gulf, but none more than the Kemp’s ridley, which spawns only there) to the snowy plover (and other shorebirds that stopover in the Gulf on their migration flights) to the bluefin tuna (which spawns in the Gulf and is already at risk from overfishing). Each of these species was endangered before the spill, and dozens of birds, turtles, fish, marine mammals, crustaceans, and other species are at risk from the effects of the spill. (Photo: Piping plover, by Ralph Wright/American Bird Conservancy)

12. There’s Nothing Individuals Can Do

Myth. There’s always volunteering, donating to those cleaning birds or arguing for good energy policy, or writing to Congress directly. But beyond that, there’s federal law. The Clean Water Act empowers citizens to bring suits to stop water pollution and hold polluters accountable. It’s hard to argue that BP’s oil spill isn’t polluting water, and several groups – The Center for Biological Diversity, Gulf Restoration Network, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, and Environment America – have filed suit. The potential fine is great, at $4,300 per barrel.

13. On-Shore Drilling is Safer

Myth. It’s hard to compare the risks from different activities, but two forms of oil and gas extraction gaining steam on land are fraught with risk. Natural gas extraction from shale requires hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. “fracking”), a process that injects a chemical stew at high pressure deep underground in order to force natural gas out of the rock. Groundwater becomes contaminated with toxic chemicals, threatening drinking water supplies across a wide swath of country where shale formations exist (like the Marcellus shale through New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia). Another controversial new form of oil extraction comes from so-called “tar sands” like those in Alberta, Canada; extracting oil from tar sands involves open pit mining on a grand scale or heating the land at high temperatures to sort-of melt the oil out of the land. What each of these – deepwater drilling, fracking and tar sands mining – has in common is that they are very difficult, expensive and risky. And that they are made necessary by our appetite for oil; the cheap oil that’s easy to get at is being exhausted, leading us to these highly complex, highly controversial and highly risky methods.

14. Republicans are the Politicians Most in the Pocket of Oil Companies

Myth. Republicans may scream “drill, baby, drill” louder, but when it comes to political money being spent to influence government, it’s more or less a tie. Key Democrats are among the top recipients of political money from oil companies, as are Republicans. The money flows to those in oil-rich states, to high-profile candidates and those with the most power in Congress (ie, the chairs of key committees). Here’s a look at the Friends of Earth tally of opensecrets.org data, showing the biggest recipients of money from BP and other oil companies since 2006:

Senate

John McCain (R-AZ) – $36,649 from BP; $2.43 million total
Mary Landrieu (D-LA) – $16,200 from BP; $329,100 total
Mark Begich (D-AK) – $8,550 from BP; $85,958 total
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) – $8,500 from BP; 223,326 total
Mitch McConnell (R-KY) – $8,500 from BP; 408,400 total

House

John Culberson (R-TX) – $10,200 from BP; 187,350 total
Ron Paul (R-TX) – $7,300 from BP; 134,132 total
Charles Rangel (D-NY) – $6,500 from BP; 40,600 total
Steny Hoyer (D-MD) – $6,000 from BP; 91,800 total
Don Young (R-AK) – $5,500 from BP; $45,500 total

15. It Will All Be Over in August

Through each of BP’s failed attempts to cap its well – from the top hat to the top kill – it has maintained that the worst thing that could happen was that the well would continue to gush into August, when the company would complete its relief well. But there’s no guarantee that the relief well will be fully effective. In a June 15 testimony, BP’s Lamar McKay said that “the design of the relief well is very, very similar to the original well.” In addition, there’s speculation that the oil well leak may have caused the sea floor itself to rupture, meaning the shutting off the well may not stop oil from seeping into the Gulf.

No national solutions

2010-06-23T16:15:18Z

plo ira.jpg

The Commune's Clifford Biddulph replies to the debate on the national question.

In the Earth is not Flat, David Broder argued that the aim of getting rid of capitalism by class struggle is too abstract in the face of some forms of nationalism. For David, nationalism which is a reaction to imperialism cannot be sidestepped or simply opposed by communism.

Only Revolution Will End the Recession

2010-06-23T12:52:18Z

It's gonna be a whole new kind of revolution, though.

This is the worst economy in our nation's history. It makes the Great Depression look like a walk in the park.

Here are a few numbers to back up this claim:

50 million people don't have enough to eat. 17 million of these hungry people are children.

Why the furor over McChrystal?

2010-06-23T12:00:25Z

	Why the furor over McChrystal? Porter: The real problem is a failed strategy in Afghanistan	From: TheRealNews Views: 3207 102 ratings
	Time: 17:27	More in News & Politics

Don't Let the McChrystal Frenzy Obscure the Dirty Truth About Afghanistan

2010-06-23T07:00:01Z

While weâ€™ll be treated to plenty of blather about the McChrystal incident, the most important part of the story is largely being ignored by the corporate media.

The US Social Forum Must Become a US Social Movement

2010-06-23T14:31:00Z

by BAR columnist Jared A. Ball, Ph.D.

The U.S. Social Forum is now underway in Detroit, with thousands in attendance. “Black America must work in solidarity with other people’s struggles, as has always been the case,” says the author. “However, in our current moment of malaise in Black ‘leadership’ we also think it necessary to remind this nation’s activists that many of the problems that they seek to address internationally need as much redress domestically.”

http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20100623_jb_USSF.mp3

What/Who is a terrorist?

2010-06-23T13:44:33Z

	What/Who is a terrorist? The Supreme Court upheld the government's authority Monday to ban aid to designated terrorist groups, even when that support is intended to steer the groups toward peaceful and legal activities. Danny Schechter says that it all depends on the perspective that a person takes to who is a terrorist.	From: RTAmerica Views: 491 28 ratings
	Time: 08:05	More in News & Politics

Obama set to hand the Internet to AT&T, Verizon, Google…

2010-06-23T14:15:06Z

The Fate of the Internet. Decided in a Back Room.
by Tim Karr

The Wall Street Journal just reported that the Federal Communications Commission is holding “closed-door meetings”with industry to broker a deal on Net Neutrality– the rule that keeps control over the Internet with the people who use it.

Given that the corporations at the table all profit from gaining control over information, the outcome won’t be
pretty.

The meetings include a small group of industry lobbyists representing the likes of AT&T, Verizon, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and Google. They reportedly met for two-and-a-half hours on Monday morning and will convene another meeting today. The goal according to insiders is to “reach consensus” on rules of the road for the Internet.

Kagan and Obama: Two “Race-Neutral” Peas in a Pod

2010-06-23T14:20:50Z

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

President Obama is showing his own core conservative politics with his choice of Elena Kagan for the U.S. Supreme Court. A New York Times investigation shows “Kagan as a devotee of so-called 'race-neutral' social policies that avoid solutions that directly target racial disparities.” This is not an example of Obama “reaching out” to the Right, but of promoting a lawyer whose views “appear to be identical” to his own. His choice ensures many decades of bad news for Black people.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20100623_gf_KaganReed.mp3

Fascism Enters Through “Terror” Door

2010-06-23T14:31:08Z

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

The question is not whether fascists have held power in the United States, but why they have not yet been able to rule as fascists. The question may soon become moot, as the U.S. Supreme Court acts to further “dismantle legal barriers to actual fascist rule” – most recently through its decision on providing “material support” to “terrorists.”

In New York City, “a ‘people's lawyer’ and civil liberties heroine, Lynn Stewart, faces re-sentencing on her conviction of giving material support to her client.”

http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20100623_gf_SCOTUSterror.mp3

BP Labor Camps

2010-06-23T14:40:16Z

by Scott Creighton

UPDATE at the end of the article… Leak is worse due to an “accident” and two clean-up workers are dead.

Disaster capitalism is the way of the entire country right now. Employers large and small are taking advantage of the dismal economic climate and they are padding their profit margins by rolling back pay rates and benefits for the average working man. It’s an all out assault on the standard of living of the blue-collar worker that I personally have seen growing in popularity over the past 24 years. Working Americans undermining other working Americans, literally stealing food right off their families tables, in order to achieve “just a little more” profit for themselves. I’ve seen good men, men who refused to sell-out their workforce, have to shut down their businesses because the scourges who are competing with them can underbid them by utilizing their ‘off the books”/less than minimum wage workforce. What has resulted is a kind of reverse natural selection where only the corrupt and morally weak survive and thrive in this new neoliberal Miracle of America.

I thought I had seen it all… til this.

BP is hiring contractors to come in and run the clean-up operations. BP of course is a British company but by and large, the sub-contractors in charge of all the clean-up workers are American companies. And you would be surprised what Americans will do to other Americans when the almighty dollar is involved.

The workers are desperate, coming from all over. Companies are filing their charters and rushing down to get a piece of the action. There is confusion and chaos all over the place and in that kind of environment, hidden from view of the MSM by mandate of law, you’re going to get all kinds of terrible behavior from these unseen companies toward their desperate employees.

Modern Labor camps

BP is busy setting up what amounts to labor camps in the Gulf states. Trailer cities are being constructed to house and lock-in the clean-up workers. They will be bused from these camps to the job and back again, day in and day out. Private mercenary contractors are being contracted to “police” these camps. Fences are constructed to keep the workers from slipping out after a long day’s work. The company stores promise the bleed the workers of their paychecks (what little they actually get) and laundry facilities are being set up by other contractors so that they can charge whatever they like to do their laundry.

Jailhouse mattresses for clean-up workers

These trailers will house 36 or so clean-up workers living stacked one on top of the other in the summer heat of the Gulf of Mexico… no alcohol will be allowed into BP City. I am sure it won’t be long before Wal-Mart and Burger King work out some way to put a temporary facility in the middle of this location.

The men and women who come to the Gulf looking for work have no idea what they are in for. They are being promised work at a fair rate of pay but these stories, stories about these living conditions just aren’t making it to the headlines of the MSM all across the country. CNN did a story about this “city” being built but they made it seem like it was not that bad; like being in the military or something.

BP Flotel

They also set up what were called ”flotels“… barges with metal shipping containers stacked on top of each other housing 20 or so workers per container. They are still being used now. Not much is known about these as the company and the complicit Obama administration haven’t allowed any media coverage of them. But word slips out and the picture is actually of one of these flotels. Can you imagine what is going to be like in the middle of the summer? How soon til their little AC unit goes out?

These are work camps, nothing more. They are disaster capitalism in its purist and most savage form. Everyone makes money… the contractors making these things, the contractors running them, the contractors putting the clean-up workers in them, and the “policing” mercenary contractors hired to keep the workers in line and subdued.

Everyone makes money… everyone but the actual workers that is.

For the past two pay periods, Louisiana-based Ashland Services LLC, the labor contractor he works for, has given workers the same story. “Every pay period, they blame the late payments on the payroll company. But of course they don’t tell us the name of the company; that’s because it’s a lie; payroll companies don’t make those types of mistakes.”

“Last week there was almost a riot,” he added. “They have 600 people to pay and they only had 28 checks,” he said. “They had to call in the buses early and get everyone back to the tent city where we’re staying before it got out of control. They told everyone that checks would be waiting for them there but that was a lie too.”

BP gives the companies that hire cleanup workers a lump sum for the job, based on how much they think it will cost, he said. “They just bank the cash and pay the workers late to get some extra off the top.”

Some workers have been fired before the end of the pay period, without getting a single paycheck or having enough money to get home. When this happened to one worker, her fellow employees, not the contractor, took care of her. “We all pooled in enough money for her to buy bus tickets back,” said the worker.

“It’s just chaos down here,” he said. “We’ve had people working for weeks, and all of a sudden they’re told they’re not even hired; Ashland says they have no record of them working and don’t have their work applications. People are told to re-file applications over and over. They find every possible way to scam you out of your pay.”

“One girl I work with was told to re-file her application five times. This is a contracting company; how can you lose that many applications? How can you not take care of your people?” he said. “It’s not like it’s getting better, it’s getting worse.” WSWS

This system is being set up with the intention that it will be around for a very long time. Think about it… all these contractors being spoon fed big-time money are in charge of the actual clean-up… so what is their motivation to get this spill cleaned up as fast as they can? They have none. Their motivation is money and the money STOPS when the oil is cleaned up. At that point they are out of business so what is their motivation to actually clean up the Gulf?

And what is the motivation for the Obama administration? This clean-up process takes people off the unemployment rolls right before a contentious mid-term election, it supports BUSINESS and generates profits for big construction companies and the people who own them. In fact, what has happened to all that inertia to stop the leak which is now reported to be pumping 100,000 barrel a day into the Gulf of Mexico? Where did all that go after Obama’s big speech?

The Gulf is hemorrhaging, the wildlife is dying, the lawyers are jockeying for position at the handouts table, and NOTHING is being done to stop this nightmare. 13 different countries offered to send help within the first 3 weeks and ALL OF THEM were refused flat-out. Why?

Because THIS is what they wanted; never let a good crisis go to waste.

Barack Obama’s administration actively sacrificed the welfare of the Gulf of Mexico in order to allow a crisis to grow so that it could be EXPLOITED by various business interests. And that says nothing of how his administration is attempting to USE this situation to further his GLOBAL WARMING (opps… I’m sorry… what are we calling it now that we all admit the “warming” stopped in 2001? Oh that’s right… CLIMATE CHANGE… got it) and carbon tax/carbon credit derivatives exchange market agenda.

“Obama’s Katrina”? You gotta be shitting me.

Katrina was an unavoidable natural disaster that lasted hours and then the Bush administration allowed the SUFFERING to continue in order to drive up profits for certain companies. Yes, the levies should have been fixed years before, but once that storm developed, it was a little too late to do anything about it. Yes, they should have evacuated the poor from the 9th ward, but we all know how much Bush just LOVES the poor.

But the Deepwater Horizon spill is a MAN MADE event that didn’t have to take place that is STILL POURING MORE OIL INTO THE GULF and devastating the ecosystem as we speak while NOTHING is being done except generating profits for various slimy characters while exposing thousands of workers to dangerous conditions and treating them like slaves on a plantation. In fact, it is pouring MORE oil into the Gulf now than it was when it first happened.

The long and short of it is that these workers, desperate to find ANY work in this economic crisis created by the bankers and the government ON PURPOSE, are being forced to slave away in modern-day labor camps and it is going to get worse before it gets any better. The public attention span is going to fade out as the election draws nearer or some other American Idol season starts up… and when that happens, when the scant attention these poor desperate people are receiving now dwindles, the corporations and the labor contractors will step-up their abuse in the quiet of the “pro-business” atmosphere created by the neoliberal Washington Consensus.

And god help us when the other corporations see how easy it is to get away with behavior like this. It’s like when Bush got away with all his and Cheney’s crimes they committed during their administration. Now Obama and his staff fully expect to push the envelope even further and still get away with it as well. Corruption, exploitation, and malfeasance is a degenerative condition; there is no reason to expect it to get better if there is no accountability for what has happened in the past.

This is the Miracle of America in our new Neoliberal Age, taking shape right before our eyes… and we are doing nothing to stop it.

UPDATE- The latest containment effort just made the situation worse. A robotic sub just bumped into a vent and ruptured it causing an even greater flow rate spilling out into the Gulf. BP is “investigating” what happened.

One clean-up worker has been shot to death with no details as of yet reported and the other death is also a mystery right now.

BP has pulled the containment cap off the drill site in the Gulf, and now oil is flowing at a faster rate than before. Raw Story

… The deaths reported Wednesday were not tied to the containment operation. The Coast Guard said the workers had been involved in cleanup operations did that their deaths did not appear to be work related.

One death was a boat captain who died of a gunshot wound, a Coast Guard spokesman said. Further details were not immediately available. MSNBC

Democracy Now! Headlines, Tuesday, June 22, 2010

2010-06-22T17:52:47Z

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Bangladeshi Workers Know What To Do

2010-06-22T19:00:00Z

Show solidarity with the Bangladeshi garment workers, who are rioting for higher wages, and whose efforts have managed to shut down factories in protest.

Bangladesh Garment Factories Shut After Wage Protests (from BBC News)

Very brave of them. I remember overhearing IWW members talk about the struggles of Bangladeshi workers during one of their meetings at LPC. These workers need all the support they can get. And remember, they are slaves to AMERICAN corporations such as Walmart, so yes, we DO share responsibility for this.

This is what democracy looks like, folks.

PFLP condemns French government censorship of Al-Aqsa TV and Palestinian voices

2010-06-22T19:27:13Z

Click here for Italian translation
Click here for French translation
The Information Office of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine denounced the French government's action to ban the screening of Al-Aqsa TV through Eutelsat, the satellite provider reaching much of Europe, on June 17, 2010. The PFLP's statement said that this decision runs contrary to the basic rights of access to information, freedom of opinion and expression.

Oakland, CA Boycott of Israeli Ship: June 20, 2010

2010-06-22T16:06:30Z

Oakland, CA Boycott of Israeli Ship: June 20, 2010

Source: vimeo.com

Boycott. Divest. Sanction. Costing Israel real money for their actions- it was a key strategy against apartheid South Africa. Humanitarians, activist, organizers, justice-minded global citizens in the US are renewing their campaigns against the Israeli government's treatment of Palestine/Palestinian...

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