Friday, April 20, 2012

Deepwater Horizon's fierce lessons

Deepwater Horizon's fierce lessons
Two years ago Friday, the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil-drilling rig was the scene of a devastating accident that killed 11 people, injured scores of others and led to a massive oil spill that created the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.

These events stunned the nation, sent shock waves through the offshore oil and gas industry and reverberated around the world. The oil and gas industry and the U.S. government were forced to admit that the safeguards designed to prevent a deepwater blowout were not effective; that no one had prepared adequately for containing a subsea accident, and that tools for responding to a major oil spill had advanced little in the 20 years since the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Yale Political Scientist Explains How Income Inequality Lets The Rich ‘Shape Policy In Ways That Benefit Them’

Daniels tells newspaper Romney is too negative

Daniels tells newspaper Romney is too negative

One day after endorsing Republican Mitt Romney for president, popular Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels gave an interview to one of the state's top political reporters in which he complained that Romney's campaign is too negative and offered him ...

Romney's Message: Obama's Not a Real American

Mother Jones - Romney's Message: Obama's Not a Real American

Mike Lupica: Obama can’t keep kicking Bush

Source:

 In an America where too many people still worry about losing their homes, an America where one of those people might turn out to be Barack Obama, the current President needs to stop talking about his predecessor now, just because George W. Bush is one more thing the upcoming campaign can’t be about, the way it can’t be about Colombian hookers or dogs.

It can’t be about those things, or class warfare, or a war on women that doesn’t exist, can’t be about Hilary Rosen, whoever the hell she is, yammering on about Ann Romney as if she, Rosen, is somehow better.

And the upcoming campaign, Obama vs. Romney, sure can’t be about the previous administration, because then the whole thing really does start to sound dumber than Rick Perry. Somebody needs to explain that to the current President, and soon.

NYPD Divides Federal Hall Steps, Barricading Occupy Wall Street To One Side

NYPD Divides Federal Hall Steps, Barricading Occupy Wall Street To One Side: Gothamist

Since Occupy Wall Street protesters were removed from their sidewalk sleeping space across the street from the NYSE, they have relocated themselves to the steps of Federal Hall several feet away. The situation has devolved into a strained tug-of-war between the demonstrators and the NYPD and the U.S. Parks Police, with each side at odds over the right to protest, the residents nearby, and Federal Hall, which sits on federal property. According to a Parks Police officer standing in front of Federal Hall, the barricades now bisecting the steps belong to the NYPD and were placed there with the permission of the Parks Police.

Obama oil margin plan could increase price swings

Source: Reuters

President Barack Obama's bid to dampen the influence of oil speculators by having regulators set trading margins could backfire, potentially making prices even more volatile and leaving crude dominated only by those with the deepest pockets.

Hacking scandal: the net tightens on the Murdochs

Hacking scandal: the net tightens on the Murdochs - Crime - UK - The Independent


Rupert Murdoch's grip on his media empire was dramatically challenged yesterday after his company was labelled a "toxic shadow state" which launched a dirty tricks campaign against MPs and now faces a salvo of phone-hacking claims in the United States.


On a tumultuous day for the media mogul, the lawyer who brought the first damages claims against the News of the World in Britain said he had uncovered new allegations of the use of "dark arts" by News Corp in America and was ready to file at least three phone-hacking lawsuits in the company's backyard.

Senators Trying to Keep up Pressure on Joseph Kony

Senators Trying to Keep up Pressure on Joseph Kony

China police 'knew UK man killed'

China police 'knew UK man killed'

Chongqing police knew UK man Neil Heywood had been murdered and a cover-up began immediately, a senior Chinese journalist tells the BBC.

Al-Qaida claims Iraq's worst violence in month

Al-Qaida claims Iraq's worst violence in month

Roger Ailes E-mail: "Maybe God is a Republican"

Source:

Watching Fox News can give sentient viewers the impression that the network is run by that nutjob uncle of yours who keeps forwarding chain emails about Obama's time in a madrassa. And it is.

Here are a few emails Fox News chief Roger Ailes forwarded to his underlings, demanding that they turn them into TV news.

New York's Gabriel Sherman reported last year that, even though he travels in New York's rarefied social circles and dines at Le Cirque, Ailes isn't a cynical peddler of right-wing ghost stories. In 2008, Ailes told Obama adviser David Axelrod that Obama intended to create a national police force to do his bidding. "That exchange was the moment [Axelrod] realized Ailes truly believed what he was broadcasting," Sherman wrote.