FLASHBACK: BP exec testified that offshore drilling is ‘safe and protective of the environment.’
FLASHBACK: BP exec testified that offshore drilling is ‘safe and protective of the environment.’
Five months and one day before its Deepwater Horizon rig exploded while exploring the Macondo Prospect off the coast of Louisiana, BP’s top Gulf of Mexico official testified its practices were “both safe and protective of the environment.” In June, the U.S. Minerals Management Service proposed stricter safety and environmental rules, opposed by BP and the rest of the offshore drilling industry as unnecessary. In a Senate hearing on offshore drilling “environmental stewardship policies” on November 19, 2009, BP America’s vice president of Gulf of Mexico exploration, David Rainey, opposed the proposed MMS rules and defended the existing regulatory system. Rainey claimed that drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) has been shown to be “both safe and protective of the environment“:
I think we should remember that scientific knowledge is always moving forward. And actually using the best available and the most up-to-date scientific information is part of the current regulatory system. And it supports the OCS leasing, exploration, and development program. And I think we need to remember that OCS has been going on for the last 50 years, and it has been going on in a way that is both safe and protective of the environment.
Watch it:
Rainey’s testimony followed a September 14, 2009, letter from his predecessor Richard Morrison, which said “we are not supportive of the extensive and prescriptive regulations” in the proposed rule, because “[w]e believe industry’s current safety and environmental statistics demonstrate that the voluntary programs . . . have been and continue to be very successful.”
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BP’s Greenwashing Masked Dangerous ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Reality
BP’s Greenwashing Masked Dangerous ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Reality
Our guest blogger is Rebecca Lefton, a researcher for Progressive Media.
BP’s profits rose an unexpected 135% in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the first quarter the prior year. Yet these were “overshadowed” by the tragic oil spill resulting from an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig, located 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. The rig is owned by a Switzerland-based company, Transocean Ltd, and leased to BP (formerly British Petroleum). These companies and Halliburton, whose cementing operations may have caused the explosion—are being sued for negligence.
BP has aggressively rebranded itself as a company focused on alternative, clean energy sources. The company has a series of commercials advertising their “Beyond Petroleum” campaign “promoting and marketing alternative energy solutions.” But “Beyond Petroleum” is an Orwellian slogan for what is still almost entirely an oil company focused on making billions every year from dirty fossil fuels. A new video from the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Victor Zapanta depicts BP’s greenwashing in contrast with the tragic results of its drilling operations:
Indeed, although BP ads depict green flowers and spinning windmills, BP only invested a tiny fraction of their profits into alternative energy last year. Their actual investments in alternative energies — $1.3 billion in 2009 — are dwarfed by their profits. In fact, the last two years their budgeted alternative energy investments were around seven percent compared to profits. According to Driessen of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, BP spent the same amount on this advertising over two years (the campaign was launched in 2000) as they did on hydrogen, wind, and solar energy over a six-year period:
Beyond ‘Beyond Petroleum’ Greenwashing Lies Tar Sands. On April 14, BP “easily beat off challenges to a Canadian oil sands project and to its executive pay policy.” BP rejected a shareholders resolution in opposition to Canadian tar sands production “because it emits more carbon dioxide than traditional oil production, uses more water and involves greater destruction to the landscape.” [Reuters, 4/15/2010]
BP Quit Climate Action Partnership. “ConocoPhillips, BP and Caterpillar have dropped out of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), the coalition of corporations and environmental groups that has been most prominent in pushing Congress to pass cap-and-trade legislation.” [Washington Post, 2/17/2010]
$16 Million In Lobbying. BP spent $16 million lobbying in 2009. [Open Secrets]
BP Profiting From Iran — Threatening our National Security. “BP, in a 2009 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said it had interests in and was the operator of two fields and a pipeline located outside Iran in which the National Iranian Oil company had an interest.” [New York Times, 3/6/2010]
41% Raise For BP’s CEO. “Chief Executive Tony Hayward’s total remuneration and share awards rose 41% in 2009 on performance bonuses from improved operations which made the company one of the best performing oil majors in the fourth quarter, despite lower full-year profits due to the fall in the oil price.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/5/2010]
Americans are spending nearly $3 billion more on gasoline due to higher gasoline prices. And taxpayers are spending billions of dollars in tax subsidies to Big Oil. These subsidies will cost the U.S. government about $3 billion next year in lost revenue and nearly $20 billion over the next five years. The next dollars we spend should go to companies that provide genuinely clean and safe fuel. The costs are too high.
Gates To Congress: Don’t Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell This Year
Gates To Congress: Don’t Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell This Year
As part of the Obama administration’s plan to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), the Pentagon has convened a “Working Group” that is meeting with servicemembers, chaplains, and others individuals about how to repeal the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the military. The process is going to take until at least Dec. 1, 2010, and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has said that the President is committed to letting the group complete its work before moving forward. Some members of Congress have raised the possibility of passing DADT repeal legislation this year — before the review process is complete — and delaying implementation until next year.
However, today Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) a letter (in response to an inquiry from Skelton) telling him that he doesn’t want Congress to take any action at all on DADT this year. From the letter obtained by ThinkProgress:
I believe in the strongest possible terms that the Department must, prior to any legislative action, be allowed the opportunity to conduct a thorough, objective, and systematic assessment of the impact of such a policy change; develop an attentive comprehensive implementation plan, and provide the President and the Congress with the results of this effort in order to ensure that this step is taken in the most informed and effective matter. [...]
Therefore, I strongly oppose any legislation that seeks to change this policy prior to the completion of this vital assessment process.
Gates’ moratorium on any DADT action this year is troubling. Thirteen Senate Democrats have introduced a bill to replace DADT with a new nondiscrimination policy that “prohibits discrimination against service members on the basis of their sexual orientation.” The Senate bill mirrors Rep. Patrick Murphy’s (D-PA) repeal bill in the House but goes several steps further, laying out a timeline for repeal and setting benchmarks for the Pentagon’s ongoing review of the policy.
Gates’ stance makes it significantly harder for Congress to help fulfill Obama’s pledge to repeal DADT and has some supporters of repeal questioning the Pentagon’s dedication to moving forward. Democrats in Congress will have a tougher time attracting moderate and Republican co-sponsors in light of this letter, and if Congress waits until next year — after the Pentagon review is completed — to move forward on legislation, the make-up of the legislature will be different and could again delay repeal.
If the White House and the Department of Defense had been more engaged with us and had communicated with us better about the alternatives available, Secretary Gates would surely not feel that legislative action this year would disrespect the opinions of the troops or negatively impact them and their families. This is partly a failure of the Administration to substantively engage the gay military community in a timely manner, and it remains unacceptable. The Commander-in-Chief should strongly and immediately speak out about the need to move swiftly and decisively on this issue for the sake of military readiness. It is, after all, as the President said, "the right thing to do."
Sen. Feinstein: If Congress were all women, we would have financial reform by now.
Sen. Feinstein: If Congress were all women, we would have financial reform by now.
On Wednesday, ThinkProgress attended Fortune Magazine’s “Most Powerful Women” dinner honoring accomplished women leaders from around the world. The centerpiece of the evening was a discussion with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). When Fortune Editor at Large Pattie Sellers asked Feinstein about serving as one of the few women in the Senate, Feinstein took a swipe at her male counterparts:
FEINSTEIN: There are 17 of us [women in the Senate] now. When I came in there were two. It was known as the “Year of the Woman” because a few of us got elected to the Senate. …
SELLERS: So the environment really has changed now that there are 17, and it’s easier? And here you are on regulatory reform…is there going to be this?
FEINSTEIN: Well, I actually think that if we had all women, we would solve the problem. But, I think there will be a bill now. I’m delighted that this impasse has finished, that this debate will move forward, that there will hopefully be substantial amendments and not [inaudible] amendments to incite one side or another, what we call message amendments, but practical amendments to make the bill better. And if that’s the case, I do believe we’ll have a bill.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was sitting at the front of the room and enthusiastically clapped when Feinstein said that women would have solved the financial problem by now. Watch it:
Earlier in the conversation, Feinstein acknowledged Collins and said that she wished all Republicans would be as “reasonable” as she is. This week, Collins decided to part with her Republican colleagues’ intransigence and agreed to begin debate on financial reform legislation.
Gov. Brewer: ‘Arizona has been under terrorist attacks’ with ‘all of this illegal immigration.’
Gov. Brewer: ‘Arizona has been under terrorist attacks’ with ‘all of this illegal immigration.’
Today during a Fox News interview about Arizona’s new controversial immigration law, Gov. Jan Brewer (R) commiserated with host Megyn Kelly about all the criticism she’s been receiving from people outside of Arizona. When Kelly asked if the critics have a real “appreciation” for Arizona’s immigration problem, Brewer said “obviously not,” likening it to the state being “under terrorist attacks”:
KELLY: Do you think that these folks who are all noticeably outside of your state, are the ones that I just ticked off, including the President, have an appreciation, governor, for what Arizona has been going through with respect to illegal immigration?
BREWER: Obviously not. You know Arizona has been under terrorist attacks, if you will, with all of this illegal immigration that has been taking place on our very porous border. […] The whole issue comes back, that we do not and will not tolerate illegal immigration bringing with it very much so the implications of crime and terrorism into our state.
Watch it:
Major League Baseball Players Association calls for ‘repeal’ or prompt modification of Arizona law.
Major League Baseball Players Association calls for ‘repeal’ or prompt modification of Arizona law.
In a statement released today, the Major League Baseball Players Association has issued its opposition to the Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law:
“The recent passage by Arizona of a new immigration law could have a negative impact on hundreds of Major League players who are citizens of countries other than the United States. These international players are very much a part of our national pastime and are important members of our Association. Their contributions to our sport have been invaluable, and their exploits have been witnessed, enjoyed and applauded by millions of Americans. All of them, as well as the Clubs for whom they play, have gone to great lengths to ensure full compliance with federal immigration law.
“The impact of the bill signed into law in Arizona last Friday is not limited to the players on one team. The international players on the Diamondbacks work and, with their families, reside in Arizona from April through September or October. In addition, during the season, hundreds of international players on opposing Major League teams travel to Arizona to play the Diamondbacks. And, the spring training homes of half of the 30 Major League teams are now in Arizona. All of these players, as well as their families, could be adversely affected, even though their presence in the United States is legal. Each of them must be ready to prove, at any time, his identity and the legality of his being in Arizona to any state or local official with suspicion of his immigration status. This law also may affect players who are U.S. citizens but are suspected by law enforcement of being of foreign descent.
“The Major League Baseball Players Association opposes this law as written. We hope that the law is repealed or modified promptly. If the current law goes into effect, the MLBPA will consider additional steps necessary to protect the rights and interests of our members.
“My statement reflects the institutional position of the Union. It was arrived at after consultation with our members and after consideration of their various views on this controversial subject.”
Over a quarter of Major League Baseball players are Latino. Major League Baseball and the Arizona Diamondbacks have been pressured by progressive activists to take a stand against the bill. Some have already boycotted the Diamondbacks’ baseball games. Rep. José Serrano (D-NY) has even suggested that the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, scheduled to take place in Phoenix in 2011, should be moved to another location. Thus far, the teams’ front offices have resisted commenting on the law. There are “four managers, one general manager and an owner who are Latino.” This statement by the MLBPA today will likely increase pressure on team owners to comment on the law.
Although D-backs' Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick has donated to Republican political candidates in the past, the organization has communicated to Arizona Boycott 2010 leader Tony Herrera that Kendrick personally opposes State Bill 1070. The team also explained that Kendrick is one of nearly 75 owners of the D-backs and none of his, nor do the other owners', personal contributions reflect organizational preferences. The D-backs have never supported State Bill 1070 and have never taken political stances. The D-backs represent all of our employees, players, owners and fans who all have different political affiliations. It would be unfair and unjust for the D-backs to take a position because it can't be reflective upon everybody's views.
Sen. Bill Nelson Urges Investigation Of Safety Regulators Who Were Charged With Overseeing Oil Rigs
Sen. Bill Nelson Urges Investigation Of Safety Regulators Who Were Charged With Overseeing Oil Rigs
At a press conference held this morning, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), who represents a major coastal state that could be harmed by the Gulf oil disaster at a BP rig, slammed federal regulators at the Minerals Management Service (MMS), which is in charge of regulating oil rigs.
Nelson demanded to know just “how lax…the regulations and the regulators” had become and referenced the revelations two years ago that the Bush-era MMS had engaged in wild drinking parties on the job. The senator went on to compare the agency to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which failed to properly enforce regulations leading up to the financial crisis, and vowed an investigation into the agency:
NELSON: Just how lax did the regulations and the regulators become? You remember several years ago the very heart of the federal government that does the regulation, called the MMS, the Minerals Management Service, you can remember the stories that they had had all kinds of booze parties, all kinds of marijuana parties, and all kinds of sex parties. And this came out in a number of congressional investigations. Well, is this another regulatory system that’s gone on the blink? Compared to the Securities and Exchange Commission that went on the blink and wasn’t watching the home front on Wall Street that we’re now reaping the results from. So, this is what an investigation is going to be about.
Watch it:
Late last year, MMS regulators proposed a new rule that would’ve “required lessees and operators to have their safety and environmental management system programs audited at least once every three years by either an independent third party or by qualified personnel designated within the company,” replacing a “voluntary approach” adopted in 1994. BP, as well as other major oil companies like Chevron and Exxon Mobil, resisted the new regulation, sending comments in opposition. The new MMS guidelines had not yet been implemented, and the $600 million BP rig had “passed three federal inspections, the most recent on April 1.”
South Carolina Becomes The Tenth State To Contemplate Anti-Immigrant Legislation
South Carolina Becomes The Tenth State To Contemplate Anti-Immigrant Legislation
Since ThinkProgress reported that several states and localities are in the middle of — or about to embark on — copy cat pieces of legislation, three other states have also expressed interest in adopting Arizona’s law, increasing the total list up to at least 10 states that are following in Arizona’s footsteps. In Oklahoma, Republican legislators want to go beyond the harsh immigration measures they have already passed and amend several bills to insert the new language. Meanwhile, the two leading Republican candidates for Minnesota governor said they’d “favor an Arizona-style immigration crackdown in Minnesota.”
However, while the plans of other states are still in their formative stages, South Carolina became the first state yesterday to go as far as introducing an actual bill in its House of Representatives that is “virtually the same” as the Arizona law. South Carolina’s local CBS7 reports:
On Thursday, Rep. Eric Bedingfield, R-Greenville, introduced a bill that he says is “virtually the same” as the Arizona immigration law that was signed recently.
“It provides a procedure for verifying a person’s immigration status under certain circumstances and provides for the arrest of a person suspected of being present in the United States unlawfully,” Bedingfield says.
He says it wouldn’t usually be used by police to stop someone, but would more likely be used to check the legal status of someone who had been stopped or arrested for something else.
Watch it:
Though Bedingfield is “confident he can get a committee hearing and a vote in the House,” CBS7 points out that he has missed South Carolina’s May 1st crossover deadline which dictates that a bill has to have passed either the House or the Senate by May 1st to have a realistic chance of becoming law. At this point, Bedingfield’s bill would have to be approved by a two-thirds vote just to be considered.
Meanwhile, in Texas and California, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) are the most recent conservative governors to condemn Arizona’s law and affirmed that they would not sign off on such a measure in their own states.
Boehner takes credit for ideas in health law, then calls for its repeal.
Boehner takes credit for ideas in health law, then calls for its repeal.
Earlier this year, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) took credit for parts of the health care law he opposes and today, during an interview with NPR, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) also highlighted the Republican ideas in the bill, while promising to repeal it:
INSKEEP: As you know, Democrats are already pointing to things that are changing in America because of this bill. They will point to the fact that college seniors, who would have been kicked off their families’ insurance plans when they graduated, will get to stay on. Insurance companies are now saying they’re going to end the practice of “rescission,” where they take, or at least modify…
BOEHNER: Both of those ideas, by the way, came from Republicans, and are part of the common sense ideas that we ought to have in the law.
INSKEEP: Well, are you going to repeal those two specific things?
BOEHNER Uh, what I want to repeal are the other 158 mandates, commissions, boards that set up all the infrastructure for the government to take control of our health care system.
Listen:
Boehner’s refusal to call for a full repeal could cause a rift with the more conservative members of the Republican party. Last week, for instance, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) — who has proposed a bill calling for complete repeal — warned leadership that “if we leave any component of it in there, it has, it’s just become a malignant tumor that’s attacking our liberty and our freedom and it’s diminishing our aspirations and it saps our overall productivity as a nation,” King said. “If we can’t come to that conclusion, then I want some new people to come help me.” Currently, repeal legislation has has no more than 62 co-sponsors in the House and 20 in the Senate.
Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.
Arizona Expands Its Discrimination: Teachers With Heavy Accents Can’t Teach English, Ethnic Studies Are Banned
Arizona Expands Its Discrimination: Teachers With Heavy Accents Can’t Teach English, Ethnic Studies Are Banned
Arizona’s supporters of the state’s draconian new immigration law insist that it has nothing to do with race and isn’t meant to discriminate against certain ethnic communities. Their claims are undermined, however, by what else the state government is trying to do to target recent immigrants.
Today, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Arizona Department of Education “recently began telling school districts that teachers whose spoken English it deems to be heavily accented or ungrammatical must be removed from classes for students still learning English”:
State education officials say the move is intended to ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly. But some school principals and administrators say the department is imposing arbitrary fluency standards that could undermine students by thinning the ranks of experienced educators. [...]
“This is just one more indication of the incredible anti-immigrant sentiment in the state,” said Bruce Merrill, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University who conducts public-opinion research.
But many schools in the state still have a significant number of teachers who are native Spanish speakers. At one school, state auditors complained that teachers pronounced “words such as violet as ‘biolet,’ think as ‘tink’ and swallow the ending sounds of words, as they sometimes do in Spanish.” The principal at that school acknowledged that teachers “should speak grammatically correct English” but said they shouldn’t be punished for having an accent.
Teachers that aren’t up to par “may take classes or other steps to improve their English,” and if they still aren’t fluent enough for the state, they will be fired or reassigned.
Adding insult to injury, the Arizona legislature passed a bill yesterday outlawing ethnic studies programs:
HB 2281 would make it illegal for a school district to have any courses or classes that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity “instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
It also would ban classes that “promote resentment toward a race or class of people.”
The measure is directed at the Tuscon Unified School District’s popular Mexican-American studies department, which school officials say provides only “historical information” — not “ethnic chauvanism” as the state school superintendent has alleged. One state lawmaker tried to show how ridiculous the legislation is by proposing that schools be barred from teaching about 9/11 because it would result in hatred toward Arab-Americans; the measure failed.
BP-Halliburton Oil Disaster Could Surpass Exxon Valdez In A Week
BP-Halliburton Oil Disaster Could Surpass Exxon Valdez In A Week
The catastrophic gusher of oil unleashed by the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig last week is on track to quickly exceed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, an independent expert warns. An explosive burst of oil destroyed the exploratory rig 41 miles off the Louisiana coast on the eve of Earth Day, killing 11 workers. After the shattered hulk of the rig sank to the ocean floor a mile down, the pipeline continues to spew oil that has now reached shore, with an end weeks or months away. John Amos, the president and founder of the nonprofit firm SkyTruth, “which specializes in gathering and analyzing satellite and aerial data to promote environmental conservation,” estimated from satellite photos that the calamity is increasing at a rate of 850,000 gallons (20,000 barrels) a day:
That’s right: more than 6 million gallons spilled into the Gulf of Mexico so far. This, and other radar images that SkyTruth is getting, confirm what we’ve seen on the NASA/MODIS images so far, and support our conservative calculations showing that in the first week of this spill at least 6 million gallons have entered the Gulf. That’s a spill rate of at least 850,000 gallons (20,000 barrels) per day, 20 times larger than the official Goast Guard estimate of 42,000 gallons per day.
By today, about 7 million gallons will have been spilled, taking the Deepwater Horizon disaster more than halfway to the 1989 wreck of the Exxon Valdez, which dumped 11 million gallons into Alaska’s Prince William Sound — one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters. This catastrophe — which occured as Halliburton was cementing the well — will exceed the scale of the Exxon Valdez within a week.
The sea of oil spewing from the mangled pipeline is already larger than 31 nations. After the Montara oil platform blew up in Australia’s Timor Sea last August, it took 10 weeks to stop the flow of oil. If recent history is any guide, it may be months before the sea of oil stops growing.
On April 22, the U.S. Coast Guard estimated the flow rate to be 336,000 gallons of crude a day, but BP officials claimed on Sunday that the rate was only 42,000 gallons a day. By Thursday, officials admitted that the disaster is increasing at least 210,000 gallons a day, much closer to the Coast Guard’s original estimate. Amos called that estimate a “bare-bones limit.”
ThinkFast: April 30, 2010
ThinkFast: April 30, 2010
The U.S. economy grew at 3.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of this year, marking three straight quarters of growth. “Consumer spending growth has remained solid thanks to more hiring and better financial conditions,” said Aaron Smith, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
White House senior adviser David Axelrod told ABC today that President Obama will not allow any new offshore oil drilling “until we find out what happened” in the Gulf of Mexico spill. Axelrod said no new drilling will proceed until “there is an adequate review of what happened here and what is being proposed elsewhere.”
Louisiana health officials have ordered air quality testing after a “pungent fuel smell” blanketed “much of coastal Louisiana” and New Orleans. People along Florida’s Gulf Coast also noticed an “oily odor” that “leaves a bitter taste in your mouth” permeating the air. Officials say the smell could be from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and are warning that people may experience “nausea, vomiting or headaches.”
Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) is calling on top officials from ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, BP and Shell to testify before a House committee on energy and climate change, to address the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and climate change legislation. “From the health of our economy to the health of our environment, it’s time for the American public to hear from the oil companies,” Markey said.
Major League Baseball’s annual All-Star game is scheduled to be played in Phoenix this year. But Arizona’s passage of an extreme anti-immigrant law is jeopardizing the state’s hosting rights. “I think Major League Baseball, with 40 percent Latino ballplayers at all levels, should make a statement that it will not hold its All-Star Game in a state that discriminates against 40 percent of their people,” said Rep. José Serrano (D-NY).
Gingrich’s ‘Drill Here, Drill Now’ campaign continues as oil rig disaster grows.
Gingrich’s ‘Drill Here, Drill Now’ campaign continues as oil rig disaster grows.
The Earth Day oil rig disaster that began with an explosion that claimed 11 lives is becoming an ecological catastrophe. The Coast Guard has set some of the West-Virginia-sized oil slick ablaze, even as it grows by thousands of barrels a day. Although this deadly catastrophe calls into question the pro-drilling campaigns by the oil industry and its conservative allies, the propaganda continues. In 2008, Newt Gingrich began American Solutions for Winning the Future (ASWF), the casino-funded 527 that used the slogan “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” to promote the false idea that new offshore drilling could lower gas prices. On its website, Gingrich’s ASWF is continuing its petition while reporting on the inevitable consequences of dependence on dirty oil:
Similarly, other oil-industry front groups — American Petroleum Institute, Energy Tomorrow, Institute for Energy Research, Americans for Prosperity, Heritage Foundation, and the Institute for 21st Century Energy — are still promoting increased drilling and attacking green economy legislation that would reduce our dependence on oil. (HT Wonkette)
Conservatives Mock Pelosi For Airbrushed Magazine Shot, Stay Silent On Laura Bush’s Retouched Book Cover
Conservatives Mock Pelosi For Airbrushed Magazine Shot, Stay Silent On Laura Bush’s Retouched Book Cover
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is on the May/June 2010 cover of the DC magazine “Capitol File,” and conservatives are all worked up that the photograph of her may have been airbrushed. The Washington Examiner has a piece titled “Cover girl Pelosi looking rather … airy in D.C. glossy”:
If you haven’t managed to score a copy of the May/June 2010 edition of Capitol File magazine (typically flanked on every table or bathroom at any D.C. social function) you’ll notice the cover girl Nancy Pelosi looking particularly young.
Celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Ayman Hakki of Luxxery Medical Boutique in Waldorf, Md., said although he believes Pelosi has had work done (specifically Botox of the frown lines, fat injections, a mini face-lift), the image is not the product of additional plastic surgery.
“There is airbrushing around her eyes, her upper lid has been airbrushed to make it look like there is less fat on the inside,” Hakki told Yeas & Nays. “And there is airbrushing on the line of her jaw.”
The story was touted on Fox Nation and featured on the Drudge Report:
Drudge doesn’t seem to sense any irony in the fact that next to his Pelosi story is a picture of former First Lady Laura Bush’s book cover, which also looks less than 100 percent natural. ThinkProgress spoke to a couple of graphic designers who said that there definitely was some airbrushing done to the Laura Bush photograph. (View a larger version of the cover here.)
Additionally, in the past, conservatives have advocated more airbrushing of female politicians. They were outraged when Newsweek featured a picture of Sarah Palin that showed her natural features. So basically, airbrushing conservative women is acceptable, but airbrushing Democratic women is ridiculous.
While people debate the merits of airbrushing magazine shots, it’s a common practice and certainly not a scandal that says anything about the person being photographed.
Journalists Must Donate To Anti-Choice Organization In Order To Cover Palin’s Speech
Journalists Must Donate To Anti-Choice Organization In Order To Cover Palin’s Speech
Today, Sarah Palin will be speaking at a fundraiser for the Austin-based Heroic Media, a “faith-based” anti-choice organization that seeks to reduce the number of abortions “by creating a Culture of Life through television, billboard and internet advertising.” As part of its anti-choice media strategy, Heroic Media airs television commercials that “encourage viewers to learn more about and rethink the Life issue.” The group’s Internet strategy tries to direct Google users to an anti-choice website:
Heroic Media utilizes an online strategy to purchase top listings on search engines, such as google, so when teens “google” the word “abortion,”… “I think I’m pregnant,” … or “terminate pregnancy,” one of the top web sites they’ll see is our partner web site http://www.teenbreaks.com
Teenbreaks.com provides information about abortion, communicating with parents, adoption, cutting and more.
As Indecision Forever notes, the fact that Teenbreaks.com provides “information” on “cutting” is a giveaway that it isn’t interested in providing women with the best possible facts about their reproductive rights: “Cutting, that’s right, because self-mutilation has everything to do with handling an unplanned pregnancy.”
But in order to cover Palin’s speech, the Austin-American Statesman reports that journalists will have to make a contribution to Heroic Media:
Restrictions: Heroic Media will try to prohibit video and audio recordings of Palin’s appearance, and news organizations wishing to cover her speech must buy a ticket, the proceeds of which will go to Heroic Media.
Denying media access has become Palin’s standard operating procedure. After the debacle that was her interview with CBS’ Katie Couric during the 2008 presidential campaign, Palin made sure she wouldn’t step into any embarrassing interviews — often demanding that reporters submit their questions “ahead of time” to guarantee a one-on-one. And as a private citizen, the former Alaska governor requires that any questions asked at her speaking engagements be pre-screened. Just last week at an event in Eugene, OR, media were “not…allowed to ask her questions and take still pictures… [or] videotape or record it in anyway.”
Earlier this year, after conservatives criticized Palin’s $100,000+ fee to speak at the Tea Party convention, she said she would donate the proceeds to “the cause.” Perhaps that’s what she is trying to get the media to do as well.
Florida tries to ban sex with animals after failing to do so last year.
Florida tries to ban sex with animals after failing to do so last year.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Florida is trying to rectify the fact it “is one of only a dozen or so states that don’t have a law against having sex with animals.” Given the disturbing accounts of bestiality in Florida, the state senate is taking action. But, as Barbara Hijek notes, Florida has had difficulty getting the law passed:
The law was passed unanimously by the Senate this week. It would make it a first-degree misdemeanor to have sex with an animal, with a penalty of up to a year in jail.
The Senate had passed a similar bill last year, but it fizzled out before it came before the House. The House bill has a similar measure, but it awaits debate.
What is there to debate?
So, just to recap what you can and can’t do in Florida: Get married if you’re gay? Illegal. Adopt a child if you’re gay? Illegal. Marry your cousin? Legal. Have sex with an animal? Also legal.
Coalition Of Right-Wing Big Business Groups And Lobbyist-Led Tea Parties Force Crist From The GOP
Coalition Of Right-Wing Big Business Groups And Lobbyist-Led Tea Parties Force Crist From The GOP
Today, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced that he is leaving the Republican Party to become an independent, and will run as an independent for the U.S. Senate seat open this year. Not too long ago, Crist was praised by Republican members of Congress as a “common sense conservative,” and viewed by Republican operatives as a potential 2012 nominee for President on the GOP ticket.
Desperate to help “tea party candidate” Marco Rubio (R-FL) defeat Crist in the primary, right-wing partisans have painted Crist as a liberal who veered left from the Republican Party. There is little substance to support that claim. The right has attacked Crist for voicing support for cap and trade, a free market idea to address global warming, and for openly accepting stimulus money — which economists and Republican governors now agree was absolutely necessary to stave off severe budget cuts and to avert a much deeper recession.
Despite the bluster, Crist is a moderate who built a career out of largely pragmatic decision making, but the modern Republican Party left him. The GOP’s creep to the far right has been steered by well heeled interests. A coalition of sharply ideological big business groups, aided by the Fox News-inspired and lobbyist-run tea parties, have successfully pushed the Republican Party so far to the right that Crist is no longer welcome:
– The Club For Growth, Wall Street’s Top Attack Group: The Club for Growth is funded by top investment bankers and other financial industry types, has a single-minded focus: to kill the income tax, to slash corporate taxes (and broaden corporate tax loopholes), and to eliminate regulations on corporates and the financial sector. The Club was one of the first large groups to go into Florida and start attacking Crist. In early June of 2009, the Club nominated Crist as “Comrade of the Month” along with liberal Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA). Soon after, the Club endorsed Rubio and began running brutal attack ads against Crist. According to recent disclosures, the Club is funded by a $1.4 million dollar donation from investor Stephen Jacksons of Stephens Groups Inc, a $1.4 million dollar donation from broker Richard Gilder, and $210,000-$630,000 donations from at least 10 other investors and financial industry professionals.
– FreedomWorks, Orchestrating Tea Parties For Corporate Interests: FreedomWorks is a corporate front group that organized the very first tea party protests, and has used its extensive staff and resources to mobilize rallies and advocacy campaigns on behalf of business interests for years. In Oct. 2007, FreedomWorks began targeting Crist because of his support for cap and trade clean energy programs. In late 2009, FreedomWorks (and Tea Party groups controlled by FreedomWorks’ staffers) began mobilizing support for Rubio — and came out in February of this year to endorse him. FreedomWorks is run by the corporate lobbyist and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), as well as by James Burnley, another powerful Washington lobbyist. FreedomWorks is also funded and chaired by Steve Forbes and Frank Sands of Sands Capital Management.
In analyzing the GOP’s far right march, many in the media have wrongly attributed it to the country’s organic reaction against reform. Why were so many moderate Republicans eagerly signing up to repeal health reform — rescinding coverage for tens of millions of Americans and reinstating insurance company abuses? The Club promised to attack any candidate that did not sign a repeal pledge months before the legislation had even passed. Why is even Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), an extremely conservative lawmaker, poised to lose his Republican primary? FreedomWorks and the Club have been quietly organizing against him for a year, aggressively criticizing the senator and even launching a website dedicated to attacking him.
Rubio, who is a policy lightweight tinged with a major corruption scandal, is still worth the investment for his right-wing backers because he truly believes in reflexively rejecting government accountability, social programs, or anything Obama proposes. In 2008 alone, it should be noted that the Club was primarily responsible for drumming moderates Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), and former Rep. Joe Schwarz (R-MI) out of office. There is a powerful, corporate machine behind the GOP’s so-called “dogmatic race to the bottom” in search for far right candidates. It is not organic.
Democratic congressional candidate says his Indian-American opponent can’t win ‘with a name like that.’
Democratic congressional candidate says his Indian-American opponent can’t win ‘with a name like that.’
David Krikorian is a Democrat who is running for his party’s nomination and the right to take on Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) in Ohio’s 2nd congressional district. Krikorian’s challenger in the primary is an Indian-American businessman named Surya Yalamanchili, whose claim to fame is that he appeared on the TV show The Apprentice. In a speech made before a veterans group in Clermont County, Krikorian injected racial politics into the campaign:
“Now do you really think that a guy with a name like that has a chance of ever being elected?” Krikorian allegedly said to members of Veterans of Foreign Wars in Clermont County.
The Ohio Democratic Party and the Hamilton County Democratic Party, as well as Schmidt, have all rebuked Krikorian. Both the Democratic Party leaders say they “will be voting for Yalamanchili on Tuesday, just as they voted for someone else with an unusual name 18 months ago — President Barack Obama.”
McDonnell: Idea of always ‘carrying papers’ reminiscent of ‘regimes’ that weren’t ‘helpful to democracy.’
McDonnell: Idea of always ‘carrying papers’ reminiscent of ‘regimes’ that weren’t ‘helpful to democracy.’
Arizona’s draconian new immigration law has split conservatives, with people like Rep. Steve King (R-IA) defending the law while others, like Joe Scarborough, call it “un-American.” In an interview WTOP on Tuesday, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) criticized the law, saying that “the whole idea of carrying papers and always having to be able to prove your citizenship” reminds him of “some other regimes that weren’t necessarily helpful to democracy”:
HOST: Well governor, if I could quickly ask, if a bill reached your desk that would require law enforcement to check papers of people that they considered reasonably suspicious, or a reasonable doubt that they might be illegal in the country, would you sign that?
MCDONNELL: You know, I haven’t looked at the Arizona law. We passed something in Virgina that requires a determination of immigrant status for anybody that’s arrested. Not as a reason to stop them to arrest them, but after an arrest for another crime, we actually determine the lawful citizenship or lack there of at the point of arrest.
HOST: But should legal immigrants be required to carry papers with them at all times?
MCDONNELL: Yeah, I think that’s — I’m concerned about the whole idea of carrying papers and always have to be able to prove your citizenship. That brings up shades of some other regimes that were not particularly helpful to democracy and civil rights.
Listen here:
Fox News’ Triumphant Ad Touting ‘The Most Powerful Name In News’ Leaves Out Glenn Beck
Fox News’ Triumphant Ad Touting ‘The Most Powerful Name In News’ Leaves Out Glenn Beck
Yesterday, TV ratings for April 2010 came out, showing that Fox News had “finished first in viewers and key demographics for 100 months in a row. In prime time, Fox News averaged about 1.9 million viewers for the month of April. That beat the combined audiences of MSNBC, CNN and HLN.”
To celebrate, Fox News placed a full-page ad in the print version of the Washington Post today declaring the network “The Most Powerful Name In News.” (It didn’t run in our copies of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal.) The ad features Fox personalities Bret Baier, Shep Smith, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Greta Van Susteren. But what’s most interesting is who is NOT in the ad: Glenn Beck, who appears on air between Smith and Baier.
In recent months, Beck has seen his ratings fall, but the LA Times notes that he still is a powerhouse in the 5 p.m. hour:
Glenn Beck has seen his audience fall almost 30% since the start of the year, from about 2.9 million viewers in January to 2.1 million in April.
While the Beck sensation may be slowing, the decline in his audience has hardly made a dent on the lead he enjoys for his 5 p.m. festival of emotions. His rivals should hold off a little on popping the Champagne.
So why did the network leave Beck out of the ad? It’s not like the shot was too crowded — there’s even an open spot for him to be photoshopped in between Smith and O’Reilly, in front of the giant #1. He was also just named one of Time’s top 100 influential people. Additionally, three of the people in the ad — O’Reilly, Hannity, and Van Susteren — aren’t even considered part of the Fox “news” operation, which runs only from 6:00-8:00 p.m. each evening.
Beck has claimed that network executives stand behind his controversial, incendiary antics, with one vice president even reportedly telling him that he is the “key” to surviving a “global economic holocaust.” However, the fact that today’s ad leaves him out may indicate that Fox is finally getting frustrated with the fact that he is draining advertisers, with some sponsors abandoning the entire network because of Beck.
It’s hard to be a “rodeo clown” these days.
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