Sperm whale poop is good for the environment

Go figure.

Australian researchers calculate that Southern Ocean sperm whales release about 50 tonnes of iron every year.

This stimulates the growth of tiny marine plants - phytoplankton - which absorb CO2 during photosynthesis.

The process results in the absorption of about 40,000 tonnes of carbon - more than twice as much as the whales release by breathing, the study says.

The researchers note in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B that the process also provides more food for the whales, estimated to number about 12,000.

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Greek Prime Minister gains respect and support with straight talk

It's unusual to hear honest, tough talk from a politician but fortunately it seems to be working out well. We're not talking about the "straight talk express" that struggled with truth in advertising, but real straight talk.

“I said, listen, let’s not, you know, beat around the bush,” Mr. Papandreou recalled recently, sitting in his cavernous office at the Maximos mansion, his backpack at his feet, his Kindle on the coffee table. “This is a problem. I will tell you what my view is and what I am trying to do.”

Improbably, perhaps, his strategy worked. Within months, he had managed to secure the bailout he needed while still maintaining good relations with his fellow European leaders — quite a feat, many observers say.

“There is a lot of tension among the players at the E.U. right now,” said Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate economist who frequently advises Mr. Papandreou. “Another personality, and that tension would have blown.”

Perhaps even more improbably, Mr. Papandreou’s strategy of telling it like it is has worked out for him at home, too. Despite imposing a series of harsh cutbacks and telling Greeks they are largely to blame for their own problems, he remains popular with voters who only a few years ago questioned whether he was tough enough for the job.

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More than 90 banks miss TARP payments

Congratulations Team Obama. By continuing the Bush/Paulson policies, you've contributed to this mess and now you own it. The mega banks are getting stronger which means too big to fail is ever a larger problem with the select few. As I posted recently six mega banks made enormous profits last year while the remaining nine hundred and eighty lost money. Well done. The genius Larry Summers must be proud.

More than 90 U.S. banks and thrifts missed making a May 17 payment to the U.S. government under its main bank bailout program, signaling a rising number of lenders are struggling to meet their obligations.

The statistics, compiled by SNL Financial from U.S. Treasury data, showed 91 banks and thrifts skipped the May dividend payment under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. It was the first missed payment for 23 of the banks; for the others, it was at least their second miss.

The number of banks missing their TARP payments rose for the third straight quarter. In February, 74 banks deferred their payments; 55 deferred last November.

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GOP opposed to BP paying compensation for oil disaster

Seriously, who is advising these people? Oh that's right, BP.

Rep. Michele Bachmann:

"The president just called for creating a fund that would be administered by outsiders, which would be more of a redistribution-of-wealth fund," […] "They have to lift the liability cap. But if I was the head of BP, I would let the signal get out there -- 'We're not going to be chumps, and we're not going to be fleeced.' And they shouldn't be. They shouldn't have to be fleeced and make chumps to have to pay for perpetual unemployment and all the rest -- they've got to be legitimate claims."

Republican Study Committee:

“BP’s reported willingness to go along with the White House’s new fund suggests that the Obama Administration is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics.

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Sarah Palin's 'Silly Putty Feminism'

Sam Bennett at Huff Post:

Sarah Palin calling herself a conservative feminist is like BP calling themselves a corporate environmentalist. You don't get to just pick up that word and use it the way you want it.

I think we can all agree that feminism is about equality. Where we disagree is whether or not "equality" extends to all aspects of a woman's life—including reproductive health choices.

To me and the many other women's rights activists who have spoken out on this subject, claiming to support equality for women—without trusting them to make the most important and personal life decisions—is both absurd and insulting.

Feminism is intrinsically linked to a woman's ability to make the same decisions as a man. Women need to have control over their own important life decisions. It's that simple. If you take that power, that basic right of autonomy, away, you take away a woman's economic viability, personal freedom, and any ability to make her life her own.

True feminism means giving women choices. Anything else is silly putty feminism—stretching the word far beyond all meaning and recognition.

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Wall Street ratings industry win self-regulation

You have got to be kidding me. Seriously WTF? Senator Dodd thinks it makes perfect sense. Uh, yeah. It makes perfect sense that people have had enough of Dodd and coziness with Wall Street but scrapping this plan is downright stupid and yet another slap in the face to the Americans who rescued Wall Street.

Credit-rating agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's dodged a bullet on Tuesday as lawmakers decided to strip out a provision in the Wall Street reform bill that would have upended their business model.

Negotiators from the House of Representatives and Senate tasked with hammering out a final version of the sweeping reforms agreed to remove a measure that would have set up a new clearinghouse to eliminate perceived conflicts of interest in the ratings industry.

Instead, they ordered regulators to study the issue and take action only if they think it is necessary.

And they have any reason to "take action" because, why? We fell into the recession thanks to self-regulation and now the Democrats are letting them do it again. Thanks for nothing, again. Read the rest of this post...

Ernst & Young under investigation in UK for Lehman collapse

It does sound as either E&Y; are complete fools and knew nothing about the financial health of Lehman or they were not as honest about the books as they should have been. Either way, they were making a handsome profit and should have known better. Unfortunately the accounting firms should be regarded similarly to the ratings industry or Wall Street recommendations. It's all rubbish, but expensive rubbish where everyone scratches each others back. Welcome to modern capitalism. Wanna invest your hard earned savings for retirement in the market with any of these businesses?

It's disappointing that Washington - Max Baucus, for example - are propping up bad behavior. How does rewarding bad corporate behavior help the general population? The Guardian:

Britain's accountancy regulator will today launch an investigation into Ernst & Young's role as auditor of the European arm of Lehman Brothers.

The investigation follows an allegation in March by a US court-appointed examiner that E&Y; – one of the world's "big four" accountancy firms – approved accountancy tactics that allowed the failed investment bank to hide $50bn (£33.7bn) of debt off its books.

"The accountancy and actuarial discipline board (AADB) has begun an investigation under its accountancy scheme into the conduct of E&Y; as auditors to Lehman Brothers International Europe," said the Financial Reporting Council (FRC).

One industry expert described the inquiry as the "tip of the iceberg" and said it opened up the prospect of a flood of legal claims against the firm.

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Sarah Palin's daughter is now 'co-parenting' her child

Funny, but I thought a child needed a father and a mother, not "co-parents." Considering the extent to which Sarah Palin has used her daughter, and her daughter's baby, to her own political advantage, and considering the degree to which Sarah Palin loves to lecture Democrats on their morals, perhaps someone should have a talk with her about "co-parenting."

Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with Bristol and Levi co-parenting. What I'm not fine is with Sarah Palin doing all sorts of things, possibly including conceiving a child out of wedlock (the NYT alluded to it, but the media has generally been afraid to even talk about it, and Palin has refused as well), and then having her own teenage child "co-parent" a child, and then get away with it - when she would savage any Democrat who had a similar family background. Read the rest of this post...

Somewhere Over the Gulf Coast (when Glee meets the oil spill - beautiful, sad video)

Great story surrounding the creation of the video:

Somewhere Over the Gulf Coast: A “Glee” and BP Oil Disaster Mashup
by David Yarnold, executive director of Environmental Defense Fund

From a comfortable distance the BP oil disaster is depressing and horrific. But up close, it’s worse.

Two days in the Gulf of Mexico left me enraged – and deeply resolved. Both the widespread damage and the inadequacy of the response effort exceeded my worst fears. I’d spent a full day on the Gulf and we ended up soaked in oily water and seared by the journey.

By Tuesday night, I was home. My throat burned and my head was foggy and dizzy as I showed my pictures and video to my wife, Fran, and my 13-year-old daughter, Nicole, on the TV in the family room.

Images of the gooey peanut-butter colored oil and the blackened wetlands flashed by. Pictures of dolphins diving into our oily wake and brown pelicans futilely trying to pick oil off their backs popped on the screen. And, out of nowhere, Nicole put on the music from the season finale of Glee.

With all these horrific images on the screen, she had turned on the show’s final song of the year, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” The song, a slow, sweet, ukulele and guitar-driven version, couldn’t have added a deeper sense of tragic irony.

I choked up. And then that resolve kicked in: I wanted anyone/everyone to see what our addiction to oil had done to the Gulf and to contrast that with the sense of hope and possibility that “Somewhere” exudes.

Long story short, last weekend, Peter Rice, Chairman of Fox Networks Entertainment, gave Environmental Defense Fund the green light to use the song. The pictures you’ll see were shot by two incredibly talented EDF staffers, Yuki Kokubo and Patrick Brown – and a few are mine.

The inspiration was Nicole’s. This is for her, and for all of our kids – and theirs to come.

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Robert Reich is seriously unhappy with the President's speech last night

Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich:

The man who electrified the nation with his speech at the Democratic National Convention of 2004 put it to sleep Tuesday night. President Obama's address to the nation from the Oval Office was, to be frank, vapid. If you watched with the sound off you might have thought he was giving a lecture on the history of the Interstate Highway System. He didn't have to be angry but he had at least to show passion and conviction. It is, after all, the worst environmental crisis in the history of the nation.

With the sound on, his words hung in the air with all the force of a fundraiser for your local public access TV station. Everything seemed to be in the passive tense. He had authorized deepwater drilling because he "was assured" it was safe. But who assured him? How does he feel about being so brazenly misled? He said he wanted to "understand" why that was mistaken. Understand? He's the President of the United States and it was a major decision. Isn't he determined to find out how his advisors could have been so terribly wrong?

Tomorrow he's "informing" the president of BP of BP's financial obligations. "Informing" is what you do when you phone the newspaper to tell them it wasn't delivered today. Why not "directing" or "ordering?"

I'm a fan of Barack Obama. I campaigned for him and I believe in him. I think he has a first-class temperament. I have been deeply moved and startled by his ability to speak about the nation's most intractable problems. But he failed tonight to rise to the occasion. Is it because he's not getting good advice, or because he's psychologically incapable of expressing the moral outrage the nation feels?

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Even during the Gulf crisis, Republicans unable to accept cost of change

When your campaign pockets are lined with Big Oil money, it's hard to see what's good for the country. The Democrats have a decent start to changing the climate situation but it's time a few people step up and force the issue. It's fine to talk about the price being similar to a postage stamp but that's not really going to cut it with the GOP of today, is it? The one lone GOP supporter of this bill has already jumped ship. Make them own pictures like this and let them explain to the public why obstructing yet another bill and supporting Big Oil is the right direction. There remains too much fear of conflict by the Democrats at all levels and that is not conducive to promoting change.

Yes, changing a decades old system is going to take work and cost something. Of course. But how can we possibly afford another Gulf leak as we're experiencing? Even with a massive BP payout this leak will be impacting the region for many years to come, well after any settlement money has been spent. So who gets the bill then?

An analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that the Senate bill, sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., would cost households an average of $79 to $146 per year. A first-class postage stamp costs 44 cents.

The bill, dubbed the American Power Act, aims to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020 and by more than 80 percent by 2050. Both goals are achievable under the legislation, the EPA said.

The bill would for the first time set a price on carbon emissions produced by coal-fired power plants and other large polluters. Carbon prices would range from about to $16 to $17 per metric ton in 2013 to about $23 or $24 per ton in 2020, the EPA said.

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Today's poll shows Democrats ahead in generic match-up

Yesterday, we saw the NPR poll of battleground House districts that didn't look too good for Democrats. It looked downright grim.

Today, a national poll from the Associated Press has better news for Democrats.

The reeling economy remains people's top concern, according to an Associated Press-GfK Poll conducted earlier this month, making public attitudes about it crucial for both parties' hopes in November. The good news for Democrats: By a margin of 47 percent to 42 percent, people trust them more than Republicans to guide the economy, and slightly more - 64 percent - say their household budgets are in good shape.

In addition, people want Democrats to win control of Congress by a 46 percent to 39 percent margin. That is the second straight month in which Democrats have held a delicate advantage on that question since April, when 44 percent preferred Republicans and 41 percent picked Democrats.

So, the generic number is good. But, that 42% of Americans trust Republicans on the economy is scary. The GOPers, led by George Bush, nearly destroyed our economy.

The news isn't all good. There are some real warning signs:

Even so, there's plenty in the poll to encourage Republicans, and nothing that contradicts many analysts' views that the GOP has a solid shot of capturing majorities of one or both chambers of Congress.

The public's anti-Washington mood remains robust, with 55 percent saying they want a new member of Congress - bad news for Democrats with more incumbents to defend. A low 24 percent approve of how Congress is doing its job, a hefty 72 percent still say the nation's economy is in poor condition, and 77 percent consider huge federal budget deficits a top concern.

Yesterday's NPR poll wasn't nationwide, like today's results from AP-GfK. NPR, via its GOP and Democratic pollsters, surveyed voters in 70 swing House districts. So, the numbers nationwide may be better. But, that might be offset by voters in the swing districts who are especially cranky.

We'll probably see a lot of movement in polls over the next five months. And, the question is whether the elections are nationalized or a series of local elections. Republicans would like to create a national message, as they did in 1994. I don't think that's happened yet. Read the rest of this post...

Volume of oil leak increased once again

It seems like BP was standing by the 5,000 barrels per day estimate only yesterday. then it was 10,000 and then 20,000. Now it's much higher. So how exactly do we know BP will be able to capture 90% of the leak when they can't even count how much oil is escaping through their damaged well? How can anyone have any confidence in the numbers when they keep changing?

Two months later and an Oval Office speech and even the "notoriously liberal media" is still wondering where the leadership is on this problem.

A government panel on Tuesday released yet another estimate of the amount of oil flowing from BP’s damaged well, declaring that as much as 60,000 barrels a day could be spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

That is roughly 2.5 million gallons of oil a day, and it means an amount equal to the Exxon Valdez spill could be gushing from the well about every four days.

The flow was already categorized as the largest offshore oil spill in the nation’s history, but the new figures sharply increase previous estimates. Scientists on Tuesday estimated that the flow rate ranged from 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day — up from the rate they issued only last week, of 25,000 to 30,000 barrels a day. It continues a pattern in which every new estimate of the flow rate has been dramatically higher than the one before.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

So, the big speech last night. Yeah, not that impressed. As I wrote yesterday, "Tonight, I think people will want to see a leader. I know I do." Didn't see a leader. Obama had a real opportunity to push his agenda. Yet, he never even said the word "Senate," despite the battle playing out in that body over the energy and climate change legislation.

What I'm trying to figure out is how those geniuses in the White House didn't think this through in advance. They raised expectations by having the President give an Oval Office address, then didn't produce a speech that matched those expectations. Somehow, in the minds of Team Obama, I'm sure this is all our fault for not getting how brilliant their strategy really is. They are, as we all know, the smartest people in the world.

This morning, at the White House, there is the big meeting with the BP executives.

Later in the day, Obama meets one-on-one with Scott Brown.

On the other side of the country, closing arguments will be delivered in the case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, challenging the constitutionality of Prop. 8. The proceedings in the federal court room get under way at 10 AM Pacific. Starting off will be the attorneys for the plaintiffs, Ted Olson and David Boies. This is an historic event. Judge Vaughn Walker's decision, which will probably be issued later this summer, sets us on a path to the Supreme Court.

Another busy day... Read the rest of this post...

Bloody Sunday report confirms - murdered victims were all innocent

This has been widely accepted for decades outside of certain circles who wanted to justify the military occupation of Northern Ireland. The murder of innocent civilians contributed to making a very bad situation in the region, even worse. How could it be possible not to begin murder or perjury trials? The Guardian:

The Bloody Sunday tribunal's repeated use of the term "unjustifiable" throughout the 5,000-page report, and its verdict that soldiers had lied to the inquiry, now opens up the possibility of legal action against former troops involved in the atrocity.

Fourteen unarmed civilians were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment which had been sent into Derry's Bogside on 30 January 1972. The deaths propelled a generation of nationalists into the Provisional IRA.

Saville's conclusion that none of the 14 dead was carrying a gun, no warnings were given, no soldiers were under threat and the troops were the first to open fire, marked a final declaration of innocence for the victims of the biggest British military killing of civilians on UK soil since the Peterloo massacre in 1819.

Northern Ireland's director of public prosecutions confirmed tonight that he was considering whether prosecutions for murder, perjury or perverting the course of justice could arise from the report.

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Obama is approving whale hunts such as this

In the video linked here, it's not a Japanese ship but instead, a Norwegian hunting vessel. The minke whale was hit by an exploding 15 kilo harpoon but was not killed immediately. The ship hunted the whale for two more agonizing hours before it was finally killed. Under the plan that Obama is supporting, Japan will be able to expand their annual hunt as will Norway. In the case of Norway they will be allowed to hunt 6,000 minke whales over the next ten years.

The pro-whale hunt lobby is extremely corrupt and has reportedly been bribing countries to approve this barbaric action with cash and prostitutes. This hardly sounds like the kind of system that deserves to be rewarded by the US. It's beginning to sound as though Obama is a "fierce advocate" for whales and the environment too. Read the rest of this post...

Did you ever wonder what environmental regulations the Marshall Islands had in place?

Me neither. But apparently that's who was supposed to be providing regulation for the Deepwater Horizon oil rig along with many others operating in the US territory. So to get this straight, foreign assistance or foreign chemical dispersants are forbidden because they somehow violate the US law, even when they are superior options but using foreign environmental laws somehow is OK when doing risky deep water drilling. What fools allowed this? Oh right. It was the Republicans who wanted to be warm and fuzzy with their friends from Big Oil.

Decades of self-regulation has proven itself to be a joke for Wall Street and the environment. If only Obama and the rest of the Democrats could find enough courage to aggressively make this point over and over and over. As we've said before, Obama did not cause this disaster and there's not much he can do about closing the leak after decades of bad policy. Where he is responsible though is shutting down these bad policy decisions and using them as examples of how the system needs to change. Sitting back and contemplating the situation does not help. He let the Wall Street reform slip by doing this and he may be letting this slip as well. LA Times:

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico was built in South Korea. It was operated by a Swiss company under contract to a British oil firm. Primary responsibility for safety and other inspections rested not with the U.S. government but with the Republic of the Marshall Islands — a tiny, impoverished nation in the Pacific Ocean.

And the Marshall Islands, a maze of tiny atolls, many smaller than the ill-fated oil rig, outsourced many of its responsibilities to private companies.

Now, as the government tries to figure out what went wrong in the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, this international patchwork of divided authority and sometimes conflicting priorities is emerging as a crucial underlying factor in the explosion of the rig.

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