Exxon still owes money for Valdez spill

Just because this industry says it will do something doesn't mean they will. Big Oil is the most profitable industry ever for a reason. There's no reason not to start collecting an upfront payment now before BP decides not to fulfill their financial obligation. It pays to drag your feet and manipulate the US court system. Read the rest of this post...

From the fashion runways of Pyongyang, ooh la la!

2010 is an especially racy year! I could be wrong but I think Barbara Bush has even been seen wearing one of those dazzling suits. (Or did she say they were "too old fashioned" for her?) Those zany Democratic People's Republic of Korea designers know no limits. Read the rest of this post...

Will taxpayers ever be paid back for AIG bailout?

Not only the bailout but the outrageous bonus payouts as well because neither Bush nor Obama thought it was important enough to negotiate. It's always looked like a bad deal that would never be paid back in my opinion and now the consensus is coming around to the same belief. I still remember the nutty GOPers who bragged about what a great deal is was as they counted the windfall the government would make on the deal. Riiggghhhhhhtttt. Gosh, where will it all be spent? CNN:

Taxpayers have lent AIG $132.6 billion, but getting that money back is looking less likely.

The sale of AIG's Asian life insurance unit for more than $35 billion would have helped a lot, but the deal went bust this week when the buyer, Prudential PLC, sought a lower price.

Now the troubled insurer is essentially back to square one with its repayment strategy -- though AIG Chief Executive Robert Benmosche remains upbeat about the options regarding AIA, and maintains that AIG will pay back its loans in full.

Can taxpayers get the bonus cash back now from this swindle? Read the rest of this post...

Fifa blocking condom distribution at World Cup?

Blocking local artists from participating was silly but stopping the open distribution of condoms is insane. Please tell me this is all a massive misunderstanding. The situation in South Africa is bad enough without a bunch of idiots from Fifa contributing to one of the most serious AIDS problems in the world.

Aids groups in South Africa have accused Fifa of banning the distribution of condoms at World Cup stadiums and other venues.

The Aids Consortium and other groups also criticised a block on the distribution of safe sex information at stadiums and fan parks, even though alcohol can be advertised.

South Africa has the world's largest number of HIV carriers, with an estimated 5.7 million people infected – about one in every five adults. There are around 1,400 new HIV infections every day and nearly 1,000 Aids deaths.

This has prompted calls for a health initiative to prevent the virus spreading as hundreds of thousands of football fans pour into the country for the World Cup, which starts next Friday.

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BP pushes cleanup to new team

BP is promoting the idea that the cleanup is being moved to a new group under the control of an American to begin damage control for the company and for Brits. Being British has nothing to do with it since Americans in general love Brits. It's pompous asses such as Tony Hayward that they don't like. Hayward couldn't seem to make it through a day without without a new gaffe so it's more of a personal problem with him. It's almost a surprise that Hayward hasn't walked across an oil stained beach wearing a cross so he could attempt to gather more pity and make it about him, again. (To a degree, think of it the way it was during the Bush years. People around the world like Americans but strongly disliked Bush.)

Another change is Obama's increasingly harsh tone. Will it amount to anything or is it the same old talk? In his inner bubble, I suppose it's tough and maybe a bit radical. Oh to be the leader of "change".

The spill has brought verbal attacks on BP from everyone up to Barack Obama, who said yesterday during his third trip to the gulf region: "What I don't want to hear is, when they're spending that kind of money on their shareholders and spending that kind of money on TV advertising, that they're nickeling and diming fishermen or small businesses here in the gulf who are having a hard time."

In the face of such criticism, Hayward insisted that he had a "thick jacket", adding: "They've thrown some words at me, but I'm a Brit. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."

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Copy of BP's spill plan found

NewOrleans.com:

NEW ORLEANS | I have obtained a copy of the almost-600-page BP Regional Oil Spill Response Plan for the Gulf of Mexico as of June, 2009, thanks to an insider. Some material has been redacted, but these are the three main takeaways from an initial read. The name of the well has been redacted, but if it's not Deepwater Horizon, then there's another rig still out there pumping oil and aimed at Plaquemines Parish.

1) In the worst case discharge scenario (on chart below), an oil leak was expected to come ashore with highest probability in Plaquemines Parish within 30 days (see map above from the Advance Response Plan). This makes it clear that BP could have stored adequate boom there before a rig failure like the Deepwater Horizon, and workers could have been mobilized to apply the boom in the 30 days that the response plan predicted oil would hit our wetlands.

2) Spokespersons were advised never to assure the public that an ecosystem would be back to normal after the worst case scenario, which we are now living through. "No statements shall be made concerning any of the following: promises that property, ecology, or anything else will be restored to normal." Even in BP CEO Tony Hayward's new television commercial his assurance is an ambiguous, "We will make this right," which does not specifically address preserving or restoring America's Wetlands.

3) Corexit oil dispersant toxicity has not been tested on ecosystems, according to the Oil Spill Response Plan. "Ecotoxilogical effects: No toxicity studies have been conducted on this product." It is contradictory that the question and answer section discusses the choice of a dispersant with: "Have environmental tradeoffs of dispersant use indicated that use should be considered? Note: This is one of the more difficult questions" and "Has the overflight to assure that endangered species are not in the application area been conducted?" Brown pelicans and sea turtles would have been the answer to the latter.

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GOP Congressman on Gulf oil leak: 'not an environmental disaster'

Only in the GOP can you find this level of crazy. He needs to schedule a beach party with Rush and Haley Barbour. Huffington Post:

Don't worry about the oil spilling into the Gulf, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) says, because the worst spill in U.S. history is "not an environmental disaster," just nature taking its course.

"This is not an environmental disaster, and I will say that again and again because it is a natural phenomenon," Young said after Congressional hearings last week. "Oil has seeped into this ocean for centuries, will continue to do it. During World War II there was over 10 million barrels of oil spilt from ships, and no natural catastrophe. ... We will lose some birds, we will lose some fixed sealife, but overall it will recover."

Young, of course, has notoriously close and longstanding ties with oil companies, and went on to criticize the Obama administration's stated moratorium on new offshore drilling permits in the wake of the Gulf spill.

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Oil arrives on Florida panhandle

Not that it's a surprise, but it's hardly good news.

The smell of oil hangs heavy in the sea air. Children with plastic shovels scoop up clumps of goo in the waves. Beachcombers collect tarballs as if they were seashells.

The BP catastrophe arrived with the tide on the Florida Panhandle's white sands Friday as the company worked to adjust a cap over the gusher in a desperate and untested bid to arrest what is already the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. The widening scope of the slow-motion disaster deepened the anger and despair just as President Barack Obama arrived for his third visit to the stricken Gulf Coast.

The oil has now reached the shores of four Gulf states — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida — turning its marshlands into death zones for wildlife and staining its beaches rust and crimson in an affliction that some said brought to mind the plagues and punishments of the Bible.

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The Stones - more Exile

A bit more from their best album. My neighbor upstairs gave me a bit of history on the recording of album that I didn't know. Mick Jagger grew up going to the Riviera with his family as a kid and had settled in Villefranche-sur-mer when the British wealth taxes went through the roof back in the day. The rest of the band all came around and rented villas in the area and they recorded the album in the basement of Jagger's (I think) humble abode. Listening to the album, the Riviera is about the last place you would imagine as the location. For some reason I always thought they did the recording in the US but no, it was the south of France. Read the rest of this post...

Should racists be fined for their remarks?

It's something that I used to be more opposed to but increasingly I'm less against it. The added stigma of being found guilty of saying something racist should carry some extra weight. The amount is irrelevant, but the fact that the courts have found the comments out of order says a lot. Of course, George Allen's "macaca" moment was the end of his political career and no fine or ruling was needed.

In this case, a French minister has been fined for making an obvious racist remark. BBC:

Mr Hortefeux was joking with a small group of activists from the ruling UMP party in south-west France.

Immediately before Mr Hortefeux's controversial remark, one activist is heard saying: "Amin is a Catholic. He eats pork and drinks alcohol."

Mr Hortefeux then says: "Ah, well that won't do at all. He doesn't match the prototype."

A woman is then heard to say: "He is one of us... he is our little Arab."

The interior minister then says: "We always need one. It's when there are lots of them that there are problems."

The court ruled that his remark was "incontestably offensive, if not contemptuous".

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