Come On Sense

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Joe Barton is not alone. The Texas congressman’s lavish sympathy for BP — which he sees not as perpetrator of a preventable disaster but as victim of a White House “shakedown” — is actually what passes for mainstream opinion among conservative Republicans today. (more…)

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 20, 2010; 2:00 PM

There is no question that the Superfund program, first established 30 years ago, is facing a budget crunch. For 15 years, the federal government imposed taxes on oil and chemical companies and certain other corporations that went directly into a cleanup trust fund, which reached its peak of $3.8 billion in 1996. But the taxes expired in 1995, and because Congress refused to renew them, the fund ran out of money. (more…)

Blackwater & BP It’s tempting 2 believe that people who think this way eventually suffer their comeuppance. They don’t They just get richer

If a company’s actions, product or services cost society, should the company pay those costs? Or does profit trump the public good?

If a company’s actions, product or services cost society, should the company pay those costs? Or does profit trump the public good?

By James Chapman
Daily Mail, 5 June 2010

Genetically modified crops were last night given enthusiastic backing by the Environment Secretary.

Caroline Spelman shocked colleagues by suggesting that the coalition government will take a more pro-GM stance than its Labour predecessor. (more…)

Jeremy Scahill
June 15, 2010

Sources close to Blackwater and its secretive owner Erik Prince claim that the embattled head of the world’s most infamous mercenary firm is planning to move to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Middle Eastern nation, a major hub for the US war industry, has no extradition treaty with the United States. In April, five of Prince’s top deputies were hit with a fifteen-count indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, weapons and obstruction of justice charges. Among those indicted were Prince’s longtime number-two man, former Blackwater president Gary Jackson, former vice presidents William Matthews and Ana Bundy and Prince’s former legal counsel Andrew Howell. (more…)

Nation

(June 11) — Just when it looked as if the Gulf of Mexico oil spill couldn’t get much worse, it has — big time. Based on figures gathered by a panel of scientists, the estimate of oil gushing from the ruptured BP well each day has been doubled. (more…)

By Dawn House
The Salt Lake Tribune

A Utah man, whose Alaskan fishing career ended with the Exxon oil disaster 20 years ago, says the Gulf Coast spill will ruin the livelihoods of thousands of other people who make money off the land and the sea. (more…)