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Reports

If Only Information Flowed as Freely as Oil

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Posted on Jul 6, 2010
NASA

A NASA satellite captured this image of the thickest part of the oil spill as it looked on June 26.

By Amy Goodman

“Deep Spill 2” sounds like a sequel to a Hollywood thriller.

Unfortunately, it is more of a reality show. “Deep Spill 2” is the name of an ambitious series of proposed scientific experiments that should be happening right now. Scientists from around the globe are ready, literally, to dive in to understand what is happening with the oil and gas that are spewing into the Gulf of Mexico with the force of a volcano.

There is one problem, though: BP won’t let them.

Ira Leifer is a scientist on the government-appointed Flow Rate Technical Group and a researcher in the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He organized a team of scientists to develop intensive study of the Deepwater Horizon oil gusher, since so little is known about how oil and gas behave underwater, especially at the depths and temperatures one mile below the surface. The group of scientists presented the plan to BP, which ignored them, then to Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Markey wrote to BP on June 10:

“My understanding is that BP has not yet responded to Dr. Leifer’s request to make direct flow measurement. ... I request that you provide whatever budget and ROV [robotic vehicle] access is needed to allow these scientists to deploy their measurement activities.”

Advertisement

A month later, Dr. Leifer told me: “We have heard nothing from BP. ... Other scientists I know who are doing and trying to do research find themselves blocked at every turn from actually learning what we need to know so we can address this spill safely.”

Ten years ago, scientists conducted “Deep Spill 1,” a limited, 750-barrel controlled release off the coast of Norway, to study deep-sea oil spill phenomena. The lack of scientific knowledge of deep-water oil disasters allows BP officials like Tony Hayward to pronounce, as he did in late May, that “The oil is on the surface. ... There aren’t any plumes.”

So, while BP scientists, executives and public relations experts produce sound bites with their own fake “news teams,” the world’s leading experts are being shut out by BP itself.

Also shut out in the BP Gulf disaster are the media. The Coast Guard has announced new rules keeping the public, including photographers and reporters covering the spill, from coming within 65 feet of any response vessels or booms on the water or on beaches. Violators could face a fine of up to $40,000 and felony charges. In order to get within the 65-foot limit, media must get direct permission from the Coast Guard captain of the Port of New Orleans.

The 65-foot limit follows the rule requiring overhead flights with media to stay above 3,000 feet. Just like the Bush administration barring photographs of flag-draped coffins, the Obama administration seems to be colluding with BP to limit the images of the disaster. With current rules, and with photographers potentially facing felony charges, you can expect far fewer photos and videos of oil-soaked pelicans and dying sea turtles. You probably likely see fewer overhead close-ups showing how woefully inadequate the cleanup is, as 4 million gallons of oil jet into the Gulf every day.

Stories of denial of media access accumulate like tar balls on the beach (which have now made their way into Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain and to beaches in Texas). “PBS NewsHour” reporters were repeatedly denied access to a Department of Health and Human Services “National Disaster Medical System” trailer, ringed with barbed wire. A “CBS Evening News” crew on a boat was accosted by another boat with five BP contractors and two U.S. Coast Guard members, and denied access to an oil-drenched beach.

Dr. Leifer sees reporting as an essential part of the overall process:

“Reporters having access is part of the learning process as a society so that when there are accidents in the future, we actually can respond intelligently and not with a lot of unknown assumptions.”

If only BP and the federal government allowed information to flow as freely as the oil, we might well be on the road to dealing with this catastrophe.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 800 stations in North America. She is the author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.

© 2010 Amy Goodman

Distributed by King Features Syndicate


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Textex's avatar

By Textex, July 13, 2010 at 3:53 pm Link to this comment

MarthaA,

You’re right, Barry is too far left to be socialist,
he’s more communist. Too bad you don’t understand the
concept of being an American, I suggest you listen to
some Rush Limbaugh for a few weeks, maybe you’ll catch
on. Maybe not. LOL

Report this
MarthaA's avatar

By MarthaA, July 13, 2010 at 2:58 pm Link to this comment

President Obama isn’t too social, don’t worry,  you should register with the Democratic Party and do your best to elect liberals, because the the other choice is the Republican Party that is the Far EXTREME Conservative GOP Right, which is worse for the 70% Majority American Populace.  Here is a list of some of what President Obama has signed since his inauguration for your perusal.  Go register with the Democratic Party and vote in the Primaries:

Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, Signed: Monday, May 17, 2010
 
Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010, Signed: Friday, April 23, 2010
 
Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010, Signed: Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Signed: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
 
Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, Signed: Thursday, March 18, 2010
 
Emergency Aid to American Survivors of the Haiti Earthquake Act, Signed: Wednesday, January 27, 2010
 
2009 Tax Breaks for Haiti Donations, Signed: Friday, January 22, 2010
 
Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, Signed: Friday, October 30, 2009
 
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, Signed: Wednesday, October 28, 2009
 
Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act, Signed: Thursday, October 22, 2009
 
Cash For Clunkers Extension, Signed: Thursday, August 6, 2009
 
Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010, Signed on July 02, 2010
 
Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2010, Part II, Signed on July 02, 2010
 
National Flood Insurance Program Extension Act of 2010, Signed on July 02, 2010  

Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010, Signed on June 25, 2010
 
A bill to provide for an additional temporary extension of programs under the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958, and for other purposes, Signed on July 31, 2009

Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, Signed on May 20, 2009
 
Protecting Incentives for the Adoption of Children with Special Needs Act of 2009, Signed on May 15, 2009

To provide that Members of Congress shall not receive a cost of living adjustment in pay during fiscal year 2011, Signed on May 14, 2010


To permit the use of previously appropriated funds to extend the Small Business Loan Guarantee Program, and for other purposes, Signed on March 26, 2010

To accelerate the income tax benefits for charitable cash contributions for the relief of victims of the earthquake in Haiti, Signed on January 22, 2010.

Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009, Signed on February 27, 2010

Credit CARD Technical Corrections Act of 2009, Signed on November 06, 2009

Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010, Signed on October 28, 2009

Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009, Signed on October 22, 2009

Native American Heritage Day Act of 2009, Signed on June 26, 2009

Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, Signed on March 18, 2010

North American Wetlands Conservation Act, Signed on March 25, 2010

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Signed on March 23, 2010

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Signed on March 23, 2010

Jobs for Main Street Act, 2010, Signed on February 24, 2010

Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, Signed on February 12, 2010

Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act, Signed on October 22, 2009

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Signed on January 29, 2009

Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, Signed on May 20, 2009

Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, Signed on February 04, 2009

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Signed on February 17, 2009

Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act, Signed on May 22, 2009

Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009, Signed on May 22, 2009

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Textex's avatar

By Textex, July 13, 2010 at 12:18 pm Link to this comment

ThomasG,

Do you realize you just contradicted yourself? In the
first part of your post, you insist private
capitalism never existed, then later you promote
doing away with it. Which is it?

I noted you didn’t respond to Sweden’s plea for the
U.S. to stop and reverse the socialist march, Sweden
knows we are the engine of the world’s economy, but
ONLY because of capitalism. Take that away, and the
planet grinds to a virtual halt. Why can’t you see
what the Swedes see?

I also recommend you visit with your therapist
regarding your fixation with “vampires, werewolves,
and zombies,” it sounds like you may have missed a
session or two recently. LOL

Report this
ThomasG's avatar

By ThomasG, July 13, 2010 at 11:20 am Link to this comment

Textex has a “time warp mind frame” and I suppose that is what is needed for Textex to defend the dead zombie of privatized capitalism.

To defend the dead zombie of privatized capitalism, it is necessary for Textex to time warp back to a time when it was falsely accepted that the dead zombie of private capitalism was still alive.  However, even during Textex’s idyllic period of privatized capitalism it was also a dead zombie kept alive by the infusion of “social capital” and the sophism and propaganda of disingenuous rhetoric that maintained only the illusion of life by the cyclical infusion of “social capital” into the dead zombie of privatized capitalism.

Vampires, werewolves, and zombies serve a purpose for illusion and entertainment, but an American Dream based upon illusory entertainment of vampires, werewolves, and zombies, as is privatized capitalism, has no place in the American Reality of the 21st Century.

It is time for a change from dead zombie privatized capitalism to “social capital” and “socialized capitalism”.

It is time for “social capital” and “socialized capitalism” that serves the greater good, rather than the continuance of private capital and privatized capitalism that serves the greater greed, that is kept alive as a zombie by being tethered to an umbilical cord that cyclically infuses the blood of “social capital” to keep the dead beast animated as an imitation of life that is in fact nothing more than a dead zombie going through the illusory motions of life.

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By Textex, July 13, 2010 at 8:42 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

ThomasG,

There is no such thing as “social capital” and
“socialized capitalism.” Once socialism gets a
foothold, there is a constant tug in the direction of
bloated government, less freedom, etc. Even Sweden, yes
Socialist Sweden, is warning us about this:
http://charlesrowley.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/swedish-
experience-warns-against-expanding-the-welfare-state/

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ThomasG's avatar

By ThomasG, July 13, 2010 at 8:19 am Link to this comment

tropicgirl, July 13 at 11:00 am,

The choice is not a false dichotomy between “the Republicans” and “the Democrats” as a backlash of “legislation without representation” that allows the Republicans to demonize “the Democrats” when the Republicans are out of power, and allows “the Democrats” to demonize the Republicans when the Democrats are out of power; the frame of both choices of backlash denies political representation to the American Populace, the 70% Majority Common Population of the United States, and as a choice of backlash affords only the best choice of rotten apples, the choice of “legislation without representation” by both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

With regard to your invocation of Time Warp Communism to support your position; that is as pathetic as privatized capitalism, and both are a part of the trash heap of history that are in the process of giving way to “social capital” and “socialized capitalism”.

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Textex's avatar

By Textex, July 13, 2010 at 6:06 am Link to this comment

My vote is for the chakra.

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tropicgirl's avatar

By tropicgirl, July 13, 2010 at 6:00 am Link to this comment

Martha… what in gods creation are you talking about?

We are already feeling the chill, or perhaps the death grip of Obama’s
socialism. Its not pretty. ITs not American. Its not even kind. And, it is not even
right about anything.

There is no united liberal anything. Whatever once was has been destroyed by
The King of False Choices Who Isn’t What He Says He Is. Intentionally. haha.

Anyway, parties and people in politics are a tool of the New World Order,
Goldman Sucks, The New Monopolies and Endless War. IN this way you can
actually feel sorry for the heart attack parade in Washington.

If you can’t figure that out by now, then you must be awfully, awfully tired.
Either the job pays well or you have a stuck chakra somewhere between your
navel and the top of your head, I would say. Geesh, I’m tired just reading it.

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Textex's avatar

By Textex, July 13, 2010 at 3:38 am Link to this comment

MarthaA,

Barry is doing a fine job of wrecking the economy all
by himself, and exactly when was Rupert “banished” from
Australia?

LocalHero (must be localized to the 6” between your
ears),

I take it YOU couldn’t find a single exception either?
LOL

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LocalHero's avatar

By LocalHero, July 12, 2010 at 10:36 pm Link to this comment

Tex or Textex, whatever you’re calling yourself doesn’t matter one iota but this comment;

“I could go on and on, and I haven’t found a single
one that is in conflict with wiki’s defintion. Can
you find one, MarthaA? If not, then STFU and stop
wasting my time.”

...reveals what an utterly classless individual you really are. It’s no wonder your flaccid quips fall flat no matter how many “LOL”‘s you toss in there. LOL? Really? Are you ten? Perhaps six? Good grief. Crawl back under your rock and enjoy the Stone Age.

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MarthaA's avatar

By MarthaA, July 12, 2010 at 9:53 pm Link to this comment

The Conservative/Moderate Republican EXTREMIST traitors and their toadies whose propaganda and sophism is used to destroy the United States Economy should be banished to a 3rd World Country; along with Fox News Network and News Corps Rupert Murdoch, who has already been banished from Australia, now needs to be banished from the United States as well, with his toady, Textex.

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Textex's avatar

By Textex, July 12, 2010 at 1:51 pm Link to this comment

MarthaA,

Take your socialism/communism to another country.

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MarthaA's avatar

By MarthaA, July 12, 2010 at 1:14 pm Link to this comment

If members of the populace, like Textex, could learn exactly what political Conservatism is, surely they wouldn’t vote for Conservatism, but the Right-Wing’s Conservatives are so sure of their inculcation that they, like Textex, are assured that Conservatism doesn’t matter one way or the other to the populace, even though Conservative means getting rid of unemployment, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, selling buildings, bridges, roads and ports in our country to other countries, getting even more heavily into outsourcing jobs away from the populace, and borrowing even more money to supposedly lower taxes; it doesn’t matter that the populace will be in debt and be forced to work for slave wages all their days, as this is what Conservatism does….. and all the Textex’s said, “Yeah!”  It is not funny, although the FOX News Network thinks it is, because they are doing it —————- the populace must be educated against destroying themselves from Right-Wing political inculcation in the manner of Textex.

It is sad that renters, home mortgage payers, auto mortgage payers, Social Security participants, workers, waitresses, auto mechanics, Medicare participants,  Medicaid participants, the nearly destitute and the destitute of the American populace, like Textex think they are Conservative Republicans and will argue as if they had a leg to stand on, because of all the conservative political inculcation in the churches and in the media—they think they are voting for God. 

As long as the American populace members like Textex, think that there is Godly and social help for the populace from the autocratic Conservative side of the spectrum, and that God is standing on the Right side of the spectrum, they—like Textex are selling the populace out to be outsourced, sidelined and marginalized.  It is imperative to somehow break the populace’s Textex type conservative mindset rut of destructive inculcation by the Glenn Beck Type Conservative Revolution that continues and has continued for the past 30 years.  In order for there to ever be a democratic revolution against the Conservative Revolution, somehow the inculcated conservative Textex mindset within the liberal populace must be broken, as all these poor people thinking they are Textex Conservatives make it impossible to ever have anything close to a democratic republic for the populace.

Report this

By Tex, July 12, 2010 at 9:45 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

drbhelthi,

Isn’t it wonderful anyone can be on the internet, even
if they have an advanced case of Alzheimer’s, dementia,
and other hallucinogenic episodes. The ‘60s must have
been a blast for you, please try to list all of the
ones you took. Got DRUGS? LOL

Do you have ANY evidence what you are saying is true?

Report this
drbhelthi's avatar

By drbhelthi, July 12, 2010 at 8:26 am Link to this comment

At the tender age of seventy-three, I would like to
try to assist “Textex” to better understand the
world and the NAZI system that has overtaken the
USA, with vast assistance from the NAZI spy,
GHWBushSr of Doerlitzsch, Germany.

I take no drugs, but do take vitamins and minerals.
I can recommend to you that you locate a +60-yr-old
psychologist or psychiatrist in your locale, and use
an injection of sodium pentathol prior to your
sessions.

Such an aged professional, with the assistance of
sodium pentathol, might be able to assist you to
overcome the MKULTRA programming.  Plz understand
this is only a suggestion, and not a medical
prescription.

My career record is well established, and your glib
comments can in no way influence my career history. 
However, my suggestions might assist you to become
acquainted with the real world.

With best regards, dr.b_helthi

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Textex's avatar

By Textex, July 11, 2010 at 1:54 pm Link to this comment

Typo, I was laughing too hard to notice - You’re
swinging and missing a LOT, by the way! LOL

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Textex's avatar

By Textex, July 11, 2010 at 1:53 pm Link to this comment

MarthaA,

As I said, Waldo defined conservatism a very long
time ago. By his definition, I agree we need radical
change, by making our government much smaller,
balancing the budget, and all the other things I
listed earlier that Barry is doing his best to screw
up.

We don’t live in a democracy, we live in a
representative republic.

Please provide evidence the Heritage Foundation is a
union.

You’re swinging a missing a LOT, by the way! LOL

Report this
MarthaA's avatar

By MarthaA, July 11, 2010 at 1:09 pm Link to this comment

Tex, July 10 at 1:29 pm,

I have no interest in arguing with your futile contention any further.  Ralph Waldo Emerson has correctly and wonderfully stated in “The Conservative” what Conservatism is: 

“There is always a certain meanness in the argument of conservatism, joined with a certain superiority in its fact. It affirms because it holds. Its fingers clutch the fact, and it will not open its eyes to see a better fact. The castle, which conservatism is set to defend, is the actual state of things, good and bad. The project of innovation is the best possible state of things. Of course, conservatism always has the worst of the argument, is always apologizing, pleading a necessity, pleading that to change would be to deteriorate; it must saddle itself with the mountainous load of the violence and vice of society, must deny the possibility of good, deny ideas, and suspect and stone the prophet; whilst innovation is always in the right, triumphant, attacking, and sure of final success. Conservatism stands on man’s confessed limitations; reform on his indisputable infinitude; conservatism on circumstance; liberalism on power; one goes to make an adroit member of the social frame; the other to postpone all things to the man himself; conservatism is debonnair and social; reform is individual and imperious. We are reformers in spring and summer; in autumn and winter, we stand by the old; reformers in the morning, conservers at night. Reform is affirmative, conservatism negative; conservatism goes for comfort, reform for truth. Conservatism is more candid to behold another’s worth; reform more disposed to maintain and increase its own. Conservatism makes no poetry, breathes no prayer, has no invention; it is all memory. Reform has no gratitude, no prudence, no husbandry. It makes a great difference to your figure and to your thought, whether your foot is advancing or receding. Conservatism never puts the foot forward; in the hour when it does that, it is not establishment, but reform. Conservatism tends to universal seeming and treachery, believes in a negative fate; believes that men’s temper governs them; that for me, it avails not to trust in principles; they will fail me; I must bend a little; it distrusts nature; it thinks there is a general law without a particular application, — law for all that does not include any one. Reform in its antagonism inclines to asinine resistance, to kick with hoofs; it runs to egotism and bloated self-conceit; it runs to a bodiless pretension, to unnatural refining and elevation, which ends in hypocrisy and sensual reaction.

And so whilst we do not go beyond general statements, it may be safely affirmed of these two metaphysical antagonists, that each is a good half, but an impossible whole. Each exposes the abuses of the other, but in a true society, in a true man, both must combine. Nature does not give the crown of its approbation, namely, beauty, to any action or emblem or actor, but to one which combines both these elements; not to the rock which resists the waves from age to age, nor to the wave which lashes incessantly the rock, but the superior beauty is with the oak which stands with its hundred arms against the storms of a century, and grows every year like a sapling; or the river which ever flowing, yet is found in the same bed from age to age; or, greatest of all, the man who has subsisted for years amid the changes of nature, yet has distanced himself, so that when you remember what he was, and see what he is, you say, what strides! what a disparity is here!

In nature, each of these elements being always present, each theory has a natural support. As we take our stand on Necessity, or on Ethics, shall we go for the conservative, or for the reformer.”

We must go for the reformer.  Our nation is in too much of a mess to even consider conservative propaganda if our nation is to survive as a democracy.

The Heritage Foundation is a conservative union.

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By Tex, July 10, 2010 at 8:33 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

drbhelthi,

What kind of drugs do you take before posting?

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By Tex, July 10, 2010 at 8:29 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

MarthaA,

I have every source on the planet that agrees with
me, and you have Waldo? LOL

Now, who it that is losing credibility again?
Couldn’t be you, you don’t have any! LOL

You equate the meaning of words to the Bible and God?
LOL What a kook! LOL

You can’t say which of my sources is a union, can
you? LOL

Waldo was into Transcendentalism and respected
by Unitarians, that all I need to know about whether
his opinion is valid. To be clear, Waldo’s opinion is
NOT valid. LOL

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drbhelthi's avatar

By drbhelthi, July 10, 2010 at 12:56 am Link to this comment

Chronicles of former insiders such as Ted Gunderson,
Chip Tatum, Sibel Edmonds, Scott Ritter, plus
history chartographers such as two American patriots
of Jewish faith, Mrs. Mae Brussell and Mr. Sherman
Skolnick, more recent findings by Johnathan Elinoff,
and the findings of Congressman Dr. Ron Paul
regarding the sixty-year, internationally-
destructive activity of the US CIA, have clearly
established that the phrases, “conspiracy theory &
conspiracy theorist” are long since nonsequiturs.

People who continue to use such propaganda
terminology fall into the category, “- the world is
filled with ignorant people, many of whom are also
quite stupid.”  In addition to the closed-minded,
bribed propagandists will end up being the “kooks.” 

The research of Webster Tarply, collaborated by
other researchers, indicate that it was a sad day in
the history of the great state, when the outstanding
NAZI spy, George H.W. Bush Sr., established a family
domicile in Texas.  It is also sad that Texas police
authority permitted GHWBushSr to suppress their
investigation into the Brownsville, “cult-type”
murders of 1984:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/01/308911.shtm
l

Question:  What kind of secret society requires an
initiate to commit mass murder ?

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MarthaA's avatar

By MarthaA, July 9, 2010 at 9:11 pm Link to this comment

Textex, July 9 at 2:01 pm,

You are losing credibility.  Conservatism doesn’t change any more than God changes.  I guess you think the Bible has lost its meaning since it is over 160 years old.  Gee!  What will you say next? 

If I need to tell you which one of YOUR url’s is a Union, you are really far gone.

You really should read for understanding the academic work that Emerson has provided, because what he has written is exactly what Conservatism and Liberal innovation are, not that garbage you’re trying to peddle.

http://www.emersoncentral.com/conservative.htm

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Textex's avatar

By Textex, July 9, 2010 at 9:01 am Link to this comment

MarthaA,

Did you realize the meaning of words change over the
period of 160 YEARS! Ralph Waldo Emerson, give me a
break. Waldo was into Transcendentalism and respected
by Unitarians. Not exactly a ringing endorsement,
unless you’re a nutcase trying.

Which of my sources “...is a union that is totally
against anything conservative?”

I would call Waldo propaganda long before these long
established and respected conservative organizations.

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MarthaA's avatar

By MarthaA, July 9, 2010 at 7:51 am Link to this comment

Tex, July 8 at 11:20 pm,

What does the complexity of a disingenuous argument that dung is ice cream really mean??  ———— NOTHING!!!!!!!   A complex argument to justify Political Conservatism without the balance of innovation has the equivalent meaning of the former argument——— DUNG by any other name cannot pass for ice cream and a complex argument to the contrary will not convince anyone other than a fool.

Here is what Conservative and Liberal innovation really are:

(Begin Quoting)

“The Conservative by Ralph Waldo Emerson
http://www.emersoncentral.com/conservative.htm

A Lecture delivered at the Masonic Temple, Boston,
December 9, 1841

The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made. This quarrel is the subject of civil history. The conservative party established the reverend hierarchies and monarchies of the most ancient world. The battle of patrician and plebeian, of parent state and colony, of old usage and accommodation to new facts, of the rich and the poor, reappears in all countries and times. The war rages not only in battle-fields, in national councils, and ecclesiastical synods, but agitates every man’s bosom with opposing advantages every hour. On rolls the old world meantime, and now one, now the other gets the day, and still the fight renews itself as if for the first time, under new names and hot personalities.

Such an irreconcilable antagonism, of course, must have a correspondent depth of seat in the human constitution. It is the opposition of Past and Future, of Memory and Hope, of the Understanding and the Reason. It is the primal antagonism, the appearance in trifles of the two poles of nature.

There is a fragment of old fable which seems somehow to have been dropped from the current mythologies, which may deserve attention, as it appears to relate to this subject.”
(End Quoting)

I refer you to the rest of the quote on Conservatism at the following website, which you should read:  http://www.emersoncentral.com/conservative.htm

I checked out all your url’s , one is a union that is totally against anything conservative and the rest is propaganda—not practice.

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Textex's avatar

By Textex, July 9, 2010 at 6:41 am Link to this comment

Yes, France makes almost 80% of their electricity from
splitting atoms.

However, Iran has proven they cannot be trusted with
this responsibility. I’m okay with Iran having nuclear
power, under close supervision.

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tropicgirl's avatar

By tropicgirl, July 9, 2010 at 6:36 am Link to this comment

I agree. With responsibility. At this point its impossible to imagine a government,
like we have, developing any sort of alternative, or even functioning for the
common good, at all, on any level, despite the power they seek.

I think France has already come to that conclusion about nuclear. And Iran.
Perhaps why the King of False Choices disses them both at every chance.

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Textex's avatar

By Textex, July 9, 2010 at 6:16 am Link to this comment

tropicgirl,

I agree, but after being in the nuclear power industry
for several years, and nuclear power is the only
practical solution to our oil consumption, it is
evident to me there are too many wimps in both industry
and government who won’t do the right thing, so I have
very little faith they will this time around.
Unfortunate but true.

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tropicgirl's avatar

By tropicgirl, July 9, 2010 at 6:08 am Link to this comment

I’m not listening to ONE MORE PUNDIT bemoan the lack of access to the Gulf.

Get off your ass, Amy, and get a bus, get some local politicians and a whole lot
of citizens and GET DOWN THERE AND FIND OUT WHERE THE LINE IN THE SAND
REALLY IS. Geesh! There could be an Auschwitz down there with some of the
rumors. Get going!!!!

And, as to the certainty of reality (not conspiracy) theories, here are statements
from one of the Horse’s Mouth’s.

“”“"Top elitist and Harvard Professor Kenneth Rogoff has shamefully called for
the BP oil spill disaster to be exploited in order to create political momentum
behind a carbon tax, even going to the lengths of embracing the nightmare
scenario of hurricanes pushing the oil onshore as a way to create political
momentum behind Obama’s dreaded “green economy”.
 
Bilderberger Rogoff openly embraces nightmare scenario of hurricanes pushing
oil onshore as a way of “exploiting tragedy” to create political momentum
behind Obama’s dreaded green economy.

In an opinion piece for the Korea Times, Rogoff sensationally warns that failure
to exploit the tragedy for political ends would represent a “lost opportunity,” a
startling display of mercenary indiscretion, and a shining example of what we
warned about from the very beginning, that elitists would waste little time in
pointing to heart-rendering images of oil-covered birds and dead wildlife as
part of a crass stunt to push their consumption tax agenda.

Rogoff is a Bilderberg Group member, having attended the 2006 conference of
global elitists in Germany. He is also a regular attendee of Trilateral
Commission meetings. Rogoff is also a member of the Council on Foreign
Relations and writes for the group’s publication Foreign Affairs. He is currently
Professor of Economics at Harvard University, having previously served as an
economist at the International Monetary Fund, and at the Board of Governors of
the Federal Reserve.

“The fact is, the BP oil spill is on the cusp of becoming a political game-
changer of historic proportions. If summer hurricanes push huge quantities of
oil onto Florida’s beaches and up the Eastern seaboard, the resulting political
explosion will make the reaction to the financial crisis seem muted,” writes
Rogoff, seemingly salivating about the potential of an even greater tragedy that
would contribute to “rekindling interest in a carbon tax”.

Later in the article, Rogoff brazenly states that “exploiting tragedy” in the Gulf
is just one way of filling the coffers of the federal government.
He goes on to laud the visual propaganda value of “high-definition images of
oil spewing from the bottom of the ocean” in addition to a “blackened coastline
and devastated wildlife” as a tool through which to mobilize young people into
lobbying for a tax on the very substance they exhale.

Exploiting the catastrophe is necessary to “catalyze support for an American
environmental policy with teeth,” writes Rogoff, noting that the cap and trade
system basically amounts to the same thing as a carbon tax and is just a trick
to hide the use of the incendiary word “tax”. Of course, that policy has little to
do with the environment and everything to do with fattening the wallets of the
people who own and run the cap and trade scam.

Cap and trade was also founded and funded by big oil conglomerates – which is
why transnational oil companies have been the most vehement peddlers of
global warming propaganda.

Companies like British Petroleum and Exxon Mobil have been amongst the
biggest promoters of man-made global warming because they are headed up
by one-world globalists who understand that the carbon tax will do nothing to
help the environment but will be used to bankroll the implementation of global
government while swallowing up whatever deposable income impoverished
Americans have left.””

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By Textex, July 9, 2010 at 5:55 am Link to this comment

And some people babble on and on regarding conspiracy
“theories.” LOL

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By drbhelthi, July 9, 2010 at 5:48 am Link to this comment

Some people need to update themselves with verified information.  On the other hand, propagandists usually already know, and try to cover it up.

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By Textex, July 9, 2010 at 3:40 am Link to this comment

drbhelthi,

Keep wondering, you conspiracy kook. LOL

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By drbhelthi, July 9, 2010 at 2:53 am Link to this comment

I wonder if international, or only Israeli-type
scientists configured the current, alleged “BP” oil
rig disaster, and what time-span was required to
locate the vein to tap into?  Also, if the same
scientists configured the placement of the
explosives in the Twin Towers ?  Also, was misuse of
the disaster to further implement martial-mercenary
law in the U.S. originally planned, or is it one of
the gratuitous benefits that the U.S. dictatorship
has seized upon?
http://truthalliance.net/Archive/tabid/67/articleTyp
e/ArticleView/articleId/5613/Default.aspx

The current, chief israeli dictator, rabbi
Netanwhatayahoo should be notified that assisting to
manipulate the U.S. industrial-military conglomerate
to expend American lives and munitions on Iran,
while he and cohorts sneak into their bunkers, only
accelerates the demise of his tribe in its current,
stolen location.  Has no one informed him of what is
going to happen to him and the plot of land his
tribe has stolen ?  In addition, too many lives of
quasi-innocent Israeli folk who disagree with
genociding Palestineans, innocent Palestinean folk
and many thousands of Americans who mistakenly think
they are serving American patriotism, instead of the
israeli-banker-owned-industrial-military
conglomerate that controls what remains of the
U.S.of A. ?

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By Tex, July 8, 2010 at 6:20 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

MarthaA,

Here’s additional sources that agree with wiki’s
definiton: 
http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/other/conservative-
vs-liberal-beliefs/

http://www.conservative.org/about-acu/principles/

http://www.conservapedia.com/Conservative

http://townhall.com/issues/Issue.aspx?id=11

http://www.heritage.org/Initiatives/First-Principles

I could go on and on, and I haven’t found a single
one that is in conflict with wiki’s defintion. Can
you find one, MarthaA? If not, then STFU and stop
wasting my time.

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By MarthaA, July 8, 2010 at 5:50 pm Link to this comment

Textex, July 8 at 9:32 pm,

Wiki is a joke.  There is nothing fiscal about political conservative.  Conservative is the Right-Wing of the Political Spectrum and Liberal is the Left-Wing of the Political Spectrum. 

The Democratic Party holds the Left Wing of the Political Spectrum and the Republican Party holds the Right-Wing of the Political Spectrum.

The United States has a Two-Party Political System.

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By MarthaA, July 8, 2010 at 5:45 pm Link to this comment

Textex, July 8 at 9:32 pm,

Wiki is a joke.  Conservative is the Right-Wing of the Political Spectrum and Liberal is the Left-Wing of the Political Spectrum.

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By Textex, July 8, 2010 at 4:32 pm Link to this comment

MarthaA,

Your definition of conservative is in error. I’ll
stick with the definition here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism
“Conservatism in the United States includes a variety
of political ideologies including fiscal
conservatism, supply-side economics, social
conservatism, libertarian conservatism,
bioconservatism and religious conservatism,[76] as
well as support for a strong military.”

Regarding Beck, you don’t read for comprehension, do
you?

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By dihey, July 8, 2010 at 3:28 pm Link to this comment

At the risk of being called a shiv for BP I want to criticize the following. MSMBC’s Ed and Chris report the earnings and extras of bankers. That’s fine with me. Now they also interview lawyers who are or will be involved in lawsuits for Gulf residents against BP. That’s fine with me too. What is not fine with me is that they never ask: “Sir how much, in terms of percentage or else absolute dollars do you expect to make from these lawsuits”?

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By MarthaA, July 8, 2010 at 2:18 pm Link to this comment

Textex, July 8 at 6:47 pm,

“Beck is a conservative, not a Republican.” Textex July 8 6:47 pm

Beck is correctly a conservative and not a Democrat in any way, therefore Beck is a Republican, a Conservative Republican EXTREMIST sophist propagandist that works for the incognito Hitleresque autocratic conservative Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Fox News Network.

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By MarthaA, July 8, 2010 at 1:58 pm Link to this comment

Textex, July 8 at 6:47 pm,

Political Conservative doesn’t mean that they hold down spending— far from it.  Political Conservative means that Conservatives conserve the wealth of the nation for the Corporate Autocratic Conservatives that have revenue streams and revenue stream assets.  All Conservatives without a revenue stream or revenue stream assets are cuckolds for the Conservatives. Savings, a car and a house are NOT Capital or capital assets and renters are completely out.

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By Textex, July 8, 2010 at 1:50 pm Link to this comment

Here’s an idea that will kill 2 birds with one stone:
pump the gulf oil along the Mexican border, anyone who
gets in the oil trips an alarm and lights the oil on
fire!

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By Textex, July 8, 2010 at 1:47 pm Link to this comment

MarthaA,

At least you’ve given the middle away. I would be
hard pressed to find a Republican as liberal as the
most liberal Dem, but the 2 Senators in Maine come
close enough to the liberal side to label them
liberals. If the Republicans were truly conservative,
they would have held down spending while Bush 43 was
in office, like they did with Clinton. They didn’t,
and therefore they are not conservative. They only
appear to be more conservative because Barry has
taken the Dems so far to the left. By the way,
“populace cuckolds” is another term for a lib. It’s
been a long time since 1980, and the liberal
Republicans didn’t go away, they just held their
collective blue blood noses while Reagan was in
office, and while Newt balanced the budget, even
though Clinton said it couldn’t be done. There are
FAR more than “a few” libs in the Democrat party, it
is virtually filled with them. Otherwise, the Obama
health care plan wouldn’t have passed. Beck is a
conservative, not a Republican. He beats up the
Republicans almost as much as the Dems, as he should.

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By MarthaA, July 8, 2010 at 12:38 pm Link to this comment

Textex, July 8 at 3:12 pm,

You may think not, but ALL Republicans that are anything in the Republican Party are Conservatives/Moderates.  Populace liberal Republicans mean nothing to the Conservative management of the Republican Party.  Michael Steel appeared to be somewhat liberal and now he will be thrown out——there are NO Liberals in the Republican Party—NONE, maybe a few populace cuckolds. 

Republican Conservative Glenn Beck is against progressives,  unions, community, anything liberal and toots it daily on Conservative Republican Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Network/News Corp. 

The 1980 Conservative Movement of the Republican Party shut liberals out of the Republican Party and Conservatives/Moderates took over the Democratic Party via the Republican Conservative led DLC, Democratic Leadership Council and all the populace jobs began to disappear. 

There are only a few liberals left and they are ALL in the Democratic Party trying to hold the line against the Conservative Movement.

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By Textex, July 8, 2010 at 10:12 am Link to this comment

MarthaA,

News flash! All Republicans are NOT conservative,
that’s the problem.

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By MarthaA, July 8, 2010 at 10:02 am Link to this comment

Kent, July 7 at 3:51 pm,

It was hard to make that decision, but you did.  Many of us have already made that decision.

Now, what can we do about it since fascism is being led by Conservatives and nearly all of the populace think they are Conservatives, when the populace ARE actually ALL deceived liberals, who have nothing to conserve.

All Republicans are Conservative—no liberal is even allowed to be in the Republican Party, because Conservatives are conserving everything the liberals have for Conservative benefit.  The Democratic Party is overwhelmed with Conservatives/Moderates, which doesn’t represent the populace, but helps conserve for the Republicans.  Liberals that represent the populace are being consistently deleted from representation of the populace so that Conservatives can represent corporations against the liberals freely. 

Only a united liberal American populace can save our nation from the corporate conservative collusion of fascism against the liberal American populace.

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By d viator, July 7, 2010 at 11:56 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I live on the coast of Louisiana off Vermilion Bay; been vacationing in Grand Isle, Rutherford Beach and Holly Beach all along the coast; have done some shrimping in my time;since I was a child; makes me sick; lies are being told because we cannot deal with the facts.  The people who know this area the best and care the most are the people HERE.  God Help Us.

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By diman, July 7, 2010 at 11:34 am Link to this comment

To Gloria Picchetti

What does it have to do with Russia???

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By Kent, July 7, 2010 at 10:51 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I think that this fits Mussolini’s definition of fascism. . . collusion between government and corporations.

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By MarthaA, July 7, 2010 at 10:32 am Link to this comment

BP can keep all the press at a distance of 3,000 feet to keep the public from knowing the amount of oil actually gushing out, so that they can get away without having to pay for their total oil dispersal into the Gulf, but BP can’t shut down the satellite’s images, and scientists can use the satellite’s images to make determinations, just like they do on the moon, which may end up costing BP more than it would have if they had been honest and above board.

BTW, The oil eating big whale can be tugged with tugboats.  No big ship turns around at the coast, that is what tug boats are for, so put the tug boats to work.

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By Textex, July 7, 2010 at 8:49 am Link to this comment

The oil spill isn’t the only disaster present in the
U.S. but not in the UK, Amway has ripped off millions
of people for several decades, to the tune of 10s of
billions of dollars.

Read about it on this website:
http://thenetprofitgroup.yolasite.com and forward the
information to everyone you know, so they don’t get
scammed.

Amway is a scam, and here’s why: Amway pays out as
little money as they can get away with, so they
support the higher level IBOs ripping off their
downline via the tool scam.

As a result, about 99% of IBOs operate at a net loss,
while the top 1% make several TIMES more from their
Amway tool scam than from the Amway products. This
was made illegal in the UK in 2008, but our FTC is
unable to pull their heads out of their butts to stop
it here.

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By balkas, July 7, 2010 at 7:47 am Link to this comment

Get an undercover cop to remove undercover law covering or not covering the legal or illegal oil gush[es.]

US is governed by laws and not by BP, goldman sachs, congress, etc. So, say pols!
The point? Blame the law and order for the latest disorder or vote for new slate of pols; throw out every last one of these mafiosos. tnx

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By Mary, July 7, 2010 at 7:41 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

So the oil companies ‘own the oceans’ now?  can they really, physically stop scientists taking a look?  It’s like London arresting photographers!

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By Gloria Picchetti, July 7, 2010 at 7:04 am Link to this comment

Is this Russia?

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By Anonymous, July 6, 2010 at 5:19 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Why is dispersal seen as a good thing?

Faced with a crashed dump truck full of asbestos-laden
debris, would they suggest dispersal? put something on
that trash so it becomes dust that the wind will sweep away?

Is that the demented concept in effect for dealing with oil?
—and not only disperse the oil, but do it with a toxic agent?

Seems insane.

(Ideally) why not figure out how to coagulate the oil into nice safe
closed-cell foam beach balls that will float, that kids could
collect safely on the beach and get some small recycling change for,
and that dolphins could play with safely if they took a notion?

Ok, maybe beach balls are not possible, but maybe some coagulant
could make the oil into something that held together within a closed
plastic-like tough film, that turtles and birds and dolphins and
other critters could avoid normally, like they (try to) avoid plastic trash,
and that cleanup people could handle safely, and actually remove from marshes,
instead of facing hopelessly dispersed toxicity.

I would like to know if it would be legal for me, if I spilled
a gallon of oil on a Mississippi boat ramp, to wash it into
the river with Corexit. Would someone look up the laws?

I’m betting there’s a sane law against it, and if not legal
there, in a small amount, why would it be ok
in industrial quantities in the gulf, where the Mississippi lets out??

It seems beyond stupid, like 1984 doublethink.

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By Brian J. Donovan, July 6, 2010 at 3:59 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

BP and USCG have been employing an “Out-of-Sight, Out-of-Mind” strategy with the excessive use of dispersants and media control and restriction.

The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan, more commonly called NCP, is the federal government’s blueprint for responding to both oil spills and hazardous substance releases.

Pursuant to NCP Section 300.310, “As appropriate, actions shall be taken to recover the oil or mitigate its effects. Of the numerous chemical or physical methods that may be used, the chosen methods shall be the most consistent with protecting public health and welfare and the environment. Sinking agents shall not be used.”

Sinking agents means those additives applied to oil discharges to sink floating pollutants below the water surface.

The question is whether BP’s dispersants are “sinking agents” when they are applied a mile underwater at the source of the well leak.

BP and USCG are knowingly and systematically underestimating the size of the spill to limit the financial impact on the oil company. Under the CWA, the company faces fines of up to $4,300 for each barrel spilled. Furthermore, pursuant to Section 2702 of OPA 90, BP may be required to pay royalties (18.75%) owed to the federal government for the oil gushing from the well.

For a clear understanding of the issues involved, visit:

http://donovanlawgroup.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/why-bp-does-not-want-an-accurate-measurement-of-the-gulf-oil-spill/

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