Problem solved, well almost… now look away!!
By: James Burge
July 19th, 2010
I just came across a video, and it’s not the only one, showing that although the oil leak has been capped, and slightly abated, they have only succeeded in moving the leak from the ocean floor, to a location that would lay hundreds, maybe even thousands of feet below the ground. What has happened is that by capping the oil leak, they have increased the pressure in the well, such that it now has a greater pressure with which to flow from cracks deep down the well so it is now seeping from fissures in the bottom of the ocean floor. Probably the strangest part of this story is that this is what should be expected to happen given that the line is thought to be damaged due to the explosion that started this whole mess. This is why most experts were saying that capping the well wouldn’t help and it could make it worse, forcing oil through cracks, deep in the earth, making them bigger, thereby allowing more oil to seep into the gulf, which could never be stopped using methods BP is currently employing. Which raises the question, if they know that this method won’t work, why are they trying it? Or is it just that only experts not affiliated with BP think this isn’t going to work, and BP has gotten bad advice. All we know at this point is that the idea that they couldn’t have known this would be the possible result of a cap is ludicrous possibly criminal. Pollute away BP…
The upside, flow has been reduced from a maximum some experts are estimating at around 100,000 bbl/day. The problem is that even if BP are reporting a small flow currently, an accurate estimate of the flow may never be truly determined as I don’t think the flow through the seabed can be accurately determined. For now, a video, showing the slow seepage of oil through the ocean floor.
No more Oysters, at least not for now…
By: James Burge
July 9th, 2010
Old Spill, finaly some truth…
By: James Burge
June 25th, 2010
Follow the money…
By: James Burge
June 11th, 2010
So new facts have come to light that both BP CEO and Goldma Sachs dumped BP stock in the days leading up to the ‘disaster.’ If that isn’t enough, the Cairman of Goldman Sachs was, until recently, also chairman of BP.
According to his September 2009 bio:
Peter Sutherland is chairman of BP plc (1997 – current). He is also chairman of Goldman Sachs International (1995 – current). He was appointed chairman of the London School of Economics in 2008…. Before these appointments, he was the founding director-general of the World Trade Organisation. He had previously served as director general of GATT since July 1993 [and was] chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Institute of Public Administration (Maastricht) 1991-1996.
Sounds like quite the globalist. It now seems that BP let the people at GS know about the ‘disaster’ with enough time to sell almost half of their holdings. So either this event happened DAYs before it was reported in the media, which is possible, or the decision was made to blow up the rig. This is likely because the data supporting the man-made global warming hypothesis, which is being used to impose carbon taxes everywhere, something the elite bankers have their heart set on, looks to have been falsified so as to exaggerate the predicted effects. Another clue to premeditation is the length of time this has remained the big news item, mainstream media will always find sexy stories to distract from things that aren’t profitable to big business. They want the world to both know what is going on and to be enraged by it, so enraged they are willing to pay governments to protect our environment, which is what I thought they were supposed to be doing anyway. I mean how was big oil given permission to build a rig such as this with no contingency plan to stop a leak if one occurred? It’s because they had more than enough money to pay lobbyists and to contribute handsomely to politicians re-election funds, which is not considered a bribe in the US because if it was, no one would be making any extra cash in addition to the salary paid for by the American taxpayers.
I have also come across an interesting article that does a good job of showing that its possible that CO2 levels have increased as a result of the warming, not the other way around. Looks to me like BP took one for the globalists, although in the end it will be you and me that truly pay for this disaster, some with our livelihoods, others through the soon to be created carbon tax.
What will future generations think?
By: James Burge
May 10th, 2010
After watching the short video below I am struck with a question. What will future generations think? About our lack of care for the environment, about our exploitation of developing nations, or about our apparent inaction when faced with evidence of Corporate Looting of both the Environment and the Economy. I have to say that ours is a generation that will be measured by our failure to properly place the environment and its effects on the livelihood of millions, ahead of the profits available to those corporations in the third world, where environmental regulations don’t exist. Why is it that American corporations working abroad aren’t subject to the same regulations as they are domestically? And Why haven’t they been taken to task regarding the blatant damage done? How can we expect our world to survive us when we continue to dump toxic chemicals into the water? How can we expect humans to survive in these toxic conditions? Have we already doomed humanity to extinction? Only time will tell.
Some good news…
By: James Burge
February 25th, 2009
I was just emailed this article and thought it was worth the read, so I’m gonna post it.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative
Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1–compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1.
NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Feb 16, 2009
The legendary editor of The New Republic, Michael Kinsley, once held a “Boring Headline Contest” and decided that the winner was “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.” Twenty-two years later, the magazine was rescued from its economic troubles by a Canadian media company, which should have taught us Americans to be a bit more humble. Now there is even more striking evidence of Canada’s virtues. Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it’s Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada’s banking system the healthiest in the world. America’s ranked 40th, Britain’s 44th.
Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it. Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize. The Toronto Dominion Bank, for example, was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn’t grown in size; the others have all shrunk.
So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense. Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers. Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1—compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada’s more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking.
Canada has also been shielded from the worst aspects of this crisis because its housing prices have not fluctuated as wildly as those in the United States. Home prices are down 25 percent in the United States, but only half as much in Canada. Why? Well, the Canadian tax code does not provide the massive incentive for overconsumption that the U.S. code does: interest on your mortgage isn’t deductible up north. In addition, home loans in the United States are “non-recourse,” which basically means that if you go belly up on a bad mortgage, it’s mostly the bank’s problem. In Canada, it’s yours. Ah, but you’ve heard American politicians wax eloquent on the need for these expensive programs—interest deductibility alone costs the federal government $100 billion a year—because they allow the average Joe to fulfill the American Dream of owning a home. Sixty-eight percent of Americans own their own homes. And the rate of Canadian homeownership? It’s 68.4 percent.
Canada has been remarkably responsible over the past decade or so. It has had 12 years of budget surpluses, and can now spend money to fuel a recovery from a strong position. The government has restructured the national pension system, placing it on a firm fiscal footing, unlike our own insolvent Social Security. Its health-care system is cheaper than America’s by far (accounting for 9.7 percent of GDP, versus 15.2 percent here), and yet does better on all major indexes. Life expectancy in Canada is 81 years, versus 78 in the United States; “healthy life expectancy” is 72 years, versus 69. American car companies have moved so many jobs to Canada to take advantage of lower health-care costs that since 2004, Ontario and not Michigan has been North America’s largest car-producing region.
I could go on. The U.S. currently has a brain-dead immigration system. We issue a small number of work visas and green cards, turning away from our shores thousands of talented students who want to stay and work here. Canada, by contrast, has no limit on the number of skilled migrants who can move to the country. They can apply on their own for a Canadian Skilled Worker Visa, which allows them to become perfectly legal “permanent residents” in Canada—no need for a sponsoring employer, or even a job. Visas are awarded based on education level, work experience, age and language abilities. If a prospective immigrant earns 67 points out of 100 total (holding a Ph.D. is worth 25 points, for instance), he or she can become a full-time, legal resident of Canada.
Companies are noticing. In 2007 Microsoft, frustrated by its inability to hire foreign graduate students in the United States, decided to open a research center in Vancouver. The company’s announcement noted that it would staff the center with “highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S.” So the brightest Chinese and Indian software engineers are attracted to the United States, trained by American universities, then thrown out of the country and picked up by Canada—where most of them will work, innovate and pay taxes for the rest of their lives.
If President Obama is looking for smart government, there is much he, and all of us, could learn from our quiet—OK, sometimes boring—neighbor to the north. Meanwhile, in the councils of the financial world, Canada is pushing for new rules for financial institutions that would reflect its approach. This strikes me as, well, a worthwhile Canadian initiative.
More Ron Paul
By: James Burge
February 11th, 2009
$550 Billion Run on the Bank
By: James Burge
February 11th, 2009
Israel’s War on Gaza continues…
By: James Burge
January 7th, 2009
In what can only be described as an onslaught, Israel continues to attack ‘militants’ in Gaza, one of the few remaining strongholds of Hamas the terrorist organization government elected by the Palestinians. Israel broke a ceasefire agreement that had lasted about 4 months, claiming their hand was forced by Hamas militants digging a tunnel out of Gaza to apparently attack Israeli soldiers (remember there is a big wall around these people and they were probably trying to get food and clean water, but I digress). Israel has continued a 12 day offensive defensive attack on the region with the supposed intent of ending numerous (mostly unsuccessful) rocket attacks from the region. However, in what is considered the most densely populated Palestinian land that remains, the attacks on ‘militants’ seem to have been abandoned in favor of killing women and children to either further radicalize the region, further justifying these attacks, or to try and turn the remaining Palestinian population against their resistance movement. (which do you see as more likely?) Israel has admitted to deliberately targeting a school, which they now claim was being used as a weapons dump, or had someone fire on them, even though the UN had assured them that no ‘militants’ were present in the school, only civilians attempting to flee the assault on their homes (remember the wall, they have no where to run). After killing over 600 Palestinians (about a quarter of which have been confirmed to be civilians, although I would tend to think this is likely higher than that) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert voiced his plans to travel to Egypt where another ceasefire will be discussed (and eventually broken).
Eight Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded during battles with Hamas militants Monday afternoon, IDF said. On Sunday, an Israeli soldier was killed, marking the first military death since the ground operation launched Saturday night.
Source: Israeli military surrounds Gaza City, officals say
The above article also mentions of another 4 Israelis being killed during the initial reaction from Hamas, which puts the Israeli casualties in the order of 30, seems a bit one sided (although I can’t seem to find an official Israeli death toll). But Israel’s justification for this precision bombing of Palestinian territory (including hospitals and schools) remains the hundreds of low tech rockets, most of which hit low populated regions of the desert between Gaza and Israel.
With another day of gory news reports inflaming the Arab world, Israel contended that the deaths at the school, at the Jabaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City, demonstrated Hamas’s callousness toward the lives of Palestinian civilians.
Source: Israeli Shells Kill 40 at Gaza U.N. School
I think the above quote says it all, “don’t blame us, all we are doing is bombing what little land you Palestinians have left, blame your elected government because they don’t support the ethnic cleansing of the land we took from you 50+ years ago because it is the rightful Jewish homeland cuz we lived there once too.. Oh yeah, and don’t forget the holocaust, yeah that too…”
Although I support Israel’s right to defend its land from rocket fire, there is little talk of the overt actions of the part of Israel to further radicalize those trapped in the world’s larges internment camp.
Look at this way, let’s say for a moment that the Native Americans and the Mexicans rounded up all North American Europeans, forcing them into ghettos, refugee camps and then put a nice big wall around the whole thing so no weapons, bombs, fuel, food or other supplies can enter. I mean those North Americans should be able to take care of them selves and feel content in their quality of life. Then, in the event that the North American Militants fired rockets into Native American and Mexican territory injuring someone, the Native American and Mexican Soldiers are completely justified in bombing schools and refuge camps and not guilty in any way of provoking such attacks.
Think about it!! Seriously…
Yet another political assassination???
By: James Burge
December 17th, 2008
I’m sure you are aware of the recent story involving Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, and his alleged attempts to sell the senate seat left vacant by President-Elect Barack Obama.
Under Illinois law the governor of Obama’s home state can appoint the president-elect’s successor but he apparently left the aide in no doubt that his blessing would come at a price. A seat in the Senate, he explained, is “a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing”.
Source: Governor of Illinois faces ‘staggering’ charges of corruption
Let me start off by saying that this is not by any means the first time a politician has looked for outside compensation to grease the wheels of ‘democracy,’ and it wont be the last. Is this really such a shock, in a political environment that saw multi-billon dollar, no-bid contracts for work in Iraq go to Halliburton and KBR, companies which both Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld both had worked previously and some say still receive money or have financial interests. This is the way business has been done by the Elite in power for a long time, why now is it so ‘staggering’ when a democrat does it, oh wait, I may have just answered by own question…
It is also not surprising, in these days of warrant-less wire tapping, that the FBI happens to have these recorded phone conversations as part of ‘an investigation’ and that his arrest came, less than 24 hours after he ordered all Illinois state agencies to suspend doing any business with Bank of America who received $25 billion in taxpayer money as part of the financial bail-out.
This is exactly the kind of thing that isn’t right, when on the one hand powerful special interest groups get the help of taxpayer money[…], yet the purpose of that money was supposed to be to provide a line of credit to businesses [...] to keep workers working and people employed, yet the bank of America has yet to step up and say they are going to be helpful […] and keep these people working so unless and until they do that the State of Illinois will suspend doing any business with the Bank of America and we hope that this kind of leverage and pressure will encourage the Bank of America to do the right thing for this business take some of that federal tax money that they have received and invest it by providing the necessary credit to this company so these workers can keep their jobs.
Source: Interesting timing
This all seems very reminiscent of the recent political assassination of recent New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer when the FBI released information about another ‘investigation’ revealing his use of prostitutes (another thing that is surprisingly common in all aspects of politics, just look at the assassination suicide of Deborah Jeane Palfrey the D.C. Madam who apparently had information about Vice-President Dick Cheney’s use of prostitutes). I’m sure his recent statements blaming the Bush Administration directly for the Housing Bubble. In a recent Washington Post Editorial Spitzer stated:
Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers.
Source: Predatory Lenders’ Partner in Crime
And only a few weeks later, he was forced to resign and his resignation got more attention than his accusations a few weeks prior, again I’m not surprised.
Anyone who still thinks that the NSA warrant-less wiretapping is to combat terrorism, or that FBI investigations are not political, wake up.
