From Denny: To any of us who are following the BP oil spill off my state of Louisiana, it's no surprise that BP was found cheating on blowout preventer tests. Apparently, it is a common practice in the industry to fudge the results - like only testing pressures for 30 seconds as opposed to the law's requirement of a full five minutes. So much for honesty from our energy providers.
BP also broke the contract with the American government when they went past the 18,000 feet drilling limit. These guys were so greedy it literally blew up in their faces. As it was, the safety device to prevent an oil well from blowing up was tested by them, found NOT to work and yet they installed it anyway. Talk about arrogance plus stupidity. They bet the house and we all lose.
It's time for Congress to grab a hold of these losers and start throwing them in jail for twenty year stretches in order to instill some fear into these guys. If we don't get punitive with Big Business - whether it's banking, energy, technology or Wall Street - absolutely NOTHING is going to change for the better in America. Who, overseas or at home, is going to trust our markets to invest in them like they used to do? Now they know - without a shadow of a doubt - that our financial sector is as rigged as a Las Vegas casino game.
Speaking of Big Business sleaze, now the auto dealers in America are attaching an amendment to the Wall Street reform bill. Get this, their idea of reform is, from Prez Obama, to "inflate rates, insert hidden fees into the fine print of paperwork and include expensive add-ons that catch purchasers by surprise."
The auto dealers have countered with the fact they are only the middle men to assist customers in procuring financing. Yeah, right. Auto dealers create contracts for 80% of the auto financing in America every day. And to claim they are not banks is simply not true. The auto dealers all have manufacturer financing arms the manufacturer expects the dealers to use for their "best credit paper." The reality is they make a profit off steering people to high interest rate banking sources, often referred to in the business as "Mouse Houses." Usually, those sources are small finance companies who cannot get the low interest big bank rates from the Federal Reserve so they charge excessive usury up to 36%.
Even the Pentagon complained about this amendment because service people have been tricked into accepting these contracts by, you guessed it, auto dealers. So, now the Republicans, who put up this amendment, are claiming they will exempt the military. What does that do? Yes, you guessed again, it leaves all the rest of us, the middle class who comprise a good 80% of this country, it leaves us holding the bag to get screwed again by Big Business. Republican, Pentagon, auto dealer, Big Business mantra: "It's OK to take care of the military but it's also OK to screw the rest of those idiot civilians. They are too stupid to oppose us anyway."
And, as to the garbage happening to your donated dollars in Haiti, well, there are still 1.5 million people homeless and starving. That should not even be occurring as the world donated over $14 billion. That's enough money to give every one of those 1.5 million displaced people a healthy check for $37,000 to rebuild their homes, their lives and create jobs. That kind of money goes a long way in a third world country where the standard of living and wages is so low.
WHISTLEBLOWER: BP WAS AWARE OF CHEATING ON BLOWOUT PREVENTER TESTS (Huffington Post)
As the federal and congressional probes continue into the causes of the Gulf oil rig explosion, new information is coming to light about the failure of a key device, the blowout preventer, to shut off the gushing well, which could have prevented the growing catastrophe.
And new questions are being raised about the testing of the preventers. At today's hearing before a House subcommittee, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., revealed that the blowout preventer had a leak in a crucial hydraulic system and had failed a negative pressure test just hours before the April 20 explosion. And at a hearing in Louisiana on Tuesday, the government engineer who gave oil giant BP the final approval to drill admitted that he never asked for proof that the preventer worked.
In addition, an oil industry whistleblower told Huffington Post that BP had been aware for years that tests of blowout prevention devices were being falsified in Alaska. The devices are different from the ones involved in the Deepwater Horizon explosion but are also intended to prevent dangerous blowouts at drilling operations.
Mike Mason, who worked on oil rigs in Alaska for 18 years, says that he observed cheating on blowout preventer tests at least 100 times, including on many wells owned by BP...
This is a long article well worth the read, just click on the link title.
Investigators Find Slew Of Problems At Oil Rig (NPR)
A House investigative subcommittee said Wednesday that the blowout preventer, one of the prime suspects in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, had multiple defects — everything from leaky hydraulics to a dead battery.
The new disclosures revealed a complicated cascade of deep-sea equipment failures and procedural problems in the oil rig explosion and massive spill that is still fouling the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and threatening industries and wildlife near the coast and onshore.
The disclosures were described in internal corporate documents, marked confidential but provided to a House committee by BP, the well's operator, and by the manufacturer of the safety device. Congressional investigators released them.
The April 20 BP rig explosion killed 11 people. Since then, nearly 4 million barrels of oil have spewed from the broken well pipe 5,000 feet underwater, 40 miles off the Louisiana coast...
Obama comes out swinging against auto dealer-backed measure (The Hill)
President Barack Obama is urging the Senate to defeat an amendment to the Wall Street bill backed by auto dealers....
The proposal would allow lenders to “inflate rates, insert hidden fees into the fine print of paperwork and include expensive add-ons that catch purchasers by surprise.”
Obama cast the measure as an effort to protect special interests and weaken consumer protections.
“This amendment guts provisions that empower consumers with clear information that allows them to make the financial decisions that work best for them and simply encourages misleading sales tactics that hurt American consumers,” Obama said. “Unfortunately, countless families – particularly military families – have been the target of these deceptive practices.”
The president said the proposed carve-out would undermine strong consumer protections with a “special loophole” for auto dealers and lenders.
“We simply cannot let lobbyist-inspired loopholes and special carve-outs weaken real reform that will empower American families,” Obama said...
Following the Aid Money to Haiti (CBS)
Despite Billions Donated, Why are so Many Still Hungry and Homeless? CBS News Looks at Money Raised and Spent by Nonprofits
Four months after the earthquake, more than 1.5 million Haitians remain homeless. Many live amid utter devastation.
Yet enough aid has been raised to give each displaced family a check for $37,000. So why are so many still going hungry and living under flimsy shelters?
CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports the little known truth is, most of the $14.9 billion that's been donated will be used on long term projects to rebuild Haiti.
Mark Weisbrot, a former economic consultant to Haiti, said, "The organizations that already have money, should be spending this right now. This is emergency relief.."
To find out what has been spent so far, CBS News looked at five major non-profits: CARE, Catholic Relief Services, the Red Cross, the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund and the separate Clinton Foundation Haiti Fund.
Only the Clinton-Bush fund and Clinton Foundation refused to answer our questions, despite repeated e-mails and phone calls. Their websites say they've received $52 million in donor dollars, and have spent only about $7 million: less than one-seventh.
The other charities gave us breakdowns:
The Red Cross has raised $444 million and spent about 25 percent ($111 million) of it, including $55 million for "emergency relief," such as food and kitchen items, and $42.9 million for shelter including tarps, tents and blankets.
CARE has raised $34.4 million and spent about 16 percent ($5.75 million), $2.5 million of that on "shelter."
And at Catholic Relief Services: of $165 million committed to Haiti, it spent no more than 8 percent ($12.2 million), including $2.5 million on food $1.28 million on emergency shelter.
The charities argue they've already helped millions of people and would get criticized if they spent too much up front instead of addressing the long term...
*** This article is longer and worth the read with a graph chart too - just click on the title link.
Elena Kagan White House "Interview" Riles Reporters (CBS)
The White House today posted on its website a video allowing Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to speak "in her own words" about her personal history and perspective.
In the interview, conducted by a White House staffer who produces videos for the administration, Kagan discusses her childhood, parents and professional career. At one point she jokes that people get confused between her job as solicitor general arguing cases before the Supreme Court and the surgeon general, who puts "the labels on the cigarette packages."
While the White House seems to believe the American people deserve to hear from Kagan, it has not made her available to reporters. That prompted some consternation at today's White House briefing...
The decision to post an interview with Kagan conducted by a government employee - not a journalist - is in line with the Obama administration's policy of regularly using new media tools to go around traditional media.
Doing so allows the administration to better control its message - and, in this case, avoid any uncomfortable questions for their Supreme Court nominee.
Still, it's worth noting that it seems to be unprecedented for the nominee to be heard from at all before the confirmation hearings, other than in the initial introduction and in brief photo ops with senators...
Democrats poised to move measures with high price tags (The Hill)
Congress faces a crush of votes on big-ticket items before the Memorial Day recess, setting up a debate on deficits less than six months before the November elections.
Democratic leaders are looking in the next three weeks to send President Barack Obama a slew of measures that cost more than $200 billion, including a multiyear extension of unemployment benefits, an extension of expiring tax provisions and Medicare doctor payments totaling $180 billion and a $33 billion Afghanistan war supplemental bill...
Voters give pork pushers the chop (The Hill)
The landscape for earmarkers in Congress has changed dramatically this election cycle.
Appropriators from both parties have become the hunted, losing primary races to challengers more hawkish about reforming the provisions lawmakers insert in spending bills to steer money to specific projects in their districts or states.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) was derisively dubbed “Earmark Queen” by GOP gubernatorial primary winner Gov. Rick Perry’s supporters. Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) was ousted last weekend by two earmark hawks. And Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, lost to a conservative Democrat who questioned the propriety and impact of Mollohan’s earmarks.
“There are still a few Republicans who don’t get it, but voters have caught on that earmarks lead to wasteful spending and debt,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a staunch earmark opponent. “People used to think that ‘bringing home the bacon’ would ensure reelection, but not anymore. Americans have seen how earmarks are used to bribe members into voting for bailouts, takeovers and huge spending bills.”
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) could be the next appropriator to go. His opponent in next week’s primary, Rep. Joe Sestak (D), has called for replacing the earmark process, dominated by senior appropriators, with a competitive grant process overseen by a new commission. The debate over earmark reform will only intensify in the general election, with the GOP candidate likely to be former Club for Growth President Pat Toomey.
“Big spenders are dropping like flies,” a senior Republican aide said.
It is clear that the anti-earmark movement has many hurdles to clear, but it has made progress over the last couple of years...
The Surprising Strengths Of The Middle-Aged Brain (NPR)
The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind
By Barbara Strauch
Hardcover, 256 pages
Viking Adult
List price: $26.95
...One of the most troublesome parts of growing older, says Strauch, is that humans grow more distracted as they age. You may start to think of brining your Thanksgiving turkey, for instance, while driving along a highway.
But don't worry: That's totally normal.
"These thoughts simply bounce out of our heads," Strauch says. "What is happening, [scientists] think, is that you can suddenly — as you age — fall into what they call sort of a default mode. This is kind of a daydreaming mode. It's kind of an inner dialogue. ... And what they think happens is that you do tend to fall into a daydreaming default mode more easily. And this default daydreaming mode is brand new. They didn't know it existed in the brain before, and they're now studying it and trying to figure out how that happens."
Researchers who study brain scans find that as humans age, their processing speed may be a bit slower, and they might miss a beat while first trying to focus on something...
Another common indication of aging is growing more forgetful. But memory, says Strauch, is made up of different components, some of which don't go away.
"As we age, certain parts of our memory remain robust. For instance, our autobiographical stuff ... stays with us, she says. "Other things, like how to ride a bike, how to swing a tennis racket ... habits ... do not go away."
But episodic memory — the memory we have for things in context — tends to falter. For example, forgetting the name of someone you're talking to or drawing a blank when trying to come up with a book title.
"Short-term memory for names gets a little bit dicey along the way," Strauch says. "And the problem with names is not a storage issue. It's a retrieval issue. Those names are not really lost. They're just kind of temporarily misplaced. ... The way that they're stored in our brain — the sound of the name and the information about what that name is — is kind of weak."
She recommends silently reciting the alphabet in your head while trying to come up with a name. Sometimes this mental trick will jog the correct pathways when a name is on the tip of your tongue...
But not all is lost in middle age. There are certain cognitive functions that actually improve as a brain grows older. Strauch points to studies that indicate that a sense of well-being peaks — across all occupations and ethnicities — as people reach middle age. In addition, she says, certain studies show that an older brain can solve problems better than a younger brain...
"We are better at getting the gist of arguments," she says. "We are better at recognizing categories. And we're much better at sizing up situations. We're better at things like making financial decisions, which reaches a peak in our 60s. Social expertise — in other words, judging whether someone's a crook or not a crook, improves and peaks in middle age."
In other words, we've been trained to think that aging equals decline — but that's just not true.
"On the contrary," Strauch says. In some of the categories that matter most, "our brains are functioning probably at their best in our new modern middle age."
Wal-Mart To Pay $86 Million To Settle Lawsuit (NPR)
Retail giant Wal-Mart has agreed to pay $86 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that it underpaid employees in California.
The settlement includes $12 million in vacation pay and $74 million in unpaid wages to terminated workers. About 232,000 former employees will share the settlement.
The case comes from two lawsuits against the world's largest retailer filed in federal court in Northern California and consolidated four years ago. The action, which was disclosed in court filings Tuesday, still requires a judge's approval.
And here's a Greek music video playfully talking about the new economic austerity:
Greece's Eurovision 2010 Song: 'Opa!' by Giorgos Alkaios and Friends
"I burn the past, my old nights, and I start from scratch even if you don't want to. Hot tears, too many lies, I paid for what I borrowed. Opa!
I set on fire all past events, I'll change everything and I'll cry out the past is forgotten and everything is starting over."
The Greeks do so love their melodrama... :)
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