Vincent L. Guarisco's Blog – May 2010 Archive (28)

Israel Attacks on Aid Ships Called Aggression

Monday, May 31, 2010

@IPA

RICHARD FALK, rfalk@princeton.eduFalk is professor of international law emeritus, Princeton University and Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories for the United Nations Human Rights Council. He said today: "The Israeli naval and helicopter lethal attack on the Freedom Flotilla bringing needed humanitarian relief to the civilian population of Gaza is a shocking crime against humanity. Some of the facts are contested, but an Israeli… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 31, 2010 at 2:30pm — 44 Comments

A Drilling Moratorium That Isn't

Thursday, May 27, 2010

DANIEL J. ROHLF, rohlf@lclark.eduRohlf, a law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School specializing in environmental issues, states that despite the announcement of a moratorium on offshore oil drilling, the federal regulators are still granting such permits. He said today: "The stated moratorium does not even cover all of the dangerous drilling that caused the problem in the first place. The Minerals Management Service has issued at least 17 permits for new… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 27, 2010 at 1:14pm — 1 Comment

What if the oil spill just can’t be fixed?

by David Roberts

May 25, 2010

The BP Gulf oil disaster is reaching an interesting phase. People's gut instinct, their first reaction, is to find someone to blame. They blame BP for negligence; the Obama administration for its tepid response; the Bush administration for lax regulatory enforcement. People have been casting about for some way to compartmentalize this thing, some way to cast it as an anomaly, an "accident," the kind of screwup that can be meliorated or avoided… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 27, 2010 at 3:08am — 11 Comments

John Clarke and Bryan Dawe calculate the cost of the European debt crisis

Clarke and Dawe ask the million dollar questions. . .

view the video here:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25521.htm

Source: 7.30 Report

Published: Thursday, May 20, 2010 8:56 AEST

Expires: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 8:56 AEST

Transcript

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: Time for John Clarke and Bryan Dawe with a few reflections on Europe's financial… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 25, 2010 at 3:58pm — No Comments

General Petraeus' Secret Ops

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

On Monday, the New York Times published a news report titled "U.S. Is Said to Expand Secret Actions in Mideast." http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/world/25military.html

ROBERT DREYFUSS, rcd48@cox.net, http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss

Available for a limited number of interviews, Dreyfuss is editor of The Dreyfuss… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 25, 2010 at 3:43pm — 2 Comments

Gulf Oil Spill: Similar Disaster Could Occur in Arctic Later This Year

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has heightened fears of a similar disaster occurring off America's Arctic coast, where Shell is due to begin exploratory drilling later this year.

by Alex Spillius in Washington

May 24, 2010

President Barack Obama has ordered a review of the Anglo-Dutch firms plan's to drill off the coast of Alaska.

The sun rises over an oil-soaked beach on May 23 on Grand Isle, Louisiana. The Alaska Wilderness League said in a… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 25, 2010 at 3:09am — 3 Comments

U.S. Laws Rated Worst Value Per Dollar

By David Swanson

May 23, 2010

A new international survey rates U.S. federal and state laws the worst legislative value in the world. The study considered laws' impact on human lives, and the price paid for laws in campaign contributions, issue advertising, lobbying, ear marks, and bribes. While these expenses have provided an unequaled return on investment for some U.S. and international corporations, their value for the U.S. public turns out to be negative, and more… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 23, 2010 at 2:04pm — 1 Comment

What BP's Blocking of CBS Crew Means for Americans

By Kevin Gosztola

May 20, 2010

CBS journalists were filming a beach in South Pass, Louisiana, when, according to CBS, a "boat of BP contractors and two Coast Guard officers told them to turn around or be arrested." The incident is thought by bloggers tracking the oil leak in the Gulf to not be the only time that BP has challenged the right of journalists to film.

If in fact BP has instructed crews to specifically regulate and turn away groups with video cameras… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 21, 2010 at 11:42am — No Comments

Obama's Failure; Gulf Spill Cover-Up and Incompetence Hits Flack; Where are the Marines?

By Rob Kall

May 20, 2010

One month into the worst environmental disaster in the history of the Human race, Scientists are beginning to call out the Obama Administration for aiding BP in covering up the extent of the Oil Gushers and their impact upon the environment.

NOAA has been accused of giving cover to BP, echoing BP's estimates in spite of the rest of the world's scientists declaring the gushers are spewing ten to twenty times… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 20, 2010 at 11:44am — No Comments

How Bush's DOJ Killed a Criminal Probe Into BP That Threatened to Net Top Officials

By Jason Leopold

May 19, 2010

@Truthout.org

Mention the name of the corporation BP to Scott West and two words immediately come to mind: Beyond Prosecution.

West was the special agent in charge with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) criminal division who had been probing alleged crimes committed by BP and the company's senior officials in connection with a March 2006 pipeline rupture at the company's Prudhoe Bay operations in Alaska's North… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 20, 2010 at 11:08am — No Comments

Obama's Oil Spill Panel: Will It Be Better or Worse Than Carter's Three Mile Island Commission?

By Kevin Gosztola

May 19, 2010

In the next few days, President Obama will announce the formation of an independent commission to investigate the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster. The commission will likely be similar to previous commissions convened by presidents to investigate the space shuttle Challenger disaster and the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island.

The commission convened will likely face tremendous pressure from BP, Transocean, Halliburton,… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 19, 2010 at 5:33pm — 1 Comment

Hotel Rio in India declares itself ‘GM-free’

By Umendra Dutt

Kheti Virasat Mission

My 16, 2010

(Anti-GM foods campaign launched with Hotel Rio, others to follow suit)

Padma Bhushan Dr P.M. Bhargava, architect of molecular biology and biotechnology in India, on Saturday declared Hotel Rio in Chandigarh, India a GM-free hotel as part of a major initiative against genetically modified (GM) goods and products in the country.

Addressing a press conference here, Dr Bhargava, who is now… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 16, 2010 at 2:27pm — No Comments

Obama's Gulf Eco-Catastrophe, Far Worse than Katrina, More Like a Hiroshima; Emergency Legislation Needed

By Rob Kall

May 16, 2010

History will view Obama's response as too little, too late, too passive. New findings by a research vessel with a grant that ran out today show walls of oil-saturated death, miles long and wide, depleting oxygen from ocean water.

Obama must commandeer BP's resources, pass immediate legislation ELIMINATING all limits on ALL corporate liability for damages, & fund at least a billion dollars of emergency research & science funding… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 16, 2010 at 12:58pm — 1 Comment

Obama to Force BP to Pay More Cleanup Costs for Deepwater Disaster

(regardless of what anyone thinks about the Obama administration (and we have good cause to be concerned), I consider this to be a bit of good news ~Vince)

BP announces cost of dealing with disaster has hit $450m but figure likely to rise after White House proposes scrapping cap on liability

by Matthew Weaver and agencies

5/14/2010

Barack Obama has set out new measures to force BP to pay more of the costs of the cleanup operation for the Deepwater oil… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 13, 2010 at 4:11pm — No Comments

Alaskans in the Gulf: Lessons from Exxon Valdez

Thursday, May 13, 2010

RIKI OTT, via Lisa Marie Jacobs, spillinfo@rikiott.com, http://www.rikiott.com

Currently on the Gulf coast, Ott is author of “Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Spill," a marine toxicologist and former commercial salmon fisher in Alaska. She questions the ongoing use of dispersants by BP. Ott said today: "The industry needs dispersants because they need to show some way of spill response.… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 13, 2010 at 3:03pm — No Comments

Dean Elena Kagan: Harvard's Gitmo Kangaroo Law School--The School for Torturers

By Francis A Boyle

May 11, 2010

Not surprisingly, the January 2007 issue of the American Journal of Imperial Law--otherwise known as the self-styled American Journal of International Law but originally founded a century ago and still operated by U. S. War and State Department legal apparatchiks and their law professorial fellow-travelers--published an article by Harvard Law School's recently retired Bemis Professor of International Law Detlev Vagts (who only taught me the… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 11, 2010 at 11:29am — No Comments

BP Insider: Massive Dead Zone Could Be Produced by Gulf BP-Congress Catastrophe

By Rob Kall

May 8, 2010

http://www.opednews.com/populum/print_friendly.php?ok=y&p=BP-Insider-Massive-Dead-Z-by-Rob-Kall-100508-893.html

A BP insider, providing information to OpEdNEws.com, reports that scientists and engineers, fearing the worst, have envisioned a worst case scenario, "It could very well be that the entire Gulf… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 9, 2010 at 1:59pm — No Comments

Heavy Metals Poisoning, Brain Injury, and Clandestine Weather Modification Programs Connecting the Dots – Part 1

By Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri

© 2010 – All Rights Reserved

5-10-10

“the thousands natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” – Hamlet

For decades, we have known that heavy metals and chemicals can cause grave physical harm. Going back to Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” we have known and been amply warned of the serious consequences of using or being exposed to these poisons in our daily activities. Thousands of these are well-documented carcinogens.

Building… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 9, 2010 at 12:55pm — 3 Comments

Six arrested inside foreclosed Wood Co. home

By Laura Rice

Friday, May 07, 2010 at 8:07 a.m.

5/7/2010

STONY RIDGE, OHIO --

At about 6:30 Friday morning a special response team from the Wood County Sheriff's Department took a battering ram to the door of Keith Sadler's foreclosed home and arrested the six squatters inside.

Since Sunday afternoon, Sadler and five others had been locked in the home despite an order of eviction after Sadler fell behind on his mortgage payments.

Protestors… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 8, 2010 at 1:25pm — No Comments

Government Exempted BP from Environmental Review

May 7, 2010

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/7/government_exempted_bp_from_environmental_review

Newly-released documents show government regulators exempted BP from a comprehensive environmental review of the project that resulted in the spill. The Minerals Management Service granted BP a “categorical exclusion” from a full review before approving the project just over a… Continue

Added by Vincent L. Guarisco on May 8, 2010 at 12:16pm — No Comments