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Obama uses Gulf oil disaster to promote climate bill that boosts offshore drilling
Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Monday, 07 June 2010 01:11
In a speech on the economy delivered yesterday at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, President Obama used the occasion of the ongoing BP oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico to talk about the nation's energy future
Gulf Oil Spill: Many Federal Judges Have Links To Oil Industry
Last Updated (Monday, 07 June 2010 00:55) Monday, 07 June 2010 00:34
06- 6-10 08:25 PM :Source
MIAMI — More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of judicial financial disclosure reports shows.
Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean – and others who regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells, according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed 2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.
Those three companies are named as defendants in virtually all of the 150-plus lawsuits seeking damages, mainly for economic losses in the fishing, seafood, tourism and related industries, that have been filed over the growing oil spill since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. Attorneys for the companies and those suing them are pushing for consolidation of the cases in one court, with BP recommending Texas and others advocating for Louisiana and other states.
A Washington-based federal judicial panel is scheduled to meet next month to decide whether to consolidate the cases and, if so, which judge should be assigned the monumental task. The job would include such key pretrial decisions as certifying a large class of plaintiffs to seek damages, a potential multibillion-dollar settlement, whether to dismiss the cases and what documents BP and the other companies might be forced to produce in court.
The AP review of disclosure statements shows the oil and gas industry's roots run as deep in the Gulf Coast's judiciary as they do in the region's economy. For example, one federal judge in Texas is a member of Houston's Petroleum Club, an "exclusive, handsome club of, and for, men of the oil industry."
Federal judicial rules require judges to disqualify themselves from hearing cases involving a company in which they have a direct financial interest, and some Louisiana judges have already done so. For example, U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon in New Orleans, who reported ownership of BP stock, issued an order in early May that the court clerk not allot cases involving BP or related entities to her docket.
Another New Orleans jurist, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, said in court Friday he is selling his oil and gas investments – which included Transocean and Halliburton – to avoid any perception of a conflict. Barbier is presiding over about 20 spill-related lawsuits and some attorneys are recommending that he be chosen to oversee all cases filed nationally.
Read more: Gulf Oil Spill: Many Federal Judges Have Links To Oil Industry
Nazism Never Dies, It Survives Within Our Shadows
Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Sunday, 16 May 2010 16:00
May 07 2010 by Peter Stern, source: Lone Star Iconoclast
In today’s America there are two main types of Nazis. There are political Nazis and corporate Nazis. Both varieties are extremely patriotic and have similar platforms, agendas and motivation. There also is a group of racial Nazis that are growing in number.
During the 1930s, Adolf Hitler rose to power in an industrialized but chaotic Germany, in which the middle and lower classes were living in poverty and unrest. Another reason for Hitler’s immense popularity is that the prevailing government was failing the majority of people and he instilled in Germans the sense of pride and nationalism, and lied as he promised the majority a better life.
Hitler cherished all things German and hated all other cultures and the people living within them. His priorities and likes were passed along to and accepted by many Germans. When Hitler became that country’s leader, government took over German factories and businesses to manufacture the necessities of war, e.g., the auto manufacturer Mercedes Benz began to develop war equipment and machinery, which included many of the gas chambers Hitler used in his attempt to exterminate the Jews and various other ethnic peoples who were not “true” Germans.
The slogan of the time was “Deutschland Über Alles” (Germany above everything else), which became the Fatherland’s National Anthem --- and which is Germany’s national anthem to this day.
There are many similarities of the Nazism depicted briefly above with Nazism prevalent today in the United States, and specifically in Texas, which has become the microcosm for all other states since George W. Bush (Jr.) became President. Today, Governor Rick Perry continues in the state where Bush left off.
The Corporate and Political Nazis in today's America don't see themselves as such and take extreme exception to the assertion that they are Nazis. In fact they see themselves only as true American patriots; however, they are Nazis none-the-less, sharing the same basic Nazi drives of power & control and putting themselves above and before the public good.
Perhaps the past five years of reviewing the Texas Legislature and the corporate involvement in state government affairs best underscores the Nazism rising from the shadows to a more pronounced visibility in its recent evolution. The nation has a black man living in the White House.
Today it is the corporate/military sector that virtually has taken over state and national government in an unprecedented attempt to actively forge its own future destiny, which is to accumulate extreme power and vast monetary wealth --- doing anything to achieve these goals. During the past decade via large campaign contributions, the wealthy business sector has executed a Coup d’Etat and is now the ruling entity in Texas and throughout the nation. Wealthy companies and businessmen have bought-out most elected officials and now dictate most of the bills viewed for future legislation that will add to the glory, prestige, power and wealth of those in charge. Those legislators who align themselves with their wealthy business patrons will themselves prosper politically and financially.
On the national level we have seen the emergence of corporate Halliburton, whose powerful foothold in the United States government is no less than former Vice President Dick Cheney, a former executive with questionable yet obvious ties remaining with the company. Despite blatant conflicts of interest between Cheney and Halliburton, the leadership did nothing as the company has profited extremely well from the platform and actions of the Bush administration and has received numerous government contracts both here and abroad. Halliburton’s profits currently are in the billions.
Read more: Nazism Never Dies, It Survives Within Our Shadows
David Cameron 'may be directly descended from Moses'
Last Updated (Sunday, 16 May 2010 15:50) Sunday, 16 May 2010 15:22
As the fifth cousin once removed of the Queen, David Cameron’s family tree was already looking pretty illustrious.
But Jewish scholars now believe that the Tory leader could also be a direct descendant of the biblical Hebrew prophet, Moses.
It was always known that Cameron’s great-great-grandfather was the Jewish banker Emile Levita, who came to Britain as a German immigrant in the 1850s.
And now Dr Yaakov Wise at the University of Manchester has traced Cameron’s ancestry traced right back to a famous Jewish scholar of the 16th century.
Emile Levita was a wealthy banker who became a director of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, which had offices in Threadneedle Street in the City.
He took on all the trappings of an English gentleman - he hunted, owned a grouse moor in Wales, and started an educational tradition which has continued through to today's Tory leader, by sending his four sons to Eton.
His eldest son, Arthur, a stockbroker, married Steffie Cooper, a cousin of the Royal Family.
This union provides Cameron's link to the 'Mad' King George III, an ancestor he shares with the Queen - making her his fifth cousin once removed.
Dr Wise has discovered that Emile Levita was himself a descendant of Elijah Levita, who lived from 1469-1549 and who pioneered Hebrew linguistic research during the Tudor period.
Elijah Levita also wrote what is thought to be the first ever Yiddish novel - called the Bove-bukh (The Book of Bove) written in 1507 and printed in 1541.
Levita is the Latin form of the name Levite, a Jew descended from the Tribe of Levi, the son of Jacob and one of the original twelve tribes of Israel.
He said: ‘It is possible that Cameron is a direct descendant of Moses or, at least, a cousin.
‘The leader of the Levites at the time of the exodus from Egypt was Moses, who was married with two sons named in the Bible.
'However, later descendants are unknown and many of today’s Levites, often carrying the surnames Levy, Levitan or Levita, could in fact be his descendants.'
'Black World' Space Shuttle: Air Force Raises the Stakes for a New Arms Race
Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Sunday, 09 May 2010 19:40
05-09-2010 By Tom Burghardt
It's not as if things aren't bad enough right here on planet earth.
Read more: 'Black World' Space Shuttle: Air Force Raises the Stakes for a New Arms Race
What with multiple wars and occupations, an accelerating economic meltdown, corporate malfeasance and environmental catastrophes such as the petroleum-fueled apocalypse in the Gulf of Mexico, I'd say we have a full plate already.
Now the Defense Department wants to up the stakes with new, destabilizing weapons systems that will transform low- and high-earth orbit into another "battlespace," pouring billions into programs to achieve what Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) has long dreamed of: "space dominance."
Indeed, Pentagon space warriors fully intend to field a robust anti-satellite (ASAT) capability that can disable, damage or destroy the satellites of other nations, all for "defensive" purposes, mind you.
Back in 2005, The New York Times reported that General Lance W. Lord, then commander of AFSPC, told an Air Force conference that "space superiority is not our birthright, but it is our destiny. ... Space superiority is our day-to-day mission. Space supremacy is our vision for the future."
Five years on, that "mission" is still a top priority for the Obama administration. While some might call it "net-centric warfare" on steroids, I'd choose another word: madness.
Air Force X-37B
On April 22, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) successfully launched its robot space shuttle, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Sitting atop a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket, the unmanned, reusable space plane roared into orbit after more than ten years of development by Boeing Corporation's "Phantom Works" black projects shop.
The successful orbital insertion of the X-37B was the culmination of a decades' long dream by the Department of Defense: to field a reusable spacecraft that combines an airplane's agility with the means to travel at 5 miles per second in orbit.
From the Pentagon's point of view, a craft such as the X-37B may be the harbinger of things to come: a johnny-on-the-spot weapons platform to take out the satellite assets of an enemy de jour, or as a launch vehicle that can deliver bombs, missiles or kinetic weapons anywhere on earth in less than two hours; what Air Force wags refer to as "operationally responsive space."
Prior to launch, Air Force Deputy Undersecretary of Space Programs, Gary Payton, ridiculed speculation that the X-37B is the prototype for a new space-based weapons system. Payton told reporters, "I don't know how this could be called a weaponization of space. Fundamentally, it's just an updated version of the space shuttle kinds of activities in space."
Needless to say, such denials should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt.
The highly-classified program has a checkered history. According to GlobalSecurity.org, the project is envisaged as a "reusable space architecture" that would provide "aircraft-like operability, flexibility, and responsiveness, supporting AF Space Command mission areas."
While early examples such as the Dyna-Soar/X-20 program of the 1950s-1960s never panned out due to technological constraints, the Air Force never stopped trying. Programs such as the X-40 Space Maneuver Vehicle (SMV) and the X-41 Common Air Vehicle (CAV), a hypersonic craft intended to serve as a key component in developing the off-again, on-again "Prompt Global Strike" project, demonstrate continuing Air Force interest in "high frontier" weapons programs.
The X-40 project eventually merged with the Air Force's X-37B program and the X-41 CAV program has been absorbed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2).
Last month, the first test of the Falcon (apparently) ended in failure when DARPA researchers claimed they had lost contact with the craft moments after take-off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Falcon was supposed to demonstrate the feasibility of launching a vehicle to the edge of space and then have it come "screaming back into the atmosphere, maneuvering at twenty times the speed of sound before landing north of the Kwajalein Atoll, 30 minutes later and 4100 nautical miles away," according to Wired.
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