July 1, 2010 archive

Wild Wild Left Radio #71 An Interview with Joe Bageant

July 2nd at 6PM Eastern Time, WWL Radio!!!!!

Gottlieb and Diane G. are live and in color (or is that off color?) on WWL radio Friday night at 6pm Eastern Time to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective.

Hear the Unreported & Under Reported Headlines stories you should be paying attention to, from US Politics, to the farthest reaches of the Earth by the WWL coalition of subversion: undermining the PTB by speaking Truth to Power!!!!

There is no other possible way to kick off a weekend of self-congratulatory patriotic fervor, rife with layers of mass over-consumption and a creamy drunken frosting, than to be given the honor of interviewing JOE BAGEANT to discuss his latest article, “Live from Planet Norte ~ America’s totalitarian democracy and the politics of plunder, or, life is a titty tuck and a Dodge truck

This man GETS it. America has been at war since its very inception, a long and brutal war which most people choose not to see. Not only have we blinded ourselves to it, but we have become actively complicit in the fact we are losing it… Its a Class War, people!!! Whew… now these are the types of fireworks I can truly sink my teeth into!

Joe is the author of “Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War.” His newest book, “Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir,” deals with America’s permanent white underclass, and how it was intentionally created. To be released in September in Australia and October in the United Kingdom. Rainbow Pie is available for preorder from Amazon-UK and Amazon-Canada.

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Govt To Fed Ex Sea Turtle Eggs to Florida Coast

Because the original is so oftentimes better than the description in the “can’t make this up” category, here is the latest press release from the Government’s Deepwater Horizon Incident JIC page:

http://www.deepwaterhorizonres…


NEW ORLEANS — The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is proud to announce that FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) is joining the efforts to protect sea turtle nests and eggs from potential impacts of the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The company will be donating resources to transport hundreds of nests containing thousands of eggs to Florida’s Atlantic Coast and its logistics experts are working the Unified Command and its partner organizations to implement this complex translocation.  The relocation efforts are scheduled to begin in mid-July and continue throughout the hatching season.

FedEx is working closely with Unified Command Wildlife Branch scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA and other partners to create the safest transportation solution for the relocation effort.  FedEx will take extensive precautions to protect the sea turtle nests and eggs, which will travel exclusively in its FedEx Custom Critical air-ride, temperature-controlled vehicles.

“In light of the imminent threat to sea turtles, we felt it was important to help move this extraordinary project forward,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director of NFWF. “Given our strong partnership with FedEx and our long standing relationship with the federal agencies, we were able to move quickly to develop an effective plan. We’ll continue to work with all parties so that this relocation offers the best hope for sea turtles’ survival.”

FedEx provides logistics expertise, in-kind shipping and funding for disaster preparedness, relief and recovery, working with organizations including the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Heart to Heart International. A FedEx-sponsored Salvation Army disaster response unit is in use to support responders to the oil leak right now. In 2006, FedEx donated its transportation services to deliver more than 1.2 million pounds of medical and other relief supplies to the Gulf Coast area in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

NFWF is supporting a number of wildlife projects in the Gulf region and is helping to coordinate the work of federal agencies, biologists and others who will be involved in the massive transport effort. The Foundation, established by Congress in 1984, is a non-profit conservation organization that works closely with federal agencies and private sector partners to protect wildlife and natural resources.

No word yet on whether or not the beaches in Florida will have to be at home and able to answer the phone or doorbell at the time of the delivery, or wait until the next scheduled package delivery on that route after the weekend and on the next business working day.

BP oil spill,turtle,ridley's sea turtle,oiled turtle,turtle gets bath,UC Davis

Help.  I’ve lost my habitat.

photo from US Govt. flickerstream, Deepwater Horizon Response,  6/10/2010 UC Davis

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update 7/2/10 :  they’re going to hatch the eggs in a climate controlled warehouse, release them,  and hope the turtles know where to return years later.   http://www.marconews.com/news/…

Whistleblower says that BP Spending Millions to Cover up Spill Instead of Clean it Up (UPDATED)

Something we have all suspected as being true is now being admitted publicly by a whistle-blower.

“In a shocking interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on June 29th, Allegiance Capitol Corporation V.P. Fred McCallister said that BP is deliberately sinking oil with the toxic chemical disbursant Corexit, to hide the size of the oil spill. By sinking the oil before it can be collected, BP won’t have to pay fines on it.

McCallister said, “Everybody in Europe, where the standard practice is to raise the oil and collect it, is scratching their heads, and quite honestly laughing at what’s happening in the Gulf.” He added, “Everyone is looking at us and wondering why we’re allowing this to happen.”

http://videocafe.crooksandliar…

The 50 Year Struggle, & Deepwater Horizon

AlJazeeraEnglish | 30 June 2010

Hurricane Alex, with winds of up to 100km an hour, is hampering efforts to clean-up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The state department has welcomed help from 12 countries offering to assist with the clean-up. And there has been a rare offer of support from an indigenous community from Ecuador for another indigenous tribe in Louisiana that has been affected by the spill.

Al Jazeera’s Scott Heidler joined the Ecuadorians in Louisiana’s Bay Baptiste. They underwent a long and tough journey in a boat to visit the oil-tained wetlands.

Open Cute

Photobucket

Unemployment Rates for Ohio and Other States, and Tips for How You Can Help

In January, the Associated Press reported that Ohio’s unemployment rate stood at 10.9% as of December 2009.  That rate has fallen slightly in the six months or so since that news article, standing now at 10.7% according to the Dayton Daily News.

The number of unemployed workers in May dropped to 641,000 from 652,000 in April. During the past 12 months, the number of unemployed has gone up by 22,000 from 619,000. The May 2009 unemployment rate was 10.3 percent.

Anyone looking to call this an improvement needs to explain that thinking, because these are more than likely seasonal jobs that either have disappeared or will disappear.

For my home town of Cleveland, the unemployment rate is even worse: 17.1 percent according to Simply Cleveland.  (In the interests of fuller disclosure, I have been unemployed since at least December of 2007, existing on financial aid and what food I can get from food pantries.)

Cleveland has an unemployment rate of 17.1%, compared the national average of 6.9%.

According to our Cleveland Trends data, the number of Cleveland, Ohio jobs has decreased by 28% since November 2008.

Graph Showing Employment Decline

News at Noon

From Reuters

Surprise rise in jobless claims stokes recovery worries

By Reuters

July 1, 2010

(Reuters) – New claims for state unemployment aid unexpectedly rose last week, heightening fears the U.S. economic recovery is stalling.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 472,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to slip to 452,000 from the previously reported 457,000, which was revised slightly up to 459,000 in Thursday’s report.

Is glen beck “Grifting” in Using a Veterans Organization

The beck is having a get together with many of the grifters, a very patriotic? affair, on the so called right and those in this country easily feeding into their meme’s, as they offer nothing of real policy or idea’s but seem to really hate the country they and their’s before them especially grew up in. I say their’s before them because it was them who built the once middle class and helped everyone as well as the upper class and all investors etc. to prosper, up until some thirty years back when it all started changing and we’re now living in the wake of the destruction.

In this get together he’s blatantly stating that proceeds of will be donated to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation which seems to be embracing this gathering of grifters, none I’ll bet are speaking for free, they just don’t, unlike real grassroots rallies, they charge handsomely for their few minutes of ‘talking points’ or ‘bumper sticker’ quotes. There’s a caveat as to this funding for the SOWF and is written out in the very small print well hidden at the bottom of the becks website page for the gathering of the patriotic? flag wavers.

Corruption saturation

If one considers spreading societal corruption as a series of ink blots that progressively stain a white fabric, there is an end state of saturation where everything becomes corrupt and nothing remains unstained. In America, we are nearing that state. Here is some evidence:

1. Our securities markets, once the greatest and most efficient engine of capital formation in the world, are now riddled with manipulation and are openly denounced as corrupt by independent observers.

2. Our government regulatory agencies have been fully captured by the industries they are charged with supervising, with catastrophic results exemplified by the Gulf oil spill.

3. Our political leadership shows no signs of altering its subservience to predatory corporations, and the Supreme Court has permanently established the control of wealthy interests over the election process by equating unlimited corporate political spending with “free speech.” There is no meaningful change possible in US society as long as the corporations are in control.

4. The news media remain in the hands of five private corporations, and they remain completely devoted to preserving the dominance of corrupt corporations and their political servants.

5. The academic sector, harried by cutbacks and funding shortages, is mute in the face of gross dysfunctions in business and political leadership. Instead it grinds out irrelevant and impotent research, while waiting for grants and awards from the corporatocracy.

6. The popular culture enshrines self-indulgence, violence, and the adrenalin rush as the highest values for individuals. The wealthy are admired for their ruthless pursuit of self-interest, and it is believed that calculated selfishness is the sure path to riches for all.

There are interesting consequences of arriving at a saturated state of corruption. One no longer needs to be concerned with its extent, since one can assume that every non-trivial organization is corrupt. Thus, effort can be channeled into shifting all activity away from large institutions and organizations and attempting to make all transactions and interpersonal dealings with trusted individuals and trusted small-scale entities. This contraction into a highly defensive behavioral pattern will be costly and difficult for most people, but it will be the only means of escaping substantial harm as a society saturated by corruption collapses into ruins.

Stunning Incompetence

Some are attuned to the possibility of looming catastrophe and know how to head it off. Others are unprepared for risk and even unable to get their priorities straight when risk turns to reality.

So begins an article in the Financial Post the other day written by Lawrence Solomon titled Avertible Catastrophe The construct of the article is so completely damning to our country, our government and our culture

Stunning incompetence

Lack of will.

shows an incomprehensible scarcity of intellectual imagination.  

Book Review: Tom Engelhardt, The American Way of War

Folks this book by Tom Engelhardt just came out — it’s got good antiwar writing in it, and a good perspective can bring out its especially good points.  But, hey, that’s what reviewers are for!

(crossposted at Orange)

“”America Speaks to BP”” This Afternoon

Live streaming Q&A this afternoon

July 1, 2010

Ask BP Exec Bob Dudley Your Questions for a Live Interview Thursday

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