This blog will continue to not be updated regularly.

Enjoy!

A leak from Chevron’s underground oil pipeline may have gone undetected for hours as it spilled 50 gallons of crude a minute Saturday into Salt Lake City’s Red Butte Creek.

The oil blackened the east-side creek, stained scores of birds, prompted the closure of Liberty Park and sent oil as far west as the Jordan River.

“This is extremely harmful,” said disgusted resident Peter G. Hayes, a biology teacher who showed oily rocks from his creek-side home to Chevron officials at Liberty Park. “I want to know when are you going to send someone to my backyard and clean up my mess because I can’t even live in my house because of the smell.”

Chevron pledged to clean up the 6-mile mess, but the company could not quantify the damage. As of late Saturday, Chevron said the leak had been stopped. But company representatives could not say when it began, how much oil spilled into city waterways and why — despite pipeline monitors — it apparently took hours to learn of the accident.

This won’t be nearly as bad as the Gulf nor will it get nearly as much media attention, but the consequences of our reliance on oil are still devastating.

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In one of the most dizzying half-hours in stock market history, the Dow plunged nearly 1,000 points before paring those losses—all apparently due to a trader error.

According to multiple sources, a trader entered a “b” for billion instead of an “m” for million in a trade possibly involving Procter & Gamble, a component in the Dow.

Sources tell CNBC the erroneous trade may have been made at Citigroup.

“We, along with the rest of the financial industry, are investigating to find the source of today’s market volatility,” Citigroup said in a statement. “At this point we have no evidence that Citi was involved in any erroneous transaction.”

Probably should just keep letting these jerks manipulate global markets without any sort of regulation or oversight, then.

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On May 3, 2010, FAISAL SHAHZAD, the defendant, was arrested at the Airport as he attempted to leave the United States by means of a commercial flight to Dubai. After his arrest, SHAHZAD stated that he had recently received bomb-making training in Waziristan, Pakistan. In addition, SHAHZAD admitted that he had brought the Pathfinder to Times Square — and attempted there to detonate it.

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It would have been a serious mistake to have read the suspect in the attempted Times Square car bombing his Miranda rights, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday.

McCain, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a longtime leading Republican on national security issues, said he expected the suspect in the case could face charges that might warrant a death sentence if convicted.

“Obviously that would be a serious mistake…at least until we find out as much information we have,” McCain said during an appearance on “Imus in the Morning” when asked whether the suspect, 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan.

“Don’t give this guy his Miranda rights until we find out what it’s all about,” McCain added.

Oh right, I forgot, McCain threw out any principles he might have once held to win the Republican primary in Arizona. My bad. It’s a good thing McCain isn’t a cop because I imagine it would be pretty difficult to convict this guy, let alone seek the death penalty, because Detective John McCain decided that he didn’t need to read his suspect his Miranda rights.

Anyone else want to chime in?

Rep. Peter King (N.Y.), the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, wants to know whether the Justice Department consulted with the intelligence community before they decided to hold his trial in civilian court.
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“I hope that [Attorney General Eric] Holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen but still,” King told POLITICO.

“I know he’s an American citizen, but still.” Oh yeah, I think I remember that part of the Constitution from 8th grade civics class. It’s in the preamble, right? Let’s see: justice, domestic tranquility, common defense, general welfare, liberty, posterity… nope, nothing there about “except when we don’t like the guy in which case none of the following counts.”

My God, even Glenn Beck gets that we can’t just throw out the Fifth Amendment because it inconveniences us, even if it might be a popular thing to do. The man who allegedly stuffed his car full of explosives and drove it into the middle of Manhattan must be accorded all of the rights to which he, as an American, is entitled. Our justice system can’t work any other way.

New York City authorities say they found a potentially powerful bomb in a vehicle in Times Square late Saturday. Swift action by police and city residents averted what could have been a deadly car bombing attack.
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Officials say investigators evacuated Times Square and removed propane tanks, gas containers, commercial-grade fireworks and timing devices from the vehicle.

Speaking at a news conference early Sunday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said if it were not for the swift action of police and city residents, the outcome could have been much worse.

“Let me say that we are very lucky thanks to alert New Yorkers and professional police officers we have avoided what could have been a very deadly event,” he said.

Mayor Bloomberg says the explosive device could have detonated and caused a large fire, but he called the device “amateurish.”

So let’s give this guy a medal and be thankful that the worst possible scenario for New York City didn’t happen last night.

I don’t know how long it’s been since the last time I used a floppy disk, but apparently Sony’s still been making them this whole time. And selling them, to the tune of 12 million disks sold in Japan last year! But I guess it’s far enough into the 21st century for Sony to finally discontinue the floppy disk. Good luck finding somewhere else to put 1.44 MB of files!

Oh, and while we’re nostalg-ing, this:

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A damaged BP Plc oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is leaking as many as 5,000 barrels of crude a day, five times more than previous estimates as the oil slick drifted the closest yet to shore, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

BP and federal officials have identified a third leak from the well and related piping, said Erik Swanson, a Coast Guard spokesman. The edge of the spill was 16 miles (26 kilometers) from Louisiana at 8 p.m. local time yesterday, David Mosley, a spokesman for the spill response command, said this morning.

At that rate of leakage, by the third week in June it will exceed the 260,000 barrels the Exxon Valdez spilled in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989. BP has been unable to shut valves at the top of the well and said a permanent seal may take three months. It plans to begin drilling another well to stop the leak as early as tomorrow.

“If they don’t get that well capped soon, this is potentially a Valdez,” Robert Shipp, chairman of the department of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama said in an interview. Alaska’s habitat, which has productive fisheries, “doesn’t compare with the tourist and the beach economies of the five Gulf states.”

Maybe this will be a much-needed wake up call that we need to break our dependence on all fossil fuels, not just foreign oil. Instead of climate change legislation with giveaways to the fossil fuel industry, progressives should be pushing Congress to create more incentives for developing alternative energy sources.

A couple days ago, my university—whose board of trustees includes two coal company CEOs—hosted The Great Coal Debate between Fred Palmer, VP of Government Relations for Peabody Energy, and Bruce Nilles, who runs the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign. I’ve heard presentations before from Palmer and others in his industry about how reliance on “clean coal” is the only possible solution for American energy needs. This time, Palmer even went so far to suggest that American energy issues were “parochial” and that only what China and India do for electricity matters. (Maybe Palmer is suggesting that the United States can no longer be a leader on energy issues? I’m not sure.)

What Palmer and company repeatedly fail to mention is that “clean coal” technologies, regardless of whether or not they work, are still in development. Their attitude seems to be that the United States should only invest in “clean coal” to the exclusion of any other energy technology—and that makes sense, if you’re a person whose paycheck depends on how much coal comes out of the ground. But whether or not “clean coal” actually exists (and I don’t believe it does), there’s no reason why policymakers have to take alternative energy off the table in order to satisfy the coal industry.

If we learn anything from this disaster, it should be that the old ways of generating electricity just aren’t going to work anymore. We need newer, cleaner alternatives not jsut for our planet, but for ourselves as well.

Just out of curiosity, has any foreign government ever warned its citizens to avoid traveling to a specific part of the United States for fear that they will be summarily thrown in jail? Arizonans should be ashamed that their legislature and governor have brought our entire country to this point.

I think we should catch ’em, we should document ’em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going. I actually support micro-chipping them. I can micro-chip my dog so I can find it. Why can’t I micro-chip an illegal?

—Iowa GOP Congressional candidate Pat Bertroche.

Because they’re huge fans of it.

This has been yet another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

Arizona’s draconian new immigration law is an abomination — racist, arbitrary, oppressive, mean-spirited, unjust. About the only hopeful thing that can be said is that the legislation, which Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed Friday, goes so outrageously far that it may well be unconstitutional.

—WaPo columnist Eugene Robinson, on Arizona’s new Driving While Brown law.

On Sunday, Revolutionmuslim.com posted an entry that included a warning to South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone that they risk violent retribution– after the 200th episode last week included a satirical discussion about whether an image of the prophet could be shown. In the end, he is portrayed disguised in a bear suit.

The posting on Revolutionmuslim.com says: “We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”

Theo van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered by an Islamic extremist in 2004 after making a short documentary on violence against women in some Islamic societies. The posting on Revolutionmuslim.com features a graphic photograph of Van Gogh with his throat cut and a dagger in his chest.

different from this:

After Tarleton State University received a “staggering” number of threatening calls and e-mails, a drama professor canceled a class assignment for Saturday morning that included the staging of a portion of the controversial play Corpus Christi.
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In an interview later, assistant professor Mark Holtorf said: “We received so many threatening calls and e-mails today across campus, the numbers were staggering. One administrator received in excess of 800 e-mails.

“Our department received calls of a threatening nature. I could not guarantee the safety of my students. The administration was truly behind the academic exercise, but I could not justify the safety risk.”

Of four student directing projects, only Corpus Christi sparked vociferous protests, mostly for its subject matter. The one-act 1997 play by Terrence McNally is set in Texas in the 1960s and is about gay teenagers and intolerance. The main character, whose life parallels the life of Jesus, is gay and during the play marries two male disciples. The timing of the production on Palm Sunday weekend was also criticized.

Seriously, if anyone can give me an explanation for why one of these went virtually unnoticed and the other one sparked “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” that isn’t what I wrote in the headline (or some variation of “teh Muslins is turrible”), I’d love to hear it. Because it seems like while we may have no qualms about mocking Islam, we’re still living in fear of our own American Taliban.

• Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is insistent that Charlie Crist stay in Florida’s Republican primary, a primary which Crist is definitely going to lose. Why is Mitch McConnell so racist to orange-skinned people? (Fox News)
• Oh hey, looks like Goldman Sachs knew that they were destroying the housing market and American and global economies but totally did not care because they were also making a shit-ton of money. Woooo capitalism! (MarketWatch)
• President Obama promised to improve mine safety in his eulogy for the 29 miners killed in West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch Mine. Might I suggest starting with mine owner Massey Energy’s reckless disregard for mine safety standards? (Christian Science Monitory/BusinessInsider)
• Spanish doctors claim to have successfully completed the world’s first full-face transplant. Woohoo, faces for everyone! (BBC)
• Surprise! Looks like dark-skinned people in Arizona are not thrilled with the state’s new law which would require police to racially profile them. Who could have predicted? (CNN)

U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth is critical of the so-called “birther bill” that cleared the Arizona House of Representatives last week because it doesn’t go far enough.

Hayworth, who has cited the possibility of “identity theft” as a reason to want to see President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, said the Arizona measure is “too narrowly drawn” because it would force only presidential candidates to produce evidence of their citizenship and other qualifications. Hayworth is a former GOP congressman and radio talk-show host who is challenging incumbent Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the Aug. 24 primary.

Of course, only federal law can set requirements for federal office, but I’m sure that won’t stop Hayworth’s friends in the Arizona legislature from continuing to waste their time and taxpayer money on… whatever it is they’re doing here. (Maybe they think that if they just shout for long enough that all of the sudden President Obama will get up and say, “You got me, I really am from Kenya?”)

Anyway, I’m sure Hayworth’s only pushing this wasteful example of government intrusion because he loves the Constitution and hates big government so much. Maybe Hayworth ought to focused on more important things.

Like stemming the tide of lawsuits that are coming thanks to Arizona’s new Driving While Brown law.

Yes, yes, yes, among many other possible examples.

This has been yet another edition of “Simple Answers to Simple Questions.”

Holy crap, look at how awesome your new $100 bill is! It’s all bendy and colorful, with Ben Franklin’s “you do not want to fuck with me” expression all over the place. It’s got a shiny liberty bell and numbers, and don’t forget the “3-D security ribbon.” 3-D! How many goddamn dimensions does your money have, Europe? USA! USA!

Your government can afford to print this new fancy money because, let’s me honest, none of us are ever going to have a whole hundred dollars, ever.

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MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

SUBJECT: Respecting the Rights of Hospital Patients to Receive Visitors and to Designate Surrogate Decision Makers for Medical Emergencies

There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean — a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them.

Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides — whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives — unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.

For all of these Americans, the failure to have their wishes respected concerning who may visit them or make medical decisions on their behalf has real onsequences. It means that doctors and nurses do not always have the best information about patients’ medications and medical histories and that friends and certain family members are unable to serve as intermediaries to help communicate patients’ needs. It means that a stressful and at times terrifying experience for patients is senselessly compounded by indignity and unfairness. And it means that all too often, people are made to suffer or even to pass away alone, denied the comfort of companionship in their final moments while a loved one is left worrying and pacing down the hall.
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By this memorandum, I request that you take the following steps:

1. Initiate appropriate rulemaking, pursuant to your authority under 42 U.S.C. 1395x and other relevant provisions of law, to ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors. It should be made clear that designated visitors, including individuals designated by legally valid advance directives (such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies), should enjoy visitation privileges that are no more restrictive than those that immediate family members enjoy. You should also provide that participating hospitals may not deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The rulemaking should take into account the need for hospitals to restrict visitation in medically appropriate circumstances as well as the clinical decisions that medical professionals make about a patient’s care or treatment.

I wonder who will be the first wingnut to scream bloody murder about this new rule, the purpose of which is, among other reasons, to allow nuns to visit their sisters in the hospital.

Here’s the thing: I do not support the teabaggers or the NRA. Happy to take their money, but don’t take that to mean that I agree with them.

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I am not running for the US Senate because I am an adult entertainment star. I am not running for the US Senate for the same reason that so many dedicated patriots do not run–I can’t afford it.

—Stormy Daniels, announcing that she will not run against “family values” hypocrite Sen. David Vitter (R-LA).

A federal judge Tuesday ordered a rural county in southwestern Mississippi to stop segregating its schools by grouping African American students into all-black classrooms and allowing white students to transfer to the county’s only majority-white school, the U.S. Justice Department announced.

The order, issued by Senior Judge Tom S. Lee of the U.S. District Court of Southern Mississippi, came after Justice Department civil rights division lawyers moved to enforce a 1970 desegregation case against the state and Walthall County.
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For years, the local school board has permitted hundreds of white students to transfer from its Tylertown schools, which are about 75 percent African American and serve about 1,700 students, to another school, the Salem Attendance Center, which is about 66 percent white and serves about 577 students in grades K-12. The schools are about 10 miles apart.

Salem became “a racially identifiable white school while the student enrollment of the Tylertown schools has become predominantly black” because of the transfers, U.S. officials alleged in December, based on data from the 2007-08 school year, according to Lee’s order.

At the same time in Tylertown four K-12 schools, “District administrators group, or ‘cluster,’ disproportionate numbers of white students into designated classrooms . . . resulting in significant numbers of segregated, all-black classrooms at each grade level,” the judge wrote, summarizing the Justice Department lawyers’ case.

But, you know, black president, just playing the race card, no video evidence of racism, etc., etc.

Of course, this would require to Tea Party News Network to show some common sense.

• Now, all of a sudden, the momentum is with the Republicans. And that’s — thank God — that’s the way people have spoken, you know?

But he’s with us on everything except the war, right?