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David Anthony Kearns with video contributions by Stanley S. Morton, III

BP Oil spill in Gallons

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The We Agree Commercial

Nothing is more heinous than the Chevron "we agree" commercial, which if you watch, you assume the pair, one a Chevron engineer named Steve, and the other a teacher, are either dating or thinking about it.



But listen to what he is saying. She speaks and he shakes his head then sloughs off with the bland non-starter "renewable energy is vital to our planet."

She"you hear about alternative energy wind, solar algae..."

He: " I think it has to work on a big scale and I think it's got to be affordable (smirk? Did he smirk there? a little shrug thrown in? What?)"

She: " so, where are they?"

He "I think it has to work in the real world. We're investing millions in solar and biolfuel..."

(Did he say millions, wow, like how many? One or is it two million? Is it two whole million dollars? Is that, like, total or, what? Is that like how much in the last ten years? Like, two whole million? Wow, you can buy an apartment in Venice Beach for that. Gosh!)

"We agree"

Okay? But, what? What's the end result Steve? Goddamnit Steve? What? C'mon man! Tell me something!

Steve?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Support Rick Scott Watch by Liking it! RIGHT NOW!

Those who read this page know we're pretty passionate about it.

We want big oil stopped,: now. Big oil has dragged us into wars, and has fueled a runaway defense industry both of which are destroying us. Oil is destroying our Constitution which some of us claim to love. It is destroying our image abroad.

Aside example: I went to Ireland in 2007 - Ireland for Chrissakes! - and some folks were a bit stand offish with us because we were American. IRISH AMERICANS! Okay, Fucking Ireland!? They hate us in IRELAND now!? When you are hated by Irish people, who may be blood relatives for all you know, you know it's bad! Oh, there's a problem! Especially when some of them hate you more than they hate the British!

Rick Scott beamed into our political landscape as if sent to us here, in Florida, from Mars. He even looks like he's from another planet. He claims to have been a resident for the required seven years. Even harder to dispute than the President's birth certificate.

We all know the story, how he ran Colombia HCA; how that company was charged in one of the biggest Medicare fraud cases in fuh-hucking HISTORY! But, Rick managed to bail out before the S-house came tumbling down. He wasn't even indicted.




Feel better? Good. Now, continuing. Rick has shown himself to be all about two things, 1. Money, and 2. furthering the political aspirations of one Rick Scott.

We can safely predict he will ally himself with 1. Big Defense. 2. Big Oil 3. Big Medicine/Pharma/ Insurance and 4. Big corporate privatized corrections and security.

He is already set his sights on Washington D.C. , either a senate seat or the White House, and so he needs to start building his war chest now. And that means, boys and girls, he needs to begin making those decisions, that will make his face sweet like candy, to those corporate interests.

In short he will whore the resources of this state and deregulate its environment, in order to make that happen. I predict he will not care if he leaves ruin in his wake. Such people seldom do.

Why should you give a damn? Well, as we are finding out, all water in the Gulf is connected. Yes, and that water is also connected to all water in the Atlantic Ocean, and that water also impacts the wordwide current systems and the world's ecology... as we are finding out.

These people, and I am talking about Big Oil here, simply will not be happy until they have turned the Gulf of Mexico into their own private, black pool of filth, from which to extract oil. They don't view the Gulf as anything but resource to do precisely that.

Do you fish? F U! It isn't about that. It's about the oil.

Do you surf? Same answer.

How about kayaking? You get the drill.

Each state along the Gulf needs to whore itself in unison for their plans to work.

One of the reasons Charlie Crist was shown the door was his inability to sell Florida out to the Big Oil interests. Today he and former gubinatorial candidate Alex Sink are attempting to make an oil drilling ban part of the state's constitution.

Governor RILAB (Run it Like a Business) is already mush mouthing his waning support for such a measure, issuing caveats that drilling can be safe, and "we'll even use Solar" you know, that bullshit. As if solar were the impossible red headed stepchild.

By the way, I think we need to ask the Arnesans how they feel about drilling being safe? How about all the people who fish for shrimp, oysters, and so on around Louisiana? How do they feel about further assurances that drilling for oil offshore, especially in the deep offshore, is safe?

It is for these reasons we must unify. We must watch every damned thing Rick Scott does. These efforts are connected. It is for these reasons I need you to go to Rick Scott Watch and press "like" That's all I am asking you to do for the moment.

No one doing this loves Florida more than I do. No one who opposes Big Oil knows more about this state, its waters, and its environment, than I do. I have a degree in oceanography from Florida Tech. I spent my formative years diving in the keys, I surf at least twice a week and I was newspaper reporter for the better part of a decade. I also taught chemistry, oceanography and math to high school students and I hate what these damned budget cuts are also doing to education.

Please get me some fans. Start by being one yourself. The button is located in the top right corner of the page at the right labeled "Rick Scott Watch" It's right next to the eyeball.

Thank you.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Cheesy, Fake, "Oil Company going green" ads.

"We're on it! We swear we are! Oh, we're not? Well you can bet it's rrrrright around the corner. And you believe that, don't you?"

Solar/Alternative energy ideas and campaign promises go back as far as 1886


Nothing rounds out a democratic ticket campaign pledge like these two words together "clean" and "energy."

And nothing satisfies like feigned industry. That cheery commercial that sticks a pacifier in your mouth and tells you "go back to sleep, little one. It's okay, the oil companies mean you no harm. They're on it, solving the problems of tomorrow with clean energy.


Ah, and they're so sexy, these people quietly working "behind the scenes" to "make a brighter tomorrow." Damn! Can I work on her team?



Here's Phil Mikelson, working with Exxon Mobile to help little children learn more. If you watched this video you come to the conclusion that Exxon Mobile is really no different than the Peace Corps.


Here's an explanation of Peak Oil. You'll note the line graph regarding prices. THAT'S why we never hear serious talk about alternative energy.


No, what we hear is everything that makes sense is a myth. Strangely, those spouting this nonsense usually work with a large company either directly or indirectly tied in with the oil lobby. Why do we always listen to the congenitally insane? John Stossel, who has the mental capacity of your average Palmetto bug, delivers the good news in Howdy Doody cadence.


This is how bad the media debate gets.


And so it goes, children. And so it goes.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Claims Czar Ken Feinberg's metamorphosis

A Louisiana U.S. District Court judge ruled yesterday that Gulf Coast Claims Czar and attorney Ken Feinberg, gosh golly, can't really call himself impartial from BP since his firm is paid $850,000 a month for his services. Though the judge didn't order strong-arm tactics used to prevent future lawsuits, to stop.

Anyhoo, let's see if we can sense a change of tone in Mr. Feinberg take hold through time lapse YouTubery.

At the beginning.

President Obama: "administrated by AN IMPARTIAL and INDEPENDENT party."

"Ken Feinberg will run THE INDEPENDENT PROCESS!"


Ken Feinberg:

"I am serious about helping these people!!" (June)


"Expedite!"


Note: "Minimally corroborated ellegible claims will be paid promptly. Where we need to accelerate the process is business interruption....in a matter of days."

"I am determined to make sure the process is transparent"


"Come on in and file" Here on Aug. 24, is he beginning to morph?


NOTE the following quotes: "I think BP deserves a lot of credit."

"You've got to be elligible and you've got to document your claim."

"Things are rapidly improving. One thing I have to do is separate the damage and come up with a plan."

"I am grateful to BP for the work it did."

"I have been living down here."

"One can reasonably question the long-term impact..."

Remember the date of this video is Aug. 24. The well wouldn't be declared officially dead for another month. The "leak" hadn't stopped yet. And he his questioning whether there even is a long-term impact of all the oil." (hmmmmn?)

"How FAIR in principle the program is."

"Too many fraudulent claims"





"Gulf will recover by 2012 and here's a lump sum payout if you don't sue BP"

(Bloomberg VIDEO DISABLE FOR EMBEDDING.)


Ed Schultz/Mike Papantonio's take on it.


Release of the news that the Gulf will recover by 2012


Meanwhile, those seeking their claims say their claim forms have been lost four times, and they are now forced to eat their pets.



Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Open Letter to Julian Assange

You say you have documents pertaining to BP, other oil companies, and the American government. Then, nothing. Poof. You're gone. Not a peep follows.

You see, sometimes I really admire what you've done; I consider you downright heroic. Then at other times, I think maybe you're a bit of a poser. A little man with a toy gun.

Which are you?

The information you say belongs to the world? Then why do you withhold it, if indeed it truly exists? Don't wait. Don't mince. Let it go. We need that information. We need to shake it like a fist in the faces of our corrupt governments, worldwide.

You've said it yourself, no matter how you got it, it doesn't belong to you. You said it just before the camera flashed, when you looked so serious and humble. A few flashes on though, and we could see it was all getting to you. The cover of this magazine and that. All the sudden your a personality; a bit of avant garde humor like Andy Warhol. A little boy with a secret.

Seriously, man, you can't expect to prance around like a rock star and call yourself a great humanitarian as well, can you? You can't have it both ways. It doesn't work like that.

I'll give you an example of what I am talking about. Put Gandhi in your shoes. What would he do, or perhaps Martin Luther King Jr.? Let the scenario play a bit. Now picture them. Are they behaving as you are doing now? Are they preening for cameras when there is real and vital truth that needs to be shared, or are the quietly just doing it?

There's a BP on every corner in my town. Every day I go about my business surrounded by the offending green and yellow signs. They are everywhere now. Look, they've opened another even as I was boycotting. And here's another and another. Bloody monopoly is what they're building, while they're moaning about losing money, boo-hoo, to their oil spill.

I'm no different than the next guy in whatever town, in Australia, in the UK or in the United States. These oil companies are ubiquitous, and there's none more so than BP, a worldwide mega conglomerate. It's note even really British anymore, is it. It's become something more than that, something monstrous and ugly. More powerful than the British Raj ever was, populated in the upper realms by the worst sort of pencil pushers. Nothing heroic about steamrolling over "the little people" then feigning like you'll make them whole again. And it's not just here in the hated USA is it. They've moved on to your neck of the woods: Australia. How do you like them apples?

I'll level with you mate, I would really like to know what these guys are up to behind the scenes. You know what I mean?

This firm freaking OWNS my Pentagon, my congress people, my president, for Chrissakes. They OWN the war! They and others like them keep priming the pump and supplying the gas. Isn't this precisely what you're on about? The injustice and so on? Directly or indirectly these firms are killing our children, Australian, British, America, Iraqi... Killing us. They are polluting our collective environment, and they simply don't give a fuck, because they are rock stars too, baby.

They're the reason, along with all the other oil barons, the world hates my nation's everlasting guts. They're the reason why fossil fuels are always chosen as the way to go over a fledgling solar industry that, ah shucks, just never quite seems to get off the ground.

So don't trivialize what's happening. Release what you know, now. If you don't, God, or Karma, or whatever you want to call it will come knocking. And it will not be pleased.

No one saying you can't enjoy the ride you're on. Go for it. Live it up. Lap it up. Love it. But nothing excuses you from the duty of disseminating that information that just might change the world for the better. If indeed you really do have it.

Karma has placed you where you are today for a reason.

Don't screw it up. Tell us what you know.




BP Begins Paying Dividends AGAIN!!!

Wake up sleepy head!!

Day before yesterday we heard news that BP's fourth quarter net income was $5.6 billion, over $4.3 billion, same quarter, previous year, because of recent high prices for oil.

Big surprise here is that we are surprised at high oil prices as we approach the presidential election cycle again and a busy, soft recovery holiday season. (They are all gouging us to get their money back)

Thus, BP are making more money this year over last year, during the same time frame.

That news didn't sit well out there in opinion land.

So today we learn via gigantic splash "boo hoo" big bad BP had a net loss over the entire year of some $5 billion. Essentially the same number, different context. The unwary observer might not know what in hell to think. Which is rather the point of modern media, anyway, to generate a confusing shell game. Mission accomplished.

The net loss comes, according to CNN, after booking $41 billion in damages and reparations, expenses along the Gulf Coast due to their oil spill.

Boo hoo. Poor dears.

But CNN again fails to mention that the $20 billion escrow, part of the write down, is fungible just as their commodity is.

That means it is a set-aside in theory, on the books. But, it isn't an account that is filled, sitting there waiting for sums to be withdrawn from it. No. It is a "pledge" administrated by a paid employee Ken Feinberg who states that only half of this $20 billion - that being $10! - should suffice for total reparations to oil spill victims.

So, do these numbers really mean anything? Is BP, boo hoo, actually losing money?

Not likely. In fact, the loss on paper surely enables the oil giant to ask for an ungodly reduction in taxes all round.

And is BP hurting from all this?

Not nearly enough, apparently.

Witness the fact (and funny ole world, innit?) that BP has quietly begun paying dividends again. It made huge news months back that BP shareholders were still getting paid dividends - essentially bribed with gifts to stick around, or profiting from doom, depending on your point of view - for owning shares of the oil giant.

This didn't sit well with public opinion either and so, those payments stopped until the mess was sorted out. Well, with the release of the Boo Hoo news, there was the simultaneous, ever so quiet announcement that dividends would resume, albeit at only half the margin experienced by lucky shareholders before the oil spill.

Note that the $5 billion net loss isn't so great on paper as to disrupt BPs recent stock value appreciably. Just enough so some of us who are watching should feel some sense of relief that at the very least BP felt their own egregious negligence in the pocket book.

In my view, not nearly enough.

This company needs to be made an example of. A reduction of stock value of 0.3 percent on the news of a year to year loss, and a $41 billion write down, is little more than a speed bump.


What can we do? Urge everyone you know to STOP using BP gas stations. Shame them using whatever techniques you have at your disposal.

The rinky dink commission is apparently, all we the people are going to get in the form of justice for this oil spill. People have experienced massive health issues, their businesses have been wiped out, the environment has suffered and incalculable calamity.

The government officials who sold their positions haven't even been fired.

To date not one criminal charge has been filed, not even for negligence.

When Bob Graham says it's okay to open up drilling again in the Gulf of Mexico as long as the little chillins are good and the government "gosh golly" looks into ways of making things safe again, meanwhile people with legitimate claims are being ground down with innumerable hassle and paperwork, these are roadsigns that NOTHING IS BEING DONE.

The only legal weapon that remains is a boycott deterrence for other companies to learn from.