Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Thad]

I think, at this point, we SHOULD proceed as if fracking were causing earthquakes, because that is the safest course to take.

That said, I stand by adding "allegedly"; a single correlational study is evidence, but it's not proof.

I think fracking probably is responsible for those tremors, but I'm not going to state it for a certainty yet.  In the meantime we've got other reasons to oppose it.

[Brentai]

You'd think the utter decimation of an entire area's small businesses would be of more concern among the right, especially in regards to how much they absolutely love that "first they came for the Jews" line of thinking.  Hey guys, they've already TAKEN hundreds of entrepeneurs along the coastline, to say nothing of the thousands of small businesses that were eaten alive by unregulated category killers.  Are you absolutely positive that you've got nothing the bigger fish will ever want?

[Thad]

You'd think the utter decimation of an entire area's small businesses would be of more concern among the right, especially in regards to how much they absolutely love that "first they came for the Jews" line of thinking.

Well, they love to pay LIP SERVICE to it.  In the same way they love to pay lip service to small business.

Not that the Dems are much better; Obama keeps tripping over himself to remind everyone that drilling has actually EXPANDED on his watch.

My dad once told me that any time a politician says he wants to help small business, you can safely replace it with "big business".  I've found it to be a pretty good rule of thumb.

[Brentai]

I meant the people on the right, not the politicians.  As far as I'm concerned each and every person in the current political system is an enemy of the people and their opinions only matter when the scales come out.

[Thad]

Ah.  Well, my best guess is that -- aside from the ones who actually live on the Gulf Coast -- they're not even aware of it, and are distracted by the red meat the politicians and Fox News are waving in front of them.

Anyhow, more: Investigation: Two Years After the BP Spill, A Hidden Health Crisis Festers.

I think this WOULD generate quite a lot of outrage if the MSM cared more about it than Hilary Rosen.

[Thad]

NPR's talking about it; maybe the TV media will follow suit.

The good news is that apparently it's not as bad as predicted.

The bad news is that of course that hands the Republicans their talking points.

[Thad]

Well, it took two years, but we got an arrest.  Specifically, a project engineer who deleted text messages about the spill.

Experts knew that if the oil was spilling out at the rate of 15,000 barrels per day or greater, Top Kill couldn't work, but BP publicly claimed the well was spilling 5,000 barrels per day.

Forensic experts apparently recovered a deleted text from Mix's iPhone from the first day of BP's Top Kill effort saying "Too much flowrate—over 15,000." The texts were allegedly deleted after Mix had been instructed to preserve documentation pertaining to the spill.

[Classic]

The best part about being an engineer is that you're high enough on the food chain and educated enough to be culpable, but low enough to be fucked over if you whistleblow or refuse the orders AND if you actually comply with shortsighted management bullshit from people who don't know better.

[Thad]

Yeah, there's a reason they're going with a mid-level guy, and it's much the same as why in the last decade the poster-child for white-collar crime was Martha Stewart.

Maybe he'll sing, though.

[Shinra]

BP is fined 4.5 billion dollars, the largest criminal fine issued by the US government in history.

Not nearly enough, but at least they got serious about it.

[Mongrel]

BP is fined 4.5 billion dollars, the largest criminal fine issued by the US government in history.

Not nearly enough, but at least they got serious about it.

Not mentioned here, but seen on this morning's TV news: Apparently the original BP estimate of 5,000 barrels per day (rather than the 62,000 BPD which was the actual quantity) came about because desperate BPS execs pulled the number being quoted on Wikipedia instead of actually, you know, sending science guys to check.