Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Big oil influence

What Would U.S. History Look Like If It Were Written By Texas and Arizona?

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkuOOO6DCPPzaDIFzyMRJfKTzlqKIThaT1slP2g1UubEOhWrMuDnDPfrfJU5fcUbUvGX0yG9tH0_oNYr6f_LgWkrZRa1ablAvftZKaPSAwtogkZfqeaHALF3MOFSGuvDiSvyo4xIJra5t3/s1600-r/updatedsplashmarqueeeveninobama.gif

History is one part truth. History is also one part fable. It is a site of political contestation and struggle. As the state of Arizona (with its rules banning "Ethnic Studies") and the state of Texas (reimaging its U.S. history curriculum to conform with the Tea Party and Christian Nationalist perspective) have both embraced a more "conservative" view of history, it only seems fair and reasonable to take their efforts at face value. Theirs is not an assault on academic freedom. No, it is an effort to diversify and make more inclusive and "American" the curriculum taught to our children.

Many, on both sides of the political divide, have treated these new guidelines with much derision and complaint. I suggest that the best way to understand the teaching of history as imagined by this brave new world is to work through the reality it offers. To that end, I present U.S. history as outlined in the politically correct guidelines offered by Arizona and Texas. Sometimes the old is indeed the new…welcome my friends to Tea Party U.S.A.

The Essential Dates and Events of U.S. History as Approved by the States of Arizona and Texas

1607– Jamestown founded. Capitalism, which can trace its roots to the Bible, is now firmly rooted in the New World.

1660-1800Triangular Atlantic trade continues to bring wealth and prosperity to America while giving opportunities to new immigrants.

1776–War for Independence against the tyrannical, evil British empire. Colonists suffer oppression that is unprecedented in human history. Minutemen singlehandedly defeat the evil British Empire in 1783.

1788–The United States Constitution is signed as a document to stand for all time, inspired by God, and never to be changed.

1803-1848
–America continues to expand westward into empty territories. American settlers make the land bloom with the help of friendly Indian tribes.

1823–America guarantees the freedom of all countries and people in the Western Hemisphere with the adoption of the Monroe Doctrine.

1848–Mexico, in an act of friendship following their humiliation at the Alamo by the great Republic of Texas, gives their territories to the United States.

1860s-1900s–The Gilded Age of prosperity. American capitalism provides opportunities for all people to grow wealthy, secure, and happy. Liberals and Progressives begin working against American freedom and capitalism by forming unions, demanding unfair compensation from their employers, limiting the rights of children to work in factories, and imposing restrictive regulations for the "safety" of employees. Many brave men die fighting Communist influenced unions as they riot in America's cities.

1861-1865–Civil War fought because of an overreaching, tyrannical federal government and its desire to limit the freedoms of all Americans. 620,000 people die including many brave and noble black Americans who fought on the side of the Confederacy. Northerners and Southerners eventually find common ground through Redemption and move forward as brothers and sisters in the USA.

1865-1870s–Democratic terrorists called the Ku Klux Klan begin a reign of terror in the South until brave Republicans defeat them.

1906
–Using the Antiquities Act, Theodore Roosevelt establishes the National Park System. In one bold stroke Roosevelt establishes Socialist policies that steal land from the American people.

1913–More Socialism and class warfare ushered into the U.S. with the federal income tax system.

1917–America enters and wins World War 1 singlehandedly because the French are cowards.

1929–Great Depression begins. Tens of millions unemployed because of FDR's failed economic policies. His New Deal introduces the nanny state, prolongs America's economic collapse, and weakens the economy until Ronald Reagan renews America.

1941–Patriotic Japanese Americans volunteer to place themselves in gated communities so that America will be safe from Imperial Japan.

1941-1945–America enters and wins World War 2 singlehandedly because the French are cowards. Out of necessity, the United States drops atomic bombs on Japan.

1945-1965–A high point in U.S. history, as freedom and prosperity reign over all Americans.

1950–Senator Joseph McCarthy fearlessly highlights how America is infiltrated by communists from Russia and China. Big Hollywood and the liberal establishment are brought to their knees by his brave efforts.

1954–Brown v. Board of Education removes the parental right to send children to the schools of their choice and with the company they desire. A dangerous and unconstitutional era of activist Supreme Court decisions begins.

1955-1968–George Wallace and Martin Luther King Jr. lead a Civil Rights Movement to ensure that all Americans are judged by "the content of their character and not the color of their skin."

1964-Barry Goldwater ignites a revolution in Conservative thought and values that resonates to the 21st century.

1968–The cinematic classic The Green Berets starring John Wayne, America's greatest actor, debuts.

1971–America largely withdraws from Vietnam on the cusp of victory because it was weakened by The Gays, The Women's Movement, and "The Counter-culture." The French are cowards whose failure forced the U.S. to intervene in Indochina.

1973–Roe vs. Wade, the worst legal decision in the history of the Supreme Court is decided.

1974-Phyllis Schlafly, pioneer for the rights of women, takes a stand against evil Leftist feminists who want to ban motherhood, force mothers to work at jobs outside the home, join the military, become lesbians, and receive advanced educations which they do not need.

1974Nixon forced to resign by liberal conspiracy.

http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-would-us-history-look-like-if-it_18.html

Below the Radar: HUD is Trying to Privatize and Mortgage Off All of America’s Public Housing

by GEORGE LAKOFF

The Obama Administration's move to the right is about to give conservatives a victory they could not have anticipated, even under Bush. HUD, under Obama, submitted legislation called PETRA to Congress that would result in the privatization of all public housing in America.

The new owners would charge ten percent above market rates to impoverished tenants, money that would be mostly paid by the US government (you and me, the taxpayers). To maintain the property, the new owners would take out a mortgage for building repair and maintenance (like a home equity loan), with no cap on interest rates.

With rents set above market rates, the mortgage risk would be attractive to banks. Either they make a huge profit on the mortgages paid for by the government. Or if the government lowers what it will pay for rents, the property goes into foreclosure. The banks get it and can sell it off to developers.

Sooner or later, the housing budget will be cut back and such foreclosures will happen. The structure of the proposal and the realities of Washington make it a virtual certainty.

The banks and developers make a fortune, with the taxpayers paying for it. The public loses its public housing property. The impoverished tenants lose their apartments, or have their rents go way up if they are forced into the private market. Homelessness increases. Government gets smaller. The banks and developers win. It is a Bank Bonanza! The poor and the public lose.

And a precedent is set. The government can privatize any public property: Schools, libraries, national parks, federal buildings — just as has begun to happen in California, where the right-wing governor has started to auction off state property and has even suggested selling off the Supreme Court building.

The rich will get richer, the poor and public get poorer. And the very idea of the public good withers.

This is central to the conservative dream, in which there is no public good — only private goods. And it is a nightmare for democracy.

http://blog.buzzflash.com//contributors/3216

20 Worst Drinks in America 2010

Over the past 50 years or so, we Americans have developed a severe drinking problem.
 
We stopped making our own iced teas and lemonades (recipe: water, lemon, sugar) and started buying them in bottles or mixes, with ingredients like "high-fructose corn syrup" and "ascorbic acid" on the labels. We stopped thinking of a soda as a treat - akin to an ice cream or a candy bar - and started seeing it as the equivalent of a glass of water, drinking two, three, four, or more a day. (The average American now drinks about a gallon of soda a week!) Then we stopped drinking water out of the tap and started demanding that it be artificially flavored and put into bottled with the words "vitamin" or "energy" stamped on their labels. And, in just the last decade or so, many of us stopped brewing our own coffee and started buying things with vaguely European names, like "mocha latte," or swapped out coffee altogether for something called "energy drinks," which taste exactly like what would happen if a crazed pastry chef hijacked a truckload of Smarties and drove it into a battery acid factory. And the result of all this beverage evolution is that, today, walking into a convenience store or a beverage distributorship has become dangerous to our health.

America's supermarket aisles and drive-thru menus are awash in empty liquid calories. We've updated our list of worst offenders. Survive the rising tide by eliminating these, the country's most damaging drinkables, from your beverage regiment.

20. Worst Water

Snapple Agave Melon Antioxidant Water (1 bottle, 20 fl oz)

150 calories
0 g fat
33 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 2 Good Humor Chocolate Éclair Bars
 
While "Worst Water" may sound like an oxymoron, the devious minds in the bottled beverage industry have even found a way to besmirch the sterling reputation of the world's most essential compound. Sure, you may get a few extra vitamins, but ultimately, you're paying a premium price for gussied-up sugar water. Next time you buy a bottle of water, check the recipe: You want two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen, and very little else.

Drink This Instead!

Smartwater

0 calories

 

 

19. Worst Bottled Tea

SoBe Green Tea (1 bottle, 20 fl oz)

240 calories
0 g fat
61 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 4 slices Sara Lee Cherry Pie
Leave it to SoBe to take an otherwise healthy bottle of tea and inject it with enough sugar to turn it into dessert. The Pepsi-owned company's flagship line, composed of 11 flavors with names like "Nirvana" and "Cranberry Grapefruit Elixir," is marketed to give consumers the impression that it can cleanse the body, mind, and spirit. Don't be fooled. Just like this bottle of green tea, all of these beverages are made with two primary ingredients: water and sugar.

Drink This Instead!

Honest Tea Green Dragon Tea (1 bottle, 16 fl oz)

60 calories
0 g fat
16 g sugars

 

 

18. Worst Energy Drink

Rockstar Energy Drink (1 can, 16 fl oz)

280 calories
0 g fat
62 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 6 Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Doughnuts
 
None of the energy provided by these full-sugar drinks could ever justify the caloric load, but Rockstar's take is especially frightening. One can provides nearly as much sugar as half a box of Nilla Wafers. In fact, it has 60 more calories than the same amount of Red Bull and 80 more than a can of Monster. If you're going to guzzle, better choose one of the low-cal options. We like Monster; it offers all the caffeine and B vitamins with just enough sugar to cut through the funky extracts.

Drink This Instead!

Monster Lo-Carb (1 can, 16 fl oz)

20 calories
0 g fat
6 g sugars

17. Worst Bottled Coffee

Starbucks Vanilla Frappuccino (1 bottle, 13.7 fl oz)

290 calories
4.5 g fat (2.5 g saturated)
45 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 32 Nilla Wafers
 
With an unreasonable number of calorie landmines peppered across Starbucks' in-store menu, you'd think the company would want to use its grocery line to restore faith in its ability to provide caffeine without testing the limits of your belt buckle. Guess not. This drink has been on our radar for years, and we still haven't managed to find a bottled coffee with more sugar. Consider this—along with Starbucks' miniature Espresso and Cream Doubleshot—your worst option for a morning pickup.

Drink This Instead!

Illy Issimo Caffè (1 can, 6.8 fl oz)

50 calories
0 g fat
11 g sugars

 

 

http://eatthis.menshealth.com/slideshow/20-worst-drinks-america-2010

VA Docs Prohibited From Discussing Medical Marijuana With Returning Vets

The U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) recently adopted a policy prohibiting VA physicians from recommending medical marijuana to their patients, even if marijuana is the safest and most effective medicine to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other service-related conditions.

No doubt the policy stems, in part, from the VA's efforts to address the serious problem of drug abuse among returning veterans. Veterans' advocates and organizations like the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) certainly share this concern; last fall, DPA issued a report calling for immediate policy changes to improve veterans' substance abuse and mental health treatment.

Yet seen from the larger perspective of helping veterans adjust to civilian life, the VA's stance on medical marijuana is counterproductive and harmful. The ban means that--despite their service to our country--veterans who reside in the 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana are denied the same rights as every other resident of these states.

At minimum, the VA should be actively studying whether cannabis and its unique chemical ingredients can be used to reduce post-combat trauma without contributing to drug dependency. Ample research and anecdote strongly suggest this is the case.

Patient reports and published research indicate that marijuana can be a highly effective treatment for PTSD, a condition afflicting nearly one in five veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And overwhelming scientific evidence has already proven marijuana's safety and efficacy for treating conditions like chronic pain, which affects many combat-injured veterans.

Marijuana, moreover, carries none of the risks associated with prescription drugs used to treat PTSD, which have been implicated in the tragic overdose deaths of several current conflict veterans.

"I've run the gamut of different medications at the VA, and basically I was at my limit," said decorated U.S. Army veteran Paul Culkin, a New Mexico medical marijuana patient who suffers from PTSD after serving in Iraq. "The medications were turning me into a zombie...medical cannabis made me a father and a husband again. It's been a blessing."

Disappointingly, however, it seems the VA's policy is not just about preventing substance abuse among veterans. The VA claims the ban is primarily a response to threats from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to prosecute VA doctors for recommending medical marijuana, or for completing forms necessary for their patients to enroll in a state medical marijuana program--even though to do so would not constitute a criminal offense. Civilian doctors recommending marijuana to their patients have not been arrested or threatened with arrest.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-kerrey/va-docs-prohibited-from-d_b_587763.html

'Prince of Pot' pleads guilty to federal charge

CNN Justice

By Emanuella Grinberg
After years of legal wrangling, "prince of pot" Marc Emery is pleading guilty to a U.S. distribution conspiracy charge.
After years of legal wrangling, "prince of pot" Marc Emery is pleading guilty to a U.S. distribution conspiracy charge.
 
(CNN) -- A man known as Canada's "prince of pot" pleaded guilty Monday in a deal with prosecutors that could send him to prison in the United States for five years.

Marijuana activist Marc Emery pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington, to a single count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana following an 18-month investigation into the seed-selling business Emery operated from his head shop in Vancouver, British Columbia.

U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez scheduled Emery's sentencing August 27. At that time, the judge has the choice of accepting or rejecting the plea agreement, said Emery's Seattle-based attorney, Richard Troberman.

"Based on comments the court has made. I have every reason to believe he will follow the plea agreement," Troberman told CNN.

Emery, 52, was brought to the United States last week. Canada's justice minister signed an extradition order May 10 that left the outspoken libertarian with little choice after years of fighting extradition.

"Marc has never been afraid to face the music," said Emery's wife, Jodie. "He's spent most of his life breaking laws he considers unjust to demonstrate they're unjust. He'll go to jail to prove how absurd our drug laws are."

The plea comes nearly five years after Emery was arrested in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he says he was the guest speaker at the Maritimers Unite for Medical Marijuana festival. He was accused of selling marijuana seeds to customers in the United States.

The same day, Emery wrote on his website, DEA agents raided his head shop in downtown Vancouver, where he sold bongs, pipes and books. He also produced the magazine Cannabis Culture and ran an Internet portal, Pot-TV.

The head shop was the headquarters of Emery Direct Seeds, the target of the DEA's 18-month undercover investigation. During the investigation, according to court documents, agents bought seeds from Emery's business over the internet and in person.

Investigators also traced his product to illegal growing operations in several states, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a July 2005 news release.

A statement issued by the DEA in 2005 after Emery's arrest suggested that he was targeted for his activism, with DEA Administrator Karen Tandy touting his capture as a "significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the United States and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement."

Tandy described Emery as one of 46 of the U.S. attorney general's most wanted international drug traffickers and the only one from Canada, with his "marijuana trade and propagandist marijuana magazine" generating nearly $5 million in profits.

Emery and two of his employees were each charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds and conspiracy to lauder money, charges that carry penalties of 10 years to life in prison. After years of legal wrangling with Canadian and U.S. authorities, Emery reached the plea deal on the lesser charge, Troberman said.

Co-defendants Gregory Williams and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek entered pleas this year to lesser offenses and were placed on probation in Canada, according to court documents. They were never brought to the United States.

Tandy stepped down as DEA administrator in 2007, and U.S. authorities seem to have backed down from her 2005 hard-line stance. The news release can no longer be found on the Department of Justice website, and the DEA referred calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle.

"This prosecution has to do with his criminal activities and has nothing to do with his political activism," said Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Langlie added that she could not comment on the 2005 DEA statement.

Emery summed up his raison d'etre in a lengthy article published in Cannabis Culture and online after his arrest. He described his thoughts at the moment he was handcuffed: "Every seed sold, all the millions of dollars I had given to the cause, every speech to free our people, every arrest, jailing and raid I had endured: it was all for this moment in time."

iReport: "Prince of Pot" speaks

Much like in the United States, distribution and trafficking carry heavier punishments: a maximum of seven years for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for conspiracy to traffic in marijuana, according to a spokeswoman for Department of Justice Canada.

In practice, Canadian judges rarely mete out sentences longer than two years plus fines, based on a policy of judicial guidance that calls for incarceration as the last resort, according to several criminal defense lawyers and drug policy experts.

"Sentences typically don't reach the mandatory minimums that are in place in U.S. federal system," Vancouver defense lawyer Kirk Tousaw said. He is Emery's legal counsel in Canada, a contributor to his magazine and attorney for his co-defendants.

Extradition to the United States, however, is commonplace in cases of Canadians accused of selling or smuggling drugs in the United States, said Troberman, Emery's Seattle-based attorney. He has represented many Canadians in the United States.

"The only thing that makes this case somewhat unusual is that Marc was very visible and open about everything he did, and the Canadians had no interest in prosecuting him," Troberman said. "It was the U.S. who stepped in and put pressure on Canada."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/24/washington.emery.pot.plea/index.html?iref=allsearch

'Shame on you, democracy,' Vanunu yells as he returns to prison

 

After having served 18 years for leaking Israeli nuclear secrets, Mordechai Vanunu begins serving additional 3 months for violating terms of his parole.

By Nir Hasson

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai VanunuNuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, released in 2004 after 18 years in prison for leaking Israeli nuclear secrets, began serving an additional 3-month sentence on Sunday for refusing to carry out court-mandated community service.

I survived 18 years - I could survive another six," Vanunu called out outside the Jerusalem District Court. "Are you trying to discipline me? You cannot take my freedom of expression away"

"Freedom is freedom. You won't get from me in three months what you didn't get in 18 years," he added.

He warned that the Shin Bet security service "controls the prisons" and that they will try to torture him psychologically, the same way they did the last time he was incarcerated.

"Shame on you Israel," he continued. "The stupid Shin Bet and Mossad spies are putting me back in prison after 24 years of speaking nothing but the truth. Shame on you democracy, the Knesset, synagogues and the world media. Shame on you all the Arabs that are allowing me to be put back in prison. Shame on you Senate, congress, and the chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency for not protecting my freedom. Shame on you all the world's religions, the stupid spies, the Jews, Christians and Muslims.

"Everyone knows that Israel has nuclear weapons," he went on to say, "but no one is talking about it… The world doesn't want nuclear weapons – not in Israel, not in the Middle East and not anywhere in the world."

A panel of High Court Judges returned the 56-year-old Moroccan-born Israeli to jail after he failed to fulfill a community service order, punishment for breaching his parole terms by contacting foreigners without authorization.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/shame-on-you-democracy-vanunu-yells-as-he-returns-to-prison-1.291687

After keeping us waiting for a century, Mark Twain will finally reveal all

The great American writer left instructions not to publish his autobiography until 100 years after his death, which is now

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles

Mark Twain, pictured around the turn of the 20th century, created such loved characters as Huckleberry Finn and Tom SawyerExactly a century after rumours of his death turned out to be entirely accurate, one of Mark Twain's dying wishes is at last coming true: an extensive, outspoken and revelatory autobiography which he devoted the last decade of his life to writing is finally going to be published.

The creator of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and some of the most frequently misquoted catchphrases in the English language left behind 5,000 unedited pages of memoirs when he died in 1910, together with handwritten notes saying that he did not want them to hit bookshops for at least a century.

That milestone has now been reached, and in November the University of California, Berkeley, where the manuscript is in a vault, will release the first volume of Mark Twain's autobiography. The eventual trilogy will run to half a million words, and shed new light on the quintessentially American novelist.

Scholars are divided as to why Twain wanted the first-hand account of his life kept under wraps for so long. Some believe it was because he wanted to talk freely about issues such as religion and politics. Others argue that the time lag prevented him from having to worry about offending friends.

One thing's for sure: by delaying publication, the author, who was fond of his celebrity status, has ensured that he'll be gossiped about during the 21st century.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/after-keeping-us-waiting-for-a-century-mark-twain-will-finally-reveal-all-1980695.html

How Bush's DOJ Killed a Criminal Probe Into BP That Threatened to Net Top Officials

logo

by Jason Leopold

photo

Mention the name of the corporation BP to Scott West and two words immediately come to mind: Beyond Prosecution.

West was the special agent-in-charge at the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Criminal Investigation Division who had been probing alleged crimes committed by BP and the company's senior officials in connection with a March 2006 pipeline rupture at the company's Prudhoe Bay operations on Alaska's North Slope that spilled more than 200,000 gallons of oil across two acres of frozen tundra - the second largest spill in Alaska's history - which went undetected for nearly a week.

West was confident that the thousands of hours he invested into the criminal investigation would result in felony charges against BP and the company's senior executives who received advanced warnings from dozens of employees who worked at its Prudhoe Bay facility that unless immediate steps were taken to repair the severely corroded pipeline, a disaster on par with that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill was only a matter of time.

Click here to listen to Scott West discuss this report on Democracy Now!

In fact, West, who spent nearly two decades at the EPA's criminal division, was also told the pipeline was going to rupture - about six months before it happened.

In a wide-ranging interview with Truthout, West described how the Justice Department (DOJ) abruptly shut down his investigation into BP in August 2007 and gave the company a "slap on the wrist" for what he says were serious environmental crimes that should have sent some BP executives to jail.

He first aired his frustrations after he retired from the agency in 2008. But he said his story is ripe for retelling because the same questions about BP's record are being raised again after a catastrophic explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers and ruptured an oil well 5,000 feet below the surface spewing 200,000 gallons of oil per day into the Gulf waters for a month.

The Watchdog

In the summer of 2005, West was transferred from San Francisco to the EPA's Seattle office and was introduced to Chuck Hamel, an oil industry watchdog, who is credited with exposing weak pollution laws at the Valdez tanker port in the 1980s prior to the Exxon Valdez spill and the electrical and maintenance problems associated with the trans-Alaska oil pipeline operated by BP.

Hamel had become the defacto spokesperson and protector of dozens of BP Exploration Alaska (BPXA) whistleblowers, who would routinely leak to him documents, pictures and inside information about the company's poor safety and maintenance record at its Prudhoe Bay operations.

Hamel also operated a now defunct web site, Anwrnews.com (the acronym for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), which became a clearing house for the whistleblowers' complaints and an archive showcasing, among other things, the letters Hamel had written to Congress, the White House and BP's top executives exposing the company's shoddy operations in the North Slope and demanding immediate action. The tagline on the archived version of Anwrnews.com says it was "established by and for the many concerned Prudhoe Bay BP operators who fear for their lives and the environment due to violations of Government regulations and requirements by BP."

The documents posted on the website show that BP's shoddy record on safety have been ongoing for more than a decade. [Please see this previous Truthout report: BP Accused of Violating Safety Regulations at US Refineries, Endangering Employees' Lives

One of the letters on Anwrnews.com is dated January 10, 2001. It was sent to Hamel by unnamed BP employees, who asked him to assist them in getting BP management to address their concerns because their repeated efforts to elicit a response had failed. They said they even reached out  to then-BP President Lord John Browne about "inadequate staffing levels" two years earlier, but never received a response.

"We were concerned about our recommendations being ignored and disregarded...We were concerned about BP's cost cutting efforts undermining our ability to respond to emergencies and reducing the reliability of critical safety systems. We were concerned about the lack of preventative maintenance on our equipment," the BP employees' letter said. "We had suffered a major fire, which burned a well pad module to the ground and nearly cost one of our operators his life.

"We had suffered two job fatalities and a third serious injury to personnel in the months before the letter was sent. In response to our concerns, Sir John's Management Team further reduced our staffing levels from six to four in the GC Plants and from seven to six on the Well Pads. Our four Plant Operators do the work that seven did in 1990.

"It is clear that BP Management has one priority and that is cost reduction ... Perhaps you may know some way of getting our concerns heard and addressed. If these concerns are not addressed, we feel that a major catastrophe is imminent. We have only our lives and our futures at risk here."

http://www.truthout.org/how-bushs-doj-killed-a-criminal-probe-into-bp-that-threatened-net-top-officials59648

The failure of plan M