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THE IMPOSSIBLE COME-BACK OF RADIO FREE OZ

(The LA radio show that kick-started the '60's)

From an exclusive LA FREE PRESS interview with Bill McIntyre.

by Chili Mac

"Sure we got sponsors. Lots of companies want to sponsor Radio Free Oz. They're calling me! The problem is, can they take the comedy heat? Just because you're a sponsor doesn't mean that Peter Bergman won't make exquisite fun of you. That's what hip satire's all about. It's what got the Firesign Theatre fired off most of LA's finest rock stations – their integrity. When they see bullshit they destroy it with laughter. It's their thing. They can't help themselves. With Bergman and the Firesign nothing's sacred, not even themselves. I know. I was there. I saw the laugh-a-minute media carnage. And the good ole LAFreep was there every bazaar existential step of the way."

              Bill McIntyre was there. He produced the Firesign Theatre's two '70's national radio syndications DEAR FRIENDS and LET'S EAT. On one particular LA night, in March of 1972, he produced the National Surrealist Light People's Party convention to elect George Papoon for President. This staged put-on became the Firesign Theater album MARTIAN SPACE PARTY. AKA NOT INSANE!

McIntyre: This unknown guy who called himself George Papoon wore a brown paper bag over his head with two little round eye holes, campaigning for the presidency. The Firesign did a bit about him on a Dear Friends show and suddenly Papoon was popping up everywhere at once, all over the country, giving stump speeches for President with the brown bag over his head. The gag had caught on nationwide.  So, naturally, the Firesign had to host Papoon's national political convention at KPFK. Where else?"

              The convention and stage show was recorded live by Columbia Records for the album, filmed by Steve Gillmor, and networked live by McIntyre to Pacifica Stations from Portland to Houston. All this evolved out of Peter Bergman's Radio Free Oz broadcasts with the Firesign from KPFK six years before in 1966.

McIntyre: So, now, out of the blue, Pete calls me and asks if I want to produce Radio Free Oz. He's just moved up to an island on Puget Sound where Ossman and Austin are residing. And, he's found a pier with a funky FM radio station on it .  'It's time for Oz again Mac – it's time'. 

              On Radio Free Oz, Bergman gave voice to the closeted LA Beats and Hipsters and budding Sunset Strip Hippies turning on to Pot and LSD; while he turned them on to San Francisco Rock, Delta Blues, Jazz, Funk, Folk, Alan Watts, Aldus Huxley foreign films; all things Hip - and Phil Austin, David Ossman and Phil Proctor, who, along with Bergman, became the infamously renown FIRESIGN THEATRE. Bergman coined the phrase 'Love-In and, on Radio Free Oz, invited all of LA to the very first; a sunrise to sundown affair, in March 1967, which he hosted in Elysian Park. It was just over the hill from the Dodgers ball park. Twenty thousand amazed Angelinos rolled into the big grassy meadow, out of the morning mist, astonished to find so many kindred soul mates of the stoned and psychedelic secret society.

McIntyre: The LA Times, the radio and the TV stations lied about the crowd size trying to play it down to please the media zombies paying their checks. But, Art Kunkin published a big front page shot of the sea of freaky people, in the FREEP, and once again busted establishment media big time. Kunkin single-mindedly sparked the free press movement in this country.

The principles of that movement continue to this day - here at the LAFreep, now with Steven M. Finger as its Publisher, and at the hundreds of other 'alternative' newspapers that began from its inspiration.  In fact, via and because of the 'net, the movement grows daily, ever bigger as an even larger 'establishment' tries again and again to hide its true motives.

Bergman's speech from the make shift bandstand where Jefferson Airplane had just blown the crowd away, was a personal confession of the loneliness one feels in such emotionally dicey times. He, like all twenty thousand awed faces shining back, had shared the misgivings of living revolutionary visions with only the weapons of love to defy the darkness.

McIntyre: And I agreed with Pete. It is time. The shit's coming down all over the place and nobody with a brain can honestly say revolution's not in the air. Just like the sixties. If fun-house surreal satire is ever a necessity of life, it's in times like the ones were headed into.

              Radio Free Oz is back, this time worldwide on the digital commons at http://www.radiofreeoz.com. The pier radio station turned out to be the Harbor Master's office with a non-stop ship to shore radio. A hunt for a quieter studio turned up Blue Ewe Studio, built and run by Islander David Malony.

McIntyre: Blue Ewe is impossible. It can't be there nestled in the forest, but it is. And, it's log-cabin, state-of-the-art recording heaven. It's putting out the best audio on the web. Bergman's on with a new show every day. Dave Ossman is co-hosting and Austin and Proctor are doing their typically hilarious guest shots. We've only done twenty-some shows and we're number ten on Pod-cast Alley, which I'd never even heard of, and, number eighteen, overall, out of eighty thousand Pod-casters. With those numbers, somewhere out there is a sponsor or two who has a sense of humor and wants to be part of the smartest comedy there is - if they can stop laughing long enough to make the deal.

              McIntyre is producing two of the Firesign Theatre's June concerts, along with Mo Weston who is producing the rest. They start in Portland June 11 & 12, then June 13 in Eugene Oregon. On June 25 they play Southern Oregon University in Ashland, and on the 26^th Redding's historically-restored Cascade Theater.

McIntyre: It's still amazing to see how bright, and far flung the Oz Firesign audience is. They're in their fifties and sixties now for the most part, educated and affluent, though some are thirty and forty something's, like Richard Metzger's gang of Dangerous Minds. You can see the love and admiration and thanks on their faces for the laughter that got them through it back in the day. And now, just when you thought it was starting to get way too serious and scary again, you've got Peter Bergman and Oz in your ears. Pete's motto for the show is right on. 'We're all going to get through this together'... And we are.

This is the first in a series of articles on Radio Free Oz and The Firesign Theatre and their long association with The LA FREE PRESS.

Topanga Days

Country Fair "One Canyon One World"
May 29th, 30th & 31st 2010!
"Memorial Day Weekend"
10AM till 7PM Daily

Fine Arts & Crafts
Corral Stage
Canyon Underground
(Tribal/Funk/Hip-Hop/Rock)

Kids Zone
Art Walk

Food & Drink
Healing Arts

Free Shuttle
Please, No Dogs or Animals!

Located at
1440 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd.
in Topanga Canyon
Telephone: 310-455-1980  

 

 

 

http://www.topangadays.com/

"Statism" and the Ayn Rand Cult

by Dave Johnson

Count how many times the word "statist" appears in this weird op-ed in the Washington Post: America's new culture war: Free enterprise vs. government control.

"Statism" has become a cult-word, used most frequently by people who are in the Ayn Rand cult. "Collectivist" is another. The Rand cult has been around quite a while now. Alan Greenspan actually lived with the Rand cult for a while. Randians are more and more becoming the core of the conservative movement, as this op-ed reflects. Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, members of Congress and others are more and more frequently using strange-sounding Randian cult-words like these.

I don't know if the author of the op-ed is a Randian, but he uses the word "statist" over and over and places free enterprise and government as an either-or. He thinks regulation of business is wrong. (Aside -- He writes that "government housing policy," not Wall Street, caused the economic crisis. (??) He's the head of the American Enterprise Institute.)

So now I am thinking about the Rand cult... Randians believe government is inherently bad -- evil actually -- and that helping others is wrong and immoral. "Collectivism" means democracy and this is also bad. They say it is the group imposing its will on individuals. From the Ayn Rand Lexicon,

"Democratic" in its original meaning [refers to] unlimited majority rule . . . a social system in which one's work, one's property, one's mind, and one's life are at the mercy of any gang that may muster the vote of a majority at any moment for any purpose.

[. . .] Democracy, in short, is a form of collectivism, which denies individual rights: the majority can do whatever it wants with no restrictions. In principle, the democratic government is all-powerful. Democracy is a totalitarian manifestation; it is not a form of freedom . . .

As for government,

The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law.

I don't understand how it is consistent for them to claim that protecting from criminals is legitimate. Doesn't society define what a criminal is?

Oh, and by the way, for any Christians who think they are conservatives, here is where they stand on religion:

Faith, as such, is extremely detrimental to human life: it is the negation of reason. ... They may have a good influence or proper principles to inculcate, but in a very contradictory context and, on a very—how should I say it?—dangerous or malevolent base: on the ground of faith.

[. . .] Christ ... according to the Christian mythology, he died on the cross not for his own sins but for the sins of the nonideal people. In other words, a man of perfect virtue was sacrificed for men who are vicious and who are expected or supposed to accept that sacrifice. If I were a Christian, nothing could make me more indignant than that: the notion of sacrificing the ideal to the nonideal, or virtue to vice. And it is in the name of that symbol that men are asked to sacrifice themselves for their inferiors. That is precisely how the symbolism is used.

And here you also find the roots of Glenn Beck's warning to run from any church that asks you to help others,

It's either-or. If capitalism's befuddled, guilt-ridden apologists do not know it, two fully consistent representatives of altruism do know it: Catholicism and communism.

Their rapprochement, therefore, is not astonishing. Their differences pertain only to the supernatural, but here, in reality, on earth, they have three cardinal elements in common: the same morality, altruism—the same goal, global rule by force—the same enemy, man's mind.

There is a precedent for their strategy. In the German election of 1933, the communists supported the Nazis, on the premise that they could fight each other for power later, but must first destroy their common enemy, capitalism. Today, Catholicism and communism may well cooperate, on the premise that they will fight each other for power later, but must first destroy their common enemy, the individual, by forcing mankind to unite to form one neck ready for one leash.

Go see what they think of charity, altruism, the environment, morality, society...

 

http://www.seeingtheforest.com/archives/2010/05/statism.htm

The great American book that refutes Rand Paul

 

A book published nearly 50 years ago utterly destroys any distinction between private and public discrimination

By Michael Lind

Shortly after the volcano in Iceland polluted the skies over Europe, and while the British Petroleum oil spill contaminated the Gulf of Mexico, Rand Paul dumped the intellectual equivalent of toxic pollution into the world of public discourse by claiming that it was wrong for the Civil Right Act of 1964 to outlaw segregation in private facilities.

Had this come from former KKK leader David Duke it would not have been news, but it made headlines, coming as it did from the winner of the Kentucky Republican Senate primary, the son of libertarian cult hero Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and a tribune of the Tea Party movement. According to the younger Paul, "the hard part about believing in freedom" is that while it was all right for the 1964 Civil Rights Act to outlaw racial discrimination by public entities, it was tyrannical for the federal government to require businesses like restaurants, hotels and stores to serve non-white customers.

As a native of Texas, where white-only businesses were legal until the Civil Rights Act passed, where interracial marriage was illegal until the Supreme Court issued its holding in Loving v. Virginia in 1967, and where private racial discrimination in housing was legal until President Johnson pushed through one of his personal obsessions, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, I can suggest a book that Rand Paul and like-minded libertarians really ought to read: John Howard Griffin's "Black Like Me."

Griffin, a native of Dallas, was at different stages in his polymathic career a decorated combat veteran in World War II, a music teacher, a philosopher, a novelist and a convert to Catholicism. In 1959, with the help of a dermatologist in New Orleans, this white Southerner had his skin darkened so that he could try to understand what black people experienced in the segregated South.  Published in 1961, "Black Like Me" was the book that emerged from his journal entries. It became a best-seller and made Griffin (who was portrayed by James Whitmore in a 1964 movie adaptation) an international celebrity.

http://www.salon.com/news/rand_paul_kentucky_senate_republican/index.html?story=/opinion/feature/2010/05/25/rand_paul_black_like_him

Dems trim jobs bill to woo moderates

 

By DAVID ROGERS

 

With time running out, Democrats made deep cuts from their $190 billion-plus jobs and economic relief bill Wednesday, hoping to win over nervous moderates and muster the votes for passage before Memorial Day.

More than $50 billion in multi-year spending appears to have been trimmed from the package, chiefly at the expense of physicians serving Medicare patients. Oil fees will grow even higher, playing off the political anger over the BP spill in the Gulf. And extended jobless and health benefits for the unemployed would sunset Nov. 30, a month earlier than previously planned. 

The House Rules Committee was called back into session Wednesday night to clear the way for floor votes Thursday. Having twice delayed action, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D—Cal.) knows she must move quickly if the Senate is to have time to act as well before the holiday recess. 

With labor weighing in more, the behind-the-scenes maneuvering took on the character of an old-fashioned brawl, matching union leaders against a fierce business-backed lobbying campaign to derail the bill and its tax reforms affecting multinational corporations. And more than ever this year, the debate captures the budget challenges facing Democrats, whipsawed by shaky markets, the European debt crisis and fears of a double-dip recession just months before November's elections. 

"Right now, jobs matter more than deficits," growled American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Gerald McEntee, taking a poke at "corporate CEOs who ship our jobs overseas and stick American taxpayers with the bill." 

"With the entire world focused on sovereign debt, it is not moving in the right direction," countered Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). "I am highly skeptical." 

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37846.html#ixzz0p8oMImtj

Republicans' new Web site not exactly what they hoped it would be

 

Republicans want to take over the House in the fall, but there's a problem: They don't have an agenda.

So on Tuesday, they set out to resolve that shortcoming. They announced that they would solicit suggestions on the Internet, then have members of the public give the ideas a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. Call it the "Dancing With the Stars" model of public policy.

Republicans were very pleased with their technological sophistication as they introduced the Web site, America Speaking Out a ceremony at the Newseum. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who created the program, said that to get software for the site, "I personally traveled to Washington state and discovered a Microsoft program that helped NASA map the moon."

Using lunar software is appropriate, because the early responses to the Republicans' request for ideas are pretty far out:

"End Child Labor Laws," suggests one helpful participant. "We coddle children too much. They need to spend their youth in the factories."

"How about if Congress actually do their job and VET or Usurper in Chief, Obama is NOT a Natural Born Citizen in any way," recommends another. "That fake so called birth certificate is useless."

"A 'teacher' told my child in class that dolphins were mammals and not fish!" a third complains. "And the same thing about whales! We need TRADITIONAL VALUES in all areas of education. If it swims in the water, it is a FISH. Period! End of Story."

House Republicans, meet the World Wide Web.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/25/AR2010052504396.html

Cannabinoids Kill Cancer and Our Government Has Known for 36 Years

by gsalternative

Below is a repost of an article published on Americans for Safe Access website: www.safeaccessnow.org in November of 2003. The article describes how cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana, inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals and also kill cancer cells. Then it finishes off by saying that the US government has known for more than 35 years and that the media which would normally go crazy about a cancer cure story like this, doesn't at all and in fact seem to be burying the story rather than promote it in any way. I for one am amazed at the government's stance on marijuana and their failed war on drugs, which is more like a war on it's own country. I guess too many people get rich off of the war on drugs.

by Steve Kubby, Sierra Times
November 10th, 2003

A new study published in Nature Reviews-Cancer provides an historic and detailed explanation about how THC and natural cannabinoids counteract cancer, but preserve normal cells.

The study by Manuel Guzmán of Madrid Spain found that cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana, inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals. They do so by modulating key cell-signaling pathways, thereby inducing direct growth arrest and death of tumor cells, as well as by inhibiting the growth of blood vessels that supply the tumor.

The Guzman study is very important according to Dr. Ethan Russo , a neurologist and world authority on medical cannabis: "Cancer occurs because cells become immortalized; they fail to heed normal signals to turn off growth. A normal function of remodeling in the body requires that cells die on cue. This is called apoptosis, or programmed cell death. That process fails to work in tumors. THC promotes its reappearance so that gliomas, leukemias, melanomas and other cell types will in fact heed the signals, stop dividing, and die."

"But, that is not all," explains Dr. Russo: "The other way that tumors grow is by ensuring that they are nourished: they send out signals to promote angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels. Cannabinoids turn off these signals as well. It is truly incredible, and elegant."

In other words, this article explains several ways in which cannabinoids might be used to fight cancer, and, as the article says, "Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated, and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional chemotherapies.

Usually, any story that even suggests the possibility of a new treatment for cancer is greeted with headlines about a "cancer cure" – however remote in the future and improbable in fact it might be. But if marijuana is involved, don't expect any coverage from mainstream media, especially since mainstream editors have been quietly killing this story for the past thirty years…

That's right, news about the abilility of pot to shrink tumors first surfaced, way back in 1974. Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, who had been funded by the National Institutes of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice — lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia.

The Washington Post reported on the 1974 study — in the "Local" section — on Aug. 18, 1974. Under the headline, "Cancer Curb Is Studied," it read in part: "The active chemical agent in marijuana curbs the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice and may also suppress the immunity reaction that causes rejection of organ transplants, a Medical College of Virginia team has discovered." The researchers "found that THC slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers, and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36 percent."

"News coverage of the Madrid discovery has been virtually nonexistent in this country. The news broke quietly on Feb. 29, 2000 with a story that ran once on the UPI wire about the Nature Medicine article," complained MarijuanaNews.com editor Richard Cowan , who said he was only able to find the article through a link that appeared briefly on the Drudge Report Web page. "The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times all ignored the story, even though its newsworthiness is indisputable: a benign substance occurring in nature destroys deadly brain tumors," added Cowan.

On March 29, 2001, the San Antonio Current printed a carefully researched, bombshell of a story by Raymond Cushing titled, "POT SHRINKS TUMORS; GOVERNMENT KNEW IN '74." Media coverage since then has been nonexistent, except for a copy of the story on Alternet.

It is hard to believe that the knowledge that cannabis can be used to fight cancer has been suppressed for almost thirty years , yet it seems likely that it will continue to be suppressed. Why?

According to Cowan, the answer is because it is a threat to cannabis prohibition . "If this article and its predecessors from 2000 and 1974 were the only evidence of the suppression of medical cannabis, then one might perhaps be able to rationalize it in some herniated way. However, there really is massive proof that the suppression of medical cannabis represents the greatest failure of the institutions of a free society, medicine, journalism, science, and our fundamental values," Cowan notes.

Millions of people have died horrible deaths and in many cases, families exhausted their savings on dangerous, toxic and expensive drugs. Now we are just beginning to realize that while marijuana has never killed anyone, marijuana prohibition has killed millions.

http://www.gsalternative.com/2010/05/cannabinoids-kill-cancer/

Push to protect banks on legal pot businesses

by Kathleen Pender

Fifteen U.S. representatives, including seven from California, are urging the Treasury Department to say it won't "target or pursue" national banks that do business with medical marijuana distributors operating legally under state laws.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the lawmakers said, "dispensary operators are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain accounts with financial institutions."

That may be true of national banks, but many state-chartered banks are happy to do business with medical marijuana dispensaries, as long as they are operating legally.

Medical marijuana is legal in 14 states, including California, and many more states - out of compassion or the need for new tax revenues - are considering legalizing it. California voters will decide in November whether to make it legal for recreational use as well.

But growing and distributing marijuana is still illegal under federal law and for that reason, many national banks won't do business with medical marijuana distributors. Bank of America, Chase and U.S. Bank all confirmed that they won't do business with medical marijuana distributors, even in states where it is legal.

Wells Fargo said it stopped opening new accounts with medical marijuana dispensaries this month and is reviewing its existing accounts with them. "In general, we follow federal, not state, law," says Wells spokesman Chris Hammond. "The decision was made to have a consistent standard."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/24/BUI01DJS6C.DTL#ixzz0p9Eb0kmt

Love-in in Elysian Park

 

 

 

Teabaggers take over

Is it time to blow up the leaking Gulf oil well? BP doing its best to keep that option under wraps

By David Neiwert

 

Shepard Smith had a fascinating segment on the catastrophic Gulf oil spill today, featuring an interview with a former nuclear-sub captain who argued persuasively that it was time -- past time, really -- to blow up that leaking oil well in the Gulf and put an end to the massive pollution that's resulted from its being open.

Smith originally brought on Christopher Brownfield to discuss the potential for using a nuclear bomb to stop the leak, and Brownfield said that yes, it was decided a viable way to stop it -- it has been done four times previously. But he gave many compelling reasons NOT to use a nuclear warhead for the job -- the biggest one being that the same job could be accomplished with conventional explosives.

So why aren't we talking about doing this? Well, Brownfield explained that too:

Brownfield: If we demolish the well using explosives, the investment's gone. They lose hundreds of millions of dollars, from the drilling of the well, plus no lawmaker in his right mind would allow BP to drill again in that same spot. So basically, it's an all-or-nothing thing with BP: They either keep the well alive, or they lose their whole investment and all the oil that they could potentially get from that well.

As Brownfield explains, "We need to seal this thing off." Desperately. But why hasn't anyone been bringing a complete shutdown of the well to the table?

Brownfield: Yes, I think -- stopping the spill immediately. And the reason why we haven't seen that option is because, frankly, BP is still at the helm. I think President Obama needs to take charge of this, bring all the assets of our military to bear, bring the U.S. Army Corps of engineers, bring the U.S. Navy, and bring in all the private-sector organizations that have the equipment for deep-sea operations to make this happen. Let's explode this, collapse the well, and put an end to it.

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/it-time-blow-leaking-gulf-oil-well-b

Crime and Punishment, Corporate Style

The Case for Nationalization

by Ted Rall

 

The Supreme Court says that corporations have the same rights as individuals. When they misbehave, shouldn't they face consequences as serious as those imposed upon an individual?

It goes without saying that a person who commits a crime ought to face punishment proportional to the offense. Large and midsize corporations, which employ thousands of employees, have far vaster reach and power than even the wealthiest ordinary citizens. So their crimes can be breathtaking in scope. The 1984 industrial catastrophe at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India killed 15,000 people. An additional 200,000 have since suffered serious injuries. Compared to the boards of directors of Union Carbide and Dow Chemical, which bought the company in 2001, Ted Bundy was small potatoes.

Unlike small-time serial killers, however, corporations get away with murder. For at least a year, management of the Toyota auto company knew that brakes in millions of its cars might fail. A 2009 ABC News investigation found that at least 16 people had died. "Safety analysts found an estimated 2000 cases in which owners of Toyota cars including Camry, Prius and Lexus, reported that their cars surged without warning up to speeds of 100 miles per hour," reported the network. Yet Toyota did nothing. Instead they blamed their customers, saying they were resting their floormats on the gas pedals.

On May 18th, Toyota finally faced the wrath of the federal government. Its "punishment": a paltry $16.5 million fine, not one cent of which went to the victims or their families. The fine, which amounted to a ridiculous 5.5 percent of its 2009 profit, went into the U.S. Treasury's general fund—in other words, to kill Afghans and Iraqis.

Available to Congress and the President is a far more appropriate punishment: nationalization without compensation. Toyota's American operations ought to be seized and operated by the federal government. The top officials of the parent company in Japan, whose willful negligence murdered at least 16 American citizens, ought to be extradited and face trial in U.S. federal court.

Extreme? Expropriating private property is commonplace—when the target is Joe and Jane Sixpack. Just ask hundreds of homeowners of New London, Connecticut. When the city destroyed an entire neighborhood to build a luxury office development, the U.S. Supreme Court backed them up, radically expanding the concept of eminent domain. Unlike a lot of evil corporations, those homeowners didn't do anything wrong.

The U.S. government has not only the right but the duty to take over criminal corporations.

A 5.5 percent fine is a slap on the wrist. Nationalizing a company, on the other hand, protects the public interest. Hitting corporations in the balance sheet is a genuine deterrent to the managers of other companies contemplating lawless behavior. It brings in significant cash assets that can be used to compensate the victims of the company's criminal activities.

Nationalization can also serve the interest of public safety. The mine explosion that left at least 25 coal miners dead in West Virginia earlier this year left members of the public feeling helpless and frustrated at the slow and inept rescue attempt by Massey Energy, the site's owner and operator. Setting aside the obvious argument that natural resources ought to be exploited for the benefit of the American people rather than private businesspeople, the rescue operation would have benefited from the involvement of top experts at such government agencies as the Army Corps of Engineers.

In 2009 the Upper Big Branch mine received 450 safety violations. Massey Energy paid the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration less than $1 million total. That's less than one percent of its annual profits. That's roughly $2,000 per violation.

If you get caught speeding in Virginia, you'll pay more than what Massey Energy pays for deliberately risking the lives of its employees.

 

http://www.facebook.com/notes/ted-rall/syndicated-column-crime-and-punishment-corporate-style/398033208743

BP's Shocking Memo

by Rick Outzen

A document obtained by The Daily Beast shows that BP, in a previous fatal disaster, increased worker risk to save money. Are there parallels with the Gulf explosion?

This is a story about the Three Little Pigs. A lot of dead oil workers. And British Petroleum.

From the minute the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig exploded, BP has hewed to a party line: it did everything it could to prevent the April 20 accident that killed 11 men and has been spewing millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico ever since. Some critics have questioned the veracity of that position.

Now The Daily Beast has obtained a document—displayed below—that goes to the heart of BP procedures, demonstrating that before the company's previous major disaster—at a moment when the oil giant could choose between cost-savings and greater safety—it selected cost-savings. And BP chose to illustrate that choice, without irony, by invoking the classic Three Little Pigs fairy tale.

EXCLUSIVE: This internal BP document shows how the company took deadly risks to save money by opting to build cheaper facilities for workers. The company estimated the value of a worker's life at $10 million.

A BP spokesman tells The Daily Beast that the company has "fundamentally changed the culture of BP" since the previous disaster, an explosion at a Texas refinery five years ago. But given that a $500,000 valve might have prevented the massive spill that is now threatening to devastate the Gulf of Mexico, one has to wonder.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-25/shocking-bp-memo-and-the-oil-spill-in-the-gulf/?cid=hp:mainpromo1

New Rule: The Republican Leadership in America Must Produce Their Birth Certificates

by Bill Maher

New Rule: The Republican leadership in America must produce their birth certificates! Not because I doubt they're Americans, I just want to make sure they're not eight-years-old. I mention this because a major talking point on Fox News and hate radio these days is that, after a year and a half of Obama, it's time to bring the "adults" back into power, so they can rein in our deficit, defeat terrorism, and focus on America's real enemy: cleaning ladies in Arizona. But I must protest the premise, because conservatives are the ones who tend to believe in magical ideas, like: America is never wrong; you can defeat terrorism militarily; and lower taxes will somehow fix the deficit. And I'm not even mentioning the stuff about how Jesus used to fly around on a pterodactyl and just hated it when homos ate wedding cake.

Now, am I saying there are no adults in today's Republican Party? Absolutely not, there are -- but like a lot of parents today, the adults let their kids cow them. And silence them. And rule over them. Rush Limbaugh is a child, a primal scream of a man, but he gets his way because he's the fat bully on the playground; and Glenn Beck is the weepy kid who's always crying because he's insane and you don't know what he's going to do and who he's going to take with him.

For example: to solve our debt crisis, a bunch of Republican senators suggested a bipartisan debt commission, which is the adult thing to do. But when Obama agreed to it, immediately seven of them said no -- now they're against it. Because Obama has cooties. Democrats have cooties, so you can't vote with them, or work with them, and compromise is treason. Compare this to England, where they just had an election two weeks ago and, power changed hands -- but the party that lost is working WITH the part that won -- they are not accusing them of being Bolshevik Zulus out to destroy the Magna Carta. Because the English are grown ups, including their conservatives who enjoy a wonderful luxury that conservatives on this side of the pond do not. They're allowed to be sane. They don't have to pander to creationists and anti-intellectuals. Only in this dumb country do liberals and conservatives argue over things like "evolution" and "climate change" and whether "sick people should be left to die in the street."

The conservative who won in England, David Cameron, was asked if he's religious, and he said, "I don't feel I have a direct line." That's right, he distanced himself from God. If Obama did that we wouldn't see him again until neighbors called the cops about the smell. Conservatives in England don't care about the 3 Gs -- God, guns and gays -- that tilt so many elections in America. And they don't get their policy ideas from TV shows, like 24. You never hear a Brit say, "I'm for torture because it worked on The Avengers."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-the-republican-l_b_585542.html

The Last Days of Mary Beth 'Loose Cannon' Buchanan

 

The federal prosecutor who put Tommy Chong behind bars in 2001 has resigned after her eight-year run as U.S. Attorney of Western Pennsylvania. Mary Beth Buchanan's biggest regret? Accepting a plea from Chong, who served nine months for interstate bong sales.

Retorts Chong: "I'm honored to be Mary Beth's only regret. Now does she regret going after me? Or does she regret that I never got enough time? I tend to think she wishes she'd never heard my name. I have become her legacy. Mary Beth Loose Cannon is now looking for a job. She blew her last job busting me. Karma is so sweet! She's looking for a work while Cheech and I start our second multi-million dollar tour thanks to the publicity she created for us! Thank you Mary Beth - may you find peace and happiness in your search for your soul."

http://www.celebstoner.com/200911173260/news/celebstoner-news/the-last-days-of-mary-beth-loose-cannon-buchanan.html

Jamaica drug raid toll reaches 27

At least 27 people, almost all civilians, have died in gun battles in Jamaica, police have said, as the hunt continues for a suspected drug lord.

Troops and police had stormed the stronghold of Christopher "Dudus" Coke in the Tivoli Gardens district of the capital Kingston.

A state of emergency has been in place in parts of Kingston since Friday, when several police stations were attacked.

A decision to extradite Mr Coke, 41, to the US had angered his supporters.

Mr Coke, who insists he is a legitimate businessman, enjoys the support of many impoverished Kingston residents who see him as a benefactor and have vowed to protect him at any cost.

But the US justice department accuses him of being one of the world's most dangerous drug barons.

Fierce fighting

On Tuesday, the third consecutive day of unrest, thousands of heavily-armed police and soldiers continued their assault into the capital's most violent slums, battling masked gunmen loyal to Mr Coke.

It doesn't feel safe in downtown Kingston today.

Out on the streets, the police are watching for snipers. The occasional bullet whizzed through the air and hit the palm trees.

This is a disaster for Jamaica's reputation. The main offensive is a mile away, but even in the commercial heart of the capital, people are being pinned back against the walls. Normal life is on hold.

Dudas is seen by many here as a kind of Robin Hood figure, a protector of the poor.

And that's why it's hard to see what happens next - the authorities are intent on capturing Dudas; those loyal to him intent on stopping that at whatever cost.

Gangs from slums just outside the capital also joined the fight, erecting barricades on roadways and shooting at troops, the AP news agency reported.

At least one member of the security forces and 26 civilians were killed in the two-day raid, a police statement said. Another seven officers and 25 civilians were also injured.

A total of 211 others have been detained, including six women, but there was no confirmation that Mr Coke was among them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/latin_america/10156140.stm

Top GOP leaders line up against D'Annunzio

Judge in 1998 child-support case called him a 'self-described religious zealot.'

By Jim Morrill

 

Republican Party leaders have escalated an unprecedented campaign against one of their own congressional candidates, with N.C. GOP chairman Tom Fetzer calling Tim D'Annunzio "unfit for public office at any level."

Fetzer's remarks came after copies of D'Annunzio's court records were circulated among party officials in Raleigh and Washington.

D'Annunzio finished first in the May 4 primary. But his party has since gone to increasing lengths to portray him as unelectable.

"By my personal observation of his behavior, and by acquaintance with his record and background, I consider Mr. D'Annunzio unfit for public office at any level," said Fetzer. "What he could do to the party as our nominee is secondary in my view to what he could do to the country if he got elected. If he got elected, for crying out loud, that would be a disaster."

D'Annunzio, of Hoke County, faces fellow Republican Harold Johnson on June 22 in the 8th Congressional District runoff. The winner meets first-term incumbent Larry Kissell in November.

Court documents portray D'Annunzio as "a self-described religious zealot" who once called the U.S. government the Antichrist and told his ex-wife that he'd found the Ark of the Covenant.

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/05/23/1452353/top-gop-leaders-line-up-against.html#ixzz0p3v2iTEd

The Greeks Get It

AP / Petros Giannakouris

Numerous riots have gripped Athens during the last year or so of unrest.

By Chris Hedges

Here's to the Greeks. They know what to do when corporations pillage and loot their country. They know what to do when Goldman Sachs and international bankers collude with their power elite to falsify economic data and then make billions betting that the Greek economy will collapse. They know what to do when they are told their pensions, benefits and jobs have to be cut to pay corporate banks, which screwed them in the first place. Call a general strike. Riot. Shut down the city centers. Toss the bastards out. Do not be afraid of the language of class warfare—the rich versus the poor, the oligarchs versus the citizens, the capitalists versus the proletariat. The Greeks, unlike most of us, get it. 

The former right-wing government of Greece lied about the size of the country's budget deficit. It was not 3.7 percent of gross domestic product but 13.6 percent. And it now looks like the economies of Spain, Ireland, Italy and Portugal are as bad as Greece's, which is why the euro has lost 20 percent of its value in the last few months. The few hundred billion in bailouts for other faltering European states, like our own bailouts, have only forestalled disaster. This is why the U.S. stock exchange is in free fall and gold is rocketing upward. American banks do not have heavy exposure in Greece, but Greece, as most economists concede, is only the start. Wall Street is deeply invested in other European states, and when the unraveling begins the foundations of our own economy will rumble and crack as loudly as the collapse in Athens. The corporate overlords will demand that we too impose draconian controls and cuts or see credit evaporate. They have the money and the power to hurt us. There will be more unemployment, more personal and commercial bankruptcies, more foreclosures and more human misery. And the corporate state, despite this suffering, will continue to plunge us deeper into debt to make war. It will use fear to keep us passive. We are being consumed from the inside out. Our economy is as rotten as the economy in Greece. We too borrow billions a day to stay afloat. We too have staggering deficits, which can never be repaid. Heed the dire rhetoric of European leaders.

"The euro is in danger," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told lawmakers last week as she called on them to approve Germany's portion of the bailout plan. "If we do not avert this danger, then the consequences for Europe are incalculable, and then the consequences beyond Europe are incalculable."

Beyond Europe means us.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_greeks_get_it_20100524/

Excessive anti-gay legislative proposal