Oil Company Subsudies???? WTH???

Tell Congress: End oil subsidies

As Americans continue to struggle with outrageous, unstable gas prices, oil companies continue to benefit from them.
Exxon Mobile announced Thursday a first-quarter profit of $10.6 billion -- a 69% increase from last year, and a number so astronomical, Exxon executives felt the need to issue defensive statements before the announcement.¹ Also unveiling massive earnings were Shell ($6.3 billion, up 30%), ConocoPhillips ($3 billion, up 44%), and of course, BP (7.1 Billion, up 16%). In all, the five largest oil companies have reaped nearly $1 trillion in profits in the last 10 years.
But more outrageous than jaw-dropping oil company profits, is the fact that our government actually rewards these companies with even more of our money for maintaining this disastrous system - to the tune of $4 billion a year in tax credits and subsidies. It's time for that to end.
Tell Congress: End oil subsidies.
It is a testament to the influence of polluters, and the power of the money they shower upon Congress, that so many of our leaders have continued to defend these senseless subsidies.
As recently as this March, House Republicans - while simultaneously pleading poverty and fighting for crippling budget cuts elsewhere - voted unanimously against repealing these oil subsidies, at a total cost to us of 45 billion over 10 years.
But in the face of these huge budget cuts, painful gas prices and shocking oil company profits, it is becoming harder and harder for Republicans to defend this policy.
In a surprising move, Speaker John Boehner said Monday that repealing oil subsidies "is certainly something we ought to be looking at" and that oil companies "ought to be paying their fair share."² While his statement was quickly walked back the next day by an aide who said Boehner was simply trying not to "fall into the trap of defending 'Big Oil' companies"³ it's clear that cracks are beginning to show in the Republicans' brazen defense of senseless oil handouts.
On Wednesday, President Obama sent a letter to congressional leaders asking them to end oil subsidies, and Nancy Pelosi also sent a letter to Speaker Boehner asking him to schedule a House vote next week. Harry Reid announced he will hold a vote in the Senate as soon as possible.
Momentum is building. This is a key moment to keep the pressure on, and force every member of congress to choose: Americans, or the oil companies?
Tell Congress: End oil subsidies.
Between the ruining of our gulf, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events brought on by climate change, and now - once again - astronomical oil company profits and oil prices that literally threaten our economy, we don't need any more reminders that it's time to end our reliance on oil.
Yet we're handing oil companies billions as we slash funding for the investments in clean energy and transit we need to break oil's grip on our lives.
This must end. And if we raise our voices, we can finally end it.
Tell Congress: End oil subsidies.
1. "Exxon tries to preempt fury from first-quarter profits," The Hill, April 27, 2011
2. "Boehner opens door to ending tax breaks for big oil companies," The Hill, April 25, 2011
3. "Boehner aide: Tax comments were to avoid 'trap' of defending 'Big Oil'," The Hill, April 26, 2011

BP's $10 BILLION Gulf Spill Clean-Up Tax Write Off

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Tell BP: Destroying our gulf shouldn't be a tax write-off. Dear Friend, One year ago today, BP's oil began to pour into the Gulf of Mexico. It did not stop for 87 days. Today, economic and environmental devastation  remain. Thousands of Gulf Coast residents cope with massive health problems from oil and toxic dispersants. BP, on the other hand, just scored a nearly  $10 billion dollar tax credit, by writing off  its "losses" incurred from the tragedy.1 $10 billion is the entire annual budget of the EPA, whose funding was just slashed in the  continuing resolution. It is almost one third  of all the cuts in the continuing resolution. Americans shouldn't have to endure massive budget cuts because BP took a $10 billion tax deduction for destroying our gulf. Tell BP: Amend your tax return and pay your fair  share. Click here to automatically sign the petition. Responding to BP's monumental catastrophe cost  a massive amount of resources from local, state  and federal governments. Now, BP is dealing  another massive blow to our nation's tax revenue. The $10 billion savings comes after BP wrote-off  the $32.2 billion it set aside to cover clean-up costs,  fines, and a $20 billion victim compensation fund (which has been notoriously slow and stingy in responding to claims, paying out less than $4 billion so far.2) But there is an excellent precedent that says BP did not have to deduct these costs for tax advantages.  Last year, Goldman Sachs waived a tax deduction  it could have claimed as a result of paying $500 million in fines to the Securities and Exchange Commission  for giving bad information to mortgage investors.3 BP's $10 billion tax credit slashes its liability by one third — at every US taxpayer's expense. BP has cost our nation enough already. Tell BP it shouldn't be rewarding itself with huge tax savings.  Click here to automatically sign the petition. Over the weekend, I was in Washington D.C. for the Powershift conference, attended by 8,000 young climate activists. Hundreds attended from the Gulf Coast, and I heard their  stories of oil still remaining on beaches, of its smell still permeating the air, of legions of dead dolphin,  turtles and fish, of neighbors who are sick or jobless. I heard them say that BP hasn't done nearly enough to make it right. Meanwhile in Washington, BP just restarted political  contributions to the Republicans who continue to push for expanded offshore drilling,4 oppose lifting oil spill liability caps,5 and do everything in their power to keep our nation addicted to dirty crude, as millions of Americans literally drain their paychecks into their gas tanks every day. To take our nation off of dirty, dangerous, expensive fossil fuels, we must force polluters to pay for the  damage they do. One year ago, BP brought us what would become the worst environmental disaster in our nation's history.  We don't owe BP a tax-credit. BP owes us our gulf  back. The least it could do is pay its fair share. Click here to automatically sign the petition to BP. Thank you for holding polluters accountable. Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets 1. "BP Scores $10B Tax Credit by Offsetting Cash," CBS News, July 27, 2010 2. "Gulf-Spill Fund Pays $3.8 Billion; Total May Be 'Higher', " Bloomberg, April 18, 2011 3. "Goldman Waives Tax Deduction on SEC Settlement," Bloomberg, July 16, 2011 4. "A year after spill, BP gives political contributions to GOP  leaders  ," The Hill, April 19, 2011 5. "A Year After Gulf Tragedy, Offshore Oil Companies Still  Shielded by Liability Limits," ProPublica, April 19, 2011 Clicking below will add your name to the petition to BP: Destroying our gulf shouldn't entitle you to a  $10 billion tax credit. Don't ruin our gulf and  our budget. Amend your tax return and pay  your fair share. BP: Pay your fair share. BP: Pay your fair share.

Worse Than The Patriot Act

October 2nd, 2009

Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: PATRIOT Edition

Legislative Analysis by Kevin Bankston

Yesterday's Senate Judiciary mark-up of legislation to renew expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act was extremely disheartening--in particular because of many committee Democrats' failure to support new civil liberties reforms to PATRIOT(see our summary here). Those Senators who failed to stand foursquare behind Americans' right to privacy against government spying should be on notice that Americans who care about civil liberties are very disappointed; those that did stand up for our rights deserve our vocal thanks.
Our first wag of the finger goes to Senators Leahy and Feinstein. We expressed our disappointment with Senator Leahy last week when instead of sponsoring the Feingold/Durbin JUSTICE Act he introduced his own PATRIOT renewal bill with much fewer surveillance reforms. Most notably, that bill did not contain any reforms to last year's FISA Amendments Act, which is an even graver threat to Americans' privacy than PATRIOT.
Well, that watered-down bill was watered down again when the mark-up began: Senator Leahy negotiated with Senator Feinstein, a member of the Judicary Committee and chair of the Intelligence Committee, to create a new bill containing even fewer reforms than the original Leahy bill. Especially disappointing was the new bill's failure to require that PATRIOT Section 215 orders for the hand-over of sensitive phone, internet and credit records be limited to records that pertain to a spy or terrorist. Unfortunately, it was this even more watered-down Leahy/Feinstein bill that the committee considered yesterday, and which it will continue to consider next Thursday.
Sadly, it's no surprise that Senator Feinstein would favor government power over individual privacy when it comes to debates over foreign intelligence surveillance, especially now that she is heading the Senate Intelligence Committee. But we expected more from Senator Leahy, who has often been a staunch defender of civil liberties and who supported a much broader range of privacy protections when PATRIOT came up for reauthorization in 2005. A press release from Senator Leahy applauded this new bill as representing progress, but we must respectfully disagree.
The next wag of the finger goes to all of the Democrats who failed to support Senator Durbin's amendment to fix the Leahy/Feinstein bill's most obvious deficiency by re-injecting the new, heightened standard for the issuance of 215 orders that was in the original Leahy bill. Those eight Democrats, many of whom have supported stronger PATRIOT reform in the past, were:
Senator Leahy of Vermont
Senator Kohl of Wisconsin
Senator Feinstein of California
Senator Schumer of New York
Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island
Senator Klobuchar of Minnesota
Senator Kaufman of Delaware
Senator Franken of Minnesota
We were especially disappointed--and made curious--by continued assertions by Senators Feinstein and Whitehouse that modifying the 215 standard would interfere with an ongoing classified intelligence program (the Administration has also noted the existence of this classified program that relies on 215 orders; Emptywheel at Firedoglake has a nice round-up up those mentions here). This kind of "you'd understand how I was voting if you knew the scary things I knew" posturing is Bush-era nonsense, and we agree with Senator Feingold that more information needs to be declassified so that Congress and America at large can have an informed debate about these spying authorities. He's received the same classified briefings, and he noted several times yesterday that the classified uses of 215 amounted to an abuse of power.
Speaking of Senator Feingold, he and Senator Durbin have earned a big tip of the hat for their tireless work to reform PATRIOT, and we especially congratulate Senator Feingold on the success of his amendment to rein in sneak and peek searches by shortening the time by which targets must be notified of a search from thirty days to one week. We hope that they both will continue to offer more privacy-protective amendments next week; Senator Feingold noted that he expected to introduce up to three more amendments. We look forward to seeing an amendment to add new checks and balances when it comes to National Security Letters. We also hope that at least some of the amendments next week seek to reform the FISA Amendments Act, which broadly expanded the government's warrantless wiretapping authority and granted immunity to telecoms like AT&T that broke the law by cooperating in the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program.
Finally, we want to tip our hat to Senator Cardin and especially to the Democrats' newest member, Senator Specter, for joining with Senator Feingold to vote in support of Senator Durbin's 215 amendment. We hope that they will continue to do right by their constituents by supporting civil liberties reforms to PATRIOT and the FISA Amendments Act, and that the others who voted against Durbin's amendment will see next week as a new chance to demonstrate their commitment to surveillance reform.
However, we need your help to make that happen, so our last tip of the hat is to you, the concerned citizen. We still need your continuing help to make sure that the PATRIOT renewal process yields new privacy protections. So please, go to our action center now to tell your Senator to support strong reforms like those in the JUSTICE Act when amendments come up next week.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/10/tip-hat-wag-finger-patriot-edition

I AM OUTRAGED

Cottonwood Pack Tragedy The Cottonwood wolves of Yellowstone National Park became some of the latest victims of a flawed wolf delisting rule. Please sign our petition to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, urging him to withdraw his flawed delisting rule that removed vital protections for wolves in the northern Rockies region.

Dear Auntie-Nanuuq,

I have sad news. Yellowstone National Park’s famous Cottonwood Pack has just been destroyed -- all the adult wolves have been killed, and the surviving pups will likely die without the rest of their wolf family.

The Cottonwoods are just some of the latest victims of the federal government’s likely illegal decision to eliminate vital protections for our wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the northern Rockies. Unless we are successful in urging Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to reverse this bad decision, hundreds more wolves will be killed.

Please sign our petition and urge Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to immediately take action to restore protections for these amazing animals.

The Cottonwood wolves are not alone. They’re among the more than 60 wolves already killed in the region -- a disturbingly high number for a hunting season only weeks old.

I was there when the first wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park, and I have personally guided Defenders members to watch the Cottonwood Pack. It is particularly heartbreaking to see one of America's greatest conservation victories slip from our grasp because of a policy mistake. But there is still time to correct it -- and if we act quickly, we can still save the lives of literally hundreds of wolves in the region.

Our wolves need your voice -- and the support of as many others as possible who care about the future of these magnificent animals.

Sign this important petition today. We will personally hand-deliver your signatures to the Department of the Interior as a powerful statement that America supports a lasting future for our wolves.

The next few weeks will be crucial for our wolves in this region. The truth is, the future of wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the northern Rockies is at a crossroads -- and it will take the voices of caring wildlife supporters like you to make a difference.

Last month, a federal judge ruled that we are likely to win our lawsuit to restore protections for these beloved wolves. But with the lives of hundreds of wolves at stake, we can’t wait for the final ruling on our case -- a ruling that will likely not come for many months.

Please sign our petition to Secretary Salazar today.

The Cottonwood wolves were not the first victims of the flawed delisting -- and they certainly won’t be the last. The time has come to correct the unacceptable error made by the Obama administration that continues to erode one of the greatest conservation victories of the last century. Please lend your voice to help save our wolves.

Together, we can ensure that wolves will be an enduring part of America.

Sincerely, Rodger Schlickeisen President Defenders of Wildlife

P.S. No new administration is immune from mistakes -- even big ones like this. We are strongly encouraging Obama's Interior Department to recognize their error and correct it immediately. But we need your help to make sure they know how important this is. Please sign our petition today.

P.S. If you would like to support our work to save wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and northern Rockies region, please donate online, or call 1-800-385-9712.

You Are Breathing Poison

Do You Know What These Lines in the Sky Are? They are NOT: "contrails", vapor trails, sky writing, from commercial jets or private planes....... They ARE Chemtrails: Poisonous, used as pest control (maybe the two-legged kind), used to control the weather, used as a respiratory inoculation program, and are brought to us by the u.s. government, u.s. air force, and NASA. What are Chemtrails? Streaks of chemicals created in the air by spray systems on airplanes at any altitude. Chemicals are sprayed via planes for many purposes including crop dusting and mosquito control. Also fuel is sometimes dumped to reduce weight before landing. But within the Chemtrail observer community Chemtrails are the product of an active large scale operation. Chemtrails are said to vary from contrails in their length of persistence. For more information visit these sites: http://chemtrailcentral.com/chemfaq.shtml http://carnicom.com/conright.htm http://rense.com/general59/aerosolandelectromag.htm http://chemtrails911.com/
Elder's Meditation of the Day - May 7
"We must all become caretakers of the Earth."
---- Haida Gwaii Traditional Circle of Elders
Mother Earth is the source of all life. We should not only be concerned about the part of the Earth we live on, but we should be concerned about the parts of the Earth that other people live on. The Earth is one great whole. The trees in Brazil generate the air in the Untied States. If the trees are cut in Brazil, it affects the air that all people breathe. Every person needs to conscientiously think about how they respect the Earth. Do we dump our garbage out of the car? Do we poison the water? Do we poison the air? Am I taking on the responsibility of being a caretaker of the Earth?

Great Spirit, today, I will be aware of the Earth. I will be responsible

360: Grace & Dignity: June 10, 2007

Ok: So since I have received my graduate degree, I have been praying for a new position as a librarian in a beach community.

One p.t. position became available, which then became f.t. I interviewed with a wonderful tribunal and I came out as the #1 candidate.

When I returned for a second interview, I was greeted by a subordinate in a less than cordial manner...and during the interview I was treated in a demeaning and rude manner by the same subordinate.

How is it, that for a Professional position that I was interviewed by a "para-professional" subordinate staff member? Why is it that someone so rude and "proprietary" would be allowed to interview Professional staff? Where were the other professional staff members, and why were they not a part of the interview team?

Not only are these my concerns....but, when one walks into a library, isn't it preferable to see more than a stairway on first sight? On the back side of the stairway there was a white sign with grey lettering on a white wall indicating which departments were located on which floor. But really, how uninviting, cold, and non-user friendly of an environment.

Emphasis of the interview was focused not on collection but on virtual libraries and outreach. Yes outreach is an excellent service, but one must never forget the people who come into the library simply to spend leisure time and browse the collection.

Call me "old-fashioned" I want books, books, more books, and an occasional video. I want more than computers, which I have at home....Nothing ever will replace the goodness of a book, where I have access to my own quirky imagination, where I have the option of making a character come to life as I see fit....nothing is all "thought out" or preplanned for me, rendering my mind, imagination, and creativity as useless functions. I am not lazy, I prefer to think for myself...this is FREEDOM!

Needless to say, I will not be working for this library system.