detroit has a koch problem …

A Black Mound of Canadian Oil Waste Is Rising Over Detroit

Petroleum coke, a waste by-product of refining oil sands oil, is piling up along the Detroit River.

pic by: Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times

By IAN AUSTEN
WINDSOR, Ontario — Assumption Park gives residents of this city lovely views of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline. Lately they’ve been treated to another sight: a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block on the other side of the Detroit River.
Detroit’s ever-growing black mountain is the unloved, unwanted and long overlooked by-product of Canada’s oil sands boom.
And no one knows quite what to do about it, except Koch Carbon, which owns it.
The company is controlled by Charles and David Koch, wealthy industrialists who back a number of conservative and libertarian causes including activist groups that challenge the science behind climate change. The company sells the high-sulphur, high-carbon waste, usually overseas, where it is burned as fuel.
The coke comes from a refinery alongside the river owned by Marathon Petroleum, which has been there since 1930. But it began refining exports from the Canadian oil sands — and producing the waste that is sold to Koch — only in November.
“What is really, really disturbing to me is how some companies treat the city of Detroit as a dumping ground,” said Rashida Tlaib, the Michigan state representative for that part of Detroit. “Nobody knew this was going to happen.” Almost 56 percent of Canada’s oil production is from the petroleum-soaked oil sands of northern Alberta, more than 2,000 miles north.
An initial refining process known as coking, which releases the oil from the tarlike bitumen in the oil sands, also leaves the petroleum coke, of which Canada has 79.8 million tons stockpiled. Some is dumped in open-pit oil sands mines and tailing ponds in Alberta. Much is just piled up there.
Detroit’s pile will not be the only one. Canada’s efforts to sell more products derived from oil sands to the United States, which include transporting it through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, have pulled more coking south to American refineries, creating more waste product here.
Marathon Petroleum’s plant in Detroit processes 28,000 barrels a day of the oil sands bitumen.
Residents on both sides of the Detroit River are concerned that the coke mountain is both an environmental threat and an eyesore.
“Here’s a little bit of Alberta,” said Brian Masse, one of Windsor’s Parliament members. “For those that thought they were immune from the oil sands and the consequences of them, we’re now seeing up front and center that we’re not.”
Mr. Masse wants the International Joint Commission, the bilateral agency that governs the Great Lakes, to investigate the pile. Michigan’s state environmental regulatory agency has submitted a formal request to Detroit Bulk Storage, the company holding the material for Koch Carbon, to change its storage methods. Michigan politicians and environmental groups have also joined cause with Windsor residents. Paul Baltzer, a spokesman for Koch’s parent company, Koch Companies Public Sector, did not respond to questions about its storage or the ultimate destination of the petroleum coke.
Coke, which is mainly carbon, is an essential ingredient in steelmaking as well as producing the electrical anodes used to make aluminum.
While there is high demand from both those industries, the small grains and high sulphur content of this petroleum coke make it largely unusable for those purposes, said Kerry Satterthwaite, a petroleum coke analyst at Roskill Information Services, a commodities analysis company based in London.
“It is worse than a by-product,” Ms. Satterthwaite said.“It’s a waste by-product that is costly and inconvenient to store, but effectively costs nothing to produce.”
Murray Gray, the scientific director for the Center for Oil Sands Innovation at the University of Alberta, said that about two years ago, Alberta backed away from plans to use the petroleum coke as a fuel source, partly over concerns about greenhouse-gas emissions. Some of it is burned there, however, to power coking plants.
The Keystone XL pipeline will provide Gulf Coast refineries with a steady supply of diluted bitumen from the oil sands. The plants on the coast, like the coking refineries concentrated in California to deal with that state’s heavy crude oil, are positioned to ship the waste to China or Mexico, where it is burned as a fuel. California exports about 128,000 barrels of petroleum coke a day, mainly to China.
read entire article here …

you may also want to read:
- exxon … “trust us, we know what we’re doing”
- polluted reasoning at the state department
- “country for sale … like new … cheap!” … must sell ! … everything must go!” …
   call: 1-800-NEO-CONS, ask for steve
- fight against xl pipeline continues
- one (1) dirty little secret for sale: to highest bidder (environment incl.)
- it’s time to take down the “for sale” sign
- obama stalls xl pipeline decision … covers ass, for now
 

d-bag of the week … the race for the bottom

i just couldn’t decide …
so i’ll leave it up to you …
plus i wasn’t sure whether to call this week a “tie” …
or just label them both “co-conspirators” in an obvious moment of treason against the american public …
it was quite a week for douchebaggery and slimy behaviour after all …
and i have a question for john of orange …
where’s the freakin’ jobs!?!?!??? …
so without further ado …
our winners this week of the golden d-bag award are …
drum roll please …
the heritage foundation AND the gop …

Heritage letter to Republicans on Capitol Hill: don’t legislate, just scandalize Obama
by Joy-Ann Reid | May 16, 2013 at 6:34 PM
Joy Reid at The Grio reports that the Heritage Foundation, the uber-rightwing think tank that Jim DeMint left the Senate to head up, just sent this letter to Speaker Boehner and Eric Cantor:
Dear Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor:
For the first time, the activities of the Obama administration are receiving a sustained public vetting. Americans’ outrage over Benghazi is amplified by the Internal Revenue Service’s intimidation of conservative grassroots organizations and a cascade of negative headlines. There is the real sense the Obama administration has been less than forthright with the American people, the press and lawmakers.
Recent events have rightly focused the nation’s attention squarely on the actions of the Obama administration. It is incumbent upon the House of Representatives to conduct oversight hearings on those actions, but it would be imprudent to do anything that shifts the focus from the Obama administration to the ideological differences within the House Republican Conference.
To that end, we urge you to avoid bringing any legislation to the House Floor that could expose or highlight major schisms within the conference. Legislation such as the Internet sales tax or the FARRM Act which contains nearly $800 billion in food stamp spending, would give the press a reason to shift their attention away from the failures of the Obama administration to write another “circular firing squad” article.
Make no mistake, principled conservatives will still oppose bad policy if it comes to the floor. Rather than scheduling such legislation for consideration, we urge you to keep the attention focused squarely on the Obama administration. As the public’s trust in their government continues to erode, it is incumbent upon those of us who support a smaller, less intrusive government to lead.
Sincerely,
Michael A. Needham
Chief Executive Officer
Heritage Action for America

read more here …
and here …

Republicans Altered Benghazi Emails, CBS News Report Claims

Source: Huffington Post
One day after The White House released 100 pages of Benghazi emails, a report has surfaced alleging that Republicans released a set with altered text.
CBS News reported Thursday that leaked versions sent out by the GOP last Friday had visible differences than Wednesday’s official batch. Two correspondences that were singled out in the report came from National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes and State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

The GOP version of Rhodes’ comment, according to CBS News: “We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation.”
The White House email: “We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.”
read more here …

 

the heritage foundation AND the gop …
this week’s golden d-bag award winners!
we salute you both …

obama goes bulworth … if only …

a great piece by ezra klein today …

Ezra Klein: If Obama went Bulworth, here’s what he’d say
The New York Times reported Thursday that President Obama frequently fantasizes to close aides about “going Bulworth,” a reference to the 1998 movie in which Sen. Jay Bulworth, played by Warren Beatty, drops all pretence and begins saying exactly what he thinks. So I asked a number of ex-Obama aides and political consultants what the president would say if he went Bulworth. This post is based on what the people who have heard Obama vent about Washington believe he’d like to say in public, but can’t. That said, this is the Internet so, er, let me be clear: This is a work of fiction. Informed fiction, but fiction nevertheless.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good afternoon. As you know, on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Lew asked for and received the resignation of acting IRS director Stephen Miller. I want to reemphasize that my administration will not tolerate this kind of behavior at the I.R.S. or any other agency. But I don’t want to see this whole town get distracted from the other pressing work we have to do, either. The American people deserve a government they can trust. But they also deserve one that makes progress on problems like unemployment and immigration and sequestration. In fact…I mean, I should be clear. {Heavy sigh.} Actually, why don’t I just take some of your questions.
Q: Thank you, Mr. President. At this point, though, can the American people actually trust their government? There’s a sense that these issues might just be the tip of the iceberg.
OBAMA: {Long pause.} Are you kidding me?
No, the American people can’t trust their government. They can’t trust their media either, I might add. But that’s not because of a couple of I.R.S. agents out in Cincinnati. We can fix the Cincinnati office. Let me be clear: We’re already fixing the Cincinnati office. This problem was solved a year ago. The guy who solved it just got fired anyway because you all wanted to see some blood on the walls and I’m just political enough to give it to you.
Look, the reason the American people can’t trust their government is here in Washington. Right now sequestration is cutting unemployment checks by 10 or 11 percent. Do you hear anyone talking about that? Or doing anything about it? No. You hear Republicans aides telling Politico, anonymously, that the speaker is quote “obsessed” with Benghazi. You know, I don’t think most of the Republicans screaming about Benghazi could find Libya on a map. I don’t think 10 of them knew our ambassador’s name. And, let me be clear, Speaker Boehner certainly wasn’t obsessed with giving us the money we asked for to keep the embassy’s safe.
But now he’s obsessed with Benghazi. And not even Benghazi. The Benghazi talking points. Are you kidding me? He’s not obsessed with global warming or unemployment or rebuilding our infrastructure. And now that there’s conflict, all of you are obsessed with Benghazi talking points too, and meanwhile, we’re cutting the National Institutes of Health and we’re cutting too deep into the military and we’re making life harder for the unemployed and we’re doing nothing to keep this planet in good shape for our kids.
Look, this is why the American people can’t trust their government. Because this town is obsessed with conflict and political advantage and not with real problems. We worry about the wrong things so much that we don’t even have time to talk to the American people or each other about the right things. And that’s not the I.R.S.’s fault.
read the rest here …
washingtonpost.com

the republican plan for america … scandal

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. deficit is shrinking considerably more quickly than previously thought, the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday in a report that could sap Congress’ sense of urgency to find further budget savings.
In one fell swoop, the non-partisan budget referee slashed its deficit forecast for the current fiscal year by $203 billion from estimates made in February to $642 billion – making it the smallest budget shortfall since 2008.
The CBO said the deficit will fall to $378 billion by 2015 with no congressional action – a sharp contrast to the $1 trillion recession-driven deficits in each of President Barack Obama’s first four years in office.

oops, there goes the gop/teathuglican argument for “more austerity at all costs” …
maybe these morons will finally stop banging that drum …
it was all a lie anyways,  from the party that has done nothing, i repeat NOTHING, to create any jobs, or improve the economy over the last decade, and especially since president obama moved into the house on pennsylvania avenue …
a lie that they’ve been telling to mask the fact that they have done nothing but harm the economy, the poor, the middle class, seniors, students and on and on and on …
to mask the fact that it was republicans who brought on this whole mess in the first place …
and that it’s been republicans who have stood in the way of any progress in fixing the mess …
and they told THAT lie to mask the fact that they can’t stand the fact that a democrat is in the white house, and a black democrat to boot …
they have rolled out the innuendo, the racial dog whistles, the out and out lies and the congressional and senate gridlock to an extent not seen in my lifetime …
snitch mcconnell has perfected the art of the filibuster to stop any progress, even filibustering his own proposals within minutes of making them …
john of orange and cantor the ranter have completely disabled congress’ ability to get anything done, except to continue to vote to repeal obamacare …
major, and critical, agencies have been without funding and leadership for ridiculously long times because the gop controlled (and i use that word loosely) congress and the gop controlled (and i use that word realistically) senate have refused to move any appointments or funding through …
true enough, it doesn’t help that president obama seems scared to do anything other than cave in when it comes to dealing with these antics, but whether he has caved in and given the gop what they ask for or not, they just kill it in it’s tracks anyways, so i can’t really blame him for this mess …
then we have the scandal squad, with darrell “lock up yer’ cars” issa, john “i’m a fuckin’ war hero, ya know” mcgrumpypants and his lapdog lindsey “whatever johnny sez” graham tossing hissy fits at every opportunity, from “beheadings in the desert”, to “fast and furious” to “benghazi” to obama not inviting them to the white house for drinks and dinner, not that they have ever accepted his invitations when he did invite their sorry, senile asses over …
and let’s not forget that every time eric holder so much as passes wind twelve repugs jump up and down and demand that obama demand his resignation …
so …
the gop does everything it can to stand in the way of any real or important work getting done in washington and all the while blathers and whines that it’s all obama’s fault …
no jobs bills …
no serious or reality based budgets …
no willingness to do anything other than to protect the very rich and their beloved tax breaks, and paying for all that at the expense of ordinary hard working americans and the very poor …
constant demands for “more war” (libya, syria, iran, etc.) …
incessant demands for more breaks for the uber rich, or as they like to call them, the “job creators” (although a more apt description might be the “money hoarders”) …
but no jobs …
none …
nada …
where are the jobs mr. boehner? …
you did after all, run on a promise to create them, didn’t you? …
remember that? …
”jobs, jobs, jobs” i believe is how you put it …
or were you just talking about your own? …
i mean, i get the whole scandal, scandal, scandal thing …
you and your party have nothing else to offer …
you’ve proved that …
so scandals it is …
you do have to appeal to your low information, angry base with something so i get that …
but, where are the jobs? …
wall street has  hit record profits and highs …
the rich are richer than they ever have been …
obama has created millions and millions of private sector jobs (and the unemployment numbers would be hugely better had the gop congress and gop governors not killed millions of public sector jobs as a result of your own austerity induced madness) …
even the housing markets are starting to get better fast …

so…
john …
where are those jobs??? …
i suggest you set down that merlot, lay off the tanning bed for a couple days and get to work …
and do your fucking job …

 

the latest gop jobs plan … impeachment

and guess who the new job would go to? …

a quick reminder to the right-wingers, baggers, birthers, ditto heads and low info faux noise blatherers:
if you are so freaking sure that you want to impeach president obama, then at least stop for a second and remember who would succeed him as commander in chief …
oh yeah … THIS GUY!

keep in mind, you bat shit crazy right-wingers, the next time you want to make a “big fucking deal” out of benghazi and want to talk about impeaching obama …
then you would have a man in office who, among other things:
came out and supported gay marriage BEFORE president obama did …
has had an “F” rating from the nra throughout his years in public office …
is currently spearheading the effort for gun control …
(after voting in 1994 for the assault weapons ban)
had a 100% rating from NARAL, Pro-Choice America …
authored the “Violence Against Women Act” …
blocked robert bork from the supreme court, as head of the judiciary committee …
believes in a single payer health care system …
stood strongly against ronald ray-gun’s star wars initiative …
voted against the gulf war in 1991 and afghanistan in 2001 …
was instrumental in the passage of “obamacare” …
also instrumental in the first recovery act and oversaw the implementation …(considering how much money was spent and how little we have heard with respect to corruption – that’s amazing)
a key and pivotal player in laying down the groundwork for the repeal of DADT …
worked with the senate in approving the nuclear treaties with russia …
kicked lyin’ ryan’s ass on national television in front of millions of people …
and he’s against Keystone XL! …
oh yeah, and did i mention that the peeps just LOVE this guy …

this is really all about hillary in 2016 …
if they can demonize benghazi, they demonize hillary …
and they’re in that mode right now, believing that if they say it enough times people will believe their lies about benghazi …

they impeached clinton over a blow job and they’re trying to impeach obama on an alex jones/glenn beck inspired conspiracy theory …
and yet, not a fucking whisper about impeaching little dick and the shrub for lying america into two illegal, immoral wars that cost the lives of thousands of troops, countless civilians, bankrupted the economy and eroded america’s status internationally? …
get real, gop …
fuck off …
where’s that “jobs plan” you guys have been spewing on about the last 3 years? …

and let’s not forget crazy eyes bachman, queen of the bagger doucherocket patrol, in all this …

“9/11, Benghazi Were God’s ‘Judgment, So We Must Hold Day Of Prayer On Sept. 11”
“It’s no secret that our nation may very well be experiencing the hand of judgment. It is no secret that we all are concerned that our nation may be in a time of decline. If that is in fact so, what is the answer?” Bachmann asked. “The answer is what we are doing here today: humbling ourselves before an almighty God, crying out to an almighty God, saying not of ourselves but you, would you save us oh God? We repent of our sins, we turn away from them, we seek you, we seek your ways.”…

fuck me, it’s great(?!?) to be back …
the holiday was great, even managed to slay a few dragons and stalk the mighty chinchompa while the chimp and i took our little hiatus, but there’s d-bags to debunk (as always), so it’s back to work …
cya tomorrow …
and yes, the “d-bag of the week” AND the “ass clown of the month” awards are right around the corner

 

UPDATE:

Issa: ‘An Act Of Terror Is Different Than A Terrorist Attack’

(TPM) House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Monday disputed President Barack Obama’s assertion that he attributed last year’s deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya to terrorists, arguing that an “act of terror” is a different characterization than “a terrorist attack.”
“The President sent a letter to the president of Libya were he didn’t call it a terrorist attack even when in real time the president of Libya was calling this a pre-planned Sept. 11 terrorist attack,” Issa said during an interview with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. “So I think when you look at official correspondence from the President through the acting ambassador to the president of Libya, which came out in our hearing and was testified to under oath, the words that are being used carefully — like you just said, act of terror — an act of terror is different than a terrorist attack.

hip holiday update

after a year of wrangling righties, admonishing assholes and debunking douchebags, the chimp and i needed a little break …
so, have no fear we’ll be back shortly for another year of doucherocket blastin’, zealot bashin’ and propaganda crashin’ diatribes and rants …
with a little news tossed in for good measure …
we just needed to kick back a bit, maybe slay a few dragons, wrestle a shark or two and hunt the mighty chinchompa …
just good clean fun bobby … just good clean fun …
so, cya soon …

cispa … round two

Every Representative Who Voted for CISPA, and How to Contact Them
The United States legislative system won’t always give you what you want. A lot of times, it’ll give you the exact opposite. Like CISPA for instance. But the real beauty of it all is transparency; if you don’t feel adequately represented it’s a piece of cake to figure out exactly who to yell at.
And in the spirit of yelling, here’s a comprehensive list of every Representative who just voted yea on CISPA, hot and fresh from the House.
Republicans in roman, Democrats in italics; this was a bipartisan affair.

Aderholt
Alexander
Amodei
Bachus
Barber
Barletta
Barr
Barrow (GA)
Barton
Beatty
Benishek
Bera (CA)
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Black
Bonner
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Brown (FL)
Brownley (CA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Burgess
Bustos
Butterfield
Calvert
Camp
Campbell
Cantor
Capito
Cárdenas
Carney
Carter
Cassidy
Castor (FL)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Coble
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Conaway
Connolly
Cook
Cooper
Costa
Cotton
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Cuellar
Culberson
Daines
Denham
Dent
DesJarlais
Deutch
Diaz-Balart
Dingell
Duckworth
Duffy
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Enyart
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foster
Foxx
Frankel (FL)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Fudge
Gallego
Garamendi
Garcia
Gardner
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gingrey (GA)
Goodlatte
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guthrie
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hanna
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (FL)
Hastings (WA)
Heck (NV)
Heck (WA)
Hensarling
Higgins
Himes
Horsford
Hoyer
Hudson
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Israel
Issa
Jeffries
Jenkins
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Joyce
Kaptur
Kelly (IL)
Kelly (PA)
Kilmer
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kirkpatrick
Kline
Kuster
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Langevin
Lankford
Larsen (WA)
Latham
Latta
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Luján, Ben Ray (NM)
Lummis
Maffei
Maloney, Sean
Marino
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul
McHenry
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
Meehan
Meeks
Meng
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Moran
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (FL)
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Noem
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Owens
Palazzo
Pastor (AZ)
Paulsen
Payne
Pearce
Perlmutter
Perry
Peters (CA)
Peterson
Petri
Pittenger
Pitts
Poe (TX)
Pompeo
Price (GA)
Quigley
Radel
Rahall
Rangel
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Richmond
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Royce
Ruiz
Runyan
Ruppersberger
Ryan (WI)
Salmon
Sanchez, Loretta
Scalise
Schneider
Schock
Schrader
Schwartz
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Scott, David
Sessions
Sewell (AL)
Shuster
Simpson
Sinema
Sires
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Southerland
Stewart
Stivers
Stutzman
Swalwell (CA)
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Titus
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walorski
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
Young (IN)

Well ain’t that a list? If you don’t know your Representative off-hand (for shame!), there’s a handy website just for that; all you need is a zip code. And from there, you can look up phone numbers in this directory and yell at them. It’s too late to do much besides that, but might as well, right? And hey, maybe call your Senators too, before the vote. And your mother, she’d love to hear from you. Get all your yelling done first though.

betrayal

It ended in a flash. Months of work aimed at revamping the nation’s gun laws prompted by one of the worst shooting tragedies in U.S. history met an inglorious conclusion on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.
Every single measure pushed by President Barack Obama — expanded background checks, a strengthened federal gun trafficking statute, limits on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines — failed to receive the necessary 60 votes to prevent a filibuster. By the time all seven amendments (including those sponsored by Republicans) had been rejected, family members of gun violence victims were left sorrowed, the president was left seething and advocates for the bills were left searching for explanations.

here’s the assholes who betrayed the american people …

as john “mcgrumpypants” mccain was so fond of saying in his desperate, sad, lie filled and failed attempt to win the whitehouse in 2008 …
”you shall know their names” …
well, these are the assholes who voted against an amendment proposed by sens. joe manchin (D-W.Va.) and pat toomey (R-Pa.) to require background checks for commercial gun sales …
(not even covering sales between “friends and neighbors.”  for christ’s sakes) …
these are the assholes who betrayed 91% of the american people yesterday …
if you ever had any doubt that these self serving doucherockets work for anyone but themselves and their corporate benefactors, well, lay that idiocy to rest once and for all…
so … know their names, and tell yer’ friends …
Lamar Alexander (ASSHOLE-TN)
Kelly Ayotte (ASSHOLE-NH)
John Barrasso (ASSHOLE-WY)
Max Baucus (ASSHOLE-MT)
Mark Begich (ASSHOLE-AK)
Roy Blunt (ASSHOLE-MO)
John Boozman (ASSHOLE-AR)
Richard Burr (ASSHOLE-NC)
Saxby Chambliss (ASSHOLE-GA)
Dan Coats (ASSHOLE-IN)
Tom Coburn (ASSHOLE-OK)
Thad Cochran (ASSHOLE-MS)
Bob Corker (ASSHOLE-TN)
John Cornyn (ASSHOLE-TX)
Mike Crapo (ASSHOLE-ID)
Ted Cruz (ASSHOLE-TX)
Michael Enzi (ASSHOLE-WY)
Deb Fischer (ASSHOLE-NE)
Jeff Flake (ASSHOLE-AZ)
Lindsey Graham (ASSHOLE-SC)
Chuck Grassley (ASSHOLE-IA)
Orrin Hatch (ASSHOLE-UT)
Heidi Heitkamp (ASSHOLE-ND)
Dean Heller (ASSHOLE-NV)
John Hoeven (ASSHOLE-ND)
Jim Inhofe (ASSHOLE-OK)
Johnny Isakson ASSHOLE-GA)
Mike Johanns (ASSHOLE-NE)
Ron Johnson (ASSHOLE-WI)
Mike Lee (ASSHOLE-UT)
Mitch McConnell (ASSHOLE AND DOUCHEROCKET IN CHIEF-KY)
Jerry Moran (ASSHOLE-KS)
Lisa Murkowski (ASSHOLE-AK)
Rand Paul (ASSHOLE-KY)
Rob Portman (ASSHOLE-OH)
Mark Pryor (ASSHOLE-AR)
James Risch (ASSHOLE-ID)
Pat Roberts (ASSHOLE-KS)
Marco Rubio (ASSHOLE-FL)
Timothy Scott (ASSHOLE-SC)
Jeff Sessions (ASSHOLE-AL)
Richard Shelby (ASSHOLE-AL)
John Thune (ASSHOLE-SD)
David Vitter (ASSHOLE-LA)
Roger Wicker (ASSHOLE-MS)

Harry Reid (D-NV) *
* just proving once again how fucked up the senate and it’s rules are, Harry Reid (D-NV)  had to vote “no” as a “procedural move” to preserve an option to reintroduce the bill.

thx to the gang over at urantian sojourn for the pic and list …

nope for change

President Obama Proposes a Bigger Hit to Seniors Than he does to the Rich
President Obama’s proposal would reduce benefits by 0.3 percent for each year after a worker retires. After ten years benefits would be cut by 3.0 percent, after twenty years 6.0 percent, and after 30 years 9.0 percent. Over a twenty year retirement, the average cut would be 3.0 percent.
This cut would be a bigger hit to the typical retiree’s income than President Obama’s tax increases at the end of 2012 were… A couple earning $500,000 a year would pay an additional 4.6 percentage points on income above $450,000. This would amount to $2,300 a year (4.6 percent of $50,000). That is less than 0.5 percent of their pre-tax income and around a 0.6 percent reduction in their after-tax income.
By comparison, Social Security is about 70 percent of the income of a typical retiree. Since Obama’s proposal would lead to a 3 percent cut in Social Security benefits, it would reduce the income of the typical retiree by more than 2.0 percent, more than three times the size of the hit from the tax increase to the wealthy.

read more here …

genetic roulette

When the US government ignored repeated warnings by its own scientists and allowed untested genetically modified (GM) crops into our environment and food supply, it was a gamble of unprecedented proportions. The health of all living things and all future generations were put at risk by an infant technology. After two decades, physicians and scientists have uncovered a grave trend. The same serious health problems found in lab animals, livestock, and pets eating GM foods are now on the rise in the US population. And when people and animals stop eating genetically modified organisms (GMOs), their health improves. This seminal documentary provides compelling evidence to help explain the deteriorating health of Americans, especially children, and offers a recipe for protecting ourselves and our future.

to watch the full unabridged version of this movie CLICK HERE …

exxon … “trust us, we know what we’re doing”

tens of thousands of gallons of oil have flooded the streets and yards of mayflower, arkansas …
the exxon tar sands oil spill is just small taste of what we would surely see if the keystone xl pipeline is approved … it’s not if, it’s when when it comes to these spills …
history has proven that …
over and over …
the media is being kept away from this spill …
in the video you can see that exxon’s plan to clean it up consists mostly of hoses and paper towels …
exxon’s clean-up plan calls for deploying several thousand yards of bright colored booms …
that way it’ll look like they’re actually doing something …
but, if you just think back to the gulf disaster, well, we all saw how effective these same old, antiquated and useless strategies proved to be …
worth noting: the obama administration is committed to drilling for oil in the arctic, despite enormous risks to the pristine marine environment and ecosystems …
really mr. president? …
wtf could you possibly be thinking? …
and now with the keystone xl project these assholes want to run this poison across the ogallala aquifer, the largest aquifer on the planet, supplying the water needs for literally millions of american citizens, on top of the environmental disaster it’s already done to canada …
this cannot be allowed to happen …
it MUST be stopped …
STOP KEYSTONE!!!

and remember …
love canal
times beach
centralia
prince william sound
cuyahoga river
uranium tailings on the navajo reservations (grand canyon)
hanford
three mile island
bhopal
chernobyl
fukushima
gulf of mexico (bp)
the exxon valdez
the list goes on …
and if these aren’t enough to change your mind, then CLICK HERE …
 

o’ canada, stand on guard for something … please?

harper … “science schmience” …

Harper Defends UN Desert Convention Pull Out

The Harper government was accused Thursday of trying to avoid a reckoning on the science of climate change by pulling Canada out of a United Nations convention that fights the spread of droughts.
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper insisted Canada was withdrawing from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification because the program has proven too bureaucratic.

Harper said less than one-fifth of the $350,000 Canada contributes to the convention goes to programming, while Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird branded the whole process a “talkfest” that does a disservice to Canadian taxpayers.

“Eighteen per cent of the funds that we send it are actually spent on programming,” the prime minister said during question period.

“The rest goes to various bureaucratic measures…. It’s not an effective way to spend taxpayers’ money.”
The decision would make Canada the only country in the world outside the agreement, which Ottawa ratified in 1995, and whose participants include 194 countries and the European Union — the entire UN.
The government’s decision to pull Canada out of the convention came just one month before a major scientific gathering to be hosted by the Bonn-based secretariat of the UN convention.
The meeting would have forced Canada to confront scientific analysis on the effects of climate change, droughts and encroaching deserts. The Harper government has been vilified an as outlier on climate change policy in past international meetings.
“Anything that they’re involved in that can lead to more evidence that we’re a planet in crisis environmentally they don’t want to be part of,” said Maude Barlow, head of the Council of Canadians and the author of a forthcoming book on global droughts.

“They simply do not want this information coming forward.”

huffington post

it must be something in the water …

On the “Rick Mercer Report,” the CBC comedian attacked Harper and the Tories for shutting down the Experimental Lakes research station (ELA) in Ontario and for the party’s attitude towards science and scientists.
Mercer is far from the first to criticize the Conservatives for shutting down the ELA. In a blog post for HuffPost in July, David Suzuki cited the move as proof Harper prefers fake lakes to real ones, referencing the infamous fake lake pavilion for the Muskoka G8 meeting in 2010.
The NDP also roundly denounced the closure when it was announced. Fisheries critic Robert Chisholm said the “decision represents death by a thousand cuts to our scientific community.”
The Tories have also been taking fire of late on another water issue, this one related to the government’s second piece of omnibus budget implementation legislation, Bill C-45.
The Navigable Waters Protection Act is being changed in the bill so it will apply to fewer bodies of water, in what the Tories say is a bid to make the system more efficient. The NDP have relentlessly attacked the Conservatives on the issue in question period since the bill was introduced.

The NDP was also quick to criticize alterations made to the government’s own “Frequently Asked Questions” regarding the changes to the Act. The website FAQs originally stated the changes reflect the government’s “ongoing concern towards maintaining the safety of public navigation and the environment,” but the word environment was subsequently removed, something NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair called “Orwellian.”

The Tories have maintained the Act has nothing to do with the environment and that the word was mistakenly included on the website.

The conclusion of Mercer’s rant leaves little to mistake regarding his stance on protecting Canada’s water.
“When I think about what makes Canada great, fresh water is right at the top of the list. We have over two million lakes in this country and more than enough people who are willing to mess with them,” Mercer said. “My Canada includes weird scientists who are devoted to keeping our water clean. When we stand up and we sing O Canada, we pledge to stand on guard for thee. If that doesn’t include our water, we might as well sit down and give up.”
huffington post from the canadian press

now, pass the ham!

happy zombie jeebus day! …

and now, for your easter viewing pleasure …

the united states of monsanto

President Obama has filled key posts with Monsanto people, in federal agencies that wield tremendous force in food issues, the USDA and the FDA …
At the USDA, as the director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto Danforth Center.
As deputy commissioner of the FDA, the new food-safety-issues czar, the infamous Michael Taylor, former vice-president for public policy for Monsanto. Taylor had been instrumental in getting approval for Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. (are you awake yet?)
As commissioner of the USDA, Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack. Vilsack had set up a national group, the Governors’ Biotechnology Partnership, and had been given a Governor of the Year Award by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, whose members include Monsanto.
As the new Agriculture Trade Representative, who would push GMOs for export, Islam Siddiqui, a former Monsanto lobbyist.
As the new counsel for the USDA, Ramona Romero, who had been corporate counsel for another biotech giant, DuPont.
As the new head of the USAID, Rajiv Shah, who had preciously worked in key positions for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a major funder of GMO agriculture research.
Obama nominated Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court. Kagan, as federal solicitor general, had previously argued for Monsanto in the Monsanto v. Geertson seed case before the Supreme Court.
now, watch this …
and this …