Quote for the Day (Real Genius Division)

"We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. ... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that." -- Thomas Edison

Remember?

Safety first, or at least SOMEWHERE on the list . . . .

(Via Huffington Post)

SAN FRANCISCO — Transocean Ltd. gave its top executives bonuses for achieving the "best year in safety performance in our company's history" – despite the explosion of its oil rig that killed 11 people and spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The company said in a regulatory filing that its most senior managers were given two thirds of their total possible safety bonus.

Transocean noted "the tragic loss of life" in the Gulf when the rig operated by BP PLC exploded last April. But it said the company still had an "exemplary" safety record because it met or exceeded certain internal safety targets concerning the frequency and severity of its accidents, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

Safety accounts for a quarter of the executives' total cash bonuses. The total bonus for CEO Steve Newman last year was $374,062.

According to calculations by The Associated Press, the total value the company assigned to Newman's compensation package was $5.8 million.

That figure includes an $850,000 base salary – a 34 percent increase from the prior year; perquisites of $622,057, which includes housing and vacation allowances, among other things; and the $374,062 bonus. Also included in the figure are stock options valued at $1.9 million and deferred shares valued at $2 million when those awards were granted in March 2010.

Transocean's Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion on April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and set off the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

These people don't even care anymore what the rest of us think of this kind of thing. It's basically an upraised middle finger to the families of those who died and the residents of the gulf. If this was the best year in safety performance, what would the worst look like?

They hate us for our freedom

Oh, and also because of this kind of thing:

(Via Atrios)

Only an expert

Laurie Anderson with one of her latest:

Our American System

Time after time lately, it appears that no matter what the horrible blow that a corporation strikes against people (the banking meltdown, outsourcing, denial of healthcare coverage, BP oil disaster, etc.), there are minimal consequences at most. It fact, much of the time the companies involved wind up giving bonuses to their top officers, while the people affected either suffer the damages in shadowy anonymity or go down the tubes without any attention from the media or the powers that be.

BP talks condescendingly about the "small people" it supposedly cares about, while it works to conceal how bad the oil disaster it caused is. Unemployment pushes close to 10%, with no sign of getting any better anytime soon, and there's barely a blip on the radar screens of our public discourse, while the deficit becomes the cause du jour. Rich owners who walk away from real estate investments are considered good businesspeople, while homeowners who try the same thing are considered immoral. And the bankers are bailed out with money from the taxpayers while refusing to reduce loan interest rates to the people who paid for the bailout.

This is life in modern America. "We the people" have become the great unwashed masses to the politicians, media, and corporate entities who suck their sustenance out of our lives. They may give us a few crumbs now and then, but even the barest of consideration, such as extending unemployment, is considered extravagant, while trillion dollar bailouts and war budgets are passed without a blink.

This is one of the reasons I haven't written much here lately. I find myself becoming cynical and feeling defeated. Not the best source of thoughts to express. It may change soon, but I don't feel very hopeful now.

When BP Spills Coffee

(Via Talking Points Memo)

Isn't It?: BP Edition

Quote for the Day (Are you listening BP? Division)

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.  - Douglas Adams

Here's a thought:

Any guesses on what kind of bonuses BP execs are going to be getting this year?

Jesus H. Fuck, what a friggin' mess.

We knead the dough at the birdhaus

Yes, it's bread time again. It starts, appropriately enough, with a gooey, smelly glop called starter, shown here in it's messy recycled jar. It's active (if not attractive), having been taken out and fed the night before.

It is mixed with a mass of ingredients, beaten to a kneaded pulp. And then placed in a covered, oiled bowl for the night. I use a porcelain coated bowl, as I understand metal with affect the starter. Superstition?

The dough is then place in loaf pans (some of which are metal, so there goes the whole don't use metal thing), and then allowed to rise a second time. Not quite as long this time---about six hours. I then score the tops with a sharp knife and into the oven they go.

After about 35 minutes out they go onto cooling racks. I let them cool entirely before slicing or freezing.

Lemme tell ya, they are quite yummy. I've got the starter really going strong, and it rises better than any yeast I've ever used.

Friday Random 10 plus 6

I know it's a little late in the day for this, but I feel like i owe it to my fans: all one or so of you. A random selection of tunes from my iMac, chosen by the Party Shuffle function in iTunes with no editing allowed (honest!)

Pontiac/Tom Waits/Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards

Girls/Eleni Mandell/Miracle of Five

So Easy/Reigning Sound/Too Much Guitar

Wasted Union Blues/It`s a Beautiful Day/It`s A Beautiful Day

Mean Town Blues/Johnny Winter/Woodstock:Three Days of Peace and Music (Disc 3)

Setting Vs. Rising/Sunset Rubdown/Random Spirit Lover

Orbiting/The Weepies/Hideaway

Sydney/Puddle Of Mudd/Life On Display

Boy With A Coin/Iron & Wine/The Shepherd's Dog_

Sweat/Tool/Opiate

Home To You/Seatrain/Seatrain

Opera Singer/Cake/Comfort Eagle

Oddball (aka "Rumble")/Link Wray & The Ray Men/Cadence

Jesus Was A Terrorist/Jello Biafra and NoMeansNo/The Sky Is Falling & I Want My Mom

Bone Machine/Pixies/Fine Line Music Cafe Minneapolis, Minnesota 2004-04-13 Disc 1

Cake is one of my favorite groups, plus they have an excellent quote on their web site now: "I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that." -- Sarah Palin. Now that's mainstream! Praise the Lord and pass the 30 weight!

It's about time!

While I do some occasional commentary on the political scene, I usually don't go into a lot of analysis of the news---I leave that to those more qualified than me and then reprint their stuff. But this recent flap over Obama's remarks concerning things we as individuals can do to alleviate some of the gas problems we have been facing seems to point to something quite obvious, but which I haven't seen in most of these commentaries about it.

The way McCain and the Republicans have been ridiculing Obama, using tire gauges and sarcasm, betrays a fundamental difference between the two men, and between the old politics and new politics. The McCains and Bushes of this country want us to feel helpless and scared---there is nothing we as individuals can do to change the dangerous and costly things of this world. We need Big Daddy (politicos, corporations, government) to save us from these things. Oh, don't worry about trying to take mass transit or getting a smaller car, we can solve it all with BIG SOLUTIONS (war, oil drilling, nuclear reactors.) This leaves the general populace feeling weak and impotent, and forces us to look for centralized solutions that cost more money and eventually are ineffective and lead to more problems.

Obama says "Yes, we need to look for some big solutions, but all of us must take part in this." Big Daddy has never saved us, and in fact Big Daddy is a drunken and abusive lout. Big Daddy IS THE PROBLEM!!! We all need to work together on this, and together we can solve it. By inflating our tires to a proper pressure and tuning our cars up, we can save more gas than drilling in this country will get us RIGHT NOW!!! Of course, no big companies make any money on that (in fact, they make less), but it's an immediate action all of us can take. And that is power to the people.

This difference is a difference that could change the whole dynamic of this country, from a corporate oligarchy to a participatory democracy. Make fun if you will, but the times they are a changin' . . . .

It's about time!

What's the opposite of perceptive? Dubya is!

(Via Crooks and Liars)

Q What’s your advice to the average American who is hurting now, facing the prospect of $4 a gallon gasoline, a lot of people facing —

THE PRESIDENT: Wait, what did you just say? You’re predicting $4 a gallon gasoline?

Q A number of analysts are predicting —

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yeah?

Q — $4 a gallon gasoline this spring when they reformulate.

THE PRESIDENT: That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that.

This is from a press conference on February 28, just a little over three months ago. The saddest part of this is that the way the question is phrased, the reporter was asking what Bush would tell the average Joe or Jill who is going to be affected by this reality, and Bush basically says he doesn't really know---or care. What an utter asshole.

God, please let this end SOON!!!

The truth is finally coming out, sort of . . . .

"Doh!"

(Via truthout.org)

At the conclusion of a town hall held this morning outside in Denver, McCain decided to toss in a plug for his upcoming energy policy rollout. But in the midst of decrying the dangers of Americans reliance on foreign oil, McCain seemed to suggest that this reliance caused the current struggle in Iraq.

"My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will - that will then prevent us - that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East," McCain said.

The problem with lying is that you have to remember who you said what too. We were told that we went into Iraq to find WMDs---NO, to depose Hussein---I MEAN, to bring democracy to the Middle east---Oh, shit, yeah, it was the oil all along.

The Best Supreme Court Money Can Buy

(Via Think Progress)

Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on how much money ExxonMobil should be forced to pay as damages for its Exxon Valdez oil spill 19 years ago. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank notes that Chief Justice John Roberts appeared “bothered” that Exxon might have to pay for its destruction:

What bothered the chief justice was that Exxon was being ordered to pay $2.5 billion — roughly three weeks’ worth of profits — for destroying a long swath of the Alaska coastline in the largest oil spill in American history.

“So what can a corporation do to protect itself against punitive-damages awards such as this?” Roberts asked in court.

The lawyer arguing for the Alaska fishermen affected by the spill, Jeffrey Fisher, had an idea. “Well,” he said, “it can hire fit and competent people.”

The rare sound of laughter rippled through the august chamber. The chief justice did not look amused.

What bothers me is the perspective Roberts has that this corporate criminal should not be held responsible for its criminality. I guess common sense is not all that amusing anyway.