Tar Sands Oil Spill

(Don't ever forget it - to big business, you are expendable)

From Crooks and Liars

Analysis After Tar Sands Spill Finds Benzene as Residents' Health Declines

The Faulkner County Citizens Advisory Group conducted independent tests on the air and water from Lake Conway in response to the Exxon tar sands oil spill, and presented the findings during a Townhall gathering in Mayflower, Arkansas this week. Residents were alarmed by what they heard.

KTHV 11:

    John Hammons lives near an area known as "The Cove," a body of water sitting across from Lake Conway in Mayflower.

    "We can smell it. So I know it's there," Hammons said, who is concerned about his three children and wife, who is seven months pregnant.

    "She's broken out in hives, had nose bleeds, (and) respiratory problems," he explained.

    The Hammons were among a group of concerned people in the area who met for the town hall meeting.

    Chemist Wilma Subra said ExxonMobil is being attentive to those inside the Northwoods subdivision, where thousands of gallons of heavy crude oil spilled nearly one month ago, but others in the area have suffered with little attention.

    "There's a population all around that's been made very, very sick by the emissions," Subra said.

    To evaluate the situation, Subra independently analyzed air and water data captured from the Lake Conway area, claiming the carcinogen Benzene is present in the region.

U.S is becoming a corporatocracy

The power of our corporations is becoming so pervasive that we are becoming a nation, of, by and for big business. Nowhere was this more evident when the big gun lobby won the day in the Senate, defeating background checks for gun control despite overwhelming support of the people.

What's best?

When some conservative tells you that big government is evil and bad for us, ask them, "Then what is good? Where should I put my trust in this world? Big business?"  Because big business wants to make a profit and if it costs you your life, well, you were just a casualty in that pursuit.

You can hold government accountable with your votes, but when it comes to big business, you are helpless.

The Big Business Pledge

From Acerbic Politics

Should We Place More Trust In The Private Sector?

Republicans claim (their actions often belie their words once they get into power) that they hate big government and place their trust in big business. Businesses, their reasoning goes, will prosper when they do a good job and go bankrupt when they fail. But almost never is this true, for big business is all about profit and damn anything or anybody that gets in their way - their eyes on the profit are VERY shortsighted (reference the collapse of our banking system). The following is even further proof of the truth of my words, as if you need any more convincing. This is from Environmental Health News (click on the link to read more).

For 200 years, Randy Mumme’s family has raised cattle on the same plot of southeast Texas land. Then, about 10 years ago, something began to change. His steers were losing weight. Cows were miscarrying; one gave birth to a calf with three legs. Many calves were stillborn.

The family’s ranching practices had not changed over the centuries, but the environment had: His ranch is four miles downwind of large industrial plants that spew tons of carcinogens and other toxic substances into the air. Mumme and other ranchers in Point Comfort suspect the factories are contributing to the ill-health of their cattle.

Now scientists have found DNA evidence that suggests the ranchers’ suspicions might be true, heightening concerns about their cattle as well as their own health.

Tests have revealed that herds as far as six miles downwind of the factories have more DNA disturbances than other herds not downwind, according to scientists at Texas A & M University. The changes in chromosome structure and other genetic damage can increase the animal’s risk of cancer and reproductive damage.

Where Should Our Allegiance Lie?

I marvel daily at the stupidity of Republicans who proclaim in loud, cocksure voices that the salvation of the country lies in the hands of the private sector. They bark, as though they and they alone know the truth, that government screws everything up and that only the robber barons of the privately and publicly owned companies know what is best for us poor middle-class folk. They taunt and mock those liberals who believe that we have a better chance of living a good life if our government takes a strong hand in the economy. And then I read this, from the Guardian, and I know, with great certainty, that we liberals are right.

Dean Herreid's lungs are gradually being destroyed. When he coughs, as he frequently does, his long, wheezing splutter sounds so painful it makes you wince. Herreid lives in Libby, a tiny Rocky Mountain town in Montana that is isolated, beautiful and toxic. Scores of men in this rough-edged, blue collar town have been killed off, poisoned with deadly asbestos from the local mine.
.....
Horrifying stories are emerging at a criminal trial where the corporate giant WR Grace, which owned the mine, is accused of knowingly allowing not only its miners but the entire town to breathe deadly asbestos dust. The US government calls it "the worst case of industrial poisoning of a whole community in American history".

The truth about big business and the private sector is that profit triumphs over all costs. If their need to make money ruins the health of their workers, or even if it costs lives, it is worth protecting the "company." Reflect not only on what I've posted here today as evidence of my point, but also the tainted peanut products scandal of the past few months. The Republican creed is simple - money and wealth over all else.

via Carolina Naturally

Big-Business or the People?

As a certified liberal with my political beliefs formed in my formative years - a liberal church that taught that the Golden Rule was the most important lesson to be taken from the Bible - and a stint as a young-man facing the draft during the Vietnam War era - I simply do not understand those that put selfish interests and big-business above the needs of people. But those people are out there - forming their political beliefs in some other fashion - believing that ensuring the survival and success of big business at the expense of mankind is of paramount importance.



An article in the Washington Post recently highlights the issues that support for wealth and big business raise...

More than 900 cases alleging that government contractors and drugmakers have defrauded taxpayers out of billions of dollars are languishing in a backlog that has built up over the past decade because the Justice Department cannot keep pace with the surge in charges brought by whistle-blowers, according to lawyers involved in the disputes.

The issue is drawing renewed interest among lawmakers and nonprofit groups because many of the cases involve the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rising health-care payouts, and privatization of government functions -- all of which offer rich new opportunities to swindle taxpayers.