Oil spill: BP had wrong diagram to close blowout preventer

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By Maria Recio, Dave Montgomery and Mark Washburn
McClatchy Newspapers
May 12, 2010

WASHINGTON — In the days after an oil well spun out of control in the Gulf of Mexico, BP engineers tried to activate a huge piece of underwater safety equipment but failed because the device had been so altered that diagrams BP got from the equipment’s owner didn’t match the supposedly failsafe device’s configuration, congressional investigators said Wednesday.

The oil well also failed at least one critical pressure test on the day that gas surged up the drill pipe and set the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig aflame, killing 11 and setting off a spill that has spewed 210,000 gallons of crude into the gulf every day for three weeks, according to BP documents provided to congressional investigators.

via Oil spill: BP had wrong diagram to close blowout preventer | McClatchy

Michael Hudson: This is terrible news. No economy has ever grown as a result of austerity

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AlJazeeraEnglish

May 12, 2010 — Can a unified currency work, or would the taxpayers in the rich EU states end up paying for the blunders of corrupt politicians and bankers?

Anti-communist mania, by William Blum

by William Blum
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
12 May, 2010

Terminally-dumb people have always been with us of course. It can’t be that we’ve suddenly gone stupid.

If you shake your head and roll your eyes at the nonsense coming out of the Teabagger followers of Sarah “Africa is a country” Palin and other intellectual giants like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh … If you have thoughts of moving abroad after the latest silly lies and fantasies like “Obama the Marxist” and “Obama the antichrist” … If you share Noam Chomsky’s feeling: “I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime” … keep in mind that the right wing has long been at least as stupid and as mean-spirited. Consider some of the behavior of the same types for half a century during the Cold War with its beloved — albeit imaginary — “International Communist Conspiracy”.

Philip A. Farruggio: Apathy among the church-goers

by Philip A. Farruggio
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
12 May, 2010

photo by Dandelion Salad

Would he not condemn those who torture, or order torture, or attempt to justify it? Would he not intercede when a priest asks his flock to ‘pray for our brave troops‘, but never the civilians being killed by our troops, our stray bombs or IEDs? Would Jesus not question as to why our innocent soldiers were even sent to Iraq? — Philip A. Farruggio

The Ugly Truth Podcast May 10, 2010

Philip Farruggio, anti-war, progressive activist joins us for a great discussion dealing with the topic of American apathy.

France: Ban on Muslim Burka a Cynical Ploy to Stoke Islamophobia by Finian Cunningham

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by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Finian.cunningham@gmail.com
12 May, 2010

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is playing with fire after his country’s parliament voted to ban Muslim women from wearing the Islamic veil in public places.

Last month, Sarkozy ordered the French parliament to debate introducing a ban on Muslim women donning in public the garment known as the burka or nijab, which covers the face except for the eyes.

This week, 11 May, the French parliament voted unanimously – after 30 communist deputies walked out in protest – to condemn the practice of Muslim women wearing the burka publicly. The ban is expected to become law later this year. France will be the second European country after Belgium to introduce such legislation that in effect criminalises Muslims over their choice of dress, which is seen as a symbol of religious devotion.

As Karzai Visits Washington D.C., Kucinich Says: End the War, Rebuild America

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by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Washington, May 12, 2010

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement on the Floor of the House of Representatives concerning Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s visit to Washington:

“Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in Washington this week seeking another $33 billion to keep the war going and meeting with the White House to present his so-called “peace” proposal to allocate $160 million from international donors to fund new government bodies, pay off insurgents who agree to stop fighting and to undermine efforts to establish local governance.

George W. Bush Bankrupts His Home in Dallas, by Sean Fenley (Satire)

by Sean Fenley
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
The Anything and Everything
May 12, 2010

Reports are cascading in today, via the newswires, that George W. Bush has reputedly continued unabated in his perpetual free fall upward. A multitude of news outlets have apparently reported that Bush’s wife Laura, told a local news publication, that he had now bankrupted their palatial estate. Fresh off bankrupting the most powerful nation on the planet, George W. Bush has plummeted and plundered the resources of his eminently cosy Northern Texas home. What can one say, except that the man is less than a virtuoso with general competency, and in particular budgetary acumen and sophistication!

Love Police ruins Conservative Party Press Statement + Interpol: C’mere

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cveitch

May 11, 2010 — song is “C’mere” by Interpol….

This was filmed a few hours before the Queen accepted their new government! LOL