‘Obama Deceives the Public’

Ellsberg: For Obama to indict and prosecute Drake now, for acts undertaken and investigated during the Bush administration, is to do precisely what Obama said he did not mean to do — “look backward.” Of all the blatantly criminal acts committed under Bush, warrantless wiretapping by the NSA, aggression, torture, Obama now prosecutes only the revelation of massive waste by the NSA, a socially useful act which the Bush administration itself investigated but did not choose to indict or prosecute!

Ellsberg: He’s a good politician. He said what he needed to say to get elected, and now he’s just taking advantage of the office. Like any administration before, his administration caters to the profits of big corporations like BP and Goldman Sachs — even though I think BP won’t get off that easily this time. His early campaign contributions, the big corporate contributions, came from Wall Street. They got their money’s worth.

At everyone else’s expense.

Sharron Angle: Nevada Candidate Already Providing Treasure Chest Of Goodies For Harry Reid

There was noticeable glee among supporters of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) Tuesday night. The upset victory of Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle in the Nevada Republican primary ensures that the subsequent months of campaigning will be fought as much over her record as his.

By Wednesday morning, the flood of opposition research on Angle had burst wide open. Talking Points Memo reported that Angle once “spoke out strongly against fluoride, the substance known alternately for improving dental health and as a Communist plot to undermine Western democracy.” Prior to that, The Plum Line’s Greg Sargent pointed to an interview that Angle gave to Liberty Watch magazine in February 2010, in which she suggested support for making alcohol consumption illegal. Reid’s campaign, Sargent added, was planning to paint Angle as, essentially, crazy.

You have to think that mainstream GOP bigs loathe the Tea Party, particularly when one of them manages to win a primary. All this woman does is give long time congress creep Harry Reid back his seat, because Angle is, well, batshit crazy, and seemingly wrapped in the warm glow of truthiness about an America that only exists in the fevered brain meat of the true believers.

Will BP File for Bankruptcy to Evade Responsibility?

I’ve been wondering when this would come up:

Some people will lose their jobs in such a deal, but they’ll be well compensated. The lawsuits will be tied up in court for years. The wells will belong to someone else and the beat will still go on. Good plan.

Put ‘em in jail. Get all the money, then jail ‘em. Then maybe the next time some bonus check baby decides to cut a few corners on maintenance or safety inspections, his nuts will tighten just a bit at the prospect of spending a few years dancing in the showers.

But I must be high. This is America. Business Uber Alles. The franckin’ CEO of BP will end up as a judge on American fucking Idol before its all done.

Early signs of gloom for Orly Taitz in California

Despite plenty of hype over the past 24 hours, early California returns have birther movement activist Orly Taitz losing badly in the GOP primary for California Secretary of State. Votes are being counted quickly in voter-rich Los Angeles and San Diego County, where she’s losing by a 3-1 margin — just about the margin in the rest of the state.

She ended up losing 74% to 25%. Now you’ve lost in the courts and the voting booth. Will you please shut your dingbat mouth now?

The Real Threat Aboard the Freedom Flotilla
By Noam Chomsky

Israel’s violent attack on the Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza shocked the world.

Today, the cruel legacy of a failed peace lives on.

Hedges: The Christian Fascists Are Growing Stronger

Tens of millions of Americans, lumped into a diffuse and fractious movement known as the Christian right, have begun to dismantle the intellectual and scientific rigor of the Enlightenment. They are creating a theocratic state based on “biblical law,” and shutting out all those they define as the enemy. This movement, veering closer and closer to traditional fascism, seeks to force a recalcitrant world to submit before an imperial America. It champions the eradication of social deviants, beginning with homosexuals, and moving on to immigrants, secular humanists, feminists, Jews, Muslims and those they dismiss as “nominal Christians”—meaning Christians who do not embrace their perverted and heretical interpretation of the Bible. Those who defy the mass movement are condemned as posing a threat to the health and hygiene of the country and the family. All will be purged.

So many, so wrong.

A terrorist state cheers its own brutality.

Oh, and you’re fucking welcome for my taxes, jackals.

Despite the devastation BP has caused, about a third of conservatives view the oil giant favorably

As oil from BP’s Deepwater Horizon well makes its way deep into the marshes of the Gulf Coast, and the wildlife toll mounts, the company announced today that cleanup costs have already reached $1.25 billion and are growing quickly. Given this devastation, it’s not surprising that a vast majority of Americans — 72 percent — now have a negative view of the company, a new Rasmussen poll found. However, 22 percent still have a somewhat or very favorable view of the foreign oil giant. EnviroKnow examined the crosstabs from the poll and found that this group of BP supporters is made up disproportionately of conservatives:

Given conservatives’ almost religious devotion to offshore drilling, perhaps this is not surprising. While a majority of Americans now believe increased offshore drilling is “too risky,” several Republican leaders have called for an immediate expansion of drilling, even before the investigation of the Deepwater Horizon disaster is complete. Meanwhile, evidence mounts that BP flouted safety regulations before the disaster, and there are legitimate questions about the sincerity of BP’s pledge to pay for all damages from the spill. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, 64 percent of Americans would support a federal decision to pursue criminal charges against the company.

Blind devotion to the caress of the careless whip, that pretty much sums up “conservatives” these days. As long as one of three conditions exist, these relics of a bygone age will support anything that:

Makes money, because one day Joe Sixpack will rise up from the couch in the trailer and invent the iphone

or…

Kills little brown people

or…

Denies basic human rights to people based on gender, sexual orientation, or geography

Yup, if whatever you’re selling hits on one of the trifecta, then your “I know its true because I saw it on Fox” cretin will back it. All the way to the bankrupt grave.

We Bought The Bullets

The bullets used to kill 19-year-old Furkan Dogan, a Turkish-American college student born in Troy, New York, were fired by soldiers in a foreign army — but they were paid for with money extorted from U.S. taxpayers.

Apologists for the Israeli government’s actions insist that the commandos who invaded the Turkish-flagged ships were forced to defend themselves when they found themselves outnumbered by civilians armed with knives and pipes. But just as pirates and armed robbers have surrendered the right to self-defense, the commandos had no moral or legal right to continue their aggression through violent means once they met resistance.

BP buys oil-related search terms to make its official site show up first in search engines.

As BP’s oil disaster continues to ravage the Gulf Coast, the company is ramping up its public relations and legal operations to try to salvage its reputation and protect itself from lawsuits. Now, ABC News is reporting that one such tactic BP is using is purchasing search items that have the word “oil” in them on various search engines to ensure that the first results that appear link directly to BP’s official website:

Reflecting on BP’s latest PR tactic, marketing company executive Scott Slatin tells the Fiscal Times, “While we have seen corporations use search engine marketing to sway opinions, most recently in the health care debate, it is always under the cover of a nonprofit or lobbying organization. This is the first time I have seen a company use this tactic on such a wide scale. And it is very effective, because BP gets its message, ‘Learn more about how BP is helping,’ atop almost every Google search permutation related to the spill, and effectively blocks nonprofits (with much smaller pockets) from getting their message across.”

In a related note, you’re never buying BP gas again, right?