DISASTER IN THE GULF
Experts have their doubts on well’s design
By TOM FOWLER Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

The seeds of destruction for the Deepwater Horizon rig may have been planted well before its drill bits started churning into the earth a mile under the sea.

Engineering plans for the thousands of feet of pipes and joints, which BP filed with federal regulators prior to drilling, made the well particularly susceptible to a major accident, a number of industry experts say. The design left an unobstructed path for highly pressurized natural gas to reach the wellhead should safety systems fail.

One of those systems, the cement pumped between sections of pipe to seal them off from oil and gas, was far from robust, according to testimony and documents. Some tests to assure the integrity of the cement showed mixed results, while another test was simply skipped.

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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385×468191

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#37345907

IG report: Meth, porn use by drilling agency staff
By MATTHEW DALY, AP

WASHINGTON – Staff members at an agency that oversees offshore drilling accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography, according to an Interior Department report alleging a culture of cronyism between regulators and the industry.

In at least one case, an inspector for the Minerals Management Service admitted using crystal methamphetamine and said he might have been under the influence of the drug the next day at work, according to the report by the acting inspector general of the Interior Department.

The report cites a variety of violations of federal regulations and ethics rules at the agency’s Louisiana office. Previous inspector general investigations have focused on inappropriate behavior by the royalty-collection staff in the agency’s Denver office.

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May 25, 2010
For Immediate Release
Contact: Theodore Olson, (202) 955-8500
[Court Filing Attached]

Former Biloxi attorney Paul Minor has filed an appeal of his 2007 conviction with the U.S. Supreme Court. The attached document was filed by Minor’s attorney, former United States Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson-one of the Nation’s premier appellate attorneys and Supreme Court advocates.

Imprisoned since 2006, Mississippi attorney Paul Minor was one of America’s top trial lawyers
when he was convicted in 2007. The prosecution of Minor garnered national attention in 2007
after the United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary detailed the Minor prosecution in public hearings and its final report on selective prosecution within the United States Department of Justice. Earlier this year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned several of Minor’s convictions; his remaining convictions are premised on the “Honest Services” statute-a provision that has been widely criticized as ambiguous and potentially unconstitutional.

Mr. Olson stated, “The open-ended and unclear language of the ‘Honest Services’ statute is inconsistent with the fundamental principle that the public must be able to understand what a
criminal law means. Mr. Minor will ask the Supreme Court to make clear that the vague language
of the ‘Honest Services’ statute cannot be used to criminalize lawful campaign contributions.”

The Minor case raises First Amendment free speech issues concerning campaign contributions
that are similar to the First Amendment issues addressed by the Supreme Court in the Citizens
United decision handed down earlier this year. Mr. Olson and his firm briefed and argued that
case in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Olson has argued 56 cases in the Supreme Court, including Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board and Bush v. Gore, stemming from the 2000 presidential election, and has prevailed in over 75% of those arguments.

MinorCert 1

BP’s Shocking Memo
by Rick Outzen
May 25, 2010 | 12:44pm

A document obtained by The Daily Beast shows that BP, in a previous fatal disaster, increased worker risk to save money. Are there parallels with the Gulf explosion?

This is a story about the Three Little Pigs. A lot of dead oil workers. And British Petroleum.

From the minute the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig exploded, BP has hewed to a party line: it did everything it could to prevent the April 20 accident that killed 11 men and has been spewing millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico ever since. Some critics have questioned the veracity of that position.

Now The Daily Beast has obtained a document-displayed below-that goes to the heart of BP procedures, demonstrating that before the company’s previous major disaster-at a moment when the oil giant could choose between cost-savings and greater safety-it selected cost-savings. And BP chose to illustrate that choice, without irony, by invoking the classic Three Little Pigs fairy tale.

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Criminal Investigations of Massey Energy Go Forward as Citizen Pressure Builds for Prosecution
Kevin Zeese

Over a month ago I wrote urging criminal prosecution of Massey Energy executives for the deaths of coal miners at the Upper Big Branch Mine. Since then more evidence of criminal wrongdoing has been shown and federal prosecutors and the FBI are investigating the corporation and its executives. In addition, citizen pressure urging prosecution is growing, and financial problems for the corporation are showing.

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Part I of the interview with Jean-Baptiste:

http://www.otherworldsarepossible.org/another-haiti-possible/haiti-clock-set-zero

MCM

Haitian Farmers Resist GM Crops, Environmental Destruction
by: Beverly Bell, t r u t h o u t | Interview

Fast-growing plants and used tires in a demonstration garden of the Peasant Movement of Papay. Haiti’s movement of small farmer advocates ecological agriculture as well as policies which protect both the environment and local production. (Photo: Roberto [Bear] Guerra.)

In part II of an interview, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste discusses the role that agriculture can play in Haiti in addressing both the environmental and food crises. (See “The Clock is Set to Zero” for the first part.) Jean-Baptiste is the executive director of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP by its Creole acronym) and the spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Congress of Papay (MPNKP). Until this year, he also sat on the international coordinating committee of Vía Campesina, a confederation of organizations of peasant, family, indigenous and landless farmers from more than 60 countries.

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Report shows close ties between rig inspectors, oil industry
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 25, 2010; 1:17 PM

Inspectors with the Minerals Management Service — charged with enforcing safety and environmental rules on off-shore rigs — routinely took gifts from the companies they were supposed to be policing, including hunting trips, college football tickets and meals, according to a new report.

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The word that’s missing here is propaganda.

MCM

Pentagon tries to steer media coverage on Iraq
By WALTER PINCUS
Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Pentagon may be sharply reducing its combat forces in Iraq, but the military plans to step up efforts to influence media coverage in that country — as well as here at home.

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Get a Grip: Austerity Does Not Produce Prosperity
Robert Kuttner

Austerity has suddenly become the universally prescribed cure for the fallout from the financial collapse. If widely adopted, it will prove worse than the disease.

The price of the rescues of Greece, Spain and Portugal will be brutal deflation. The International Monetary Fund, which supposedly learned from its earlier mistakes of imposing austerity on already damaged economies, is back in cold-bath mode, demanding higher taxes and dramatically reduced spending as its pound of flesh.

The European Central Bank and key leaders of the E.U. are promoting economic pain as the price of relief. Here at home, President Obama has sworn off serious new outlays for jobs or aid to the states, and is using his fiscal commission to pursue a bipartisan consensus on spending cuts and higher taxes.

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