A former Schlumberger employee who used to be responsible for the company’s response to oil rig blowouts around the world says that whoever ordered the team of engineers off the Deepwater Horizon before they recorded the results of a “cement bond log” test is directly responsible for the ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the wrongful deaths of 11 people.
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It’s one thing for conservatives in red states to oppose Obamacare, but a July 8 Rasmussen poll found that even a majority of voters in deep blue Maryland want to get rid of President Obama’s signature domestic initiative.
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As I reported back in February, the Interior Department has been using a 1964 environmental law to block the Border Patrol from building communications towers along the southwestern border in Arizona. The towers are part of a virtual fence that would be used to intercept illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and human traffickers who are increasingly using protected federal wilderness areas to sneak over the border.
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Nine states, including Virginia, have filed legal briefs in support of Arizona’s new immigration law, arguing that they have preexisting constitutional authority to enforce federal immigration laws within their borders. The filings add political gunpowder to a tense legal showdown between Arizona State officials and the U.S.
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How will the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act affect your state?
The Institute for Energy Research has a new interactive map showing the percentage of carbon-based fuels used by each state. The higher the percentage, the greater the cost if Kerry-Lieberman passes.
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Gary Aguirre, a former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney who was fired in 2005 when he tried to subpoena an elite Wall Street banker, has been vindicated. The SEC agreed to pay Aguirre $755,000 to settle his wrongful termination case before the Merit Systems Protection Board in what is described as the largest settlement of its kind.
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Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. The most damning argument against confirming Kagan was not made by Republicans, but by Harvard graduate student Pete Hegseth, executive director of Vets for Freedom.
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Politico reports that Sarah Palin’s fundraising group “steps into the big leagues” by raising $866,000 in the second quarter – the highest amount since SarahPAC was formed in January 2009. Palin’s aggressive fundraising, and her recent endorsement of a number of winning conservative women candidates in recent primaries, means the top Republican “mama grizzly” can’t be ruled out as a presidential candidate in 2012.
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ProPublica’s “Recovery Tracker” has an interesting chart listing how much federal stimulus funding went to each state, juxtaposed with that state’s rate of unemployment from 2008 to 2010. Remember, the main purpose of President Obama’s $850 billion stimulus package was to “save or create jobs,” and Obama’s economic team went even further to claim it would create jobs.
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That’s the title of a Chicago Tribune editorial, noting with disdain that during the worst fiscal crisis in Illinois history, and with a $4.7 billion backlog of unpaid bills, Democratic Governor Pat Quinn rewarded his staff with pay raises as high as 20 percent – while telling his constituents to “share the sacrifice.”
There are about 12 million people in Illinois. The state debt is $11 billion. Put another way, Illinois now owes about $916 for each state resident.
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Americans are on to President Obama’s attempt to use the BP oil spill as an excuse to pass his highly unpopular cap-and-trade legislation.
At a recent meeting at the White House, the president told 23 senators that they must put a price tag on carbon emissions. “The president was very clear about putting a price on carbon and limiting greenhouse gas emissions,” said Senator John Kerry, co-sponsor of the Kerry-Lieberman bill that would do just that.
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Tony West, the lead attorney in the Obama administration’s lawsuit against the State of Arizona’s immigration law, is among the controversial Department of Justice appointees who made their names by defending terrorists after 9/11.
West once volunteered to represent “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh. Lindh was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 and is now serving a 20-year sentence for collaborating with al-Qaeda.
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America’s long-term financial future has worsened since last year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And the torrent of red ink from massive overspending that created a $1.3 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2010 is the real reason congressional Democrats are afraid to pass a budget this year.
As of June 1, the “Total Public Debt Outstanding” – which includes intra-government obligations such as Social Security – hit $13 trillion, or approximately 88.9 percent of GDP.
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Monday’s Supreme Court ruling striking down Chicago’s gun ban stole all of the headlines, leaving another critical court decision largely unnoticed. But the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s successful challenge to a section of the 2002 Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) Act is another triumph for strict constructionists. It also offers hope for beleaguered companies already struggling under heavy-handed government regulation.
CEI’s Free Enterprise Fund filed the original lawsuit on behalf of Brad Beckstead, a Nevada accountant whose two-person accounting firm was being strangled by red tape.
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Markos Moulitsas, founder of the liberal Daily Kos blog, says he is suing Olney-based Research 2000 for allegedly fabricating weekly poll results after three “statistics wizards” questioned them. Based on concerns raised by self-described political consultant Mark Grebner, retired physicist Michael Weissman and wildlife research technician Jonathan Weissman, “it’s clear that we did not get what we paid for,” Moulitsas wrote on his website.
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URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/people/barbara-hollingsworth?page=10
