¡Somos el número ocho! Vayan, Nuevo Mexico!!!

But only because it's in alphabetical order and "R" comes later.

Here's the CREW list of the nation's worst governors--where "worst" means the ones at the center of the most corruption charges:

Below, you will find a short summary of each Worst Governor's outrageous actions with links to each governor's full report. Note: The list of governors is unranked, and appears in alphabetical order below. Press coverage of CREW's report can be found here.

America's Worst Governors

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)
Gov. Donald Carcieri (R-RI)
Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV)
Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA)
Gov. David Paterson (D-NY)
Gov. Sonny Perdue (R-GA)
Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)
Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM)
Gov. Mike Rounds (R-SD)
Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA)

That's quite a list, and a really stellar pantheon of pimps, punks, and procurers. Big Bill should be proud to be in such fast company. Here's the brief list of particulars concerning the venality and corruption of our own carpet-bagger latifundista:

Bill Richardson (D-NM) was elected governor of New Mexico in 2002 and reelected in 2006. Under the state’s term limits law, he cannot run for reelection in 2010.

Charges:

Used state investments to benefit political allies
Allowed pay-to-play scandals to plague his administration
Rewarded close associates with state positions or benefits, including providing a longtime friend and political supporter with a costly state contract
Failed to make state government more transparent

Seems pretty petty and trifling next to Sanford, Paterson and/or Gibbons...Crew explains:

CREW reviewed the job performance of all 50 of our nation’s governors to determine which are the worst. We considered whether governors had violated ethics, campaign finance and personal financial disclosure rules as well as whether they had complied with state transparency laws. It is nearly impossible to compare governors’ adherence to the laws because state rules and laws vary so widely. Each state has its own ethical rules and standards. Requirements regarding disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures and personal finances differ significantly as do state open records laws. Some states make much more information publicly available than others.

Despite these difficulties, CREW was been able to reach some general conclusions about which governors violated agreed upon notions of competence, transparency and integrity.

So Bill's just 'another dirty pol.'

"The Tyranny of Oil.": How The Richest CorpoRats Bought The World

Antonia Juhazs' book tour; She's a REALLY smart gal:

The "Twitter" Critique of Capital (in 140-character bites!)

By Cynthia Boaz, via HuffPo :

I've thought a lot about it & have concluded that market capitalism is actually conducive to evil. It's not just a talking point.

Here's why. The system requires winners AND losers. It is- by design- zero sum. This creates two serious moral problems.

The 1st moral dilemma of capitalism is that it demands that its adherents not only have stake in their own wins, but in your losses.

That is the seedy underbelly of competition. Winning at any cost. Depriving my opponent of whatever I must, even dignity or life.

The other moral dilemma of capitalism creates & perpetuates what is basically a form of mental illness in people with consciences.

No person of conscience can enjoy the spoils of wealth/capitalism without some guilt.

But that same person also realizes it is impossible to see that everyone shares in the wealth of the system. There MUST be losers.

So the natural instinct in a painful situation that seems impossible to change is to go into denial.

We disconnect from the humanity of other people. We withdraw into our own small worlds and justify it as fair or right.

And we console ourselves by saying if others were as righteous as us, they would have what we do. They must deserve suffering!

This entire endeavor puts our souls in peril.

Capitalism has serious potential to do damage to our capacity for empathy and compassion. It's a dehumanizing system.

I believe our addiction to the system of capitalism requires us to imagine it can bring us happiness.

What is the point of desiring excessive wealth, if not that we think it generates happiness?

But because of dynamic already described, with each increment of happiness bought, another piece of one's humanity is sacrificed.

In other words, it is impossible for a person of moral conscience to become happier through the accumulation of wealth.

So this means 1 of 2 things. Either we're a civilization lacking in conscience or we're a civilization lacking in true happiness.

What's especially ironic is that the language of capitalism is conflated with the language of liberty and empowerment.

But capitalism is actually a very oppressive system. Either you're denied dignity and liberty by being a "loser" in the system...

Or you're asked to deny your own human instincts of compassion and empathy for other people by being a "winner" in the system.

Either way, by participating in the system, you've given up some of self-sovereignty.

"Neo-Feminism": Be Careful Of That For Which You Most Deeply Aspire

Girls Will Be Boys?

The Take-away from Morford in the SFGate is both painful AND amusing:

Now it's women's turn. Most women I know -- powerful, independent, wondrously self-defined creatures of talent and intellect, sex and love, insight and intuition -- are fully helping co-create the new female empowerment. But then they read about Sarah Palin endorsing Carly Fiorina with a wink and a rifle shot and a claim of "new" feminism, and they cringe straight down to their ovaries.

Welcome to the great ideological power struggle, ladies. Welcome to being fully empowered, misunderstood, demonized, celebrated, vilified, adored, loathed, loved, championed, deified, and ruined to the core. You're gonna love it. You're gonna hate it.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2010%2F06%2F23%2Fnotes062310.DTL#ixzz0rgwDv3fX

Fuck The Bald Eagle. THIS Is America's Official Bird: A Dying, Oil-soaked Brown Pelican

The Militarization of the Local Police

Forp. Yksmohc Explains It ALL For You...Really

Eminently practical proposals

: Following a NY Peace Action Benefit viewing of Karen Malpede's new play, Prophesy, Noam Chomsky criticizes Obama's rightwing policies, war making, medical care, coziness with commercial interests . He warns of the coming war in Kandahar and Israel's possible attack on Iran that could go nuclear. In the Q & A, moderated by Karen, Chomsky comments on BP's Gulf Oil disaster, the Free Gaza Flotilla incident, urges Guantanamo being returned to Cuba and tortured detainees either being tried or released. June 9, 2010 Camera: Joe Friendly

Fishy Bidness in the S.Carolina Primary

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Dr. Riki Ott: "BP Censoring Media, Destroying Evidence"

Former (pre-Exxon Valdez) fishing-boat skipper turned Ph.D. marine biologist and toxicologist, who does bear a certain animus against the reckless, environmental criminals who have, for all practical purposes, deswtroyed Prince William Sound and now the Gulf of Mexico.

Orange Beach, Alabama -- While President Obama insists that the federal government is firmly in control of the response to BP's spill in the Gulf, people in coastal communities where I visited last week in Louisiana and Alabama know an inconvenient truth: BP -- not our president -- controls the response. In fact, people on the ground say things are out of control in the gulf.

Even worse, as my latest week of adventures illustrate, BP is using federal agencies to shield itself from public accountability.

For example, while flying on a small plane from New Orleans to Orange Beach, the pilot suddenly exclaimed, "Look at that!" The thin red line marking the federal flight restrictions of 3,000 feet over the oiled Gulf region had just jumped to include the coastal barrier islands off Alabama.

"There's only one reason for that," the pilot said. "BP doesn't want the media taking pictures of oil on the beaches. You should see the oil that's about six miles off the coast," he said grimly. We looked down at the wavy orange boom surrounding the islands below us. The pilot shook his head. "There's no way those booms are going to stop what's offshore from hitting those beaches."

BP knows this as well -- boom can only deflect oil under the calmest of sea conditions, not barricade it -- so they have stepped up their already aggressive effort to control what the public sees.

At the same time I was en route to Orange Beach, Clint Guidry with the Louisiana Shrimp Association and Dean Blanchard, who owns the largest shrimp processor in Louisiana, were in Grand Isle taking Anderson Cooper out in a small boat to see the oiled beaches. The U.S. Coast Guard held up the boat for 20 minutes - an intimidation tactic intended to stop the cameras from recording BP's damage. Luckily for Cooper and the viewing public, Dean Blanchard is not easily intimidated.


Credit - Clint Guidry. U.S. Coast Guard blocking media from oiled beaches off Grand Isle, Louisiana. June 2, 2010.

A few days later, the gig was up with the booms. Oil was making landfall in four states and even BP can't be everywhere at once. CBS 60 Minutes Australia found entire sections of boom hung up in marsh grasses two feet above the water off Venice. On the same day on the other side of Barataria Bay, Louisiana Bayoukeeper documented pools of oil and oiled pelicans inside the boom - on the supposedly protected landward side - of Queen Bess Island off Grand Isle.


With oil undisputedly hitting the beaches and the number of dead wildlife mounting, BP is switching tactics. In Orange Beach, people told me BP wouldn't let them collect carcasses. Instead, the company was raking up carcasses of oiled seabirds. "The heads separate from the bodies," one upset resident told me. "There's no way those birds are going to be autopsied. BP is destroying evidence!"


Credit - Louisiana Bayoukeeper. Ineffective boom traps oil on beach; oiled brown pelican awaits fate. Queen Bess Island, Louisiana. June 5, 2010

Provided by Riki Ott. Laughing gull head is separated from body during collection, rendering it useless for autopsy. Waveland, MS. May 13, 2010.
The body count of affected wildlife is crucial to prove the harm caused by the spill, and also serves as an invaluable tool to evaluate damages to public property - the dolphins, sea turtles, whales, sea birds, fish, and more, that are owned by the American public. Disappeared body counts means disappeared damages - and disappeared liability for BP. BP should not be collecting carcasses. The job should be given to NOAA, a federal agency, and volunteers, as was done during the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

NOAA should also be conducting carcass drift studies. Only one percent of the dead sea birds made landfall in the Gulf of Alaska, for example. That means for every one bird that was found, another 99 were carried out to sea by currents. Further, NOAA should be conducting aerial surveys to look for carcasses in the offshore rips where the currents converge. That's where the carcasses will pile up--a fact we learned during the Exxon Valdez spill. Maybe that's another reason for BP's "no camera" policy and the flight restrictions.

On Saturday June 12, people across America will stand up and speak out with one voice to protest BP's treatment of the Gulf, neglect for the response workers, and their response to government authority. President Obama needs to hear and see the people waving cameras and respirators. Until the media is allowed unrestricted access to the Gulf and impacted beaches, BP - not the President of United States - will remain in charge of the Gulf response.

For more information on community rallies, please visit HERE.

Naom Chomsky and Bill McKibbin on Climate Change

The origins of languages (I am just a complete sucker for this kind of thing)

Part 2

How the International Economic Hitmen Do "Bidness"

It is pretty simple, and it almost ALWAYS is successful...


Lagniappe: Interview with John Perkins, who coined the phrase and perfected the skill!

Some NM "Dems" Take Campaign Cash From GOPuke PACs

This is not unprecedented, of course. During the last elections, GOPuke groups have funneled cash to marginal presidential candidates such as Ralph Nader because they believed a vote for Nader was one which wouldn't go to a main-stream Dim opponent.

In New Mexico, this year, there are a handful of "former" GOPukes--folks with long, deep GOPuke roots--who are running in the Dim primaries, mostly for judicial positions.

Now, via NMFBIHOP's blog comes the news that GOPuke agents are taking an active part in state Dim politics, trying to move the party "to the center."

No, really! NO! Really!

Garth Simms heads the board on the New Mexico Turn Around PAC that gave money to Democratic challengers and is largely funded by the top-dogs at the state Republican Party.

The group's website says, "NMTA supports the transfer of control of the New Mexico State House to Republican control. Its goal is to help that transfer occur over the next two or three election cycles. Its goal, also, is to get you to help it in this endeavor."

Here is what he told Heath Haussamen while trying to play down the controversy:

"Our focus is just to get the Democrat Party representation mainly a little back more toward the center instead of just being controlled by the progressive wing of the party," Simms said. "That's where we're coming from. There's nothing nefarious about it."

Simms tipped his hand with the classic partisan Republican jab at Democrats by referring to the "Democrat Party." As usual, when I see this, I link to this piece from Hendrik Hertzberg on "the ic factor" -- or Republicans' reference to the "Democrat Party" instead of "Democratic Party."

This is no surprise, as Simms is a former Republican state legislator. And the money comes largely from Republican sources, including money from the state Republican Party chairman, Harvey Yates, Jr. and the company of Republican Party executive director Ryan Cangiolosi (who also sits on the board).

The front page of the committee's website features an article from Yates that criticizes Democrats (as one from a head of a political party would likely do).

They reprint articles from the National Review Online something Glenn Beck would write. They are teaming with groups heavily involved in the tea party for candidate training this year (though the timing is a bit odd since the conference comes after the primaries).

So why is a group that "supports the transfer of control of the New Mexico State House to Republican control" getting involved in Democratic primaries?

Petitio Pretenditii? Just Sign It ?

We all know the emancipatory potential of the Netz ALMOST outweighs its enormous commercial and supervisory potential, and that anti-democratic, authoritarian interests in Big Bidness labor ceaselessly to re-establish elite sovereignty over the means of (information) production which the proliferation of the Netz has somewhat reduced.

The linked site connects to a page at which you can sign a petition to the FCC commissioners requesting them politely to ignore the specious importunings of more than 100 venal, corrupt. sold-out Congress-critters who signed a Tel-Com industry letter demanding the FCC effectively kill-off net neutrality.

That's not good.

I don't know if on-line-generated "letters" are useful in matters like this, or not.

But it does provide one an opportunity to exercise the finer points of revising boiler-plate to reflect one's true sentiments. Below, I pasted my version of the letter the site provides:

Dear FCC:

I hope it is beginning to intrude on your consciences that some in Congress must have made a mistake. Dozens of elected representatives recently affixed their names to an INDUSTRY letter instructing the FCC NOT to protect Internet users or bridge the digital divide.

I'm writing to tell you that these venal, reprehensible, unprincipled, Congressional low-lifes don't speak for me, President Obama or the millions of other Americans who have called upon the FCC and Congress to protect the open Internet and promote universal access.

The Internet is the last forum in the public square not entirely susceptible to being overwhelmed simply by an onslaught of raw cash. The FCC must now do the right thing and re-assert its Title II authority to protect Americans' access to the open Internet.

Please do your duty to the People, and resist the misleading, and specious claims of those tools of Big Business doing their (pay) masters' bidding. Protect the Internet from being captured by interests inimical to open, democratic discourse.

These Skeevy Fux Need Just To be Shut The Fuck DOWN, Now, Before They Fuck Up Something Else

(Image: Toby Oxborrow (no photo graphic) & US Coast Guard (controlled burn of oil spill)

Via Treehugger:

BP Now Owns the Airspace Above the Spill, Too - Bars Journalists From Flying Over It

Stories about BP contractors working hand in glove with the Coast Guard and local police to prevent full coverage of the effects of the oil spill have been coming out for some time now--and don't seem to be going away. Newsweek reports that everyone from traditional and independent journalists and photojournalists to Jean-Michel Cousteau have been denied access--they've even go so far to establish no-fly zones.

Here's the latest (and to me one of the most infuriating examples):

The latest instance of denied press access comes from Belle Chasse, La.-based Southern Seaplane Inc., which was scheduled to take a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer for a flyover on Tuesday afternoon, and says it was denied permission once BP officials learned that a member of the press would be on board.
"We are not at liberty to fly media, journalists, photographers, or scientists," the company said in a letter it sent on Tuesday to Sen. David Vitter (R-La.). "We strongly feel that the reason for this massive [temporary flight restriction] is that BP wants to control their exposure to the press."

You can justify limiting access on the ground over legitimate safety concerns, too many people causing interference with cleanup efforts, etc.; and the article does quote a photographer saying that the Coast Guard at times has been very helpful--indeed, if only indirectly I can second that; if it weren't for Coast Guard photos TreeHugger would be coming up short on imagery of the cleanup.

However, limiting people from flying over the spill?!? Utterly ridiculous.

It May Be BP's Oil But It's Everyone's Disaster
The article also quotes one fishermen who says he understands BP's restrictions, saying, "If there was a major fire in a warehouse, would you let reporters go inside and start taking pictures?"

Fair enough, but if that fire starts spreading the street, to the public park, and onto the neighboring town the owner of the warehouse doesn't get to say you can't go there too. The warehouse may be their's but the fire itself and the damage it causes is everyone's.

There is criminal liability involved in this case, including manslaughter (at least) for the 11 men who were killed.

But I Gay-Ron-FUUKIN-TEE you, chers: Not a single one of the execs of any of the implicated companies--BP, TransOcean, or Halliburton--will EVER see the inside of a jail, much less the end of the rope they so richly deserve...

The Gusher Continues

Via PBS:

Nobody knows for certain how much oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico since last month's oil rig explosion. What we do have are estimates -- from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, from outside experts, from British Petroleum -- of how fast crude is flowing out of two remaining leaks (a third was plugged Wednesday).

Oil has been flowing out of ruptures in the Deepwater Horizon well on the ocean floor since around 10 a.m. on April 22, two days after the BP-leased rig exploded, leaving 11 workers missing and presumed dead.

According to NOAA, an estimated 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) a day is coming from the remaining ruptures. At that rate, this leak would surpass the 11 million gallons spilled by the Exxon Valdez in 1989 in mid-June if left unchecked.

Other estimates are far more grim. The New York Times reported that BP told members of Congress the rate could be much, much higher:

In a closed-door briefing for members of Congress, a senior BP executive conceded Tuesday that the ruptured oil well could conceivably spill as much as 60,000 barrels a day of oil, more than 10 times the estimate of the current flow.

A barrel of crude oil contains roughly 42 gallons. In a follow-up story, the Times talked to a BP spokesman for more on the estimate:

"The rate could go up to that," Mr. Suttles of BP said, when asked to verify a report in The Times. "It's not the situation we have at this moment, but it's not impossible."

Based on this range of figures, we built the meter atop this post to give a ballpark figure of how much oil may have leaked into the Gulf based on each scenario (by multiplying the rate of leakage by the amount of time passed since the rupture) and other possible rates between those estimates.

At the low end is NOAA's estimate of 210,000 gallons per day. At the high end is what BP told Congress. Drag the slider between those poles to see other possible rates. Keep in mind that all of this is only an estimate.

"John Frumm": The Psychology of Cargo Cults

The Perils of "Libertarianism"/Conservative Values

According to GOPologist/lickspittle/toady, WaPo's David Weigle today, "Paul believes, as many conservatives believe, that the government should ban bias in all of its institutions but cannot intervene in the policies of private businesses."

Which would be an unexceptional position, if those businesses would simply disconnect from the ALL public services which make it possible for them to function in racist/discriminatory fashion: hiways/streets, police/fire protection, water lines, etc--to which ALL the people make some contribution.

Mr. Deity and the Quitter (Final Ep., Season Three)

Wherein Jesus realizes he's been played (April, 2010):


Speaking of Prequels, in case you missed them, here's the previous two episodes.
Wherein Mr. Deity frantically throws together his own version of science in an attempt to save his job. (March, 2010)


Wherein Mr. Deity and Jesus have an awkward dinner meeting with John, The Baptist. (Feb 2010):

TED: Michael Specter -- The danger of science denial