Alan Grayson On The Bush Tax Cuts

UPDATE WITH VIDEO BELOW

Here is another reason I will miss Alan Grayson (D-FL).

This is some of what Rep. Grayson had to say about the Bush tax cuts yesterday on the House floor:

Mr. Grayson asserted that Republicans wanted to preserve the lower Bush-era income tax rates in part to benefit talk-show celebrities, including Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, who generally support the Republican Party. Mr. Grayson showed posters of each man, with their estimated annual income and the amount of tax savings that they supposedly get from the lower rates.

But Mr. Grayson also had another target: Former President George W. Bush, who Mr. Grayson said, continues to benefit personally from his namesake tax cuts and would also benefit from their continuation.

“George W. Bush makes a cool $4.2 million a year, according to Newsweek,” Mr. Grayson said in his speech. “That means that extending the Bush tax cuts for George Bush means an extra $187,000 in his pocket every single year.”

“I have a better idea,” Mr. Grayson proclaimed. “Instead of placating these people and letting them spew out onto the airwaves their lies about the Bush tax cuts without ever revealing the fact that they stand to gain millions, millions of dollars each year from their selfish desire to take advantage of the rest of America, let’s do this: let’s take that money and create jobs.”

He added, “I think that’s a better idea than stuffing even more money into the pockets of the rich. Because the problem in America today is not that the poor have too much money. That’s not the problem at all. It’s that they need jobs.”

Thank you Rep, Grayson.

You will be missed.

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EPA Subpoenas Halliburton Over Hydraulic Fracturing

As investigations continue into Halliburton’s role in the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico last April, the company is now facing subpoenas from the Environmental Protection Agency over natural gas extraction methods and their potentially adverse effects on drinking water and public health.

The extraction method, called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” would be used to develop shale gas fields in several states, and has already been used in the west. The EPA is seeking information on the chemical ingredients in the fluids used in the extraction process. During the fracking process crews inject vast quantities of water, sand and chemicals underground to force open channels in sand and rock formations so oil and natural gas will flow.

News reports recently claimed the fluids seep into drinking water, and demonstrated how tap water can be literally set on fire from a household faucet. The fracking process is also the subject of the documentary “Gasland.”

From The Los Angeles Times:

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a subpoena to compel Halliburton Co., the nation’s largest oil field services company, to provide complete information on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method the company pioneered to extract natural gas by injecting fluids into tight rock formations deep underground.

Halliburton remained the only company of nine that did not fully comply with a September request to provide the information voluntarily, according to EPA. The others either complied or “made unconditional commitments” to provide the information expeditiously, the EPA said.

“As a result, and as part of the agency’s effort to move forward as quickly as possible, today EPA issued a subpoena to the company requiring submission of the requested information that has yet to be provided,” a statement from the agency said…..

….A Halliburton spokeswoman said the company had already turned over 5,000 pages to the EPA and was “disappointed” with the EPA’s decision, but was working with the agency to narrow the scope of its request….

….Halliburton has attracted ample scrutiny over the years over hydraulic fracturing and contracts in Iraq, particularly during the tenure of Vice President Dick Cheney, who led the company from 1995 to 2000, and had a leading role in formulating the Bush administration’s energy policy.

A Times investigation revealed that as vice president, Cheney’s office helped back hydraulic fracturingas part of the Bush Administration’s energy policy. An EPA report that concluded there was no danger to drinking water from hydraulic fracturing in coal-bed methane deposits in Wyoming was criticized as flawed by agency staffers, prompting an ongoing investigation by the EPA inspector general’s office. The Bush administration worked to keep the practice from being regulated under the federal Clean Water Act.

Read the rest of the story here.

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“Can You Hear Me Now?” BP Claims Go To “Louder” Realtors

For all of you GOP-Tea Baggers in Florida who love the Free-Market, and small government there’s good news about those BP claims:

Florida Realtors will divvy up $16 million to cover lost sales in the aftermath of the April 20th Deepwater Horizon rig blast and ensuing massive oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Florida’s sharing in about $60 million claims czar Ken Feinberg set aside for real estate agents and brokers.

So a big “WOOT WOOT!” for you! Free Market realtors win!

Oh, wait. Do some of you GOP-Tea Baggers own a home in Florida? Which may tank in value due to that little Free Market BP oil “mishap?” And the loss of tourism in the state? Sorry, you may just want to take off that party hat and put down the kazoo for a minute.

He’s (Feinberg) already given property owners the bad news that they’ll likely get nada from the $20 billion fund set up by BP to cover losses caused by the spill.

Really hope you love that home enough to spend the rest of your life in it while Florida’s economy tanks and others flee. Like, say realtors who took their claims and ran for greener, less oily pastures. Bummer. But hey, you win some you lose some right? But you just keep that chin up while you gaze at those pictures of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush and Little Jeb on your mantel and repeat this mantra: “Elections have consequences, elections have consequences, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” Feel better? There you go!

Getting back to those claims:

Each of the Gulf Coast states’ real estate associations will dole out the funds to realtors.

Florida Realtors, the state association representing realtors, hired Indiana-based claims adjustment firm NCA to handle the claims and administer the funds, according to press release issued by the association.

Feinberg, who took over BP’s botched claims system at 12:01 a.m this morning, has said that realtors were the loudest group making a pitch for how the oil disaster made an already sluggish real estate market even worse.

Bad news: Little guy homeowners (that would be you) have small voices.

Good news: Drill, baby, drill!

One more item, while we’re on the subject of claims. In the Free Market, it appears that size matters:

Ken Feinberg, the new claims czar appointed by BP and President Obama, said Tuesday that commercial fishermen and charter boat captains from Florida may not be eligible for a full six months of emergency payments for lost revenues caused by BP’s massive oil spill.

And there’s more:

Florida lawmakers also may be backing off Republican leaders’ promise earlier this summer to hold a special session in September to address economic problems in the Panhandle created by the spill.

After all, your beloved Republican leaders told you there was no need for a special session anyway. Pshaw!

Hotels owner, are you? Maybe a Restaurant?

…hotel operators and restaurant owners also want special treatment. The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association brought high-powered trial lawyer Fred Levin to a meeting with Feinberg Tuesday afternoon to ask for a separate process to handle their claims. Feinberg said later that probably won’t happen.

As Feinberg prepares to take over BP’s claims process on Monday, the sense of urgency about how to help the Panhandle recover seems to be dissipating.

Feinberg has pledged emergency payments to cover six months of losses under his new, expedited system. Last week, he said he would begin making individual payments within 24 hours of receiving a claim. On Tuesday, he said it would take at least 48 hours for those payments to get approved.

But, wait! It’s safe to fish now, really. The government said so! They’ve even got people with expertise sniffing your seafood for you! No oil! Safe! (Well, except there’s no test for dispersant.)

In the face of continued complaints from mom-and-pop hoteliers, restaurant owners and fishermen that the stigma of the oil spill continues to affect them, Feinberg said, “What do you mean you can’t fish for six months? Your compatriots are fishing now. I’m reading it in the newspaper. So the new wrinkle … that I didn’t confront two weeks ago, or two months ago, is what is the impact of the spill as every day I read in the newspaper things are improving. Thank goodness.”

It’s all good! Suck it up!

There’s lots more, but you can read that later here. Right now you may want to just sit back a while and take it all in slowly. Just relax and breath in all that fresh Free Market air. (Actually don’t breathe in too deeply. Corexit and all, you know.) Just put your feet up and gaze up at those pictures on your mantel.

But hey, you know what? I’ll bet you could get a real bargain on a picture of Tony Hayward to put in between Dick and Dubya! That way you’ll always remember the price of that GOP, BP Free Market freedom!

Feel better now? Sure you do!

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Marco Rubio’s Simple Ideas: Pull His String And He’ll Say “TAX CUTS!”

Marco Rubio dazzled himself and the crowd at a Crabby Bills seafood restaurant in Tampa Tuesday when he unveiled his “new economic plan” for the country:

“Lunch is on me! You take credit cards here, right?”

OK, he didn’t really say that. But he did roll out a list of “23 Ideas” for what he calls “a clear alternative” to the “anti-growth, anti-job creating” policies coming out of Washington:

“We have reached a point in our history when we must decide if we are to continue on the free market, limited government path that has made us exceptional, or if we are prepared to follow the rest of the world down the road of government dependency,” he said.

Allow me to plug that into the “Tea-Bagger to English” translator:

We have reached Day 83 of a disaster where we are nearly drowning in a BP Gulf of “free market” oil, natural gas and UNNATURAL toxic dispersants largely because, previously we had eight years of an “exceptional and limited” President who DID give us a limited government, and a Vice President who dictated a no regulation energy policy for fun and profit (who ALSO endorsed Marco Rubio!). It made us “exceptional” all right. Most other countries, and those of us who can think for ourselves (but not Rubio) have acknowledged concepts like Global Warming and reality. To solve oil spills and other problems, are we going to continue to say things like “Drill, Baby, Drill?” If we keep voting in candidates like Rubio and his GOP ilk whose solution for every problem from an oil spill, to losing your home, health insurance, job and yes, your unemployment benefits is: “tax cuts for the rich,” are we prepared to bypass others on our way to becoming a third world country? (Rubio thinks we’d be dependent on OUR government?? Isn’t THAT adorable?)

Yes, Rubio is scrambling for ideas again all right. He bought into his own hype back when he was labeled and disguised as the new “Darling of the Tea Party” by the GOP.  He assumed this race would be easy. Then Charlie Crist switched parties. Rubio was finally ahead in the polls again last week. So naturally Crist went ahead and played the oil drilling ban special session card. Finding himself below Crist in the polls again, Rubio said “I’ll take your special session and I’ll raise you “23 Big, New Ideas!” The only problem is they are the same ideas he’s had all along. There’s nothing “big” or “new” about them. Rubio merely made some adjustments and tweaked a couple to make them oil spill friendly, while throwing a couple of bones to the “small people” as his oil buddies refer to them. Bones that will be largely overlooked beyond their comedic value.

The Tea Baggers/GOP often rile up their lemmings with the tired statement “we want to take our country back.” Well, Rubio wants to take the country back too, back to the days of the Bush Administration:

Many of the ideas mimic the tax and economic policies of most Republicans – from making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush permanent, to ending the inheritance tax, plus opposing any new energy tax or the creation of a value added tax.

For those who, like the largest percentage of the country, don’t have an income high enough to qualify for those tax cuts, have no inheritance or trust fund in their future, or they don’t own interest in an oil company, Rubio doesn’t want them to feel left out. He’ll throw a couple of bones their way too:

Other ideas, like creating a sales tax holiday for areas affected by the oil spill and offering affected property owners property tax relief, appear to be state issues, not federal ones.

A “sales tax holiday for areas affected by the oil spill.” Sort of like the one we have in Florida for hurricanes where we get a tax break on generators? This would be for things like what, oil booms? As for property tax, good luck with that. We have a hard enough time trying to get insurance claims for hurricanes here too. They require flood insurance, but after a storm, flooded or not they say it’s wind damage and vice versa. I doubt every homeowner in the affected states would get a tax break much less in Florida where we’re due to be surrounded by oily toxic waters.

Some other bones:

Idea #1: Make The Claims Process Simpler, (presuming BP will even pay them)

Idea #9: Stop Foreclosures For Those Affected (funny he would mention “foreclosures”, probably wishes he could have taken advantage of that one!)

Idea #10: Relax Onerous Fishing Bag Limits And Seasons (this is just another excuse to deregulate yet another industry disguised as protection for fishermen’s livelihood. Rubio’s reasoning overlooks the sad fact that at the rate the spill is going, all affected fish will be dead. Rubio would deregulate even a dead industry. He just can’t help himself!)

Back to the economy:

And then there’s “IDEA #8″ under “Marco’s 12 Simple Ways To Grow Our Economy” Much like Florida Gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum and the rest of Rubio’s GOP obstructionist colleagues, Rubio wants to repeal and replace your health care. That won’t improve your economic situation much unless you have money to burn and an inheritance to count on, but Rubio is certainly proving he wants to grow the economy to favor insurance companies and big oil! That could also grow Rubio’s bottom line:

Rubio raised a record $4.5 million in the last three months, beating Gov. Charlie Crist’s $4.3 million fundraising quarter at the start of the race.

Unfortunately raising that kind of money doesn’t raise poll numbers and now Charlie Crist is leading Rubio by seven points. While Crist is busy flip-flopping his way up the charts and Rubio is taking ideas from Bush and Cheney, and taking marching orders from Jeb, that leaves an opening for Kendrick Meek who comes in below both of them in poll numbers. Meek could use the opportunity to keep reminding people that he’s been against oil drilling all along. Plus he recently joined forces with BPMakesMeSick.com to convince President Obama and the government to demand that BP allow oil clean up workers to wear protective gear. BP has so far blocked workers from doing so and threatened to fine and/or fire them if they do.

So Rubio claims he has new ideas and solutions and rolls them out as: “Marco’s 12 Simple Ways To Grow Our Economy”, and “Marco’s 11 Simple Ways To Help The Gulf Coast Economy Recover,” but as usual, all they are is this:

“Marco’s Simple Ideas, My Solutions For Everything: Tax Cuts!”

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Earth To Marco Rubio

Gosh, Marco Rubio is having a real problem making up his mind as usual. For instance, he’s been consistent in the “Drill, Baby, Drill” department, and yet when it comes to “Drill, Baby….Oops, Spill!” he starts whining via Twitter “why isn’t the government cleaning up the results of my GO(B)P oil drilling policy fast enough?” Never mind that other big policy of his: he wants big government gone in favor of the private sector, which of course is doing a bang up job on that spill, right? Perhaps he should direct his complaints to BP? No? Oh well. To remedy that little complaint, one could suggest that he run to the store and purchase (cash only, no credit cards please!) some of those bendy straws that his mentor Palin is so fond of and get busy himself.

And while we’re on the subject of spending, here’s another one. Rubio also whines a lot about the deficit. Remember, “Big Government” spends too much! DEBT!! Must. Cut. Spending!!” And yet, yesterday he seemed to forget all about that deficit when it came to a question about tax cuts. Of course, those tax cuts were for the rich. Why? Well, because only the richest among the population can create jobs. Seriously. That’s what he says. Even when a GOP-TV FOX interviewer points out that his reasoning doesn’t look good, that’s his answer. Apparently Rubio wasn’t paying attention when Bush was in office creating that deficit with the very same tax cuts for the rich.

No one has ever mistaken Rubio for being the smartest guy in the room, but this is quite a reach and shows just how desperate he is to stay relevant. He’s backed up against the Wall Street. Sorry Tea Baggers. You lose.

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Regulations And Accountability, Who Knew?

Now that we’ve passed 50 days and counting of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf, I would not have expected to be writing about good news today. At the moment I’m deep in the muck and mire of research for a couple of future posts dealing with, among other things, those toxic dispersants. I’ve also made my way down several other BP issue rabbit holes, and I still have a way to go. Something tells me days 51 and up are only going to get uglier.

Between trying to decipher what’s really going on, as opposed to what BP says is going on, like the actual amount of oil that’s leaking, dead and dying wildlife counts, some with pictures, top kills, junk shots, top hats and questionable “live” cameras showing procedures that actually happened days earlier, there’s a lot to keep track of. Not to mention those BP officials trying to distance themselves from claims AND blame and the Congress critters who love them and are hard at work assisting them in that effort. You take those issues, multiply them by hundreds more, then throw in all the lawyers, and you’ve got a toxic environment all right. “I’ve got your adverse effects right here!”

So no, there just isn’t much good news out there. However, I did manage to find a couple of things that just might bring a glimmer of hope to those of us who want no more drilling, never did in the first place and are completely baffled by those who can’t wait until they can drill again.

The first one is a bit of a good news bad news situation. The good news: in spite of the GOP obstructioneers, this afternoon the Senate managed to defeat Lisa “Show Me The Oil” Murkowski’s (R-AK) resolution to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases 53 to 47. On her reasoning for the resolution she dropped this little pearl of wisdom:

“This is not a referendum on any other bill that’s pending,” said Murkowski, “but it is a check on EPA’s regulatory activity.”

Yes by all means, let no regulation stand in the way of Global Warming.

I’m sure it won’t surprise you to hear that the republicans went for “the full Murkowski.” That’s right. They showed solidarity in doing nothing and not one of them voted against the Exxon Whisperer. Zero.

So good thing ALL the democrats voted against the block, right? Well, almost. About that bad news I mentioned? It turns out that six democrats also saw no need for those silly regulations either and voted with Murkowski and the Republicans:

• Mark Pryor
• Evan Bayh
• Ben Nelson
• Jay Rockefeller
• Blanche Lincoln
• Mary Landrieu

In Florida a majority of GOP leaders are no different. As far as offshore drilling goes, in spite of the BP oil gusher many are still in favor of offshore drilling. Sure, some say they’re re-thinking the entire idea, but that’s met with a lot of skepticism. Gov. Charlie Crist wants to call a special session as early as July so lawmakers can put a state constitutional amendment on the Nov. 2 ballot to ban offshore drilling in Florida waters, but he’s getting a lot of resistance from republican lawmakers. Of course, Crist himself has flip-flopped on offshore drilling and some say this is just another example given that he’s running for the U.S. Senate. He was losing in the polls to Republican Marco Rubio when he switched parties, and Rubio is part of the drill happy crowd.

One bit of good news is that the democrat in the race, Kendrick Meek, is against offshore drilling, and unlike republicans and some democrats, he doesn’t mince words when it comes to his opinion about BP. Wednesday he spoke at the America’s Future Now conference for progressive activists, and among other things, he spoke of a concept that is largely missing these days after eight years under the Bush Administration that ran on empty promises for more of it and brought us where we are today with the BP mess: accountability.

Who knows, maybe there’s still some hope that we’ll get some.

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The Oil Ties That Bind George LeMieux

Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL), the human place-card holding the seat that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist desperately wants to win in November after slugging it out in a primary against Marco Rubio, has been making himself heard a lot lately. Rumor has it that he wants to move on and try to run against Bill Nelson (D-FL) for that Senate. Not content to be just a seat-warmer I guess.

To make himself visible, I suppose, LeMieux popped up recently in an attempt to criticize President Obama (shocking coming from a Republican, I know) over his response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

You see, LeMieux is one of many GOP members in Florida scrambling for the lifeboats to escape the now sinking “Drill, Baby, Drill” club cruise ship. In doing so, LeMieux would like to deflect attention from the fact that, not only was he a member of that club, he was a quietly active member.

Before Crist made him the senate stand-in, LeMieux was advising a pro-drilling group by the name of Florida Energy Associates.

LeMieux’s ties to Florida Energy Associates came to light only because he had to file a financial disclosure form with the Senate. It showed that the pro-drilling coalition paid him at least $5,000 as a lawyer for Gunster Yoakley & Stewart. There is no way of telling how much he earned because lawmakers are required to report only “compensation in excess of $5,000.”

Florida Energy Associates is made up of mostly unnamed small oil companies that want to bid on any new leases the state legislation aims to create.

It has hired lobbyists, public relations experts, a financial consultant and a pollster. Public opinion surveys for the group have shown broad support for drilling off Florida’s coast….

Florida Energy Associates has been described as a secretive and mysterious group backed by oil interests pushing offshore drilling in Florida.

The mysterious group, backed by oil interests, declined to disclose its membership list, but had the support of Hank Fishkind, a former UF economics professor, and up to three dozen lobbyists at one point. As of August of last year, the group had already donated tens of thousands of dollars to both political parties.

One identified principal is M. Lance Phillips, a Texas oilman and friend of former President George W. Bush, U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) and his brother, attorney Lewis Sessions, and R. Allen Stanford, among others.

So to deflect attention from that involvement, Sen. LeMieux is busy feigning outrage by  saying things like this:

“What I want to see right now is, I want to see my president, not in a suit in Washington, D.C. I want to see him down on the Gulf coast — not just for a day-of photo shoot — I want to see him leading the effort.”

Talk about the pot calling the kettle a photo-op.

By pointing fingers at others, perhaps Sen. LeMieux hopes you won’t notice the ones pointing squarely at him. So, allow me:

That’s him in the lifeboat! He’s the one sitting in between Dean Cannon and Mike Haridopolos.

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Liz Cheney Wants An Investigation? Let’s Give Her One!

After all, why not? It’s Memorial Day!

We’ve passed 40 days and counting of black oil gushing from a blown out well in the Gulf  of Mexico polluting and killing everything in its path, including the Louisiana marshland which contributes to shielding the state from deadly hurricanes, leaving an already vulnerable Katrina battered city of New Orleans with nightmares of what may come this year when the hurricane season starts June 1.

It’s also Memorial Day weekend. One might wonder what these two events happening at the same time might have in common. I’ll tell you.

During Memorial Day weekend, who breaks an unusual silence of almost a month, but a member of the Cheney family. Yes, Liz “Mini-Dick” Cheney appeared this morning on FOX (where else?). Now I know you’re probably saying to yourself “wow, she appeared on Memorial Day weekend to honor the troops? Who’d a thunk it?” Yes THAT would have been something.

But she’s a Cheney, and we all know they avoid (defer) things like serving their country or honoring our servicemen unless they’re using them as a shield or some sick form of guilt-ridden blackmail for squeezing more war $$ from Congress. That’s about the only time you ever hear a member of that family uttering the word “troops.”

No, in this case Mini Dick is making her father quite proud no doubt, because she chose of all weekends, Memorial Day weekend to come out swinging at the White House over a scandal that only the looniest wing of the GOP are still crowing about: the job offer to coincidentally, another veteran Joe Sestak, by way of Bill Clinton. (And what’s not to love that it involves Clinton no less? It’s a two-fer!)

She’s joining the other “right-off-the-cliff” wing of the GOP who have displayed great manufactured outrage over this. Everyone from Joe “The FOX Wannabe” Scarborough and his shoe model sidekick Morning Mimic Mika “Lies Are OK When My Friends (Richard Blumenthal) Tell Them” Brzezinski, to, well, everyone on FOX. Nothing about honoring the military over their sacrifice in her father’s manufactured war. Nope. You’ll hear nothing but crickets in THAT department from the Cheney family.

From Media Matters:

After saying Clinton doesn’t have “an impeccable record of integrity,” Cheney argued: “You know, there’s a lot here that just smells funny. If the White House in fact thought that what they were doing was above board, why did they go to Bill Clinton? Why did they need a cut out for whatever they were doing?”

Yes, Mini Dick is SO outraged that she wants an investigation into the Sestak-Clinton “S-c-a-n-d-a-l.” Investigation? Fine! I say let’s give her one!

But rather than wasting time on the one she’s ringing her hands over, let’s investigate the thing that she’s using Sestak and Clinton to distract us all from: the BP by way of Haliburton oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, and the involvement of the Cheney family in it, shall we? If you’re looking for something that “smells funny” this is it. It smells like a toxic mixture of oil, gas and dispersant, for starters.

I would like for the media, just for once to ignore this women every time she pops up and points her finger at others, and instead focus on the cause and effect of Big Dick and his former “VP” George “W-hat Me Worry” Bush’s involvement in that “minimal damage” BP oil gusher in the Gulf.

For starters, let’s back up a few days, and then we’ll back up a few years.

Here’s my wish list:

The other day I came across an interesting connection. It came in the form of a Florida company hired for the oil spill clean-up here by none other than Gov. Charlie Crist, WRS Compass. This company boasts this on its website:

Now more than ever, business and government entities see a need to “go green.”A new wave of environmental stewardship is sweeping across the nation with an emphasis on resource efficiency, clean land, and a higher quality of life. With nearly 25 years of experience, WRScompass is uniquely positioned to “re-green” the lands of our private and public sector customers and to improve their aging infrastructures.

More than 350,000 contaminated sites have been identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). Throughout the U.S., massive water resource projects like the Everglades restoration have been put on the fast track.

WRScompass, with an experienced, highly skilled technical and professional workforce of more than 600, offers the manpower to tackle such environmental challenges. During our quarter century in the environmental and construction industry, WRScompass has become known for our ability to provide efficient solutions to a wide-ranging number of environmental challenges of our customers. This has led to our reputation for providing outstanding customer service, while also being recognized nationally for maintaining high safety and accident prevention standards.

Backed by a $30 million fleet of company-owned equipment and service centers across the nation, WRScompass is able to quickly respond to customer needs.

WRS Compass has “responded quickly” all right. They’ve literally jumped on the bandwagon to get busy cleaning up the oil that is bound to land on Florida shores in the near future. They are ready and waiting, all they need is oil! And who is leading the charge? That would be WRS Compass CEO Kathleen Shanahan, who has ties not only to, surprise, surprise, Dick Cheney, but former Florida Gov. and Little Brother of Dubya, Jeb Bush as well! Who knew? For the backstory on that you can click here.

Now let’s step back a little further. As I mentioned, and as you’ve probably noticed, the very vocal Dick Cheney has been curiously quiet and MIA from the airwaves since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up and began filling the entire Gulf with oil and gas, turning it into what is fast becoming the “Gulf Of Cheney.” So you might, as I have, be thinking “hey, I wonder what Big Dick has been up to lately?” Then I saw this:

Foreign Policy‘s David Kenner pointed out Monday that former vice president and ex-Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney just went on a junket to meet with Saudi Arabian leaders, a quiet pow-wow that’s been discussed in the Saudi media but not so much over here. Cheney—who’s been busy defending torture and complaining that Barack Obama lets world leaders “think they’re dealing with a weak president“—weakened the president by visiting a leading torture regime and its caliph, King Abdullah.

So, what was the ex-veep doing in Riyadh?

What indeed? This was in early May. Of this year. A couple of weeks ago. Could be lot’s of reasons I suppose. The article goes on to point out a few:

The obvious answer would be: something financially advantageous. Cheney, who oversaw the Saudi staging of Gulf War I, has always maintained good relations with the kingdom and its elites—relations that certainly came in handy after the war, when his oil-services and all-around shady operation, Halliburton, won lots of US and Saudi contracts to help extract the kingdom’s petroleum wealth—and buttress its national defenses.

But those sorts of financial entanglements—and high-level contacts—can quickly deteriorate into policy interference. Which wouldn’t be new territory for Cheney, who as CEO helped Halliburton skirt international and US terror sanctions on trade with Iran in order to make a quick buck.

Yup, that’s the Dick all right. It’s when he’s quiet that you start to worry what he’s doing, and there you go. But back to those contracts and things. Let’s look into more of those here while we’re investigating, going all the way back to 2000 before the election, like cashing in on contracts that he helped initiate:

In 1992, the Pentagon, then under Cheney’s direction, paid Texas-based Brown & Root Services$3.9 million to produce a classified report detailing how private companies — like itself — could help provide logistics for American troops in potential war zones around the world. BRS specializes in such work; from 1962 to 1972, for instance, the company worked in the former South Vietnam building roads, landing strips, harbors, and military bases. Later in 1992, the Pentagon gave the company an additional $5 million to update its report. That same year, BRS won a massive, five-year logistics contract from the US Army Corps of Engineers to work alongside American GIs in places like Zaire, Haiti, Somalia, Kosovo, the Balkans, and Saudi Arabia.

Sure, old news. But you throw in Haliburton, and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, and so on. (Speaking of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, who do you suppose lists an award of a $30 million contract for levee construction and additional work in New Orleans for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other work in Louisiana for Hurricane Storm Damage Risk Reduction Systems? Why that would be WRS Compass. They were also worked in New Orleans on emergency response to Hurricane Katrina.)

Now, how about this old story from back in 2003. In fact, just for fun, let’s see if you can answer this: What do you get when you add:

Dick Cheney+Antonin Scalia+ducks+Louisiana+Kenneth Lay+The Sierra Club+Judicial Watch+oil+gas+coal+nuclear industry+lobbyists= ____?

Answer? = Secret energy task force! Oh, and I left out part of the equation. This guy: Wallace Carline. From the same CBS News item above:

….the pair arrived Jan. 5 on Gulfstream jets and were guests of Wallace Carline, the owner of Diamond Services Corp., an oil services company in Amelia, La. The Associated Press in Morgan City, La., reported the trip on the day the vice president and his entourage departed.

“They asked us not to bring cameras out there,” said Sheriff David Naquin, who serves St. Mary Parish, about 90 miles southwest of New Orleans, referring to the group’s request for privacy. “The vice president and the justice were there for a relaxing trip, so we backed off.”

While the local police were told about Cheney’s trip shortly before his arrival, they were told to keep it a secret, Naquin said to the Times.

“The justice had been here several times before. I’m kind of sorry Cheney picked that week because it was a poor shooting week,” Naquin said. “There weren’t many ducks here, which is unusual for this time of the year.”

“There weren’t many ducks here, which is kind of unusual for this time of year.” Perhaps the ducks heard that Cheney was coming? OR perhaps there was no duck hunting involved in the first place? After all, Scalia certainly didn’t report getting shot in the face now, did he?

Who is Wallace Carline? He was the owner of Diamond Services Corp., a private company categorized under Oil and Gas Pipeline Construction and located in Morgan City, LA. Wallace Carline also gives campaign contributions to people like David “Diapers” Vitter (R-LA), among others. But that’s beside the point.

Again, this is old news, but it still brings us back to Cheney’s secret energy policy meetings, and involvement with the oil companies, Haliburton, and who knows how many other connections there might be. Like MMS and the Department of Interior. Like the Haliburton role in the oil spill. Like this one. Or this one. How about this one? And this one? Put them together and you may just conclude this one. Click on the interactive “blame game” section on this one and there’s plenty of blame to go around. However you connect the dots, Cheney pops up somewhere. President Obama had nothing to do with the last eight years before he won the White House, nor all the years before that brought us to this “Gulf Of Cheney.”

On this Memorial Day, I can think of no better way to honor the troops than investigating what really led to the war in Iraq and beyond, but we all know by now that’s not going to happen. But still, it was a war over oil.

So let’s DO give Mini Dick her investigation. Let’s investigate the oil spill and who’s really at fault. Because it’s unfolding right now before our eyes. The evidence is right there in plain sight, and it’s adding up every day.

And if you’re one of the “lucky” ones, while you’re watching the oil lap at the shore in Louisiana, or Mississippi, Alabama, or Florida, reach down and collect a little mason jar of oil and raise a toast to the Cheney family.

Cheers.

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