Newt Gingrich wants every state to open a work-study college where students work 20 hours a week during the school year and full-time in the summer and then graduate debt-free.

In poverty stricken K-12 districts, Mr. Gingrich said that schools should enlist students as young as 9 to14 to mop hallways and bathrooms, and pay them a wage. Currently child-labor laws and unions keep poor students from bootstrapping their way into middle class, Mr. Gingrich said.

“This is something that no liberal wants to deal with,” he told an audience at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard on Friday, according to Politico.

“You say to somebody, you shouldn’t go to work before you’re what, 14, 16 years of age, fine,” Mr. Gingrich said. “You’re totally poor. You’re in a school that is failing with a teacher that is failing. I’ve tried for years to have a very simple model. Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising.”

Gingrich, who back in 1994 proposed bringing back orphanages for children on welfare, was quickly labeled “Dickensian” by people commenting on Twitter.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called Mr. Gingrich’s proposal “absurd.”

“Who in their right mind would lay off janitors and replace them with disadvantaged children — who should be in school, and not cleaning schools,” Ms. Weingarten said. “And who would start backtracking on laws designed to halt the exploitation of children?” [New York Times]

A reader of the New York Times article, RC, of Minnesota, commented:

Sounds like China under Mao. Ha ha. Anyway, the work/college plan is a good idea, but why does the “state” have to set this up? Anyone can do this already in the free market.

Oh Yes! The unionized janitors in our public schools been keepin’ us down too long!

David of Michigan, said:

We need to open more Poor Houses. The poor-house movement will then need a Historian @ $1 million/year. Children could also help out in those tight spots in coal mines. Newt is always there when we need him.

Jane Bone of Palatin, Illinois:

It’s nice – yes, I’m being sarcastic – that wealthy Newt feels students as young as 9 should be working at cleaning jobs at their schools instead of either having time and teachers to help them learn, or just plain necessities like food, shelter, and–let’s hope- loving parents who do want them to rise in the world and set their sights on achieving academically.

My God! Maybe his wife would like to donate some of her Newt-given jewelry to finance this endeavor he is proposing.

Or is Newt thinking that by setting up chances for kids to hold these kinds of jobs, he is showing them how to grow up and get full-time ones with limited potential for advancement and educational growth?

Oh, am I going to work my tail off for Obama and the Democrats! How fast can 2012 and a Democratic victory get here?

The GOP presidential candidate wants nine-year-olds to work as janitors. It’s not merely a crazy plan (although it’s plenty crazy). It’s also evidence of a deep disrespect for and ignorance of American work.

But don’t overlook the fact of the rising of Gingrich in the Republican polls. The New York Times also reports:

Republicans are most likely to name Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich as their first choice for their party’s 2012 presidential nomination, with Herman Cain close behind. Among all Republicans nationwide, Romney is the choice of 20% and Gingrich 19%. Among Republican registered voters, Gingrich is at 22% and Romney at 21%.

The fact that Gingrich is a dimwit doesn’t mean he might not be nominated by the Republican Party to run for President. I don’t think that if he is nominated that he can beat President Obama. But at the same time I didn’t think George Bush would beat John Kerry either. Democrats cannot afford to ignore the threat.

Related posts:

1. Gingrich’s Consulting Work
2. Newt Gingrich can’t last much longer
3. Reminder: Joe Heck Calls Social Security a pyramid scheme

The little house of secrets on the Great Plains

Rachel Maddow, MSNBC, broadcast the fact that over 2,000 corporations hide their assets at a single address in Wyoming–2710 Thomes Avenue, in Cheyenne Wyoming. It is called the Wyoming Corporate Services. The news story was broken in an investigative report by Reuters.

The Wyoming operation is called Labeled the “little Cayman Island on the Great Plains.” Wyoming Corporate Services provides a service to “shelf” companies and corporations.

According to Wikipedia it is easy to form shelf corporations in Australia, Canada, the United States and Western Europe. The Reuters report described Wyoming Corporate Services as an example of a vendor of shelf companies, which were literally stored in mailboxes labeled as "corporate suites" in the main room of a 1700-square-foot brick house a few blocks from the Wyoming State Capitol.

Reuters called their story Special Report: A little house of secrets on the Great Plains.

“Neighbors say they see little activity there besides regular mail deliveries and a woman who steps outside for smoke breaks. Inside, however, the walls of the main room are covered floor to ceiling with numbered mailboxes labeled as corporate "suites." A bulky copy machine sits in the kitchen. In the living room, a woman in a headset answers calls and sorts bushels of mail.”

“Among the entities registered at 2710 Thomes, Reuters found, is a shelf company sheltering real-estate assets controlled by a jailed former prime minister of Ukraine, according to allegations made by a political rival in a federal court in California.”

“The owner of another shelf company at the address was indicted in April for allegedly helping online-poker operators evade a U.S. ban on Internet gambling. The owner of two other firms there was banned from government contracting in January for selling counterfeit truck parts to the Pentagon.”

“All the activity at 2710 Thomes is part of a little-noticed industry in the U.S.: the mass production of paper businesses. Scores of mass incorporators like Wyoming Corporate Services have set up shop. The hotbeds of the industry are three states with a light regulatory touch-Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada.”

“…according to a 2009 report by the National Association of Secretaries of State, a group for state officials overseeing incorporation. Wyoming and Nevada allow the real owners of corporations to hide behind "nominee" officers and directors with no direct role in the business, often executives of the mass incorporator.

The Treasury Department has singled out LLCs as particularly vulnerable to being used as shell companies, as they can be owned by anyone and managed anonymously. Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming had 688,000 LLCs on file in 2009, up from 624,000 in 2007.

Treasury and state banking regulators say banks have flagged billions of dollars in suspicious transactions involving U.S. shell companies in recent years.

The Reuter’s report is chock full of information about these shelf companies and how they can and are being used to launder money, avoid taxes, maintain their secrecy, etc. Far too much for me to include in this post. I recommend that readers interested in digging into all that detail read the Reuter’s report.

Other sources [AllGOV]

Related posts:

1. The Corporate State
2. Cap on corporate executive pay not in the stimulus?!!!
3. Stock Market is up for Healthcare Insurance

Rachel Maddow chides Dean Heller. Heller voted for the Paul Ryan budget as a House Representative. When he is appointed Senator he will get to vote for it again, as a Senator.

Maddow also shows the rough sledding Republican Representatives are encountering at their “town hall” meetings over their votes for the Ryan budget.

Related posts:

1. Maddow on the John Ensign Affair
2. Republican Dean Heller voted twice to end Medicare
3. Republican Congressman Dean Heller’s Dilemma

This blog post is about the federal budget. You have seen or at least heard about Republican Paul Ryan’s proposed budget and President Obama’s counter to the Ryan budget. But did you know there is a third budget proposal? Well, if not, now you know there is. If you read this post you’ll find the link to The People’s Budget. It was put out by The Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Watch Maddow’s video and learn why The People’s Budget is better than either President Obama’s or Paul Ryan’s. Then spread the word about it.

Rachel Maddow had a very illuminating segment on the Rachel Maddow Show yesterday. The segment can be seen in the video clip above. I found it very informative. Here is a transcript of the video to help you follow along with the clip.

“This week as president Obama visited Facebook in northern California, he got a question president’s probably dread getting. What is your biggest regret so far, sir. If you could do something differently, what would it be? The president got a question like that at Facebook and here is what he said in response.

“Health care, obviously was a huge battle. It was so complicated that at a certain point, people started say, oh, this is typical Washington bickering. I have asked myself sometimes, is there a way we could have gotten it done more quickly in a way the American people wouldn’t have been so frustrated by?

“Health reform and its frustrations. remember the summer, 2009, cable news was wall-to-wall with frustrations and stuff like this every single day. Is this live? This is live. Things are getting physical at the town hall. let’s take a quick listen.

“Your people told me I could. I called your office and I was told I could have the mic to speak. One day God is going to stand before you and he’s going to judge you and the rest of your damn cronies up on the hill. and then, you will get your justice.

“Cable news could not get enough of screaming town hall meetings for democratic members of congress. the senate would return and get berated by conservatives screaming at them over the health reform bill and how God would judge them. Cable networks cut out to go to these things live. Hey, there’s Arlen Spector. Watch him get screamed at or hey, there’s John Dingell. Watch him. Hey, there’s Tom. Watch him get heckled. Cable news was absolutely transfixed by these town hall events in the summer of 2009. Less prominently featured was some of it was organized by corporate funded front groups, a lot of it the Republican parties. Yes, those were real people, but there were big vinyl wrapped buses driving across the country, organizing for the events, directing people to specific town halls and providing specific talking points for town hall attendees and instructing them on how to disrupt the town halls. You need to rock the boat early in the presentation. Watch for an opportunity to yell out. The goal is to rattle him. A year and a half later, the same thing is happening. This time with congress on recess, town hall events across the country, are, again, lighting up with anger and frustration. This time it’s about the Republican party budget plan. The Paul Ryan budget plan that cuts taxes for the richest Americans back to what they were in the 1930s. It drastically cuts taxes for corporations, gives billions of dollars to oil companies, the poor, orphaned hard-luck oil companies and ends Medicare. It repeals it and turns it into a coupon system. It makes senior citizens buy private health insurance. that is really unpopular. It’s clear in lots of different polling done over the last few weeks. What’s different this week is that Republicans who just voted for the kill Medicare, cut taxes for the rich plan, last week, Republicans who voted, now it’s the Republicans who have to go back to their districts and defend what they did. It’s turned out to be a mighty challenge starting with the man who authors the budget.

“What is the best way to do this? Is it to — is it to redistribute?

“It does not trickle down.

“We do tax the top. [ booing ]

“That’s right. Before somebody in the audience starts going Paul, Paul, Paul. I love it. That was Republican Congressman Paul Ryan getting heckled as he tried to defend more tax cuts for the richest people in the country. He’s not alone about how constituents feel about him. Here is a sampling that Republican congressmen are getting back home after they tried to defend voting for this plan.

“Did you not vote for Paul Ryan’s bill?

“Yes, I did.

“Well that is to abolish Medicare. It will not be the Medicare that we know.

“You asked me if I voted to abolish Medicare.

“It’s what it is.

“The Ryan budget proposes to turn Medicare into a voucher.

“No, it doesn’t.

“Yes, it does.

“No, it doesn’t.

“Yes.

“That’s my understanding. If we do nothing, we are in trouble. Why we have to raise taxes on the rich and raise taxes on corporations. They have never been richer in the history of our country than they are now and you guys cut their taxes again.

“People won’t cover seniors for the lousy $15,000 that is going to be offered under this plan. You did not run on this. There are ways to pay for it.

“Okay.

“It’s wrong to do this.

“That was Sean Patrick Duffy [R-WI] and Lou Barletta [R-PA] all Republican congressmen. All getting the business back home from their constituents.

Robert Dold [R-IL]

Then there’s Robert Dold of Illinois. He couldn’t get to the end of the presentation before audience members peppered him with questions about the Ryan budget. They said they don’t believe chopping 10 percentage points will create jobs. Listen to this. A handful of people in the audience identified themselves as business owners and accountants saying their income tax rates are lower than the rates in the Ryan plan. They pointed to GE, that pay almost no Taxes despite billions in profits.

Then Charlie Bass [R-NH] of New Hampshire quoting from "Time" magazine. He knew he was in for a tough night. The first question was about his vote for Paul Ryan’s budget. Then the second and the third and the fourth, fifth and sixth questions. This stuff is happening all across the country and Republicans voted for the Paul Ryan thing now they have to go home and defend that vote. You would not know this was happening all across the country if you just read the press or watched most TV right now. It’s thanks to Daily Coast and reporters at Jason Lincoln. They have been chronicling these events. Those are the only reason this stuff is getting out there at all right now. There are not network news crews going out to cover the town hall events like in 2009. The beltway could not get enough of it back then. It is happening now, the same thing. Because it’s not angry conservatives, it’s angry everyone else, they could not care a less. The overall effect of the Paul Ryan Republican budget over the next ten years is add $6 trillion to the national debt. Add to make it $6 trillion worse. It’s what happens when you cut their taxes back to what they were in the ’30s. The Republicans larded that on the deficit and the debt, they are saying they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling. They are very happy to raise the debt, but not interested in raising the thing that allows us to take on more debt. in metaphor land, that is steering your car directly at a brick wall while going fast and refusing to turn the wheel. In the beltway, it’s called courage. Of the comprehensive budget plans released this year, the one that does the most, the one that balances the budget 20 years earlier than Paul Ryan, it lets the bush tax cuts expire, raise taxes on the richest in the country, cut defense spending that’s doubled in the past decade and was already the biggest thing in the discretionary budget. It would end the subsidies for the orphan oil companies and on health care costs, still the budget eating dragon, we would get a public option. How does that sound compared to cutting taxes for the rich and dismantling Medicare. That is actually the most fiscally responsible budget in Washington. [She is referring to The People’s Budget] If you care about the deficit, this seems to be the one that does it. It’s from the congressional caucus. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s why the beltway press — it’s why you haven’t heard about it. It’s sort of an embarrassing thing to admit. People get mad at me and write letters from Washington. The beltway press does not cover liberals. When the beltway press covers liberals, it’s not only not political science, it’s not sociology. When they cover liberals, it’s anthropology. the beltway right now says the deficit negotiations have to be between President Obama and the Paul Ryan plan. Why not between President Obama and the progressives? This really is about fixing the deficit. Why is the most fiscally responsible budget plan that’s been submitted and introduced. Why is it not on the table? Joining us is Matt Miller. he’s an MSNBC contributor. He served as a senior adviser from 1993 to 1995 under President Bill Clinton. Thanks for being here.

“Glad to be here.

“The progressive budget is a very populous plan. The individual stuff in it like raising the taxes on the richest, getting rid of the oil subsidies, they poll well. They are popular. Could the deficit be brought down that quickly with the policies in this plan?

“Yes. What was smart about the progressive caucus is they actually went to the right of the current debate on fiscal responsibility and said we don’t have to wait 25 years like Paul Ryan or Barack Obama, which never shows balance. we can balance the budget in ten years and in ways that are progressive. Here is a road map that shows you how. I think it’s such a surprise to the conventional wisdom that the normal beltway media has had trouble processing what to do with it.

“I made a joke that I meant about the beltway incapable of covering liberals. They are covered almost like foreign news if not like anthropology. do you think it is a broader disinclination to cover liberal ideas and politics that explains it or is this the thing that’s introduced by the people that aren’t taken seriously on fiscal matters no matter what they say about them?

“It’s a bit of both. The basic mode of coverage is the establishment press act as stenographers to power. You have the opposition represented by Paul Ryan. That defines it boundaries of debate because the media faithfully reflects the poll of debate. If you are coming from outside the polls or in this case, what’s interesting about the progressive caucus is they are more fiscally conservative than the current debate but more socially liberal in terms of investments, infrastructure and jobs and more progressive on upper income earners in the tax code. The beltway, because they are not the official spokesperson like the President is, they tend to get ignored. They have to be more creative to get attention for their ideas.

“I will say that we get lobbied all the time and stuff to cover. You would think a show like mine would get lobbied all the time to cover things. Uncovering the progressive budget has been liberal tweeting about it. It’s sort of been it. I hear you about the publicity. In your latest column, you said, you played with the idea that what you should write for the column over and over again is the house Republican budget adds $6 trillion to the debt yet GOP is balking and playing with the debt limit. Why is it that the fiscal conservatism of the Paul Ryan plan isn’t been quantified. It’s taken for what they say it is rather than what it is.

“It’s the big question now in Washington and I had in mind the great scene from the movie, The Shining where the wife comes across the man script that says all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy for thousands of pages. That’s what i felt like doing for the Paul Ryan debt. The answer is part of it is the stenography like we talked and the other part is a fear of numbers. There’s a lot of folks on some of the beats for the major papers that are reluctant to look at Paul Ryan’s own plan. The numbers I used are from the plan he issued. If you look at the key things, you realize the image he’s been able to create for himself is fiscally conservative and at odds with the plan that runs up more debt in ten years than any ten-year period in American history. It should be said Barack Obama’s plan is even worse. Ryan would add $6 trillion in the next decade and Obama’s latest version is $7 trillion. Neither is adequate. It’s what makes it interesting. They say let’s balance the budget faster but by making choices within that.

“You served in the Clinton administration in the ’90s. You know about economic policy and winning politics. In terms of this battle now, what do you think of democrats prospects of turning the policy into good political outcomes? Do you think they are aiming at doing that?

“There’s no question the speech Obama gave the other day contrasting his approach with the Republican approach is going to be a winner. It’s what you are seeing in the town halls already. When you are able to contrast the Republicans want to cut Medicare or change Medicare in order to cut taxes for the wealthy. I think it’s very powerful for politics. The things you have to realize is the debate isn’t the right debate. Obama can win on those politics. If that’s what the debate sounds like, he will. There’s a difference between Obama winning and having solutions equal to the problems that the country faces. Obama doesn’t do enough. Not only on the debt, but on reorienting enough federal spending on the elderly, where all the growth is on the budget. Paul Ryan is increasing social security and Medicare by 75% over ten years. The entire budget today goes for consumption on the elderly. There’s less and less left for education, teachers to the toughest schools where you need to raise pay substantially. Infrastructure and things the progressive caucus is fighting for. Obama’s message may win for 2012, but it’s not going to get us where we need to go.

“Matt, thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.

“Glad to be with you.”

Related posts:

1. Obama budget passes House and Senate
2. Nevada: 54% budget shortfall
3. Federal Budget of a Third Kind

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

>>> joining us now is bob cavnar. he’s a 30-year veteran of the oil and gas industry. he’s currently the ceo of luca technologies, which is in the natural gas industry. before that he was president and ceo of an oil and gas drilling exploration firm called milagro exploration. he’s also author of the book

"disaster on the horizon: high stakes, high risks, and the story behind the deepwater well blowout." bob cavnar helped us explain and understand that disaster as it was happening, as we reported it here on msnbc. bob, it’s nice to see you again. thanks for joining us tonight.

>> great to be with you, rachel. thank you.

>> the interior department has gone to great lengths to assure us that the permits they’re handing out now are the result of new safety measures that the oil industry has implemented since the bp disaster. we tried to get a hold of additional documents laying out what all those safety measures might be. we were told they contain proprietary information and cannot be released. as a veteran of that industry are you aware of what new safety measures are in effect since the bp disaster?

>> what i’ve seen, rachel, in terms of communication from the b.o.e., m.r.e., the new agency of the interior is designated to regulate the industry in the gulf of mexico, the new regulations are primarily around safety training and in third-party certification that supposedly assures the government that the companies who normally self-regulate are actually doing what they say they’re doing. there’s real no — no real change to deepwater drilling. the only real kind of systematic change is this subsea well containment procedure that they’ve developed, that a company has to certify that they are a part of before they receive a drilling permit.

>> in terms of subsea containment new technology, i want to talk to you about this new report about blowout preventers. but in terms of any new containment technology that’s been developed, has it been tested?

>> there’s no — there’s been no real-life testing of this equipment, rachel. but essentially, all this equipment that they have, there’s two companies doing it. one marine well containment company and another one called the helix well containment company. they essentially took the equipment that bp built on the fly during the maconda well blowout and set that up as a permanent well installation that’s on the shore that can be rapidly deployed. so far it has not been tested in a real-life situation except during the period of time when it was actually being used on the bp well blowout and we saw how well that worked.

>> so when the federal government is telling us, telling our show, our producers directly that there are new security procedures in effect that should essentially set everybody’s mind at ease, that there’s rigorous new safety standards in place, what essentially that means is something that looks like what eventually capped the bp well is on the shore somewhere and there are companies that are saying that stuff is better, that people have been better trained and that safety standards are good. but other than that there’s nothing new that’s happened since bb.

>> right. there’s no fundamental change to the way we drill the deepwater, rachel. we’re doing it with the same equipment, the same blowout preventers on all the deepwater rigs that are in the gulf that failed on the macondo well. and the issue here is these new regulations regulate an unreliable piece of equipment and regulating something that’s unreliable doesn’t make it more reliable, it just makes it more regulated.

>> so to be perfectly clear about this because i’ve really got my hair on fire about this, i sort of can’t believe what we have found out –

>> i understand.

>> the blowout preventers have been determined, at least by this latest forensic investigation, 500-page report that came out this week under the auspices of the department of the interior, this norwegian firm that’s expert in it hired to do it and they say the same thing that causes a blowout can render a blowout preventer inoperable. you’re saying that oil rigs operating in the gulf right now and anybody getting new permits to operate in the gulf right now, they’re using that same piece of equipment?

>> they’re using that exact same piece of equipment. and this shouldn’t be a surprise to the industry. there’s already reports there. in fact, detnosk veritas did a report in 2009 that said subsea blowout preventers fail about 45% of the time. now we know it’s not just maintenance and not just a fluke, there’s actually some design flaws within the device itself that the blowout will render useless and there’s no way to control the well.

>> so democratic congressman ed markey of massachusetts is very outspoken on these issues. he’s called for an immediate top to bottom inspection and review of blowout preventers, of their design and effectiveness. you think if that sort of inspection happened right now it would find essentially a defective or at least poorly effective piece of equipment?

>> what that inspection would find is superficial issues like hydraulic leaks, lines that weren’t connected, those kinds of things. but inspecting an unreliable device that has a design flaw built into it doesn’t change the function and doesn’t change the lack of function if something goes wrong and it fails during a blowout.

>> bob cavnar, 30-year veteran of the oil and gas industry, author of "disaster on the horizon" about the bp disaster. bob, thank you very much for your time tonight. really appreciate it.

>> happy to be with you, rachel. thanks.

>>> you know, in political science they always say — in political science they always say, they caution you to say don’t make public policies based on disasters. don’t overreact to one in a million events. yeah, what’s worse, doing that or having a one in a million event and then not reacting to it at all? it’s just astonishing. tuesday

Related posts:

1. BP gulf spill problem not addressed?
2. Gulf Coast Oil Spill
3. Giant Plumes of Oil Forming Under the Gulf

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

We begin tonight with an exclusive report. this is something we have been working on for some time. you will not see this anywhere else. all right. do you have an air bag in your car? depending on the age of your car, you probably do. you probably have lots of air bags in your car. you may have one built into your steering wheel, into the dashboard, on the passenger side. you might have side impact air bags if you sprung for them. if you drive every day, you probably don’t give the air bags in your car much everyday thought. but the overall concept about them is that the air bag isn’t there to prevent an accident from happening in the first place but if an accident does happen the air bag is there to essentially limit the damage. it is your last line of defense against catastrophe. if you crash into something head on, that air bag in your steering wheel, for example, stops your body from slamming into everything in your car that is in front of you when you drive. again, the air bag not there to prevent an accident from happening in the first place. it’s about preventing an accident from turning into a tragedy. the reason you probably have an air bag in your car is because the federal government has required carmakers to put them there. the government will not let a car company sell you a car that was built after 1998 unless it has an air bag, unless it has this device that’s been proven to reduce the chances of serious damage should disaster strike. the auto industry was not psyched about that regulation, but that’s why they are bound by regulations. this is one of the things the federal government does. it serves the interests of all of us by requiring industries to make their products as safe as possible. it’s why you can’t buy lawn darts anymore. fun. profitable, I’m sure. also perfectly designed to puncture your skull. it’s why you’re not supposed to be able to buy toys made of lead or coded in lead paint. for kids these are cool but also perfect lead-poisoning delivery devices. for the airline industry it’s a lot of stuff, including those nifty oxygen masks that drop down from above your seat. for the auto industry, again, it’s things like air bags. for the oil and gas drilling industry it’s something called a blowout preventer. if that sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because you remember this image. this image that played out on TV screens across the country like a horror movie advertisement night after night, week after week, all last year. this image of crude oil flowing unabated into the gulf of Mexico causing the worst oil spill in u.s. history. that image we have now learned was the result of that oil well’s proverbial air bag, as it were, not working. it was the result of the blowout preventer on that well not doing its job. what we are able to report tonight exclusively is that that is not just an explanation of what happened in the BP oil spill. it is not even just a scandal about the BP oil spill or about the oil industry. it is a fundamental, baseline screw-up in this industry that is continuing to put the country at risk right now. the government knows about it. the government could be stopping it. and they appear to be trying to let it slide without explanation. let me explain. here’s what we found. the process of exploring for oil is of course a dangerous process. accidents happen. when you’re drilling into the earth’s crust, there’s all sorts of pressure that builds up below the surface of the earth. oil drilling is essentially about controlling that pressure while extracting the oil that you’re down there for in the first place. right? but sometimes accidents do happen. sometimes that pressure builds up and builds up and essentially surges up through the drilling pipe — the drilling pipe. it’s a well blowout. that’s where the blowout preventer is supposed to come in, right? you’ve had a serious malfunction in the drilling process. now it is about containing the damage. the car crash has happened. the air bag is deployed. the blowout preventer is basically a piece of equipment that’s attached to the top of an oil well, right? and when pressure surges up the drilling well — drilling pipe the blowout preventer is supposed to kick into action. it essentially seals up the well and holds all of that pressure in. if the blowout preventer does not work, you get this. you get disaster. disaster not just for the environment but for the crew that’s stationed on top of that malnunksing oil rig. 11 yew members were killed when the deep-water horizon oil rig blew in the gulf of Mexico. soon after that explosion and the historic oil spill that followed it was pretty obvious that the blowout preventer had failed to prevent that blowout. that was pretty clear. but what we know now, what we have learned this week in fact is that the blowout preventer in question was not built wrong, it wasn’t broken, and it was used as directed. the coast guard hired a Norwegian firm to do an expert forensic analysis of what went wrong with that blowout preventer in the BP disaster. the coast guard, i should say, oversaw this. the government hired this firm. the firm set up shop at a NASA facility in new Orleans in mid-November. yesterday they release what’d they found. what they found is that in our metaphor from earlier the air bags in this case and maybe in every case don’t work. more specifically, they found air bags work unless there’s a car crash, then they don’t work. the forensic analysis of what went wrong in the BP disaster found a big burst of pressure that causes a well blowout can also render the blowout preventer useless. if the shock that causes the initial accident misaligns the rig’s pumps and valves, the blowout preventer won’t be able to work, won’t be able to seal off the pipe, even when used as directed, even when you do everything right. "the findings of these studies should be considered and addressed in the design of future blowout preventers and the need for modifying current blowout preventers." the reason there are fears right now about possible nuclear meltdown in japan is because the backup plan there failed, right? an earthquake and tsunami knocked out the power at the reactor. you need that power at all times to cool the radioactive fuel rods. but don’t worry, there’s a backup power source. a backup power source that was also knocked out by the same quake and tsunami that knocked out the first- line power source. the same disaster that caused the need for the backup plan also caused the backup plan. so therefore, even though you’re calling it a backup, you don’t really have a backup plan. it’s the same deal with the blowout preventers. the same disaster that cause the need for the blowout preventer, a blowout, actually blows out the blowout preventer, too, renders it inoperable. so that means you really do not have a backup plan. you can call it redundancy. you do not have redundancy. and again it’s not because these things are broken. it’s because this is the way they are designed. that is the engineering part of this story. here’s the politics part of this story and the life and death part of this story, which is worse, frankly. the federal government is now in the process of issuing new permits to drill in the gulf of Mexico. issuing new permits all of a sudden at a breakneck speed. today the interior department approved its fifth deep-water drilling permit for the gulf of Mexico. not its fifth just since the deep-water horizon disaster last April. we’re talking about its fifth in the last 25 days. this permit was given to chevron. it’s to drill a well off the coast of Louisiana in nearly 7,000 feet of water. the BP disaster happened, you’ll recall, in 5,000 feet of water. this new permit for chevron follows the interior department’s decision over the last few weeks to grant drilling per noits Exxon, to shell, to atp oil and gas, and to noble energy. all of those oil companies have now been given the go-ahead by our federal government to drill, baby, drill. after the moratorium, after the big halt in drilling, after the big safety freak-out after BP, why are new offshore drilling permits now flying off the shelves? well, the government says it’s because the oil industry is now "complying with rigorous new safety standards implemented in the wake of the deep-water horizon explosion." according to the head of the permitting agency, the permits show, these new permits show "that the industry has demonstrated the capability to contain a deep-water loss of well control and blowout." this is the same office, the same office at the interior department that requested and released the investigation that proved that blowout preventers don’t work. now that agency is saying drill baby drill because the oil industry has proven it can handle a blowout. same agency. when the interior department granted its first new permit since the BP oil disaster last month, we took note on this show that the permit went to noble energy. seemed like an awkward choice to us at the time because the largest ownership stake in that noble energy project was held by BP so the first permit granted since the BP oil disaster goes to bp. bp working with noble energy. after that permit was announced, the show obtained noble’s oil spill response plan for that project. again, this is for the first new drilling permit after the bp disaster. we sought out that oil spill response plan because we figured if the federal government was granting new permits to drill we wanted to see the updated response plan. he wanted to see all the lessons learned from the big bp disaster if we were going to be drilling again. during the bp disaster we all got really familiar with that company’s ridiculously inadequate oil spill response plan. remember? the bp oil disaster took place on april 20th, 2010. this is noble energy’s official oil spill response plan for their drilling that they just had newly approved. check out the date on their oil spill response plan. september 2009. so the government is assuring us that they are only granting new permits for drilling because of all the lessons learned from the bp oil disaster. look at this. the oil spill response plan for the first permit they issued, this oil spill response plan was written the year before the bp oil disaster. so no lessons learned from the bp oil disaster. no new containment capabilities developed after the bp oil disaster. same blowout preventer technology that has been singled out as having failed during the bp oil disaster and that we now know would fail again even if used as directed. no new nothing as a result of the bp oil disaster. and this permit was approved last month. with an oil spill response plan dated seven months before the largest oil spill in u.s. history. with the administration’s assurance about all the rigorous new safety standards these companies are going to be following. we contacted the government. we contacted the department of the interior after we obtained this document because we thought somebody must have sent us the wrong thing. we thought we must have been sent by accident an old version of this oil response plan. they informed us that in fact we do have the most up-to-date version on hand. they also told us that in general rig operators are eligible to get new permits while they’re in the process of revising any old oil spill response plans. so what exactly is the permitting process reviewing, then? we also asked the department of the interior if their permitting requirements might change, given the new report released by their own office that says blowout preventers don’t really work, even when they’re used as directed? they told us they have no comment on the report, it’s part of an ongoing investigation, but they are handing out the permits to drill anyway. this is like convicting bernie madoff and then investing his victims’ compensation fund in a nice ponzi scheme. what on earth is the government thinking here? are you being politically pressured into this with all the talk of higher gas prices? seriously, what are you thinking here? and how psyched is the oil industry that they think they’re going to get away with this, even after the bp disaster? a 30-year veteran of the oil and gas industry joins us next to answer that question.

Related posts:

1. BP Gulf Spill Problem–Continued
2. Gulf Coast Oil Spill
3. Deregulation of Oil Drilling

Source: Rachel Maddow Blog

Related posts:

1. Maddow on the John Ensign Affair
2. YouTube – Universal Health Care – The Rachel Maddow Show
3. Maddow Battles Dick Armey In “Meet The Press” Debut (VIDEO)

Related posts:

1. Senator Grassley: Make sure there is no public option
2. Gingrich’s Consulting Work
3. Obama’s Goofing Off? Get to work Barack! We’re Hurting Out Here!

Last night, Wisconsin State Senate Republicans stripped most public employees unions of most collective bargaining rights. After insisting for weeks that busting the unions was essential to balancing the state’s budget, they broke Governor Scott Walker’s "budget-repair bill" into two parts. One part contained the anti-union provisions, the other the items that Republicans now deemed fiscal.

Then they jammed the anti-union provisions through a conference committee of the Assembly and Senate — in the extraordinary tape you see above — and had the Senate pass that bill moments later. The Assembly is expected to pass it this morning. Senate Democrats sound like they haven’t yet decided whether to come back today. Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, whom you see above, is asking the attorney general to intervene in what Mr. Barca calls a violation of Wisconsin’s open meetings law. Republicans insist that they played this one by the numbers. (Check out Ezra Klein on this question.)

The AFL-CIO is rallying people in Madison this morning. According to the indispensable WisPolitics, protests will be held across the state, at "the Dodge County Administration Building, Eau Claire’s City Hall, Veterans Park in Fond du Lac, the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce, the La Crosse County Courthouse, the Milwaukee County Courthouse, Senator Mike Ellis’ district office in Neenah, the Oshkosh Opera House Square, Platteville’s City Hall, Monument Square in Racine, the Richland County Courthouse, in Ripon at 303 Blackburn St. and the River Falls City Hall."

Last night on the show, Michael Moore noted ongoing protests around the nation of union-busting attempts by other Republican governors. Mr. Moore called for a national student walkout on Friday, at 2 p.m. local time. The demonstrations must go on, he said. "This has to continue day after day after day, and these governors are going to have to step down," he said. "They’re going to be recalled. They’re going to be impeached. They have broken the law. There’s no way they can get away with this."

Though none of this is presently occurring in Nevada it certainly could.

Related posts:

1. Letting the middle class die
2. Will Nye County Dems beat the Nye County Republicans on September 13?
3. Nye Republicans straw vote for US Senate

HR3 Hits the Calendar

March 5, 2011 — nvrdc

HR 3, the “No Tax Payer Funding for Abortion Act” has left the Judiciary committee with a recommendation that it be brought up on the full House floor for debate. Still part of that bill is the onerous language defining what constitutes rape:

SEC. 309. TREATMENT OF ABORTIONS RELATED TO RAPE, INCEST, OR PRESERVING THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER.

The limitations established in sections 301, 302, 303, and 304 shall not apply to an abortion–

(1) if the pregnancy occurred because the pregnant female was the subject of an act of forcible rape or, if a minor, an act of incest; or [emphasis added]

(2) in the case where the pregnant female suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the pregnant female in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself.

NO AMENDMENTS to this bill have been listed/posted to THOMAS (Library of Congress) by the Judiciary Committee.

You can access other articles I’ve posted on this bill HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. Expect that when this bill comes up for a debate on the floor for pieces of the other proposed bills will be offered up as Amendments, as the authors of the other bills try to get their bills passed as tack-ons to HR3.

Here’s what HR3 does:

• Raises taxes and increases costs on individuals and small businesses with insurance plans that cover abortion, which could force individuals and employers to drop abortion coverage from their health insurance plans. It could even shut down the entire private market for insurance coverage that includes abortion.
• Writes into permanent law a ban on insurance coverage for abortion for ALL women who depend on the government for their health care. This includes low-income women currently covered under Medicaid, women who will become eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, women serving in the U.S. military, federal employees, residents of the District of Columbia, women in federal prisons and women covered by the Indian Health Service.
• Unbelievably, H.R. 3 contains no exceptions for circumstances where a woman faces serious health consequences, even if continuing the pregnancy could cause stroke or paralysis.

We need to besiege Rep. Heller with phone calls and emails letting him know that if he truly is a small government Republicans who believes in liberty, he should NOT be voting to a bill that squarely inserts the Government into every decision made by a woman and her doctor whenever reproductive choices are being considered. If he needs to understand what that means, he should look at the actions recently taken by the GOP members of the Wyoming Assembly/Senate on this issue. Watch this Rachel Maddow episode about the Big Government in your face anti-abortion bill that just fail in the most Republican Legislature in the Nation — the Wyoming Legislature.

Source: Nevada Rural Democratic Caucus

Related posts:

1. Nine-Year Old’s Abortion Outrages Brazil’s Catholic Church
2. Sharron Angle and Anti-abortion
3. House passes war funding bill