Saturday, June 19, 2010

BP's Tony Hayward to unemployed in Gulf, "Let them eat yachts."




Poor misunderstood Tony "I want my life back" Hayward just can't catch a break. Less than 24 hours after the British Petroleum's CEO allegedly "stepped down" from overseeing day-to-day operations in the Gulf, he was caught with his PR pants down again.

Once again, the oil company was forced to clarify the statements of its top executives to try to smooth its image — on the same day Mr. Hayward watched his yacht compete in a major race off the southern coast of England.

“He is having some rare private time with his son,” a BP spokeswoman, Sheila Williams, said in a telephone interview on Saturday.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who taped an interview for ABC’s “This Week,” called Mr. Hayward’s attendance “part of a long line of PR gaffes and mistakes” that he has made.

“To quote Tony Hayward, he’s got his life back,” Mr. Emanuel said. “And I think we can all conclude that Tony Hayward is not going to have a second career in PR consulting.” He was referring to a statement Mr. Hayward made on May 31, six weeks after the spill began, when he said: “I’d like my life back.”

Poor boy. I'm sure his fellow boat enthusiasts in Louisiana grounded by the BP spill can relate.

In areas hit hard by the Gulf oil spill, some families are already in desperate financial straits. Even before the spill, many were living near the edge, their savings depleted by Hurricane Katrina.

For those who fish for a living, the spill has cut off both their source of income and a major source of food.

At St. Anthony's Church in Lafitte, La., people started lining up at 4 a.m., even though the doors weren't set to open until 9 a.m. They were there for free $100 grocery gift cards.

"You think we'd be sitting in these lines for five hours for $100 in food if we didn't need it? None of us would be here," Diane Poche says.

Until a month ago, Poche, 61, worked with her husband, who has been a commercial fisherman all his life. But now they can't fish, and Poche says they're forced to rely on the BP claims process for their entire income.

"I don't have any money coming in my house, period," she says. "My June bills have been due and past due. It don't look like BP cares about our June bills."

I'm sure Tony has their ear. After all, he was such an "active listener" when it came to safety concerns at BP.

On Thursday, during his day before an angry House energy subcommittee, Mr. Hayward was confronted with the fact that BP had been cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for 760 “egregious willful” safety violations in its refineries. Mr. Hayward tried to slough this off by claiming that the violations had taken place in 2005 and 2006 — before, that is, he became chief executive and brought his “laser focus” on safety.

But Mr. Hayward was not telling the truth. According to the Center for Public Integrity, which obtained the data under the Freedom of Information Act, the violations all took place between 2007 and 2010, very much on Mr. Hayward’s watch. What’s more, the company violated something called O.S.H.A.’s “process safety management standard” — which is precisely what that BP advisory panel had been charged with examining after the Texas City explosion. In October 2009, O.S.H.A. fined BP an additional $87 million for refinery deficiencies. It doesn’t sound like the company took its advisory panel’s recommendations very seriously, does it?
Tony Hayward, enjoying private time on his yacht "Bob", was unavailable for comment.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Waiting For Obama

Gulf Coast Beach, Alabama - the first thing that hits you is the indescribable beauty of the beach, impossibly white sand meeting neon-turquoise water. The second thing is the overwhelming smell of gasoline.

Driving from Tallahassee, Florida, on our way to New Orleans, LA, my husband and I decided to take a southern swing through Pensacola, Florida and the Gulf seashores of Mobile, Alabama to see with our own eyes what we'd only seen on the news.

As it happened, President Obama was taking a tour through the area at the same time. And in a weird way, this coincidence proved to be a metaphor of sorts - us searching for an elusive President and seeing instead heartbreaking evidence of a tragedy yet to happen, of an entire region holding it's collective breath, knowing whatever they imagine will happen will likely be unimaginably worse.

We came to bear witness. This is what we saw.


A message for President Obama from Sam's Seafood - Pensacola, Florida


Yellow flag warning, Perdido Key State Beach, Florida


Yellow flag warning, Perdido Key State Beach, Florida



Sunbathers ignore oil containment booms at Gulf State Beach, Alabama



Sunbathers ignore oil containment booms at Gulf State Beach, Alabama


News crew hangs out at Gulf State Beach, Alabama


Tourists takes photos of oil containment booms at Gulf State Beach, Alabama


Tourists takes photos of oil containment booms at Gulf State Beach, Alabama


Oil globs, Gulf State Beach, Alabama


Oil globs, Gulf State Beach, Alabama



Once you get this stuff on your hands, you can't get it off.


A family watches oil containment work, Gulf State Beach, Alabama


Boy plays in surf with oil globs, Gulf State Beach, Alabama



Father and daughter watches oil containment work, Gulf State Beach, Alabama


Police roadblock - Daulphin Island, Alabama, where
President Obama was touring.
This was as close as we got to him.


Oil containment booms being transported to Daulphin Island, Alabama


Oil containment booms protect an estuary just north of Daulphin Island, Alabama


Oil containment booms protect an estuary just north of Daulphin Island, Alabama


Oil containment booms protect an estuary just north of Daulphin Island, Alabama


Oil containment booms protect an estuary just north of Daulphin Island, Alabama


Dueling signs, Bayou La Batre, Alabama


Wednesday, June 9, 2010

June 8 Election Results!


We here at Venice For Change made a bunch of endorsements for ballot initiatives, state-wide primary races and local races in AD-53. So, how'd we do? Check below for the results!



PROPOSITIONS



PROP 13: WINS!
Seismic retrofits - Provides a tax break to property owners for
making seismic retrofits to their buildings.

SUPPORTING: AFSCME, CA Democratic Party, Calitics
OPPOSING: CA Nurses Association

PROP 14: WINS!
Top-two primary - Changes the way primary elections work, sending
top two votegetters at the primary onto the general election regardless of party. Intended to undermine progressive candidates and limits voter choices at the general election.

SUPPORTING: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
OPPOSING: AFSCME, CA Democratic Party, Calitics,
CA Federation of Teachers, CA League of Conservation Voters,
CA Nurses Association

PROP 15: LOSES
Fair elections - Repeals ban on public financing, allowing expansion
of clean money to limit influence of corporate donations. Raises fees on lobbyists to fund a public financing system for Secretary of State election beginning in 2014.

SUPPORTING: AFSCME, CA Democratic Party, Calitics, CA League
of Conservation Voters, CA Nurses Association, CREDO Action,
League of Women Voters
OPPOSING: California Chamber of Commerce


PROP 16: LOSES
PG&E power grab - Placed on the ballot by the efforts of PG&E, Northern California's privately owned electric utility, this proposition requires a 2/3rds vote to create public power districts or allow local governments to purchase their own renewable power. Protects PG&E's existing monopoly.

SUPPORTING: PG&E, California Chamber of Commerce

OPPOSING: CA Democratic Party, Calitics, CA League of
Conservation Voters, CA Nurses Association, CREDO Action,
League of Women Voters


PROP 17: LOSES!
Auto insurance surcharge - Placed on the ballot by the efforts of Mercury
Insurance, this proposition would weaken existing consumer protections and allow auto insurance companies to charge drivers as much as double
premiums if they are late with their payments.

SUPPORTING: Mercury Insurance, California Chamber of Commerce
OPPOSING: AFSCME, CA Democratic Party, Calitics, CA Nurses
Association, CREDO Action


STATE AND COUNTY RACES


US Senate: Barbara Boxer WINS!
Congress (CA36) Jane Harman WINS!
Governor: Jerry Brown WINS!
Lt. Governor: Gavin Newsom WINS!
Secretary of State: Debra Bowen WINS!
Controller: John Chiang WINS!
Treasurer: Bill Lockyer WINS!
Attorney General: Kamala D. Harris WINS!
Insurance Commissioner: No Endorsement DAVE JONES WINS!
State Super. of Public Inst.: No Endorsement LARRY ACEVES WINS!
State Senator (District 28) Jenny Oropeza WINS!
State Assembly (District 53) Kate Anderson LOSES
LA County Sheriff: No Endorsement LEE BACA WINS!
LA County Supervisor: Zev Yaroslavsky WINS!

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge
(endorsed by the LA County Democratic Party)
STILL WAITING ON RESULTS TO BE PUBLISHED
Office 28 - Mark K. Ameli
Office 35 - Soussan (Suzanne) Bruguera
Office 107 - Valerie Salkin
Office 117 - Alan Schneider
Office 131 - Maren E. Nelson

Friday, June 4, 2010

Winograd Responds


On Wednesday, Marcy Winograd responded to my post regarding the June 8th primary election in CA-36. You can read her response here and at the bottom of this post.

A few points.

1) I never argued that Jane Harman was a progressive. I argued a case could be made for a progressive to vote for her in this election.

2) I do not dismiss Harman's record at the expense of examining Winograd's. Both are worthy of serious debate. For instance, even as Winograd points out Harman's vote on biologic drugs, she omits Harman's vote for the original House health care reform bill - one with a strong public option.

3) As for the stocks in question, if Winograd has indeed sold them off, she should be applauded for that. However, when her husband, Buddy Gottlieb, confronted me on Facebook about my post (sorry, the link won't work if you're not signed on to Facebook), he refused to answer when the stocks had been sold, or if the campaign would produce proof of the sale when asked directly to do so.

According to the the financial disclosure form she filed in June, 2009, those stocks were listed in her portfolio as of Dec. 2008. And these weren't small investments - the Winograd Trust had in the neighborhood of $75K investing in pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, Wells Fargo and polluting timber industries.

Even if Winograd sold off the stocks, I think it's a legitimate question to ask why she even had them in the first place. If it's not OK for a Blue Dog to have these kinds of investments, it doesn't make them OK just because you sprinkle magic Progressive pixie dust over them.

4) Winograd's residency issue has turned out to quite the thorny issue for her. As far as I've been able to determine, she apparently started renting a condo in Marina del Rey in 2009 - the same year they bought two properties in Santa Monica worth over $2 million. She registered to vote in Marina del Rey in April of 2009 - shortly before she announced she'd run against Harman. But, as recently as October, 2009 she made campaign contributions to Progressive Vote using her old Pacific Palisades address. So who the hell knows.

Frankly, this is less an issue about where she sleeps at night than her apparent need to obfuscate about it. I'm unclear why she feels it's so important to create this illusion. Constitutionally she's not required to live in the district, only in the state of California. In fact, John Garamendi won a congressional seat in CA-10 when he lived in CA-03. Charges of "carpetbagging" were leveled at him as well, but the accusations had no traction. Why? Because he never tried to rent an apartment in the district to create the illusion of residency. So the issue died on its own.

5) The talent pool in CA-36 is a deep one, with many, many potential progressive candidates who've worked for years in our district. But for Tuesday's election, we're offered only two choices. A candidate who is conservative on fiscal issues, national security, and defense, but very liberal on social issues, health care reform and the environment, and a candidate who is very liberal on all of the above issues but who has shown a pattern of questionable choices, hypocrisy, and an unwillingness to reach beyond her core constituents.



Dealer's choice.




Marcy Winograd's statement in full:

Dear Friends and Volunteers,

Thank you for your enduring support and activism on behalf of a myriad of issues, many of which are at the core of my congressional campaign. I'm talking about our work to transition from a permanent war economy to a new green economy, to protect the accuracy of our vote, to stop new offshore oil leases, and to advance prison reform.

Marta Evry is a blogger who, despite her good work on the California budget crisis, wants to re-elect my opponent, arguing that Jane Harman is a progressive. With a flick of her wrist, Marta dismisses Harman's repeated votes for war and occupation, for an onerous bankruptcy bill, for a free trade agreement that lowers labor and environmental standards, for her reported collusion with AIPAC to advance her own career in exchange for a promise to subvert due process, for her vote against affordable breast cancer medication, and for her cover-up of the Bush administration's massive illegal wiretapping program.

The last time I checked the above credentials were not ones a progressive would trumpet. For the record, Harman is a member of the corporate Democrats' Blue Dog coalition.

In terms of the attacks Marta has leveled against me, please know that 98% of the stocks in question were sold years ago, and today I do not own any of the stocks to which Marta raised objections. My opponent, however, invests up to eight million dollars in weapons manufacturers, and has never once recused herself from war supplemental votes. Nor did Harman recuse herself from the overnight bank bailout vote, despite the fact that her most recent disclosure statement indicates she had up to 5-million invested in Goldman Sachs at the time of the bail-out.

My husband and I do have family investments in property in Santa Monica, approximately six blocks outside the district. For the record, however, I do not live in Santa Monica. My husband and I have lived in the 36th congressional district in Marina del Rey for nearly two years. Prior to that, we lived in Pacific Palisades, in Congressman Waxman's district.

Unfortunately, a year ago Marta published on her blog misinformation, accusing me of not living in the district -- and refusing to correct her mistake when asked to clarify for the sake of her readers.

I'm sure Harman, with her net worth of 300-million plus, has plenty invested in real estate outside of the 36th congressional district.

Additionally, I am sorry Marta fails to value my work on behalf of our community, our state, our nation, and our world. For the last 15 years I have worked either as a classroom teacher, school facilitator, or literacy coach, with four of those years working at a variety of schools, from West LA to Wilmington, in our district to improve education. I feel fortunate to have worked with many dedicated educators collaborating to embed research-based literacy strategies in every subject. Most recently, I taught and coached at Crenshaw HS in South Los Angeles, where I worked to establish a Social Justice and the Law Academy. South LA is a few miles from our district, but what happens there impacts us all. In short, education matters. Youth matters.

Many of you know of my leadership in the anti-war movement, from the days when I marched in Los Angeles and San Francisco to end the Vietnam War to the present tense when, in the last few years, I co-wrote resolutions putting the California Democratic Party on record calling for an end to US military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am honored to have organized with Congresswoman Maxine Waters a 1,000 strong Out of Iraq town hall, and to have led a peace delegation from Los Angeles to Capitol Hill.

On the state level, you may also know that I worked hard to protect our vote, testifying in Sacramento against empowering the electronic voting industry, promoting Debra Bowen as Secretary of State - and beyond that working to make sure Bowen stayed in office. My campaign manager Michael Jay and I, hearing that our own local Registrar was organizing to drive Bowen from office, circulated petitions and visited every county supervisors' office to support Bowen and her courageous stance to rid our polls of hackable touchscreen machines.

On another occasion, I testified in Sacramento against prison expansion -- this on the heels of the state assembly's passage of a bill to expand our prisons, despite the cost to our youth in California - where one out of every four African American men in their 20s is behind bars.

For those committed to single-payer health care, know that I have spent the last several years mobilizing support for single-payer, via letter-writing campaigns, party resolutions, and town hall forums. At the start of my current congressional campaign, I ran a commercial challenging Jane Harman to sign on to Congressman Conyers' bill HR676 for single-payer health care. Harman never did.

Finally, on the timely subject of the middle east, I distinguish myself from my opponent who chooses to appear at AIPAC conferences calling for the Balkanization of Iran and on Fox News announcing a military attack on Iran is still on the table. In contrast, I am committed to a just and lasting peace that recognizes the equality and dignity of all in the middle east. In that regard, I co-founded LA Jews for Peace and have worked to raise money to rebuild homes Israel has demolished in the West Bank. There is no safety, nor security, nor dignity in perpetrating human rights violations. I have repeatedly invited my opponent to join me in supporting universal human rights -- but she has not been forthcoming.

Clearly, the voters in the 36th congressional district have a choice on Tues., June 8th. They can cast their vote for an incumbent who stands for war and Wall Street or a grassroots leader committed to peace and social justice. While Harman is awash in corporate contributions, I am not taking a dime of corporate money because this is a people-powered campaign. If you have not already gotten involved, there's still time, albeit only a few days left. Email Bill@WinogradforCongress.com to phone bank or precinct walk and donate at WinogradforCongress.com Again, I want to thank you for your support and grassroots leadership. I am proud to work with you for progressive change in America.

Sincerely,

Marcy Winograd

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Endorsements for June 8th Primary Race


You do know there's a primary this Tuesday, don't you? Here's your one-stop shopping list for all the ballot initiatives, state-wide primary races and local races in AD-53 (Los Angeles County).


PROPOSITIONS
(a big thank you to the Courage Campaign for the following proposition endorsement list)


PROP 13: VOTE YES
Seismic retrofits - Provides a tax break to property owners for
making seismic retrofits to their buildings.

SUPPORTING: AFSCME, CA Democratic Party, Calitics
OPPOSING: CA Nurses Association

PROP 14: VOTE NO
Top-two primary - Changes the way primary elections work, sending
top two votegetters at the primary onto the general election regardless of party. Intended to undermine progressive candidates and limits voter choices at the general election.

SUPPORTING: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
OPPOSING: AFSCME, CA Democratic Party, Calitics,
CA Federation of Teachers, CA League of Conservation Voters,
CA Nurses Association

PROP 15: VOTE YES
Fair elections - Repeals ban on public financing, allowing expansion
of clean money to limit influence of corporate donations. Raises fees on lobbyists to fund a public financing system for Secretary of State election beginning in 2014.

SUPPORTING: AFSCME, CA Democratic Party, Calitics, CA League
of Conservation Voters, CA Nurses Association, CREDO Action,
League of Women Voters
OPPOSING: California Chamber of Commerce


PROP 16: VOTE NO
PG&E power grab - Placed on the ballot by the efforts of PG&E, Northern California's privately owned electric utility, this proposition requires a 2/3rds vote to create public power districts or allow local governments to purchase their own renewable power. Protects PG&E's existing monopoly.

SUPPORTING: PG&E, California Chamber of Commerce

OPPOSING: CA Democratic Party, Calitics, CA League of
Conservation Voters, CA Nurses Association, CREDO Action,
League of Women Voters


PROP 17: VOTE NO
Auto insurance surcharge - Placed on the ballot by the efforts of Mercury
Insurance, this proposition would weaken existing consumer protections and allow auto insurance companies to charge drivers as much as double
premiums if they are late with their payments.

SUPPORTING: Mercury Insurance, California Chamber of Commerce
OPPOSING: AFSCME, CA Democratic Party, Calitics, CA Nurses
Association, CREDO Action


STATE AND COUNTY RACES


US Senate: Barbara Boxer
Congress (CA36) Jane Harman
Governor: Jerry BrownG
Lt. Governor: Gavin Newsom
Secretary of State: Debra Bowen
Controller: John Chiang
Treasurer: Bill Lockyer
Attorney General: Kamala D. Harris
Insurance Commissioner: No Endorsement
State Superintendent of Public Instruction: No Endorsement
State Senator (District 28) Jenny Oropeza
State Assembly (District 53) Kate Anderson
LA County Assessor: No Endorsement
LA County Sheriff: No Endorsement
LA County Supervisor: Zev Yaroslavsky

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge
(endorsed by the LA County Democratic Party)
Office 28 - Mark K. Ameli
Office 35 - Soussan (Suzanne) Bruguera
Office 107 - Valerie Salkin
Office 117 - Alan Schneider
Office 131 - Maren E. Nelson