BP's Deepwater Horizon warning system was disabled

An article in today's Washington Post highlights disgusting, disgraceful business practices at BP. The profit-motive places pressure to pivot risk-analysis decisions on the short term bottom line numbers, particularly when the people making the decision are driven by personal gain.

The Post has video of Deepwater chief engineer Michael Williams, an ex-Marine who survived the April 20th explosion and fire, telling a government panel that "warning systems on the drilling rig were inhibited because the crew did not want to be disturbed in the middle of the night."

Williams told the panel that he understood that the rig had been operating with the gas alarm system in "inhibited" mode for a year to prevent false alarms from disturbing the crew.

Washington Post, 22 July 2010

The profit motive accomplishes certain things very well. It's driven the price of medical equipment in Japan well below what similar products produced in North America costs, for instance, and it obviously drives creative innovation across the business sector.

But the mortgage-lending and Wall Street crises that are still hampering our economy years after they surfaced demonstrate that without regulation and enforcement business owners can, and all too often do, become focused only on money. To balance that greed is one of the ways that governments can, and should, "promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..."

Special interest money has entirely too much influence in Washington. It's time that our leaders stopped talking about small businesses while voting to enable big business to ruin our planet, our standard of living, and our future. That's a bankrupt ideology - that's the real threat to our children.

Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, Democratic Campaign Manager, journalist, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.

R.T. Rybak: How money warps politics, and campaigns.

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision freeing up corporations to spend freely on political advertising campaigns one can only imagine the slander, innuendo, and deliberate misinformation will be getting worse -- more diverse and numerous -- right through Election Day in November. In Minnesota, it's already begun as a shadowy smear campaign evidently intended to convince Minnesotans to stay home on caucus night, February 2, 2010 -- especially if they’re thinking of supporting Minneapolis Mayor Raymond "R.T." Rybak in his bid to secure the party endorsement to run for Governor of Minnesota in November.

The facts are chasing the lies in Minnesota, and nobody's quite certain who paid to send the misinformation - yet.

In brief: For years Minneapolis taxpayers had been overcharged by two pension funds that have been closed to new members for almost 30 years. No police officer or firefighter hired since 1980 draws any benefit from these funds — but all Minneapolis taxpayers contribute to it.

Follow the money

Mayor Rybak and other city leaders stepped up to put a stop to the overcharging by the pension funds after the State Auditor alerted them to the problem. They approached the fund managers and the MN Legislature, but ended up taking the pension funds to court — and they won.

One can only infer that high-priced lawyers and lobbyists who represent those who've been overcharging Minneapolis taxpayers are smear-mongering to get revenge for the money they lost.

To read more, and get links to Star-Tribune investigative reports, visit: Rybak Targeted for Recovering Taxpayer Money!

And remember, it's all about following the money.

Tom Hayes: Not this time!

"For the first time ever, all five committees in Congress responsible for health reform have passed a version of legislation," President Obama said in his weekly radio address on October 17, 2009.

He went on to note that despite hurdles, "we are closer to reforming the health care system than we have ever been in history."

In response to massive lobbying and advertising efforts, the President said,

"They're filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads. They're flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions. And they're funding studies designed to mislead the American people..."

There are 6 health care industry lobbyists in D.C. for every single member of Congress. Combined, the special interests are spending over $1,000,000 every day to defeat reform, to keep things as they've been while close to 14,000 Americans a day lose their coverage, and over half of all personal bankruptcies are triggered by uncovered medical expenses.

In what may be the best turn of phrase yet in this battle for votes, Obama also noted,

"Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, 'Take one of these, and call us in a decade.' Well, not this time."

Read the transcript, or watch the video (below) and learn about the deceptive schemes and techniques being used by those who want you to tune out and stop listening so their profits and bonuses will remain undisturbed.

Got four minutes? Watch a quick video that sums up the President’s plan to provide security and stability to those who have insurance and coverage for those who don’t.

Thomas Hayes is a political analyst, journalist, and entrepreneur who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics including economics, politics, culture, and community.

Show Obama you approve of his change to DNC fund-raising

Obama has persuaded the DNC not to accept money from PACs or registered lobbyists. Show the politicians you approve - go to the DNC's "no more lobbyists" fund-raising page now and give them a little bump.

Tell them you're one of those "FOB's" Even $5 today sends a huge signal to the party, and to DC in general.

Say what? "What's an FOB? Friend of Barack, of course.

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