Goofey Reader Recruitment #1,487,964.....

Dear Nation Friend:

Will we continue to "drill, baby, drill," relying on deepwater rigs that gush crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico...and coal mines that collapse...and nuclear plants that leak deadly radiation?

Yeah, wouldn’t it just be better to revert back to a primitive hunting and gathering society where warring tribes collect scalps and slaves and we burn down entire forests to make more grazing land available for the buffalo herds?

Wait a minute...we’ve already been there and done that...and boy did THAT suck!

The BP oil spill is a daily reminder of the consequences of deregulation that turned our public interest over to the oil industry.

This disaster brings into focus the real price of fossil fuels - not just an ecological nightmare but a moral crisis. For many Nation readers, and for all who care about the environment, this is an opportunity to call for a new and sane energy policy and demand that we move in a fundamentally new direction.

Funny story. The ENERGY industry has long been one of the most highly regulated industries in America. In fact, as noted in the article below, conservative estimates are that we spend well over $10 BILLION/year regulating energy in the U.S., in fact, we're spending over $300 BILLION/year regulating offshore drilling alone!

So much for “deregulation!” Why do folks like Katrina vanden Heuvel (pictured above) have to lie all the time?

Oh wait...I already know, and so do you.

The challenge may seem daunting as newsrooms are shuttered and big media spreads the messages of right-wing opponents obstructing change and progress every step of the way. But The Nation's unwavering commitment to watchdog, tell-it-like-it-is journalism makes an impact. And you can make an impact by subscribing to the reader-supported magazine read by progressives and policy makers--including one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

In other words, “Somebody please read our drivel! We can’t believe we’re really out-of-step with mainstream America, in fact, we like to think of ourselves AS “mainstream America.” Never mind the pesky fact that self-identified Conservatives now outnumber self-identiofied liberals by better than 2 to 1, “WE’RE the REAL mainstream!” We are...we are...WE ARE!

In times like these it's clear why independent journalism is so important. Now more than ever, the nation needs The Nation.

Of course, I beg to differ.

Sincerely,

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Editor and Publisher

Uhhhh Katrina? Why are you sending this to a Conservative? Isn’t that a waste of precious resources?

You'd Almost Get the Feeling We're Not Really Getting Much "Bang for the Buck" From Our Gold-Plated Energy Regulation.....

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Even worse than Congress’s recent NON-reforming “banking reform” bill, are its feckless and lame attempts at self-vindication over the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

The energy industry is, like virtually ALL sectors of American industry, very highly and tightly regulated and at great cost to you and I. Estimates are that we spend well over $10 BILLION/year regulating energy in the U.S. The annual budget of the Bureau of Ocean Energy (BOE), formerly known as the Minerals Management Service (MMS) alone is $310 million (2009)...sure to go up after this debacle.

Think about THAT for just a second!

We're spending over $300 BILLION/year regulating offshore drilling alone.....and THIS is what we get?

What other entity gets rewarded (expanded in size and scope with a budget increase) for its failures?

ONLY government agencies.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, also known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy (BOE), and formerly known as the Minerals Management Service (MMS) – Annual Budget: $310 million (USD) in 2009...sure to go UP in 2011 and beyond.

The EPA has requested $10.020 BILLION (USD) for Fiscal Year 2011 in its discretionary budget authority.

And these are just some of the direct costs we pay for in the form of taxes. The “indirect costs” of this regulation are the REAL costs for you and I, as the preponderance of the weight of all these regulations is found in how much they raise the cost of all the energy we use daily.

Government’s taxes and the costs of complying with its regulations are merely a “cost of doing business” for the energy companies and so, those costs are ALL happily passed on to you and I in the form of higher energy prices.

OK, so even if you don’t want to quibble over the cost of energy, don’t you think we deserve a LOT more “bang for our buck?”

You mean to say that, “All we get for this doubling the price of a gallon of gasoline is this crumby oil slick in the Gulf?”

England to Obama: “Go Fu-...STUFF Yourself!”....

Turns out that just a few days ahead of this weekend’s G-20 Summit in Toronto, U.S. President Barack Obama sent word to the other G-8 leaders NOT to cut spending at this critical juncture.

This week, England’s new coalition government did exactly that, massively slashing spending; $16 BILLION from its welfare programs, freezing all government worker’s salaries for 2 years, even freezing the Queen’s budget. They also raised sales taxes, the Capital gains tax and levied new bank taxes.

In other words, Great Britain responded to President Obama’s missive with a perfunctory, “Thanks for those wonderful DVDs that didn’t play in our region, but all the same, go fu-...STUFF yourself!”

Canada, among others, appears to be heading in the very same direction England is. In fact, it appears that President Obama is the ONLY G-8 leader NOT on board with massive spending cuts!

How's that "restoring America's standing around the world," working out for ya?

32 y/o Swiss Punk to be Caned....Film at 11.......

File Under: We Should Only Have Such Sentences HERE!

A Swiss man’s been sentenced to five months in jail and three strokes of a cane for spray-painting graffiti on a train in Singapore.

The 32 year-old software consultant, Oliver Fricker admitted breaking into a depot and vandalizing a train.

The judge (See Kee Oon) called it a serious breach of security. The judge said Fricker's actions were “calculated criminal conduct,” adding, “He was fully conscious of the criminal nature of the act and must be prepared to face the consequences.”

Caning in Singapore involves being struck with a wooden stick (cane) on the back of the thigh, a punishment that can leave permanent scars. As you might expect, the fruits at Amnesty International have called the sentence barbaric.

Singapore authorities say they’re still hunting for a second man, UK national Lloyd Dane Alexander, who they believe took part in the spray-painting.

I’m sorry, BUT if you’re 32 years old and still spray painting trains and breaking into public facilities to vandalize them, you NEED a good ass-kicking. You're actions are practically begging for it!

Caning’s the least of these guy’s problems. In my view, the sentence should’ve been a caning, followed by a frontal lobotomy and THEN five months in jail AFTER the recuperation period.

Unintended Consequences....

Ah yes, as the calendar turns to Summer, we see the return of the “lightening bug,” the graceful flitter of the butterfly and yes, sad to say, the ugly specter of politicians helping out other politicians.

So THIS is a lesson for all those who’ve naively believed that “judges aren’t mere politicians.”

This clearly demonstrates the “Are too,” response quite well.

On Thursday, June 24^th, the Supreme Court gutted one of the favorite tools of federal prosecutors' in the pursuit of corrupt politicians, thereby “doing a HUGE favor to fellow members of “the political class” (politicians), from the disgraced Rod Blagojevich (the Democratic Governor of Illinois) to the cash-freezing Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La) to Joe Bruno, the disgraced former Republican State Senator of New York State.

Of course, the very SAME law has been the primary tool used to rein in a wide array of corporate cheaters, from super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, to the likes of former Enron chief executive Jeffrey K. Skilling and disgraced newspaper magnate Conrad Black.

Since it was passed in 1988, the honest-services fraud law has been used in the prosecution of a wide array of fraud, “self-dealing,” and dishonest corporate and governmental action.

Defense lawyers have predicted a flood of litigation from those convicted under the law.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the court majority, said that upholding the law meant excluding the "amorphous category of cases" involving conflict of interest and self-dealing. The legislation, she said, "criminalizes only schemes to defraud that involve bribes or kickbacks."

All nine justices said prosecutors have stretched a federal statute so far that it makes it a crime to deprive the public or a company of the "intangible right of honest services."

Three justices (Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy) thought the statute was so vague as to be unconstitutional. But six said it could be saved by limiting its use to those involving bribes or kickbacks, not the self-dealing or conflict-of-interest schemes previously prosecuted.

In fact, Justice Scalia, writing in dissent went so far as to declare that the entire statute was so vague as to violate the Constitution's due-process clause.

Scalia admonished the court’s majority, claiming their "pose of judicial humility" in trying to preserve the statute by turning it into a prohibition of bribes and kickbacks is really just "wielding a power we long ago abjured - the power to define new federal crimes."

Come on! No high-minded phraseology? No legalistic poetry? Just, in effect, “There is no overriding legal authority,” on which to define “honest services.”

OUCH!

I guess it’s really true that “The only rules in politics is that there ain’t no rules.”

Think about it for a second, had the Supreme Court simply ruled on this matter a scant ten years ago, the Enron, Adelphia, Tyco and Arthur Anderson prosecutions, not to mention Martha Stewart’s case probably wouldn’t have moved forward...if they’d ruled on it 20 years ago perhaps Michael Milken wouldn’t have been convicted.

But HEY! How about that shiny, brand new “Get Outta Jail FREE Card” for all those corrupt politicians?!

“Victimless crimes...ahem...victimless crimes...cough, cough.”

UPDATE:

I can actually understand that the law may be too vague to applied to business, but government officials should still be held accountable for providing "honest services." After all, we ALL know how to define that for elected officials.

Canadian Police make 3rd Arrest Ahead of G-20 Conference....

My, oh my, those Left-wing gatherings really bring out the kooks, don’t they? And I mean the really gnarly, violent “violent kooks.”

Remember the MSM had to fabricate a story about “a man with a gun” attending a Tea Party event...turns out the “angry white man” in question, turned out to be an black off duty cop.

Not so with the arrests made ahead of the G-20 Summit coming up in Toronto this weekend.

Yesterday Canadian Police arrested a man near the G-20 summit site whose car contained a chainsaw, crossbow and fuel containers.

The 53-year-old man was pulled over just a block from where tall steel fences have been erected to protect leaders of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies who meet on Saturday and Sunday in Canada's most populous city.

According to Toronto Police, the man had “no reasonable explanation for the weapons” that were observed “in physical plain view.”

It was the third security-related arrest in recent days ahead of the G-20 and G-8 summits. Canada is spending over $1.3 billion USD on security, deploying thousands of police from across the country to protect two summit sites surrounded by steel fencing set in concrete.

Earlier this week, police arrested a man and his wife just north of Toronto on explosive and firearms charges.

Stem Cells Used to Reverse Blindness Caused by Burns.....

Italian researchers reported Wednesday that dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells! That’s an amazing success for the burgeoning stem cell-therapy field.

And NO (not a single) embryonic stem cells were used!

The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.

The study was published online by the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers in Italy took a small number of stem cells from a patient's healthy eye, multiplied them in the lab and placed them into the burned eye, where they were able to grow new corneal tissue to replace what had been damaged. Since the stem cells are from their own bodies, the patients do not need to take anti-rejection drugs.

Adult stem cells have been used for decades to cure blood cancers such as leukemia and diseases like sickle cell anemia. But fixing a problem like damaged eyes is a relatively new use.