May 30, 2012

Energy Companies Say One Thing, Do the Opposite on Climate Change

Many large corporations are saying one thing and doing another on climate change, the Union of Concerned Scientists found in a study released Wednesday.

The group examined the role that 28 publicly-traded companies played in two significant efforts to address climate change: the EPA's finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, and the 2010 ballot initiative in California to suspend the state's own climate law. (Here are links to the executive summary and the full report).

UCS found that many oil and electric companies were actively engaged in efforts to obstruct climate policy. Chesapeake Energy, Tesoro, Murphy Oil, Occidental Petroleum, Valero Energy, and Peabody Energy were consistently opposed to dealing with climate change: both their PR and their actions worked against new, science-based laws to cut greenhouse gases.

Other companies were less straightforward about their positions. ExxonMobil put out corporate PR that was positive about climate policy while engaging in actions that undermined efforts to deal with climate change. For example, its contributions to anti-climate-action lawmakers outweighed contributions to pro-climate-action lawmakers by a ratio of 10 to 1.

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/05/corporate-hypocrisy-climate-change

May 30, 2012

Nobel Laureate says Greek Euro exit would benefit the rich at the expense of the poor....

Nobel economics laureate Christopher Pissarides said wealthy Greeks would benefit at the expense of poorer citizens were the country to exit the euro.

“A lot of Greeks” have withdrawn money and deposited it with banks elswhere in the 17-nation currency zone, Pissarides said in an interview in London today. If the country returned to the drachma, the new currency would be so devalued they could buy it cheaply on international markets with the cash they’d exported, enabling them to buy more assets in Greece.

While poorer Greeks are equally able to appreciate the difficulties facing their country, they’re not as able to shield their funds from an exit from the common currency, Pissarides said. They need to preserve quick access to their savings, which isn’t as easy to do if it’s held at a foreign bank, and such lenders may not always accept small deposits.

“It’s the wealthy who will benefit because that’s who’s able to move their money abroad,” he said. “Wealthy Greeks have already done it, whereas the small saver is not going to do it.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-30/pissarides-says-euro-exit-would-aid-rich-greeks-at-cost-to-poor.html

May 30, 2012

Ann Romney: I support 90% of where Mitt is....

" Ann Romney doesn’t agree with her husband, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, on everything. She told Fox News in an interview airing Thursday that “I don’t think we’re ever exactly on the same page one hundred percent” but “I completely support 90 percent of where Mitt is.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/ann-romney-supports-90-percent-of-where-mitt-is/2012/05/30/gJQAPCRZ2U_blog.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

May 30, 2012

State Senate OKs bill banning 'conversion therapy' for gay youths

The state Senate voted Wednesday to prohibit psychotherapists in California from using a kind of therapy aimed at trying to "convert" minors from being gay to heterosexual.

State Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said the therapy is based on "junk science" that has been discredited by many in the medical community. "It’s not just that people are wasting their time and money on these therapies that don’t work," Lieu said. "These therapies are dangerous."

He said he authored SB 1172 after hearing of gay youths committing suicide or living in depression after therapists pressured them with guilt to change their sexual orientation.

The Senate voted 23 to 13 to approve the measure and send it to the Assembly for consideration.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/05/california-senate-acts-to-outlaw-conversion-therapy-for-gay-youths.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

May 30, 2012

MARINE MONSTER MYSTERY ON S.C. BEACH

A bizarre creature that washed ashore last week in Folly Beach, S.C., sparked speculation in the area and on the Internet that a dead sea monster might have been discovered.

The tan-brown animal with greenish patches was strange enough, but what really baffled beachgoers was its massive size and the dinosaur-like bony plates on its sides. It's not clear just how long it was, but photos suggest it exceeded 10 feet.

NEWS: What Is This Chupacabra-Demonoid Monster?

Like many washed-up carcasses it carried both a salty stench and an air of mystery. Speculation ran rampant, with commenters suggesting that the creature was everything from a dinosaurian sea monster to a toxin-spawned mutation to a chupacabra.

Scientists, however, were somewhat more skeptical.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/marine-monster-mystery-120328.html

May 30, 2012

Satellite image clues to Houla massacre in Syria

Source: BBC

Satellite images obtained by the BBC show clearly the location of Syrian military forces around the site of last week's massacre at Houla where 108 civilians died, including 49 children.

They also show what analysts believe was the firing point for Syrian artillery that shelled villages where the massacre took place.

They do not prove conclusively that the Syrian regime was responsible for the deaths on 25-26 May but they do provide further detail of what is being called the single worst atrocity since the Syrian uprising began last year.

All the images were taken on the morning of Saturday 26 May, within hours of the massacre ending.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18274542

May 30, 2012

Apple's efforts fail to end gruelling conditions at Foxconn factories

Abuses continue at electronics assembly firm with staff working up to 80 hours' overtime a month, says Hong Kong rights group

Gruelling workloads, humiliating punishments and battery-farm living conditions remain routine for workers assembling Apple's luxury electronics, according to one of the most detailed reports yet on life inside China's Foxconn factories.

The researchers claim that intimidation, exhaustion and labour rights violations "remain the norm" for the hundreds of thousands of Chinese iPhone workers, despite Apple redoubling its efforts to improve conditions.

Interviews with 170 workers and supervisors at Foxconn factories in the cities of Shenzhen and Zhengzhou from March to May this year found that punishments remain a key management tool.

The report, by the Hong Kong workers' rights group Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom), says workers at the world's 10th largest employer have been told to clean toilets, sweep lawns and write "confession letters", which are then pinned up on noticeboards or read out to colleagues.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/30/foxconn-abuses-despite-apple-reforms?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

May 30, 2012

Faux News latest attack ad...

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/30/fox_news_cuts_obama_attack_ad/

Faux news is a Republicant tool used by the oligarchs to control its masses....

May 30, 2012

Do as I say, not as I do....

Insight: As governor, Romney picked winners and losers of his own

(Reuters) - It would be a triumphant moment for any governor: A cutting-edge company announces plans to build a new plant that will create hundreds of high-paying jobs and bolster one of the state's most prominent industries.

For Mitt Romney, the June 2006 announcement by drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb served as a signature accomplishment as his four-year stint as Massachusetts governor drew to a close and a U.S. presidential bid beckoned.

The new facility came with a price tag: Romney and other state officials agreed to $67 million in tax breaks and other inducements to ensure the New York-based company picked Massachusetts over rival states like North Carolina.

Now as he mounts his second White House bid, Romney is hammering President Barack Obama for playing favorites with green-tech companies rather than letting businesses succeed or fail on their own. Romney is the presumptive Republican challenger to face Obama, a Democrat, in the November 6 election.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/30/us-usa-campaign-romney-insight-idUSBRE84T05F20120530?

Mitt overheard speaking with his wife tonight: " I may be going to hell in a bucket babe, but at least I am enjoying the ride..." Grateful Dead

May 30, 2012

Romney, on His Big Day, Finds Himself Upstaged

LAS VEGAS — It was supposed to be a day of triumph for Mitt Romney, when he would at last formally claim the Republican presidential nomination with a victory in the Texas primary. And Mr. Romney was to focus attention on an aggressive new attack on President Obama, highlighting the White House’s role in backing failed companies like Solyndra.

Instead, Tuesday was hijacked by Donald J. Trump. Inexplicably to many in his party, Mr. Romney had scheduled an appearance at a fund-raiser in Las Vegas on Tuesday night with Mr. Trump.

And Mr. Trump, ever ready to seize the spotlight and toss rhetorical grenades, played to type in several interviews, repeating his doubts about the president’s Hawaiian birth certificate.

“A lot of people do not think it was an authentic certificate,” Mr. Trump said in a combative interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN. “Now, you won’t report it, Wolf, but many people do not think it was authentic.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/politics/romney-finds-himself-upstaged-by-trump-on-big-day.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimespolitics&seid=auto

POLL: Which American icon is the craziest, dumbest, and most cognitively impaired...?