and pointedly - Pennsylvania, every candidate backed by their
party establishment, Democrat or Republican, lost to insurgents.
In Arkansas, Blanch Lincoln has been forced into a runoff.
The lessons are hopeful and profound; middle, working and
unemployed classes are angry, demanding jobs, an economy
and governance that they see as working for them. Possibly, not
since the Great Depression has such a phenomenon existed.
Quiescent progressives should not only take heart and re-engage,
but understand that many potential and active tea party folks share
the same needs and goals, and have gone in a 'know-nothing'
direction, absent an active, visible alternative. Read on...
-Ed
PS: 'Since the Spill' demonstrates another cause of the above dynamic.
From: Richard Flacks
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 2:38 PM
Subject: new blog post: people power can work!
people power can work
Posted by rflacks on: May 18 2010
Those of us who've been calling for determined grassroots mobilization as a
key to progressive reform are beginning to see some validation. Most
dramatic has been the Senate passage of a series of amendments to the Dodd
financial reform bill-amendments authored by the most progressive Senators.
Bernie Sanders (the one avowed socialist in national politics) proposed an
audikt of the Federal Reserve Board and this got unanimous support. Al
Franken proposed significant regulation of credit rating companies (like
Moody's). And a series of other proposals providing consumer protections
also passed. Bob Kuttner, writing in Huffington Post , suggests that a major
reason for this shift has been the brilliant work of the Americans for
Financial Reform:
"With a tiny core staff headed by veteran organizer Heather Booth, AFR is
out-spent at least a hundred to one by the banking lobby, but its foot
soldiers, donated by participating groups, have daily strategy calls, head
counts, regular discussions with the administration, and target wavering
senators of both parties. AFR, many of whose member organizations in turn
connect to millions of people at the grass roots, has emerged as a model of
how citizen power can move public opinion and match the power of high
finance."
Yesterday a series of street actions, fostered by this coalition, targeted
bank headquarters and homes of top bank executives. Headline in the
Washington Post: Hundreds of Protesters Shut Down Bank of America Branch.
These are the latest in a series of actions mobilized by labor and citizens
action groups that have rallied large crowds at banks and other financial
centers. These actions haven't had the national publicity that smaller Tea
Party theatricals have received. But as Kuttner tells us, they're
manifestations of a highly effective and multi-pronged grassroots effort.
Meanwhile, California Gov. Arnold just released a revised budget for the
state. One of the revision's features is that it restores funding for higher
education and student financial aid that had been cut in the first version
of the budget. There can't be much doubt that this change is a response to
the months of student led protest that we've applauded in this space. Truly
nauseating is that Arnold proposes to balance the budget by eliminating or
drastically cutting the major state programs that provide subsistence aid
for poor, disabled and elderly folk. His new budget pretends to maintain
k-12 education funding (also a response to widespread grassroots protest)
but fails to provide for increased costs. He also now wants to keep state
parks open-another issue that had prompted considerable mobilization to
protest parks closing.
As we've pointed out here, the grassroots opposition to cuts has not been
accompanied by a focused agenda for reform. Now some Democrats in the
legislature have begun to talk about plugging corporate tax loopholes, oil
severance tax and the like (although good old Jerry Brown redux, campaigning
here in Santa Barbara yesterday pointedly failed to mention any tax reform
and spoke only of the need to cut spending!) Schwarzenegger claimed that
there was 'no more low hanging fruit' to justify his draconian assault on
the poor. But Lenny Goldberg of the California Tax Reform Association six
months ago provided a list of "Low Hanging Fruit in the Tax System: 10
Policies for $20 Billion". Read it here. Somehow, we need here in California
a coalition patterned after Americans for Financial Reform and we need it
now.
***
http://www.truthout.org/since-spill-feds-have-given-27-waivers-oil-companies-gulf59343
Since Spill, Feds Have Given 27 Waivers to Oil Companies in Gulf
by: Marisa Taylor
McClatchy Newspapers: 10 May 2010
Washington - Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded on April
20, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27
exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and
production in the Gulf of Mexico.
The waivers were granted despite President Barack Obama's vow that his
administration would launch a "relentless response effort" to stop the leak
and prevent more damage to the gulf. One of them was dated Friday - the day
after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was temporarily halting
offshore drilling.
The exemptions, known as "categorical exclusions," were granted by the
Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) and included waiving
detailed environmental studies for a BP exploration plan to be conducted at
a depth of more than 4,000 feet and an Anadarko Petroleum Corp. exploration
plan at more 9,000 feet.
"Is there a moratorium on off shore drilling or not?" asked Peter Galvin,
conservation director with the Center for Biological Diversity, the
environmental group that discovered the administration's continued approval
of the exemptions. "Possibly the worst environmental disaster in U.S.
history has occurred and nothing appears to have changed."
MMS officials said the exemptions are continuing to be issued because they
do not represent final drilling approval.
To drill, a company has to file a separate application under a process that
is now suspended because of Salazar's order Thursday.
However, officials could not say whether the exemptions would stand once the
moratorium is lifted.
MMS' approvals are expected to spark new criticism of the troubled agency
and the administration's response to the spill.
Salazar announced Thursday that there'd be no new offshore drilling until
the Interior Department completes the safety review process requested by
Obama. The department is required to deliver the report to the president by
May 28.
Given the MMS approvals, however, Galvin said the administration's pledge
appears disingenuous.
"It looks to me like they're misleading the public," he said.
MMS spokesman David Smith said his agency conducts a thorough review before
it determines whether to grant such exemptions.
"It's not a rubber stamp," he said.
BP did not return calls for comment.
MMS set out rules that allow for the exemptions from some environmental
requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) as long as
the sites in question are not relying on new or unusual technology, or
within high seismic risk areas, or within the boundaries of marine
sanctuaries or in regions with hazardous bottom conditions. MMS also
assesses the impact on biological and archeological resources.
In the gulf, Smith said, MMS has a "wealth of environmental data" from
studies of the region that it can rely on when reviewing the requests from
the energy firms.
That's why oil and gas companies that were given the exemptions said the
approvals were routine and shouldn't have raised any environmental concerns.
Apache Corp. said it was granted four exemptions for updating production
equipment and drilling wells on existing sites and for drilling in the
vicinity of an existing site. Appropriate environmental studies were
conducted before the purchase of the leases for those sites, said Bill
Mintz, a spokesman with Apache.
"We followed the procedures and the government didn't change the
procedures," said Mintz. "The decisions are made according to rules in a
framework that has been established."
Anadarko also cited a previous environmental assessment of a site where it
applied for a waiver.
"Protecting the environment and the safety of our personnel are our highest
priorities," said John Christiansen, a Anadarko spokesman, Walter Oil & Gas
also received one for a survey of an existing site off the coast of
Louisiana.
Environmentalists, however, say that MMS' checklist for determining whether
to grant such exemptions are far too broad and relies on sweeping
environmental impact studies that are undertaken before the purchase of
leases.
Holly Doremus, a professor of law at Boalt Hall, University of California at
Berkeley, said MMS has had a culture of minimizing environmental reviews of
oil and gas development dating back to its inception in 1982.
"That's related to the fact that oil companies have a great deal of power
over MMS and there hasn't been much oversight," she said. "My guess is that
these things are routinely being signed off on as categorical exclusions
even though they deserve a closer look."
Other companies that received the waivers include: Shell, Kerr-McGee Oil &
Gas Corporation, Royal Exploration Company, Inc., MCX Gulf of Mexico, Tana
Exploration Company, Tarpon Operating & Development, Rooster Petroleum,
Phoenix Exploration Company, and Hall-Houston Exploration III.
Tracy L. Austin, spokeswoman for Mitsubishi International Corporation, which
owns MCX Gulf of Mexico, said she could not comment on MMS' handling of the
exemptions overall.
"While we understand that the MMS has come under criticism for failing to
adequately regulate the industry, with respect to our operations, we believe
the MMS has acted responsibly," she said.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have already called for reform of MMS
after news that BP was granted on exemption for the Deepwater Horizon site.
That waiver was first reported by the Washington Post.
"If the conclusion is we need new regulation to prevent something like this
from happening again, we'd welcome that because we believe we operate in a
safe and environmentally responsible manner," said Mintz with Apache. "But
right now, the current rules say certain activities can proceed based on the
studies that have been done."
In 2008, a series of government watchdog reports implicated a dozen current
and former employees of the MMS in inappropriate or unethical relationships
with industry officials.
The reports described "a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity'' in the
Royalty in Kind program, in which the government forgoes royalties and takes
a share of the oil and gas for resale instead. From 2002 to 2006, nearly a
third of the RIK staff socialized with and received gifts and gratuities
from oil and gas companies.
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