the oil blowout. It's mostly giving information vastly beyond anything
I've heard, seen or read, in history, scope, details, et al. I strongly
urge you to pick if up live or by logging on to www.democracynow.org -Ed
From: Deborah Lagutaris
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 1:53 PM
Subject: Please vote
*The Globe has a poll on funding for abortion as part of the G8 package to
support women and girls. The question is "Do you think Canada should fund
abortion services as part of a G8 initiative to improve the health of
mothers in poor countries?"
Please vote!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/globe-online-poll/article1547855/
***
From: Truthdig
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2010 6:30 PM
Subject: Truthdig Wins a Webby
Drilling beneath the headlines DAILY.
Dear Friends,
We are thrilled to announce that Truthdig has won this year's official Webby
Award jury prize for Best Political Blog. A big thanks to all for your
enthusiasm and support! We are proud of our contributors and grateful to our
readers.
Hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet" by the New York Times, the Webby
Awards are the leading international honor for excellence on the Internet,
including websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and
mobile sites. The impressive list of finalists in the Political Blog
category included the Huffington Post, The Economist, The Atlantic and The
New Yorker.
This is Truthdig's second Webby win, having received both the official jury
prize and the People's Voice award for Best Political Blog in 2007.
The Webbys are judged by the International Academy of Digital Arts and
Sciences, a 750-member group of Web experts that includes Harvey Weinstein,
Arianna Huffington, Matt Groening, Internet inventor Vinton Cerf, and
RealNetworks founder Rob Glaser. The 14th annual Webby Awards received
nearly 10,000 entries from over 60 countries.
In other exciting Truthdig news, on Monday our lead cartoonist, Mr. Fish,
took home this year's prestigious Sigma Delta Chi award for Editorial
Cartooning from the Society of Professional Journalists.
Thanks so much for always supporting Truthdig!
Editor Robert Scheer and Publisher Zuade Kaufman
Keep on digging!
* * *
http://www.truthout.org/robert-reich-the-rebirth-regulation59146
The Rebirth of Regulation
By Robert Reich
RobertReich.Org: 04 May, 2010
What do oil giant BP, the mining company Massey Energy, and Goldman Sachs
have in common? They're all big firms involved in massive plunder. BP's oil
spill is already one of the biggest and most damaging in American history.
Massey's mine disaster, claiming the lives of 29 miners, is one of the worst
in recent history. Goldman's alleged fraud is but a part of the largest
financial meltdown in 75 years.
All three of these companies are also publicly-held, which means that much
of the financial costs of these failures will be passed on to their
shareholders, many of whom are already watching their stock prices plummet.
Prominently among those shareholders are pension funds and mutual funds held
by people like you and me.
That may seem fair. After all, shareholders benefitted when BP made big
profits extracting oil without paying attention to a possible blowout, when
Massey Energy got fat earnings from its careless coal mining operations, and
when Goldman Sachs did wonderously well for its own stock holders by
allegedly defrauding others. In fact, it was pressure from their
shareholders seeking the highest possible returns - and their executives,
whose pay is linked to the firms' share performance - that led all three
companies to cut whatever corners they could cut in pursuit of profits.
But profits aren't everything, which is why we have regulations that are
supposed to be enforced. So a key question in each of these instances is:
Where were the regulators?
Why didn't the Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service make
sure offshore oil rigs have backup systems to prevent blowouts? One clue:
You may remember MMS's wild drinking parties exposed during the Bush era.
Where was the Mine Safety and Health Administration before the Upper Big
Branch mine exploded? MSHA says it fined the company for a whole string of
violations, but the law didn't allow fines high enough to deter the company.
Which raises the next question: Given Massey's record, why didn't the
Bush-era MSHA seek to change the law and increase the penalties?
Why didn't the Securities and Exchange Commission spot fraud on the Street
when it was happening? Well, as we all now know, the Bush SEC was asleep at
the wheel.
But don't blame it all on George W. For thirty years, deregulation has been
all the rage in Washington. Even where regulations exist, Congress has set
such low penalties that disregarding the regulations and risking fines has
been treated by firms as a cost of doing business. And for years,
enforcement budgets have been slashed, with the result that there are rarely
enough inspectors to do the job. The assumption has been markets know best,
and when they don't civil lawsuits and government prosecutions will deter
wrongdoing.
Wrong.
When shareholders demand the highest returns possible and executive pay is
linked to stock performance, many companies will do whatever necessary to
squeeze out added profits. And that will spell disaster - giant oil spills,
terrible coal-mine disasters, and Wall Street meltdowns - unless the nation
has tough regulations backed up by significant penalties, including jail
terms for executives found guilty of recklessness, and vigilant enforcement.
After thirty years of deregulation, it's time for the rebirth of regulation:
Not heavy-handed and unncessarily costly regulation, but regulation that's
up to the task of protecting the public from companies and executives that
will do almost anything to make a buck.
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