Tuesday, 11 May 2010

...Osborne says he will offer the LibDems a referendum on the alternative vote

davidschneider William Hague making a statement as if someone's banging his balls between 2 bricks. And that someone is Nick Clegg. 1 minute ago via TweetDeck

HA!

Armando Iannucci explains the faff-mechanics of a hung parliament (1997)

"Look at the young hope on my face."
AIannucci Hey, they both offer votes on electoral reform and they both hate Nick Clegg: how about a Lab-Con coalition? 4 minutes ago via UberTwitter

Vintage Christian Documentary - ‘Pornography: A Winnable War’

“They took him into an alley and tied his hands over his head and drove a truck into his knees.”

Via Found Footage Fest, a vintage Focus on the Family production with a frank discussion on the dangers of (soft to) hardcore pornography.

("...or whatever you call it!")

@'Disinformation'

Twitter hit by major disruption

Most users currently show 0 users

Twitter has been hit by a major bug that has seen many users of the service lose all of their followers and friends.

The problem began when a flaw was uncovered that allowed people to force others to "follow" them on the site.
People who typed "accept" followed by a person's username forced the user to be added to their list of followers.
The hack was quickly passed around the social network with many people using it to force celebrities to follow them.
Twitter has fixed the bug but said they it was currently cleaning up the damage.(SIC)
"We identified and resolved a bug that permitted a user to 'force' other users to follow them," the site said in a blog post. "We're now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place."
As part of the clean up, Twitter has temporarily reset accounts so that people look like they are following no one and have no followers.
"Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we're aware and this too should shortly be resolved."
People can still use the service in the meantime.
Twitter allows users to post messsages - known as tweets - up to 140 characters long.
People can see what others are writing by choosing to "follow" them. However, unlike many social networks, both parties do not need to receiprocate the friendship.
The new bug allowed many people to force celebrities, such as Lady Gaga, to follow them by simply typing "accept @ladygaga". The flaw only worked on the website, and not through third-party applciations used to access the site, such as tweetdeck.
Twitter has exploded in popualrity since 2007, when it was launched, and now has more than 100 million users.

@'BBC'

UPDATE:
FIXED NOW!

Gordon Brown's Resignation Statement

Gordon Brown announces that he will step down as Labour leader

Gordon Brown announcing he will step down as Labour leader today. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

We have a parliamentary system, not a presidential system, in this country.

As I said on Friday, with no party able to command a parliamentary majority arising from the general election, my constitutional duty as prime minister is to ensure government continues while parties explore options for forming a new administration with majority support in the House of Commons.

The business of government has continued, including concerted action in Europe today to avert the financial crisis in the euro area.

Alistair Darling, the chancellor, spent much of his time yesterday at the European finance ministers' meeting in Brussels.

This morning, I had conversations with the president of the European Council, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund and the president of the European Central Bank.

I have said I would do all I could to ensure that a stable, strong and principled government is formed, able to tackle Britain's economic and political challenges effectively.

As we know, the Liberal Democrats felt they should first talk to the Conservative party. Mr Clegg has just informed me that, while he intends to continue his dialogue that he has begun with the Conservatives, he now wishes also to take forward formal discussions with the Labour party.

I believe it is sensible and it is in the national interest to respond positively.

The cabinet will meet soon. A formal policy negotiating process is being established under the arrangements made by the cabinet secretary, similar to the negotiations between other parties.

The first priority should be an agreed deficit reduction plan to support economic growth and a return to full employment.

I know that both parties recognise the importance of ensuring economic stability in the markets and protecting Britain's standing and both are agreed on the need for a strong and full deficit reduction plan over the coming years.

There is also a progressive majority in Britain and I believe it could be in the interests of the whole country to form a progressive coalition government.

In addition to the economic priorities, in my view, only such a progressive government could meet the demand for political and electoral change which the British people made last Thursday.

Our commitments on a new voting system for the House of Commons and for the election of the House of Lords are clearly part of this.

I would however like to say something also about my own position.

If it becomes clear that the national interest, which is stable and principled government, can be best served by forming a coalition between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, then I believe I should discharge that duty to form that government which would, in my view, command a majority in the House of Commons in the Queen's speech and any other confidence votes.

But I have no desire to stay in my position longer than is needed to ensure the path to economic growth is assured and the process of political reform we have agreed moves forward quickly.

The reason that we have a hung parliament is that no single party and no single leader was able to win the full support of the country.

As leader of my party, I must accept that that is a judgment on me.

I therefore intend to ask the Labour party to set in train the processes needed for its own leadership election.

I would hope that it would be completed in time for the new leader to be in post by the time of the Labour party conference.

I will play no part in that contest. I will back no individual candidate.

I believe that the British people now want us to focus on the economy, the continuing fight against terrorism, the terrorist threat to our country.

They want us to continue to pursue the economic recovery, and I will do so with my usual vigour and determination, and I will do all in my power to support the British troops whose service and sacrifice create a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay.

And I believe on Thursday the country was also telling us that they want a new politics, and that the political reforms we seek will help deliver that change.

I now intend to facilitate the discussions that the Liberal Democratic party has asked for.

Thank you very much. As you will understand I will take no questions this evening. Other discussions can be had later.

Thank you very much.

@'The Guardian'

More Mandela than Mandelson LOL!

The Electric Cure

Coming soon...

48 HR Magazine

WTF???

Anyone else had all their followers & following on 'twatter' just disappear?

So...

With the news that Milibrand & Balls had secret meetings with Clegg and the LibDems over the weekend I think that this is the price that Brown had to pay...

chrislhayes RT @RichardKimNYC: 11/1 odds that Eddie Milliband, former Nation intern, becomes PM in coalition w/ LD Nick Clegg, former Nation intern. 1 minute ago via Brizzly

Loser?

'Oot mah way!'

This remind you of anything Rodda?

(you know like the disappearing mountain bike from the pole outside the Twee Prinsen? Sorry man - but it was fugn hilarious! For us NOT you...)

WTF???

BP 'may stem oil with golf balls and tyres'

This the move for a Labour-LibDem coalitation???

Gordon Brown 'stepping down as Labour leader'

Gordon Brown has been prime minister for nearly three years

Gordon Brown has said he is stepping down as Labour Party leader.

Mr Brown, prime minister since 2007, said he wanted a successor to be in place by the time of the party's conference in September.
Mr Brown announced his intention to quit in a statement in Downing St in which he also said his party was to start formal talks with the Lib Dems.
The Conservatives won the most seats and most votes in the election and have been in talks with the Lib Dems.
Mr Brown said no party had won an overall majority in the UK general election and, as Labour leader, he had to accept his part in that.
He said he had no desire to stay in his position longer than was needed to form a stable government, and that he would ask the Labour Party to set in form the process of a leadership contest.
He said it could be in the interests of the country to form a "progressive" government - possibly in coalition with the Lib Dems - the UK's third largest party.
It emerged earlier that the Lib Dem negotiating team, who have held days of talks with the Conservatives, had also met senior Labour figures in private.
The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said one of the stumbling blocks to any Lib Dem-Labour deal had been Mr Brown himself.\

@'BBC'

BREAKING: Gordon Brown Resigns

A must read (coming soon)

Reviews

“In this path-breaking book, Polakow-Suransky traces the evolution of the alliance between Israel and apartheid South Africa, from its murky beginning to its inglorious end, following the transition to majority rule. It is based on the most meticulous archival research supplemented by remarkably revealing interviews with decision-makers in several countries. Wise, elegantly written, and strikingly fair-minded, it deserves the widest possible readership.”
—Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World

“Interesting, unique, and telling. Its lesson is very clear: doing the right thing may also be the best political option. It also tells us that sometimes we need others to save us from ourselves.”
—Yossi Beilin, justice minister of Israel, 1999-2001

“A major, long-overdue study of the rise and demise of one of the most intriguing alliances of our time. Polakow-Suransky has written a masterfully researched history that reads like a thriller unraveling the secrets of an alliance between two embattled societies under siege. Woven into the author’s fascinating narrative lies the disturbing debate about the degree of moral end political congruence that might have existed between the two allies—Israel’s political and defense establishment on the one hand and the Afrikaner ‘master race’ on the other.”
—Shlomo Ben-Ami, foreign minister of Israel, 2000-2001

“An intensely observed, eye-opening book.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Product Description

A revealing account of how Israel’s booming arms industry and apartheid South Africa’s international isolation led to a secretive military partnership between two seemingly unlikely allies.

Prior to the Six-Day War, Israel was a darling of the international left: socialist idealists like David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir vocally opposed apartheid and built alliances with black leaders in newly independent African nations. South Africa, for its part, was controlled by a regime of Afrikaner nationalists who had enthusiastically supported Hitler during World War II.

But after Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, the country found itself estranged from former allies and threatened anew by old enemies. As both states became international pariahs, their covert military relationship blossomed: they exchanged billions of dollars’ worth of extremely sensitive material, including nuclear technology, boosting Israel’s sagging economy and strengthening the beleaguered apartheid regime.

By the time the right-wing Likud Party came to power in 1977, Israel had all but abandoned the moralism of its founders in favor of close and lucrative ties with South Africa. For nearly twenty years, Israel denied these ties, claiming that it opposed apartheid on moral and religious grounds even as it secretly supplied the arsenal of a white supremacist government.

Sasha Polakow-Suransky reveals the previously classified details of countless arms deals conducted behind the backs of Israel’s own diplomatic corps and in violation of a United Nations arms embargo. Based on extensive archival research and exclusive interviews with former generals and high-level government officials in both countries, The Unspoken Alliance tells a troubling story of Cold War paranoia, moral compromises, and Israel’s estrangement from the left. It is essential reading for anyone interested in Israel’s history and its future.

PREORDER @'Amazon'

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Pantheon (May 25, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375425462
ISBN-13: 978-0375425462

Bill Hicks - It's Just A Ride

The BIG Picture - A brief note from the editor

TED Talk: Nicholas Christakis: The hidden influence of social networks

Anger over reality television 'virgin auction'

Justin Sisley was forced to move the auction from the Australian state of Victoria to Nevada in America, after authorities said they would charge him with prostitution if the filming went ahead. Sisley has gone public with the controversial project, claiming to have at least three willing participants.

Family First Senator Steve Fielding described the documentary as "absurd, ridiculous and disgusting" The virgins will be paid $20,000 each to take part in the auction and will also receive 90 per cent of their "sale price", according to a report in the Sydney Daily Telegraph. The remainder of the money will go to the Nevada brothel which is hosting the event. Initial bids will be placed online, but bidders will attend the final part of the auction, coming face to face with the people whose virginity they are bidding for. One 21-year-old woman from Sydney, who used the name Veronica, said she had signed up for the auction to earn money and challenge traditional perceptions about sex. "Technically I'm selling my virginity for money, technically that would be classified as prostitution, but it's not going to be a regular thing, so in my head I can justify that I'm not going to be a prostitute," she told the paper. "I don't think I'll regret it." One of the male virgins, identified only as Alex, said he had applied as a way of meeting someone. Sisley admitted his plan was unpopular with the parents of the people involved. "They hate me," he said. An Australian documentary maker has convinced several young people to appear in a reality television programme in which they auction their virginity to the highest bidder.

@'The Telegraph'

We are really civilised here in Victoria, Australia...no really we are!

Madonna and Child - Art or Child Porn?

I must admit that it is the last photo of Madonna and the baby Jesus that offends me the most!

The transcript of tonight's 4Corners documentary on Australia's proposed Internet Censorship

HERE

Paul Chambers found guilty of twitter 'bomb hoax'

"Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week... otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!"

£1,000 fine and a criminal record...
Full story

@'Jack of Kent'

UPDATE:

Paul was half way through qualifying as an accountant.

Conviction means he can't qualify.

His career is ruined!

Fugn hell!!!

What can I say?

Monday, 10 May 2010

Dispute brews over pornographic images on Wikimedia

Jimmy Wales has revoked some of his Wikipedia founder's privileges

A row over sexually explicit content on the web encyclopaedia Wikipedia and related sites has escalated.

Co-founder Jimmy Wales gave up some of his site privileges following protests by contributors angered that he had deleted images without consultation.
Mr Wales had previously urged the deletion of "pornographic" content, and removed images from the site.
This followed a complaint about "child pornography" to the FBI from another Wikipedia co-founder.
In early April, the estranged co-founder, Larry Sanger, reported Wikimedia Commons to the FBI, alleging that the organisation was "knowingly distributing child pornography".
He later clarified that his concern was not about photographs of children, but "obscene visual representations of the abuse of children", which can include drawings and sculpture.
Sexually explicit content Last week, administrators of Wikimedia Commons, a media file store widely used for Wikipedia articles, deleted hundreds of images.
Some images deemed by the Wikipedia community to have educational merit have since been reinstated.
Mr Wales had earlier posted his support for the removal of "images that are of little or no educational value but which appeal solely to prurient interests", deleting many pictures himself.
Pressure on the organisation had increased after Fox News reported the story, contacting a number of high-profile corporate donors to the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and related sites.

It asked whether the donors were aware of "the extent of sexually explicit content" on Wikimedia Commons.

It is not clear whether Mr Wales's support for the removal of explicit content was in response to Mr Sanger's concerns, pressure from Fox News, or something else.
But Michael Peel, Chair of Wikimedia UK, told BBC News that a continuous debate over explicit content has recently "come to a head". The central issue at the moment, he says, is "whether the content is educational".
"Anyone can come to Wikimedia Commons and upload media. Illegal stuff is deleted, and copyright stuff is deleted."
Mr Wales has faced criticism from the band of volunteers who help to maintain the site, some of whom argued that the decision to delete was undemocratic and taken too quickly. They also expressed concerns that valid material might be deleted accidentally.
On Sunday, in response, Jimmy Wales voluntarily revoked many of the "permissions" given to him as Wikipedia's founder, to delete and edit "protected" content on Wikimedia Commons.
In a message to the Wikimedia Foundation mailing list he said this was "in the interest of encouraging this discussion to be about real philosophical/content issues, rather than be about me and how quickly I acted".
A more detailed policy statement from the Wikimedia Foundation is expected in the coming days.

@'BBC'

Academic paper for

'busty blondes get more tips'

[pdf]

RIP Lena Horne

Vatican cardinal attacks fellow cardinal for 'covering up' abuse case

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, 65, who is seen as a possible future Pope, slammed his fellow prince of the Church, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 83, for dismissing the paedophile priest crisis as "petty gossip."

Cardinal Schoenborn said that Cardinal Sodano, who is currently Dean of the Vatican's all powerful College of Cardinals, had attempted to cover up of a high profile Austrian sex abuse case.

Vienna Cardinal Schoenborn told Austrian Catholic news agency Kauthpress: "The days of cover up are over. For a long while the Church's principle of forgiveness was falsely interpreted and was in favour of those responsible and not the victims."

He added that during the 1990's when Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, the leader of Austria's Catholics was accused of sex abuse a "track of Vatican diplomacy" had muddied the investigation and led to a cover up.

Cardinal Schoenborn said Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Josef Ratzinger and head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had immediately pushed for an investigative commission when abuse allegations against Cardinal Groer emerged.

But Cardinal Schoenborn said that the then Vatican Secretary of State at the time, Cardinal Angelo Sodano indirectly blocked the attempts and Cardinal Groer had simply faded into the background.

The scandal hit Cardinal who was accused of abusing boys, resigned in 1998 without ever admitting his guilt, without any official Church punishment and he died five years later.Cardinal Schoenborn also accused Cardinal Sodano, of causing "massive harm" to victims when he dismissed claims of priest abuse as "petty gossip" during Easter Sunday Mass at St Peter's.Two months ago Cardinal Schoenborn acknowledged church guilt during a service for victims in which he openly addressed attempts to cover up abuse.

There was no official comment from the Vatican and it's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano carried no coverage of Cardinal Schoenborn's attack.

Nick Pisa @'The Telegraph'

Harry Chapin - W.O.L.D.

"...grab life by the ears every day and French kiss it to the ground"

Endgame.

Jacqueline du Pre was diagnosed with MS in 1973. She died in 1987. 14 years.

(Snappy opening, eh?)

Richard Pryor was diagnosed with MS in 1986. He died in 2005. 19 years.

Ronnie "Plonk" Lane was diagnosed with MS in 1977. He died in 1997. 20 years.

I had been diagnosed with MS in 1990.

Tick-tock...tick-tock...tick-tock..

(I've just realised that "tick-tock" might mean nothing to anyone under 30. It represents the sound of an old-fashioned, wind-up clock; a metaphorical representation of the inexorable passing of time as it heads towards its inevitable conclusion. Young people might like to think of a Tom Cruise movie.)

I'm just treading water and that's not easy with my legs.

Don't panic. It won't be for some time yet. It's not as if I'm dictating this while trying to plug the chair into the mains. No, everything is lovely at the moment. Indeed, as Ronnie "Plonk" Lane and his Small Faces so eloquently put it, "I feel inclined/to blow my mind/get hung up, feed the ducks with a bun." You can't argue with that kind of searing insight into the human condition.

Actually, I had made my decision on 10^th May 2007, which happened to be the day that Blair announced that he would be standing down. My decision had nothing to do with Tony's decision. Thad ended a long time ago when he went mental in the brainbox and became George's bitch.

I had been running various MS scenarios in my head the night before and they had brought me to a simple truth. I did not want to grimly hang on to a life where success would be measured by how long I could keep going."Wake up, Jim! Good morning! Now, just give us a minute to clear up all this piss and shit, give you a bed bath, change the sheets, feed you breakfast, give you your medication and then you can have a nice little sleep until lunch."

I am slowly withdrawing from the world. As walking became more difficult, I got the walking stick. As walking with a walking stick became more difficult, I got the wheelchair. As my hands weakened, I travelled by car with assistance. When my legs packed up completely, I was chauffeur wheelchaired up the road. As the whole body packed up, I stayed home.

I have been indoors for 2 1/2 years. Now, I watch the world through my TV, which seems to have become a portal into the future. 3D TV? Apps? Wii? Britain's Got Talent?

I'm back here in the late 90s and you've all moved on.

I am like a fisherman standing in the middle of a fast flowing river, flicking the fly upstream into the water, watching it rush by and reeling it back again hoping to have caught something.

(Having read that last paragraph, I can't decide whether it is: (a) a simile (b) an analogy (c) bollocks.)

I spend all day in my room. It's a lovely room with plenty of space and patio doors that open onto a secluded garden that I have not been to since I don't know when....and I continue to grow weaker.

My immune system had fought bravely but eventually it was overwhelmed, particularly the left hand side of my body. It has behaved like Austria in 1938, i.e. grumbled a bit then put out the bunting, trestle tables and jellies to welcome the conquering hero.

My daily drug regime includes: Baclofen, a muscle relaxant to ease the leg spasms.(at the maximum dose of 120 mg.)Diazepam(sounds like low-fat yoghurt , acts like a full-fat elephant tranquilliser). Tizanidine (rides shotgun with Diazepam at bedtime).

My District Nurse’s comment when I told her? " My God! How do you stay awake?"

I did not mention the Pinot Noir and medicinal marijuana – that would have been showing off.

I have my wonderful carers. They hoist me out of bed in the morning, undress and shower me, hoist me back on the bed to dry me and apply the various creams that help control little bedsores, as well as a recent addition to my MS symptoms, eczema. They dress and hoist me into the wheelchair, feed me breakfast, give me my medication, put the MacDictate headphones in place and ride off to another client before returning at lunchtime.

By the time I have brushed my teeth and changed from a daytime T-shirt to a nighttime vest and been safely tucked up in bed, it's 20:45. Give or take the odd five minutes, the routine never changes; 24/365 (366 in a leap year).

The same routine every day; breakfast, lunch, bed, teatime, bed. 7:30/12:30/17:00/20:05.

Mission Impossible...Mission Impossible II...Mission Impossible III...

So, the seatbelt sign will be switched on at some point as I'm coming in to land. But, my hermit lifestyle has given me the time to run through my life with a fine tooth comb, (although my short-term memory is a bit dodgy) and this has meant that I have been able to re-examine events in my life from childhood memories right up to the present day (although my short-term memory is a bit dodgy).

The result of this forensic exploration? I have had a fabulous life. My Catholic infused education was woefully inadequate. It would be a nice to have learned a little about Darwin and his Satanic Verse, "Origin of Species." But, apart from that it has gone spectacularly well. (I'd love to have a proper session in a pub but my hands are too weak and I'm not drinking Guinness through a straw. I'd end up with a hernia.)

I still enjoy my life, my family, my friends. My beautiful daughter reads, "Cold Comfort Farm", I listen to music old and new, I’m learning a bit about Darwin, confirming my atheism through the consciousness-raising works of Richard Dawkins, and I'm going to be able to get to the garden if it's a good summer which it will be even if it rains! I'm not in any pain, my voice still works and my brain is still ticking over nicely (although my short-term memory is a bit dodgy.)

Regrets? Apart from missing "Brtain's First High Definition Election Night Broadcast" on Sky, I lean towards Edith rather than Frank.

I have no advice on how to live life. Except this; (a) grab life by the ears every day and French kiss it to the ground and (b) don't get to old age clutching a list headed, "I wish I'd......" I haven't got one. Mind you, I had no plan to begin with. Life just happened and took me along with it. Fabulous fun.

...and I get by with a little help from my friends.

Jim Sweeney @'My Space'

Sweetest moment of the UK election!

The BP oil spill and American capitalism

The explosion on the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon on April 20 off Louisiana’s coast, which took the lives of 11 workers and has resulted in a massive oil slick that threatens economic and environmental ruin for the Gulf Coast, stands as a powerful exposure of American capitalism.

Each day brings new revelations that federal regulators under both the Bush and Obama administrations aided and abetted BP and the oil industry as they disregarded safety and environmental precautions that might have prevented the disaster.

Some of the most recent revelations include:

• In 2000 the Minerals Management Service (MMS) requested industry advice on problems related to the cementing used around deep sea well caps to stop blowouts. The oil industry never produced recommendations, and no regulation was put in place.

• A 2002 study conducted by the MMS revealed that vital equipment on oil rig blowout preventers did not function. In laboratory testing of one manufacturer’s shear rams—devices used to sever pipes after a blowout—half failed. Seven other makers refused to have their shear rams tested.

• In 2002, Pers Holland, a Norwegian researcher commissioned by the MMS, found that two sets of shear rams should be used in blowout preventers, rather than the industry standard of one. Holland reported that using a single cutting device could result in failure to plug leaks in 10 percent of all blowouts. The MMS disregarded Holland’s proposal.

• A study commissioned by the MMS in 2004 raised serious doubts as to whether equipment in blowout protectors could even function under deep sea oceanic pressures. No standards were put in place.

• Deepwater Horizon lacked an “acoustic switch,” a backup mechanism for triggering the blowout preventer in the case of an explosion. The US oil industry found these units’ $500,000 price too expensive and MMS did not require them, although they are mandated by Norway and Brazil.

• The number of drill site inspections carried out by the MMS fell by 41 percent between 2005 and 2009, even as the number of drill rigs operating in US waters increased. The number of penalties issued by MMS for regulatory violations fell from 66 in 2000 to 20 last year.

• In June of 2009, the MMS exempted BP from producing a legally-mandated environmental impact study for the site where Deepwater Horizon would drill. Obama was earlier warned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that MMS studies approving offshore drilling were not reliable.

These decisions led directly to the deaths of 11 workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon and the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf. The workers killed in the BP explosion are only the latest casualties. According to data from the International Regulators Forum, from 2004 through 2009 offshore oil workers on US rigs were four times more likely to be killed in industrial accidents and 23 percent more likely to be injured than oil workers in European waters. While there were 5 “loss of well control” disasters on US drill rigs in 2007 and 2008, in five other major offshore drilling nations—the UK, Norway, Australia, and Canada—there were none.

Since 2001 there have been 69 deaths, 1,349 injuries and 858 fires or explosions on oil rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico alone, according to the International Association of Drilling Contractors.

The incestuous ties between the MMS and the oil industry have not been severed with the election of Obama. Obama was in fact the top recipient of BP “employee donations” in the 2008 election cycle, and the company has mobilized tens of millions in a massive lobbying campaign that has brought on board such powerful Washington insiders as Democratic Party kingmaker John Podesta, former Democratic House majority leader Thomas Daschle and former Republican Senator Alan Simpson (a key member of Obama’s bipartisan budget committee). Current CIA director Leon Panetta has also served on BP’s “external advisory council.”

Only weeks before the Gulf disaster, in an open sop to the oil companies, Obama declared his intention to make large regions of the US coastline available for oil drilling.The Deepwater Horizon explosion is the result of decades of “deregulation,” which proclaimed that the “free market” could best regulate itself. Beginning in the late 1970s, the US government, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has worked to systematically eliminate all constraints on corporate profit-making.

The result has been disastrous for the population of the US and the world. Corporations controlling vast social resources make decisions affecting millions of people on the basis of profit. Working hand in glove with “regulators,” little more than wholly owned subsidiaries of industry, the corporate elite targets for elimination any outlay that diminishes profit returns to the top executives and shareholders, whether it be environmental protection, product safety, or workers’ safety—as a spate of recent deadly workplace accidents has revealed.

In industry after industry the story is the same—mining, auto production, transportation, telecommunications and, of course, the finance industry. Indeed, the eruption of toxic oil from the bottom of the sea has its parallel in the eruption of toxic assets that set off a financial crisis in 2008. Led by the Obama administraiton, national governments responded to this disaster by bailing out those responsible—the financial elite—and leaving the working class to foot the bill. In this sense, the crisis in the Gulf and the crisis in Greece are connected by a common social and economic system.

The assets of BP, Transocean, Halliburton and their executives—hundreds of billions of dollars—must be appropriated and used to make the people of the Gulf whole and to put in place a massive environmental cleanup program. The executives and regulators whose policies caused the disaster should be criminally prosecuted.

The stranglehold of the corporate and financial elite over society and its resources must be broken. This requires the implementation of a socialist program for energy production. The big energy corporations must be seized and converted into public utilities, democratically run by the working class in the interest of social need.

Tom Eley @'World Socialist Web Site'