BP: A Habitual Offender

DAY ONE - The Many Faces of BP

If BP were a person (hold that thought just a few minutes) it would be considered a career offender and incarcerated for life in a Super Max prison somewhere out in a desert.  And since SOTUS has ruled that, as far as political contributions go, corporation have the same privileges as do "people", let's present the argument for the declaration of BP as a "career offender".

First, let's get to know the history of, and, the various aliases used by this "habitual criminal" (legal definition provided)   

Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which morphed into the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company shortly after shelling out £5,000 to future Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, to get the British government to grant them a monopoly on Iranian oil reserves.

After World War II the Iranians nationalized their oil industry (National Iranian Oil Company) and after a series of International Court of Justice legal maneuvers failed,  the American CIA, authorized by President Eisenhower, conducted a coup which placed the Shah on the Peacock Throne.  The Shah quickly abolished the Iranian constitution,  and shortly thereafter AIOC resumed operations in Iran as part of an international consortium in which it was limited to a 40% share.

In 1954 AIOC renamed itself and became British Petroleum Company (BP).  In 1959 the renamed company expanded its operations in the Middle-East to include Alaska and later, in 1965, became the first to strike oil in the North Sea.  In 1978 British Petroleum took over Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) while still operating in Iran and elsewhere.  Virtually unfazed by the 1979 Iranian Revolution, it cut a deal with Ayatollah Khoumeini and his followers and came out with new contrast giving 90% to Britsih Petroleum and 10% to Khoumeini and his "followers".

During the 1980s and 1990s BP initiated and aggressive campaign of take-over and fierce expansion which included, the British governments holdings in BP, Britoil and the remaining publicly traded shares of Sohio, some Gulf Oil stations and a refinery in the American Southeast, Amoco, Arco, and Burmah-Castro.

In 2000, after solidifying its gains, British Petroleum assumed yet another identity, BP, with a tagline of Beyond Petroleum.  Since 2001, BP has operated throughout America under various identities including; BP, Amoco, and Arco.  In 2004, it shifted its petrochemical business into an entity called Innovene but then quickly sold it for $9-billion to a privately held British company.

Currently, as part of its efforts to find and exploit new reserves, BP, in liaison with three Russian oil-oligarchs, has gained  50% ownership of TNK-BP in the former Soviet Union.

Today, throughout the world BP wears more than a dozen (retail) faces: BP, ampm, Aral, Arco, BP Travel Centre, BP Connect, BP Express, BP Shop, BP2go, Castrol, Air Bp & BP Shipping.

Coming Tomorrow:  Death, Destruction, Price Manipulation

Alliance for Retired Americans Members to Quiz President Obama By Phone & In Person

One Of A Kind Meeting: Seniors to Talk Directly to President At a special event on Tuesday, June 8, Alliance for Retired Americans members will ask the President health care questions by telephone.  A few members of the Alliance will be attending the event - which will include information on benefits for seniors under the new health care law - live, in Wheaton, Maryland. This one-time, national “tele-town hall” can also be seen and heard on television by watching C-SPAN, or on-line at www.healthreform.gov. If you live in one of the following communities and would like to join a local watch party,  Dubuque, Des Moines, and Waterloo, Iowa; Suitland and White Plains, Maryland; St. Louis, Missouri; Nashua and Manchester, New Hampshire; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Raleigh, North Carolina; Ashtabula, Ohio; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Columbia, South Carolina, please contact:  ARAORGANIZING@retiredamericans.org .  In addition, several allied unions are taking leadership roles and sponsoring events, including one in Las Vegas sponsored by the International Union of Painters and Allied trades. The live events are scheduled to begin at 11:15 AM Eastern Time on Tuesday and will last about an hour. The President will also be joined by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kathleen Sebelius. Topics to be covered will include the $250 checks for seniors caught in the Medicare prescription drug “doughnut hole” coverage gap, and efforts to combat scams associated with those checks. HHS Buys Time for Senate to Address the “Doc Fix”   While the U.S. House of Representatives managed to pass a bill that delayed the scheduled Medicare reimbursement cuts to physicians, the Senate did not pass a similar bill.  This allowed the 21 percent cuts to go into effect on June 1st, leaving lawmakers to scramble for solutions.  Fortunately, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced that it will be holding all payments to doctors for the next two weeks in order to buy Congress a little more time to pass a bill. The Senate however, is not scheduled to deal with the ‘Doc Fix’ until June 7th at the earliest, causing many to call on congressional leadership to reprioritize their agenda in order to pass this critical measure as soon as possible. “The ‘Doc Fix’ provision must pass the Senate in a timely and efficient manner, as the quality of care that Medicare beneficiaries receive is currently in jeopardy,” said Barbara J. Easterling, President of the Alliance for Retired Americans.  For detailed tallies of the House’s votes to approve the “doc fix” and unemployment benefits last Friday, go to http://bit.ly/bUmAtq and http://bit.ly/bcUg2A. The original bill was supposed to extend COBRA benefits and Federal Medicaid assistance to the states as well, but those provisions were not included in the House votes.  The union, AFSCME, has offered use of its hotline (888) 340-6521 for calls to the Senate regarding these issues.  Callers using this line are prompted with a message to urge senators to “avoid cuts to Medicaid and jobs” to help the economy.  By entering your zip code, you are then connected to your senators’ offices. Alliance Member Inducted into Senior Citizens Hall of Fame Congratulations to Bob Haase, a member of the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, on being inducted into the Milwaukee County Seniors Citizen Hall of Fame.  As a member of the Alliance, Haase has led lobbying efforts to improve Social Security and Medicare, increase County funding for senior programs, and help make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors.  Haase was honored at a community-wide ceremony held last Friday in Milwaukee. Did You Know? Eleven states will be holding primaries this Tuesday, June 8: Arkansas, including a Democratic Senate run-off; California; Iowa; Maine; Montana; Nevada; New Jersey; North Dakota; South Carolina; South Dakota; and Virginia.

2010 Democrats Facing Stark Midterm Realities

Democrats Are Banking on Motivating '08 First-Time Voters

In a mail-piece sent out to party loyalists last week, The DNC announced its "National Plan" to target and motivate the surge of first-time voters in '08 who made the difference in the outcome of that election.  They accounted for 15 to 20 million of the total votes cast for, then candidate, now President Obama.

This key group will be particularly challenging in a mid-term election where the novelty of voting for our first African-American president does not oil the engine of voter turnout.  How daunting is it?  Well consider these statistics supplied by the Democratic National Committee:

This group is comprised of voters who registered after '06 and first voted in '08.  Over 50% of them are young African American or Latino,  the rest are New Dems and Dem voting independents, and all felt a "special connection" to the President.  However, these are voting cohorts who historically present a very low turnout in mid-term elections.  In short, there's a lot of gristle to be gnawed on and swallowed if we are to expect to see these voters turning out for 2010.

Another key group is made up of "Sporadic Voters" who are people who have voted in Presidential years or registered before '06.  Unlike the previous group (First Time Voters) these voters are more evenly spread between the parties, have low turnout in mid-term elections and are made up of a relatively high ratio of African-American and Latino voters.  Roughly 36-million fall into this category.

And, if I'm not dropping in a gratuitous metaphor, the joker in the pack are those who traditionally do turnout for mid-term elections.  They are more likely to be part of the GOP base, with 80% being white, older voters.  This group is about 72 million voters, more than the previous groups combined.

Clearly, the challenge--and, I'm thinking challenge is not the word, more like the damned near insurmountable task--is to generate a turnout that will swing close elections by a few points.  To accomplish this expect to see Obama's grassroots group, Organizing for America, using phone banks,  and door-to-door campaigns to reach out and touch 20088's First Time voters and other highly prioritized groups in order to generate early vote programs, such as "Vote-by-Mail and absentee voting.  The DNC will fund robocalls targeting the same potential voters.

The Democrats cite how the numbers can be made to work through such tactics by providing Ohio as an example where there were 763-thousand First Time Voters (681K Youth, 545K African-American, & 100K Latino).  In this example, the campaign would generate 88-thousand votes, an increase of 8% for First Time Voters, and 2% of the '06 turnout and sufficient to "swing" a close election.

Well maybe, but I'm thinking someone needs to be sending for money, guns and lawyers!

Let's Save Social Security and Medicare - Starting Today!

Here's How To Take A Stand & Fight Back!

But first, there's a reason you should care and take the time to get involved.

Opponents of Social Security are conducting a multi-million dollar campaign designed to fool the public about Social Security by claiming that benefits for "greedy geezers" must be cut to lower the deficit.  Over the past week we have clearly demonstrated that is not true.  Without grassroots input, help, and support to oppose it, this campaign of disinformation and outright lies will continue.  Former Nixon henchman, billionaire, Peter G. "Pete" Peterson will continue using his personal wealth to fund right-wing propaganda that cutting entitlements is the way to cut the deficit.

We, all of us and each of us, individually and collectively must keep an eye on the President's Fiscal Responsibility Commission to make certain that it does not unfairly target the essential safety nets provided by Social Security and Medicare.  The Commission and Congress need to know that you oppose any recommendations that will raise the retirement age, lower benefits, privatize or do anything else to diminish these critical American programs. The following list the ways you can make your voice heard.

Contact your members of Congress today to (1) let them know that you support Social Security and Medicare and (2) request that the Commission host open field hearings that will encourage debate and input from constituents like you.

Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper that urges the Commission to fully examine ALL the tax and spending policies that created the deficit (two wars, tax cuts, rocketing health care costs, housing bubble, Wall Street adventurism that triggered the Great Recession and widespread unemployment), not just the entitlement programs.

Talk to your friends and neighbors about the value of Social Security and Medicare.  Share the good word about the importance of making these vital programs remain strong for our children and grandchildren.

Finally, if you need assistance or guidance in this, please feel free to call upon me either by way of my e-mail, a comment to this post, or a comment in my guest-book.

The President's Fiscal Commission: The Players

Here Are the Nuts & Bolts

The commission has 18 members, 6 appointed by the President, 3 appointed by the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, 3 appointed by Senate Minority Leaders Mitch McConnell, 3 appointed by the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and 3 appointed by the House Minority Leader John Boehner.  Additionally, Democratic Leadership Council CEO Bruce Reed was recently appointed to serve as the executive director of the commission.

The President's Appointees:  Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union; Dave Cote, a Republican executive who is head of Honeywell; Ann Fudge, a former executive at several corporations; Alice Rivlin, a former vice chair of the Federal Reserve and director of both the Congressional Budget Office and President Clinton's White House budget office, former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican Senate  Whip Alan Simpson.  Bowles and Simpson serve as co-chairs.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Appointees: Kent Conrad of North Dakota; Max Baucus of Montana; and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois.

Senate Minority Leaders Mitch McConnell's Appointees: Tom Coburn of Oklahoma; Judd Gregg of New Hampshire; and Michael Crappo of Idaho.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's Appointees: John Spratt Jr. of South Carolina; Xavier Becerra of California, and Jan Schakowsy of Illinois.

House Minority Leader John Boehner's Appointees: Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Dave Camp of Michigan, and Jeb Hensarling of Texas.

• The Commission's task is to put forth recommendations to (1) reduce annual deficits to 3% of the national economy by 2015 and (2) improve the the long-run fiscal outlook, including changes to address the growth of entitlement spending.
• The Commission must vote on a final report containing a set of recommendations no later than December 1, 2010.  This report have the approval of 14 of the 18 members for its adoption by the Commission. Blocking cuts to Social Security and Medicare thus requires 5 commissioners.
• If the final report is adopted by the commission, Senate Majority Leader Reid has promised to give the recommendations an up or down vote by year's end.
• Should that occur, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will then cause a vote on the Senate's recommendations by the end of the year.
• The commission will dissolve 30-days after submitting it final report. 

Tomorrow:  The things you need to do to protect Social Security and Medicare.