Letter from the President to Congressional Leadership Regarding Oil Subsidies

Dear Speaker Boehner, Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, and Representative Pelosi:

I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, and to use those dollars to invest in clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

High oil and gasoline prices are weighing on the minds and pocketbooks of every American family. While our economy has begun to recover, with 1.8 million private sector jobs created over the last 13 months, too many Americans are still struggling to find a job or simply just to pay the bills. The recent steep increase in gas prices, driven by increased global demand and compounded by unrest and supply disruptions in the Middle East, has only added to those struggles. If sustained, these high prices have the potential to slow down the pace of our economy’s growth at precisely the moment when we need to be accelerating it.

While there is no silver bullet to address rising gas prices in the short term, there are steps we can take to ensure the American people don’t fall victim to skyrocketing gas prices over the long term. One of those steps is to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks to the oil and gas industry and invest that revenue into clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Our outdated tax laws currently provide the oil and gas industry more than $4 billion per year in these subsidies, even though oil prices are high and the industry is projected to report outsized profits this quarter. In fact, in the past CEO’s of the major oil companies made it clear that high oil prices provide more than enough profit motive to invest in domestic exploration and production without special tax breaks. As we work together to reduce our deficits, we simply can’t afford these wasteful subsidies, and that is why I proposed to eliminate them in my FY11 and FY12 budgets.

I was heartened that Speaker Boehner yesterday expressed openness to eliminating these tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry. Our political system has for too long avoided and ignored this important step, and I hope we can come together in a bipartisan manner to get it done.

In addition, we need to get to work immediately on the longer term goal of reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and our vulnerability to price fluctuations this dependence creates. Without a comprehensive energy strategy for the future we will stay stuck in the same old pattern of heated political rhetoric when prices rise and apathy and neglect when they fall again.

I recently laid out my approach to a comprehensive strategy in my Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future, which includes safe and responsible production of our domestic oil and gas resources and doubling down on fuel efficiency in the transportation sector while investing in everything from wind and solar to biofuels and natural gas. None of you will agree with every aspect of this strategy. But I am confident that, in many areas, we can work together to help show the American people that we can make progress on an energy policy that creates jobs and makes our country more secure.

And I hope we can all agree that, instead of continuing to subsidize yesterday’s energy sources, we need to invest in tomorrow’s. We need to invest in a 21st century clean energy economy that will keep America competitive. In the long term, that’s the answer. That’s the key to helping families avoid pain at the pump and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama

Much Of Northern Japan Uninhabitable Due To Nuclear Radiation?

With no resolution to the crisis in sight, the damaged facilities at Fukushima continue to pump massive amounts of nuclear radiation into the surrounding environment every single day. So will much of northern Japan end up being uninhabitable due to nuclear radiation? Everyone agrees that the area immediately around Fukushima will be uninhabitable indefinitely. The only question is how large of an area around Fukushima is eventually going to be considered unlivable. This week authorities in Japan finally raised the crisis at Fukushima up to a level 7 disaster on the international scale. In fact, they are now telling us that the total release of radioactive material will likely surpass that of the Chernobyl disaster. Chernobyl was incredibly nightmarish and there are still vast areas around Chernobyl that are basically uninhabitable. But Chernobyl only burned for 10 days. The crisis at Fukushima could end up lasting for many months. Keep in mind that radiation is cumulative. Every single day the total amount of radioactive material that the world is dealing with because of Fukushima just continues to increase.

It would be hard to overstate how much of a disaster this will eventually be for Japan. At this point it seems clear that those that lived within the 30 km evacuation zone will never be able to safely return to their homes.

But what about the rest of northern Japan?

Already there are indications that areas beyond the evacuation zone will soon be unlivable as well as Stephen Lendman recently noted....

Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported a Hiroshima and Kyoto Universities' study showing radioactivity in soil samples beyond the 30 km evacuation zone is up to 400 times above normal, saying:

'The predicted changes in the level of radiation at the ground surface were calculated after analyzing the amounts of eight kinds of radioactive materials found in the soil and taking into consideration the half-lives of each material.'

The health effects of the various kinds of radioactive material that are being released at Fukushima should not be underestimated. Just consider what Dr. Russell Blaylock recently told Newsmax....

When we look at Chernobyl, most of West Germany was heavily contaminated. Norway, Sweden. Hungary was terribly contaminated. The radiation was taken up into the plants. The food was radioactive. They took the milk and turned it into cheese. The cheese was radioactive.

That’s the big danger, the crops in this country being contaminated, the milk in particular, with Strontium 90. That radiation is incorporated into the bones and stays for a lifetime.

So would you like to have radioactive material in your bones that affects your health for the rest of your life?

Do you want to live every day in fear of what you are eating?

Those are the kinds of decisions that residents of northern Japan are going to be facing.

Some 'experts' on the mainstream media have been downplaying the health risk from nuclear radiation, but the truth is that there is a world of difference between 'external radiation' and 'internal radiation'.

In a recent article for The Guardian, Helen Caldicott, explained why internal radiation is such a health hazard....

Internal radiation, on the other hand, emanates from radioactive elements which enter the body by inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption. Hazardous radionuclides such as iodine-131, caesium 137, and other isotopes currently being released in the sea and air around Fukushima bio-concentrate at each step of various food chains (for example into algae, crustaceans, small fish, bigger fish, then humans; or soil, grass, cow's meat and milk, then humans). After they enter the body, these elements – called internal emitters – migrate to specific organs such as the thyroid, liver, bone, and brain, where they continuously irradiate small volumes of cells with high doses of alpha, beta and/or gamma radiation, and over many years, can induce uncontrolled cell replication – that is, cancer. Further, many of the nuclides remain radioactive in the environment for generations, and ultimately will cause increased incidences of cancer and genetic diseases over time.

The entire food chain in northern Japan is being absolutely soaked with radioactive material. Anyone that eats any food produced in northern Japan from now on is going to be taking a very serious risk.

That also applies to any seafood produced in northern Japan. The Japanese seafood industry is going to be absolutely decimated by all of this.

Authorities in Japan recently told us that 11,500 tons of 'moderately radioactive' water were going to be purposely released into the Pacific Ocean.

All of that radioactive material is going to be in the Pacific food chain for generations.

Seawater near the facility at Fukushima was recently measured to contain 7.5 million times the legal limit of iodine-131.

Anyone hungry for some fish?

But iodine-131 only has a half-life of about 8 days.

Some of the radioactive material being released at Fukushima has a much longer life span.

As I wrote about recently, radioactive cesium-137 is being released at 60% of the level that it was being released at during the Chernobyl disaster.

Cesium-137 has a half-life of approximately 30 years. That means that all of this cesium-137 is going to be with us for a very, very long time.

Not only that, authorities in Japan are now admitting that strontium is being released into the environment at Fukushima....

Slight amounts of strontium, a heavy radioactive metal that could lead to leukemia, have been detected in soil and plants near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Japan's science and technology ministry said on Tuesday.

And perhaps most deadly of all, the plutonium being released at Fukushima is going to contaminate the environment pretty much forever as Kurt Nimmo recently noted....

The alpha emitter plutonium is especially deadly. Plutonium 239 has a high half-life of around 24,000 years. Plutonium transforms into americium and enters the water table. It can contaminate a water supply for centuries.

What we are doing to the earth is beyond criminal.

When people talk about the possibility that northern Japan could end up being uninhabitable they are not making things up.

Remember, radioactivity from Chernobyl deeply contaminated 77,000 square miles.

So how long is the crisis at Fukushima going to last?

Well, there is at least one nuclear expert that claims that it could be 50 to 100 years before any of the spent nuclear fuel rods at the Fukushima complex will cool down enough to be removed from the facility.

That is a very, very long time.

And the truth is that every single man, woman and child in the northern hemisphere is going to be exposed to radioactive material from Fukushima.

Already, radioactive iodine-131 from the nuclear disaster at Fukushima has been found in seaweed in Puget Sound.

Ack!

Our authorities are trying to keep us calm, but the truth is that significant amounts of radioactive material are getting into the U.S. food chain.

According to Natural News, alarmingly high levels of radioactive material from Fukushima are being found in U.S. milk samples....

In Phoenix, Ariz., a milk sample taken on March 28, 2011, tested at 3.2 pCi/l. In Little Rock, Ark., a milk sample taken on March 30, 2011, tested at 8.9 pCi/l, which is almost three times the EPA limit. And in Hilo, Hawaii, a milk sample collected on April 4, 2011, tested at 18 pCi/l, a level six times the EPA maximum safety threshold.

Try not to think about the possibility that there may be radiation in your milk the next time you have a glass.

Amazingly, U.S. workers are actually being recruited to go over to Japan and work at Fukushima.

Anyone need a job?

The pay is apparently very good. You just might not live long enough to spend much of the cash that you make over there.

This crisis could end up being a death blow to the Japanese economy. Already it is being projected that approximately 5 million new vehicles will not be built this year because of the crisis in Japan.

In fact, Toyota is warning U.S. car dealers that there could be significant shortages of new vehicles this summer.

That means that if you want a new Toyota you better go out and grab one while you still can.

So could the crisis in Japan get even worse?

Yes.

The truth is that the area around Japan is incredibly seismically active right now.

Since the original earthquake back on March 11th, Japan has experienced over 980 aftershocks.

In some areas of Japan there are moments when you can literally see the ground moving. The video posted below absolutely blew me away the first time that I saw it. In this video, you can actually watch the ground in Japan move. Trust me, this video is worth a couple minutes of your time because it will absolutely blow your mind....

3D Projection Mapping: 10 Jaw-Dropping Examples

Generating extra buzz around marketing campaigns worldwide is 3D projection mapping, a relatively new technology that animates stationary objects with 3D video. With added sound effects and music, the result is a remarkable and immersive experience.

“Projection mapping can provide a great double whammy if used right, because you get a great live event, followed by a compelling video and PR opportunities. But, if that’s the aim it’s important to think about the film when planning the projection — the sense of scale you get live won’t be replicated on YouTube,” cautions Matt Smith, director of strategy for The Viral Factory.

“Good camera work, slick editing, and a rocking soundtrack will all help drive the film, but if the projection is too detailed it will still get lost.”

So, while we wait to see if this a temporary craze or soon to become standard in the marketeer’s toolbox, take a look through our gallery of great examples of such projections on buildings. This list is by no means exhaustive, so please let us know about any impressive versions you’ve seen in the comments below.

1. Samsung 3D Projection

Samsung's whimsical projection to promote its 3D TV products works well.

2. Vienna 3D Building Projection

Vienna's Tourist Board gets in on the 3D projection action with this classy effort.

3. NuFormer

Sony turned two buildings into giant football-themed pinball machines in Madrid. The spectacle was watched by around 1500 people on the day, and by nearly 20,000 more since.

4. 3D Projection Mapped on Building

A perfectly synced soundtrack helps the effect as this building sings to the transfixed audience.

5. Hot Wheels Secret Race Battle

Customs House in Sydney, Australia gets virtually wrecked by Mattel's 'Hot Wheels Skull Racers.'

6. 3D Projection Mapping

The lucky residents of Sugarland, Texas got to witness this spectacle live on New Year's Eve 2010.

7. 555 KUBIK

This arty German projection imagines 'how it would be, if a house was dreaming'.

8. ACDC vs Iron Man 2

ACDC go up against Iron Man on the backdrop of front facade of the Great Keep at Rochester Castle.

9. BMW JOY 3D

BMW uses not one, but two office buildings in Singapore with its joy-themed projection.

10. Projection Mapping on the Kharkov State Building

You can hardly imagine a more impressive backdrop for a 3D projection than the Kharkov state building in the Ukraine. The building's architectural features are used to great effect in this brilliant example.


Source: Mashable

Haitians eat dirt cookies to survive

Thanks Clinton foundation for NOT delivering the relief money everyone donated. I'm sure the mud cookies are wonderful. Maybe when you get around to it you can ship them some irritated milk from the Fukushima fallout that's all over the U.S.

Oh wait fail government will just pretend that's not an issue and continue to sell it to us...

How Can You Tell Someone Is al-Qaida? Look at His Watch

It's a simple, water-resistant digital watch that retails for about $11. But beware: It could sell you out as al-Qaida.

A new batch of WikiLeaks files from Guantanamo Bay reveals a secret checklist U.S. investigators used to figure out whether detainees were really al-Qaida members. Among the criteria was the kind of wristwatch they were wearing.

The U.S. military lists the Casio F-91W model -- a cheap plastic watch available all over the world -- as a "suspicious item" on par with military transceivers, satellite phones, huge wads of cash and secret notes from al-Qaida facilitators.According to a confidential document distributed to American interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay prison, the Casio model "is an indicator of al-Qaida training in the manufacture of improved explosive devices (IEDs)."

"The Casio was known to be given to the students at al-Qaida bomb-making training courses in Afghanistan, at which the students received instruction in the preparation of timing devices using the watch," the document states.

One transcript reveals how U.S. military interrogators kept questioning one detainee, a Kuwaiti engineer, about his Casio watch. According to the German newspaper Der Spiegel, which republished an excerpt of the transcript, the Kuwaiti man expressed surprise when told that his wristwatch could link him to al-Qaida.

"We have two watches in Kuwait: Fossil and Casio. This watch has a compass that shows the direction of Mecca. I am Muslim and pray five times a day," the man explained.

In fact, he said all four Muslim chaplains working at Guantanamo at the time of his interrogation also had the same Casio watch to identify the direction in which to pray.

"I swear I don't know if terrorists use it or if they make explosives with it," the Kuwaiti detainee said. "If I had known that, I would have thrown it away. I'm not stupid."

Guantánamo Bay files: Was Bin Hamlili really an MI6 source?

Another cache of intelligence nasties has emerged, blinking, into the mainstream media daylight by way of WikiLeaks. This time, the information is drawn from official Guantánamo reports on detainees, drawing on information gleaned over the years of "enhanced" interrogations.

One case that caught my attention was that of Algerian carpet seller Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili, an alleged "al-Qaida operative, facilitator, courier, kidnapper and assassin" who also apparently worked as an agent of CSIS (Canadian Secret Intelligence Service) and our very ownMI6. So was this man a double-agent, playing his own lonely game and caught between the demands of his al-Qaida contacts and his western handlers? Or has MI6 been employing its very own al-Qaida assassin?

Read More @ guardian.co.uk

Ron Paul 2012: Last Chance To Rescue America?

With Ron Paul now all but certain to officially announce his bid for the 2012 presidency, it is imperative that Americans understand that the Texas Congressman represents the United States’ last hope of preserving its position as a pre-eminent economic superpower and avoiding a Soviet-style collapse into an abyss of debt, depression and decay.

“Sources close to Paul, who is in his 12th term in the House, said he will unveil an exploratory presidential committee, a key step in gearing up for a White House race. He will also unveil the campaign’s leadership team in Iowa, where the first votes of the presidential election will be cast in caucuses next year,” reports the National Journal.



During an appearance on The View yesterday, Paul addressed numerous issues, including Obamacare and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Although for a while Paul indicated that he was undecided about whether 2012 was the right time to re-launch the Ron Paul Revolution, we were never really in any doubt.

As we pointed out last year, Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate who can defeat Obama. Despite Obama’s plummeting popularity, Republican candidates expected to run against him, the likes of Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, have all lost support at a similar pace to the President.

Unless Americans want four more years of Obama, at the end of which the country will be little more than a rotting husk of its former glory, Ron Paul is the only viable solution.

Ron Paul is now 75 years of age, it’s virtually guaranteed that this will be his last run for the office of President. In 2016, which is coincidentally when the IMF predicts America will lose its crown as the leading economic superpower to China, there will be no new campaign, unless of course it is headed up by Paul’s son, Senator Rand Paul.

However, 2012 sees a confluence of factors coming together that shape a perfect environment for Ron Paul’s message of fiscal conservatism and a return to constitutional principles both domestically and in foreign policy.
As Joe Weisenthal writes for the Business Insider, Ron Paul’s presidential run will be a much bigger deal this time around.
“It’s just obvious that in the last four years, since the last time Ron Paul ran for President, the ideological center of gravity in the GOP — and the whole country for that matter — has shifted a lot closer to Ron Paul’s position,” writes Weisenthal, noting that even the mainstream media has now been forced to regularly address and even be critical of the Federal Reserve and its policies.

“In 2008, the GOP primary was dominated by serious candidates like Mitt Romney and John McCain and Fred Thompson and even Rudy Giuliani. They were content to basically ignore what Ron Paul had to say. This time, they’ll be fighting on his turf.”

Ron Paul is the only real alternative to the trail of destruction that Republicans and Democrats have left from continually launching new wars while sinking the country deeper and deeper into debt. The so-called “change” offered by Obama in 2008 has manifested itself as an intensification of the unaffordable military adventurism launched under George W. Bush.

Not only has Obama maintained the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, he has launched new campaigns in Yemen, Pakistan, and now Libya, the bombing of which cost the American people over $600 million dollars in just the first week, a price tag now likely to be in the billions, with no end in sight.

Even as the Standard and Poor ratings agency indicates that the United States is set to lose its AAA credit score, the Obama administration is looking to trouble in Syria and Iran as an opportunity to advance the geopolitical conquest of the middle east. But as with all great historical empires, the beginning of their decline is usually at the exact point when they overreach. America has now arrived at that stage, with its own cities rotting and decaying even as it attempts to capture new lands on different continents, and with the dollar rapidly losing its stability as the world reserve currency.

America can no longer afford to waste its resources on defending militants engaged in a civil war in a far flung country in north Africa, nor squandering them on propping up compliant regimes in middle eastern countries. None of this will even matter when the country collapses and crumbles from within and China hastily takes the reigns as the world’s policeman.

Of the roster of leading candidates, Ron Paul is the only one who will bring the troops home, restore constitutional values, and set about repairing America’s devastated economic base. He is the only one who can rescue America from becoming a subordinate afterthought to the powers that will shape the globe in the next 50 years, China and the European Union.

In many ways, Americans have been gifted one final opportunity to rescue their country, and Ron Paul represents the nation’s last hope.


Source: darkpolitricks.com