BP Then and Now

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New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 41 -- October 10, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #136, October 12:

BP Then and Now

In brief

British oil company BP specializes in disasters--political as well as ecological. The U.S. government then helps by making the disaster worse.

Reporting from the Gulf, Anne McClintock details how the government is reducing BP's legal liability for the blowout by sinking the oil with millions of gallons of the extremely toxic "dispersant" Corexit. This unprecedented policy is greatly compounding the damage.

In 1953, Iran was a democracy with an anti-Soviet, pro-American government. They tried to negotiate a new oil contract that would require BP to pay some royalties for taking Iran's oil. The CIA helped BP by overthrowing the democratic government and installing the Shah as dictator of Iran. (Then they gave Iran's oil to the Rockefeller empire.) Strategic analyst William Engdahl tells this fascinating and outrageous story.

Top: Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq, on a state
visit to the U.S., reverently touches the Liberty Bell. At the far
left is Philadelphia Mayor Bernard Samuels. In 1953, the U.S.
overthrew Iran's pro-American, democratically elected
government and installed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (bottom)
as dictator. The Iranian government had threatened BP's profits.
Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

This week's music: Tom Lehrer, Pollution (1965).

Anne McClintock's article from CounterPunch, August 23, 2010. http://www.english.wisc.edu/amcclintock/index.htm

William Engdahl interview from Ken MacDermotRoe's "History Counts" radio series.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Executive Dining Room") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.
Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. New World Notes' main audio archive is at radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Top: recent scholarly book by Anne McClintock. Bottom: An iconic
image of the Vietnam War: Police General Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily
executes a man believed to be a Viet Cong guerilla. The photo is the
inspiration for the graphic at the top of the page.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

• October 12 on WWUH -- Special hour-long live broadcast for Pledge Marathon week.
• October 12 elsewhere -- Corporations (R)

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
• Saturdays, 1:00-1:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/
• Saturdays, 5:00 to 5:30 PM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New+World+Notes

Gulf Oil

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New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 40 -- October 2, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #135, October 5:

Gulf Oil

In brief

The Gulf of Mexico oil disaster is not over--it's only beginning. Our first look at the subject features fine reporting from two independent journalists.

Anne McClintock (read aloud) shows the incestuous, conflict-of-interest relationships of the U.S. government, BP, and a consulting firm, CTEH, hired to monitor the health effects of the disaster. It's a win-win-win situation ... except for the poisoned people of the Gulf states.

Then Dahr Jamail, talking with host Dori Smith, exposes the government's lies about the safety of Gulf seafood. He also details the Coast Guard's program of camouflaging the scope of the disaster by (temporarily) sinking the floating oil with millions of gallons of highly toxic "dispersants" sprayed in the dead of night.

Hiding the oil lets BP and the government claim that less was spilled, thus reducing BP's financial liability.

Top: Professor Anne McClintock. Bottom: Dahr Jamail, speaking in
Hartford, September 20, 2009 (photo by Kenneth Dowst).
Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

This week's song: MOTU, Death Comes to Louisiana

Anne McClintock's article from CounterPunch, August 23, 2010. Dahr Jamail from the August 19 installment of Dori Smith's radio program Talk Nation Radio .

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/
http://www.english.wisc.edu/amcclintock/index.htm

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "imprimatur") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.
Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. New World Notes' main audio archive is at radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

• October 12 -- BP Then and Now.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
• Saturdays, 1:00-1:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/ . Note new time.
• Saturdays, 5:00 to 5:30 PM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New+World+Notes

It's Not Character Flaws: It's Policy

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New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 29 -- July 17, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #124, July 20:

It's Not Character Flaws:
It's Policy

Baghdad, 2003. All this mayhem because Bush is a dry drunk, and
Dad preferred Jeb? Most photos: Click to enlarge.

In brief

Pundits like to attribute bad government policies to supposed "character flaws" in the Chief Executive.

Bush smashed Iraq because he's a "dry drunk" who feels the need to prove himself to Dad (who always preferred Jeb)--the explanation goes. Not in order to increase U.S. control over the Middle East's countries and oil.

Why did Obama let Wall Street destroy the U.S. economy and then reward it with a gift of a trillion dollars? Why did he let Big Oil destroy the Gulf and our Gulf states? According to Times pundit Frank Rich, because Obama is "too deferential" to the opinons of experts. He's "too trusting" in the advice of his own staff. Character flaws. Not because Obama is a tool and handmaiden of Big Finance and Big Oil (both of which were also Big Campaign Contributors).

First I and then political scientist Michael Parenti argue that Presidents push bad policies in order to further benefit the ruling elite at the expense of the rest of us. I focus on Obama and include a reading from Frank Rich's preposterous op-ed, mentioned above. Parenti (speaking in January 2008) touches on G.W. Bush's economic policies, Iraq war, and ethnic cleansing of New Orleans. He argues that all were deliberate policies--ruthlessly executed and largely successful--not unfortunate results of character flaws.

Goldman Sachs and BP get away with murder because Barack Obama (top,
with Rahm Emanuel) is too deferential, too trusting of the advice of experts.
Or so pontificates New York Times columnist Frank Rich (bottom). The photo
of Obama appears to be the basis of the famous "Hope" campaign poster.

Notes, credits, & links

This week's music: Utah Phillips, NPR Talking Blues; and David Rovics, Before the Oil Wells Ran Dry

Michael Parenti's remarks--recorded January 22, 2008--courtesy of Maria Gilardin and TUC Radio.

Frank Rich's balderdash was from the New York Times "Week in Review" section, Sunday, June 6, 2010, p. 10.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "thumb") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Did FEMA "mismanage" the New Orleans disaster (bottom) owing to
"incompetence"? Michael Parenti has a contrary notion: letting the
poor neighborhoods of New Orleans drown was a ruthless act of
ethnic cleansing, gentrification, urban redevelopment, and
political realignment.

Coming soon (Tuesday broadcast debut dates shown)

• July 27 and August 3 -- War Made Easy. A 2-part radio adaptation of this video documentary from 2007. Shows the techniques with which our government and our media drum up public support for war in a well-planned campaign of propaganda and lies. The same techniques are used each time. Features commentary by Norman Solomon and Sean Penn, plus much TV footage from the 1960s through 2007.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
• Saturdays, 5:00 to 5:30 PM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/
• Saturdays, 7:00-7:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New+World+Notes

Energy Disaster Anniversaries

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Three Mile Island, March 1979. The twin cooling stacks of
reactor #2 are on the left. All graphics: Click to enlarge.

This week in New World Notes, #63, Tuesday, May 12:

Years ending in "9" tend to invite disasters involving big energy suppliers.

In 1979, Pennsylvania almost became the first Chernobyl, when Reactor Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island [TMI] nuclear power plant suffered a not-far-from-total meltdown. The plant--on the placid Susquehanna River just south of Harrisburg--was within 100 miles of Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

Exxon Valdez, 1989; containment vessel (which arrived
far too late) alongside, to the left; and southbound oil slick.
(This photo looks great when enlarged.)

In 1989, Exxon Corp. hosted the world's most damaging oil spill when the tanker Exxon Valdez smashed into a reef off the coast of Alaska. The drunken captain was blamed, but at the time, the Third Mate had command of the ship. The real culprits were (surprise!) Exxon and partner BP, which were illegally operating the ship without millions of dollars of required safety equipment.

In 1999, Exxon and Mobil were allowed to merge, thus creating the largest corporation in the world and thus essentially reconstituting John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. Republican President Theodore Roosevelt had broken Standard Oil into a couple dozen pieces, on the grounds that a corporation that huge--that close to a monopoly--was a threat to democracy and capitalism both!

The GOP has taken to calling itself "The Party of Ideas." Hard as it may be to believe, a century ago, not all of its ideas were bad ones!

Also in 1999, a (Phillips) refinery in Texas blew up.

Alaskan duck (top) & citizen, Bill Scheer (bottom)

I can't wait to see what 2009 will bring! My fearless prediction: A reborn, non-union General Motors will introduce its greatest sales sucess ever, the Hummer H-6. So named because it's the size of the H-1, -2, and -3 combined. Its award-winning advertising slogan will be, "When some f***ing Mexican immigrant gets drunk, steals a car, and smashes into you head-on, . . . what do you want to be driving?"

This week, New World Notes examines the first two disasters. We discover (surprise again!) a tissue of corporate irresponsibility, human and environmental destruction, lack of punishment for the guilty, and lying governments more interested in protecting corporate profits than the lives of their citizens.

Greg Palast explains the scandals that underlie the Exxon Valdez disaster. I read an article by Harvey Wasserman that explains the scandals attending--and the unreported casualties of--the TMI meltdown. And Roy Zimmerman restores our pride in American capitalism with a song, "Multinational Anthem." Well, he tries to. Sort of.

Note the organization that produced this map
(along right edge of graphic). What the heck??

Sins of omission:

In the radio show I neglected to give credit where due. America's exciting Three Mile Island adventure was brought to us by designers Babcock & Wilcox ... the owner-operators, the Metropolitan Edison unit of General Public Utilities ... and government and state agencies too numerous to mention.

There's little chance of hiding the identity of the main culprit when smashed tankers carry names like Exxon Valdez. Rumor has it that Exxon-Mobil Corporation has adopted a new naming policy. Company tankers that ply dangerous waters are being renamed the Government Interference Valdez, the Excessive Corporate Taxation, and the Barack Obama Socialism. Future smashups should generate less unfavorable publicity for the company!

(Top:) Pennsylvania and federal officials maintain that
radiation releases from the TMI accident were insignificant.
This fine specimen of the famous Pennsylvania Two-Headed
Mini-Dairy-Cattle breed, born nearby, shows that the officials
were correct.
(Bottom:) Above-average radiation levels brought,
proportionally, above-average rates of lung cancer in the
region. Note that a 150% increase = 2.5 times as many. Don't
need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows!
(Here, predominantly from the southeast.)

Did somebody mention 9-11 and Clean Nuclear Energy?:

An odd and interesting Web site, Pennsylvania Highways, has some excellent material on the Three Mile Island near-disaster, including interesting play-by-play reporting of the meltdown and the local response. http://www.pahighways.com/features/threemileisland.html

Especially interesting is its argument that on 9-11, hijacked UAL Flight 93 was heading to TMI, where highly contaminated Unit 2 was sealed and Unit 1 was still in operation. Flight 93 crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania, heading towards TMI and, beyond that, Washington, DC. If DC was its destination, it was flying at unusually low altitude as it approached Shanksville. Was it aiming for something closer than the White House? Had the Boeing 747 smashed into TMI, a Chernobyl-sized disaster could very well have ensued.

This was a new idea to me, though I've found it had occurred to others--including the Sunday Times of London--a bit earlier. Say, by September 12, 2001, in some cases. (Cautious by nature, the Sunday Times held off until October. Their feature story is a good one: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1021-05.htm )

Incidentally, I can assure you that the "containment vessels" of every nuclear power plant in the United States today are more than strong enough to withstand a 65-mph direct hit by any fuel-laden Piper Cub in the sky. So you can sleep peacefully!

The three outer rings represent radii from TMI of 100 miles (Washington DC,
Philadelphia, Baltimore), 200 miles (New York City, Pittsburgh, Syracuse,
Richmond), and 300 Miles (Boston, Providence, Columbus, Cleveland,
Charleston, and Raleigh). That's nothing. Wait 'til the aging reactor at
Indian Point blows. That's 25 miles north of NYC. Can you say Helter Skelter?

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
• Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/
• Saturdays, 7:00-7:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New+World+Notes