The Prototypical Demagogue and Chief Fox News Propagandist
Quick Hit.
We see no need to comment beyond this 2:00 minute exhibition of the core of Fox News and the perfect illustration of all that has stifled our nation since President Obama took office in 2009.
A major spill of toxic oil waste has wiped out trees and vegetation across a 104-acre swath of Alberta, Canada. The apparent cause of the spill: The rupture of a five-year-old pipeline that was designed to last at least 30 years.
The pipeline spilled 2.5 million gallons of a waste mixture of oil and water, which the company responsible, Houston-based Apache Corp., downplayed as “salty water” with “trace amounts of oil.”
How many such spills and ruined environment must the Earth endure before we all realize, pipelines while necessary in many cases, are all prone to spills, leaks and destruction. It doesn’t take a smart person to know that processing of fossil derivatives involves high risk transport structures (refineries, ports, or holding tanks).
Now take a look at the engineering marvels associated with the Keystone XL Pipeline. _________________________
The KXL anomaly story continues to heat up! This dag’on pipe is held together with Bubblegum and Duct Tape!! But seriously, the KXL is sitting on top of little blobs of this: http://greatstuff.dow.com/products/gaps-and-cracks/.
The product is designed for “Gaps and Cracks”. I’m glad Transcanda is sparing no expense here!
If TransCanada is rushing forward with the Keystone XL so quickly that at least 70 sections of the pipe already placed in the ground must be dug up for repairs, we know something is wrong.
The East Texas Observer reports that at least 70 “anomalies,” including dents and shoddy welds in the pipe, were identified in a 60 mile span, and in some areas these imperfections occur at a rate of three permile.
“If TransCanada officials cannot be trusted to tell the truth about the peaceful nature of Keystone XL protestors, why should we believe they’ve told the truth about the integrity of their pipeline and the real threats it poses to the hundreds of rivers and creeks that it crosses?”
“If TransCanada officials cannot be trusted to tell the truth about the peaceful nature of Keystone XL protestors, why should we believe they’ve told the truth about the integrity of their pipeline and the real threats it poses to the hundreds of rivers and creeks that it crosses?”
The Keystone XL Pipeline is a major corporate sham that many US politicians support. The one and only reason such support could emanate from so many has to have a basis in political contributions.
We cannot think of a more competent and credible place for a look at how approval of the KXL Project is influenced by political contributions than OpenSecretsBlog.
In its trek from the tar sands of Alberta to the white sands of the Gulf Coast, the Keystone XLoil pipeline project would traverse 1,700 miles. The oil’s long voyage across the American heartland through a pipeline about the size of a semi-trailer truck tire is not unlike the journey the project has traveled the past three years through the bureaucratic pipeline in Washington.
First proposed in 2008, the project’s fate will be decided by December. And after passing the process’s final environmental review on August 26, it has cleared perhaps its highest hurdle to approval.
The approval process progresses in stages, like the oil of the pipeline, which would be moved by electric pumps located at intervals along the line. The lobbying and financial contributions of stakeholders in this process are akin to the pumps that push the oil through the line: the more financial pressure applied, the more horsepower pumps the necessary legislation forward.
Pumping the Pipeline
TransCanada Corp., the Keystone XL pipeline’s owner and operator, is at the center of this controversy.
One look at the company’s lobbying expenditures shows that it has seen its desire to influence lawmakers increase sharply beginning in 2008. In 2008, TransCanada spent $190,000 on lobbying, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, and every year since, it increased this number: first to $490,000 in 2009, then to $720,000 last year and to $790,000 so far in 2011.
That’s an increase of nearly 300 percent between 2008 and 2010 alone.
One look at the company’s lobbying expenditures shows that it has seen its desire to influence lawmakers increase sharply beginning in 2008. In 2008, TransCanada spent $190,000 on lobbying, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, and every year since, it increased this number: first to $490,000 in 2009, then to $720,000 last year and to $790,000 so far in 2011.
That’s an increase of nearly 300 percent between 2008 and 2010 alone.
To further aid the pipeline’s progress, last year TransCanada hired Paul Elliott to lobby federal agencies such as the Department of State, where Hillary Clinton serves as the secretary.
We are reading more and more about how the public has come around to favor-ability regarding the KXL Northern Leg. As we read such we are reminded of two facts in recent US history and those who gave the US those fact based experiences.
George W. Bush was elected twice. Once, with help of the Supreme Court, a brother as governor and a Republican State Attorney General.
We also read a recent Gallup Poll survey result (1,000 plus respondents) indicating Bush has a 49% approval rating. Of course. Do your recall how Gallup and Rasmussen completely blew the 2012 General Election polling? Could Gallup have only polled 1,000 plus people in Texas and of those polled could 49% have been former Bush voters?
All said the number and scope of articles related to public approval of the KXL is disconcerting to say the very least.
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