Author Archives: George Washington

About George Washington

George Washington is the head writer at Washington’s Blog. A busy professional and former adjunct professor, George’s insatiable curiousity causes him to write on a wide variety of topics, including economics, finance, the environment and politics. For further details, ask Keith Alexander… http://www.washingtonsblog.com

Guest Post: BP Oil Well Is Dead … But What About the Nearby Seeps?

→ Washington’s Blog (Videos embedded at Washington’s Blog. I would be grateful if someone could tell me how to embed videos here at NakedCapitalism. Even when I copy and past the html, the videos won’t show) Oil-industry expert Bob Cavnar says that the Macondo well is dead. True, there may still be some bubbles leaking: […]

Guest Post: Is America Today In Worse Shape Than Japan During Its Lost Decade?

→ Washington’s Blog As I noted last year: Our savings is … dramatically lower than Japan’s when that country entered into its Lost Decade. So the Japanese were much better prepared than we are. (I also noted that we’re in worse shape than America was going into the Great Depression … but that’s another story). […]

Guest Post: BP and Government Representatives Still Keeping Scientists and Reporters Away from Areas Impacted by Oil

→ Washington’s Blog (Videos embedded at Washington’s Blog) As shown by the following videos, BP and government representatives are still keeping scientists and reporters away from areas impacted by oil. WEAR ABC news documented yesterday that federal agents are preventing reporters from digging in the sand to look for oil: Award-winning investigative reporter Dahr Jamail […]

Guest Post: American Businesses and Consumers are NOT Deleveraging … They Are Going On One Last Binge

→ Washington’s Blog Everyone knows that the American consumer is deleveraging … living more frugally, and paying down debt. Right? Well, actually, as CNBC’s Diana Olick pointed out in April, many consumers are stopping their mortgage payments, and then blowing the money they would usually pay towards their mortgage on luxuries: I opened up a […]

Guest Post: What’s Going On In The Gulf?

→ Washington’s Blog (Videos embedded at Washington’s Blog) BP and the government decided that millions of gallons of dispersants should be dumped into the Gulf to sink and hide the oil. They succeeded in sinking it. As ABC, CBS and NPR note, huge quantities of oil are blanketing the ocean floor, killing virtually all of […]

Guest Post: Allegation – Americans Flooded Out Millions in Pakistan to Protect U.S. Drone Military Base

→ Washington’s Blog (Video embedded at Washington’s Blog) Feryal Ali Gauhar served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund and is the only UN Goodwill Ambassador who quit over the invasion of Iraq. Gauhar is a Pakistani actress, filmmaker, writer and human rights activist. Her most recent book is set in Afghanistan. […]

Guest Post: The Warped Mission of the American Military – “Out-Terrorize the Terrorists”

→ Washington’s Blog A number of American soldiers are blowing the whistle on the American military practice of indiscriminately killing Iraq civilians – by randomly firing bullets in a 360 degree circle – anytime that an improvised explosive device hits a U.S. soldier. As Truthout notes: Both [specialists Ethan McCord and Josh Stieber] say they […]

Guest Post: Blood Tests Show Elevated Level of Toxic Hydrocarbons in Gulf Residents

→ Washington’s Blog (Videos at WashingtonsBlog.com) A number of different chemists are finding elevated levels of toxic hydrocarbons in the bloodstream of Gulf coast residents. What is most disturbing about these results is that people who simply live near the water are showing higher than normal levels of toxic chemicals. These are not fishermen, shrimpers, […]

Guest Post: Scientists Say Dispersants May Delay Recovery of the Gulf By Years … Or Decades

→ Washington’s Blog The government and BP claim that the combination of Corexit and crude oil is less toxic than crude oil by itself. Is that true? Well, scientists have found that when Corexit is applied to the actual crude oil from BP’s well, it releases 35 times more toxic chemicals into the water column […]

Guest Post: Gulf Chemist Says Mercenaries Hired By BP Are Now Applying Toxic Dispersant – at Night and In an Uncontrolled Manner – Which BP Says It No Longer Uses

→ Washington’s Blog (videos embedded at WashingtonsBlog.com) Bob Naman is an analytical chemist with almost 30 years in the field, based in Mobile, Alabama. When WKRG News 5 gave Naman samples of water from the Gulf of Mexico, Naman found oil contamination, and one of his samples actually exploded during testing due – he believes […]

Guest Post: FDA Not Testing Gulf Seafood for Mercury, Arsenic or Other Heavy Metals Because “We Do Not Expect to See an Increase Based on this Spill”

→ Washington’s Blog (see Blog version for embedded videos). Congressman Markey’s subcomittee held a hearing Thursday on seafood and the oil spill. Markey got the Food and Drug Administration to admit that fish are not being tested from oiled areas: YouTube Video The FDA also admitted that it is not testing for mercury, arsenic or […]

Guest Post: Top Oil Expert Says Geology is “Fractured”, Relief Wells May Fail and Oil May Leak for Years … BP is Using a “Cloak of Silence”, and Refusing to Share Even Basic Data with the Government

→ Washington’s Blog Few people in the world know more about oil drilling disasters than Dr. Robert Bea. Bea teaches engineering at the University of California Berkeley, and has 55 years of experience in engineering and management of design, construction, maintenance, operation, and decommissioning of engineered systems including offshore platforms, pipelines and floating facilities. Bea […]

Guest Post: BP Is Hiding Dead Animals to Avoid Fine of $50,000 Per Dead Animal (and the Bad Publicity)

→ Washington’s Blog (Videos embedded in version at my blog) BP has been trying to hide dead birds and other sealife. Fox News reports that BP is trying to keep animal carcasses away from public view: Local Gulf Coast residents and those monitoring turtles say that BP is removing carcasses at night to hide them […]

Guest Post: The Government is Dealing with the Oil Spill Like the Soviets Dealt with Chernobyl

→ Washington’s Blog (videos in original) The Soviet Union was famous for covering up its environmental disasters. As award-winning journalist Dahr Jamail points out in a must-read article about the oil spill: “It is well known that after the Chernobyl accident, the Soviet government immediately did everything possible to conceal the fact of the accident […]

Guest Post: Oil Pressure Stopping Short of Target … Does that Mean the Well Integrity Test Is Failing?

→ Washington’s Blog The well integrity test is arguably failing, as the pressures are not reaching the 8,000 psi minimum target. CBS News notes: The federal pointman for the BP oil spill says results are short of ideal in the new cap but the oil will stay shut in for another 6 hours at least. […]