China is on Board...and now to Russia....

China backs international efforts to send humanitarian aid to Syria, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said, after Western powers proposed a United Nations resolution authorizing humanitarian aid. 

It was not clear whether Yang's remarks mean China will consider the proposed new U. N. Security Council resolution. China is one of the five permanent members of the Council which have the power to veto such resolutions. 

"The pressing task now is for all sides to cease violence in the Syrian conflict, and to launch as soon as possible inclusive political dialogue and together deliberate on a reform plan," Yang told Elaraby, who has previously said Beijing's veto lost it diplomatic credit in the Arab world. 

"The international community should create conditions for this, and extend humanitarian aid to Syria," added Yang.

Intelligent Design or Natural Selection you decide on Keystone XL (New & Improved)

TransCanada Corp said on Monday it will build the southern leg of its $7 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline first.

Building the portion of the contentious pipeline that would run to Texas refineries from the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub before the northern section would help remove a pinch-point that has led to deep price discounts for U.S. and Canadian crude and forced refiners to rely more heavily on imports.

TransCanada said it wants the $2.3 billion southern leg in service by mid- to late 2013. It said construction would create 4,000 U.S. jobs.

The company also wrote to the U.S. State Department on Monday detailing plans to refile an application shortly for the remainder of line running to Steele City, Nebraska, from the Canada-U.S. border.

The BULL runs...

The S&P 500 is on pace for a third month of gains, the longest streak in a year, amid better-than-estimated economic and corporate reports. It has risen 4.2 percent this month. The index trades at about 14.1 times reported earnings, compared with the average since 1954 of 16.4 times, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Judicial Nominations at critical decision point; act now to ensure our Democracy works with three strong branches of government!!!

It is clear from recent cases that no matter the issue—health care, immigration, environment, marriage equality, consumer protections, ethics—the judiciary will continue to play an increasingly important role in the lives of hardworking Americans as well as in the success of the progressive legislative agenda. Every issue progressives fight for ends up in the courts. If you’re a progressive and you care about any progressive issue, who is on the courts matters to you.  

Current Nominations Battle
More than half of the U.S. population currently lives in a community with a courtroom vacancy. Today there are 20 judicial nominees who are awaiting a simple up-or-down vote in the U.S. Senate.  Unfortunately, most of these nominees have been waiting months for a vote, with the judicial work of the American people going undone. These 20 nominees:

Enjoy broad Democratic and Republican support:

• 13 were approved unanimously by Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee
• 5 received with just one “no” vote
• 2 were approved on party line votes

Would fill court vacancies in communities across the entire country:

• 10 of the 20 would fill a “judicial emergency
• 10 are represented by states with at least one Republican Senator

Are diverse:

• 9 are women
• 10 are minorities (2 Hispanic, 4 African American, 3 Asian American, 1 gay)

Have been waiting far longer for a vote than any previous nominees:

• At this point in George W. Bush’s term, Circuit Court nominees waited an average of 28 days from Committee approval to Senate vote. President Obama’s nominees have waited an average of 139 days.
• At this point in George W. Bush’s term, District Court nominees waited an average of 22 days from Committee approval to Senate vote. President Obama’s nominees have waited an average of 100 days.

Key Message Points:
Americans must have equal access to a fair hearing in court, and obstruction by Republicans is preventing that from happening.

• Unprecedented republican obstruction in Washington has left us with over 80 vacancies on the federal courts, leading to a backlog of cases that undermines our system of justice and makes it impossible for most Americans to have their case heard in a timely manner.
• The Senate is failing in its Constitutional duty to advice and consent to nominees to fill the nation’s courtrooms.
• It is time to put aside the partisan bickering, get rid of the anonymous ‘holds’ that Senators can place on a judicial appointment, and fill these critical vacancies so Americans can have their voice heard in court.

Americans want a system (including the judiciary) that works fairly for everyone and not just the already privileged few.

• Americans don’t like a system (especially a court system) where corporations and the wealthy have better access and a different set of rules to play by than everybody else. Instead they want a system where everyone can get a fair shake.
• Americans – across the political spectrum and across the income spectrum – consistently say that “having the laws apply equally to everyone” is the most important right included in the Constitution, and the right that’s most at risk today.

For more information and materials on Judicial Nominations - please feel free to visit the websites below.

Alliance for Justice | Judicial Selection Project

Center for American Progress | Legal Progress

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights | Judicial Nominations

People for the American Way | Fair and Just Courts

National Council of Jewish Women | BenchMark Judicial Nominations Campaign

The Price of Doing it YOUR way.....Embarassment, Destruction, & Loss...more to follow!!! :-)

BP Plc (BP/) and plaintiffs suing over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill are discussing a $14 billion accord that would be funded with money originally set aside by the company for out-of-court settlements, according to three people familiar with the talks.

BP would agree to close down its $20 billion Gulf Coast Claims Facility and shift the remaining $14 billion to plaintiffs who contend the spill harmed their businesses and properties, the people said. BP set up the fund in August 2010 to allow spill victims to receive compensation more quickly than they would by pursuing lawsuits. The fund has paid out about $6 billion so far, according to its website.

The April 2010 Macondo well blowout sent more than 4 million barrels of oil spewing into the gulf over 85 days, making it the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. The disaster spawned hundreds of lawsuits against BP and its partners, including Transocean Ltd. (RIG), the Vernier, Switzerland- based owner and operator of the drilling rig, and Houston-based Halliburton Co. (HAL), which provided cementing services on the facility. The suits include pollution claims by the federal and state governments, and consolidated cases brought by thousands of commercial fishermen, seafood processors and property owners.

“They could be about 90 or 95 percent done and now they have to go that last yard, which is always the toughest,” Carl Tobias, who teaches mass-tort law at the University of Richmond in Virginia, said of the proposed accord. “There could be an awful lot of money that is still in play or provisions that are hard to swallow for one side or the other.”

A Founding Father was clear on the separation of chruch and state as well as the US Supreme Court but that doesn't matter to Rick Santorum!!!

Republican presidential primary hopeful Rick Santorum says he doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state, noting that a speech on the topic by former President John F. Kennedy makes him want to “throw up.”

“I don’t believe that the separation of church and state is absolute,” Santorum said in an interview today on ABC’s “This Week” program.

In the United States, the term is an offshoot of the phrase, "wall of separation between church and state," as written in Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. 

The original text reads: "... I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.

The American Frozen Food Institute, National Meat Association, International Dairy Foods Association and United Fresh Produce Association would like to cause $77.7 bln in food borne illnesses v having safer processing standards....

An Obama administration plan to raise $220 million for food-safety programs through fees on processing plants, warehouses and other facilities. 

The fees are minimal compared with the cost of foodborne illness, which the act seeks to reduce, Doug Karas, a spokesman for the FDA, said in an e-mail. Such illnesses cost $77.7 billion a year, according to a 2012 study cited in the agency’s proposal. That includes medical costs, time off work and the cost of premature death. 

 The Republican Congress rejected including a similar proposal in the Food and Drug Administration’s budget request last year and also ruled out the idea when debating a food-safety law that President Barack Obama signed last year.