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Jobs Council To Recommend Obama Expand Domestic Drilling
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Executives from General Electric Co. (GE), American Express Co. (AXP) and Xerox Corp. (XRX) on Tuesday will recommend to President Barack Obama that he do more to overhaul the U.S. tax code, revamp business regulations and expand domestic drilling for fuels.
"As a nation, we need to take advantage of all our natural resources to spur economic growth, create jobs and reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil, " the executives will say in a report they're delivering to the president.
The executives are part of the president's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and their recommendations come in the form of a report entitled "Road Map To Renewal: Invest In Our Future, Build On Our Strengths, Play To Win."
The council, which also counts labor leaders and venture capitalists among its members, has previously recommended the president and Congress repair the nation's aging infrastructure, take more steps to boost foreign investment in the U.S. and expand jobs training, among other proposals. The president has embraced, in some forms, some of the council's recommendations.
The president has said he is open to a broad overhaul of the tax code, although it is unclear if such a massive undertaking could happen in an election year. The council recommends the government lower the corporate tax rate and stop charging taxes on overseas earnings. The council doesn't provide a number for what it thinks the corporate tax rate should be. The U.S. corporate tax rate is currently 35%, higher than most of America's competitors.
"Given the stakes for U.S. competitiveness and fiscal responsibility, the Council urges Congress and the administration to begin work on tax reform immediately," the council's report says. "Leadership of both parties in the House and the Senate should make a public commitment to getting reform done and they should begin the process now."
--By Jared A. Favole, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; jared.favole@ dowjones.com
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CLEVELAND—During an unexpected moment of clarity Tuesday, open-minded man Blake Richman was suddenly struck by the grim realization that he's squandered a significant portion of his life listening to everyone's bull****, the 38-year-old told reporters.
A visibly stunned and solemn Richman, who until this point regarded his willingness to hear out the opinions of others as a worthwhile quality, estimated that he's wasted nearly three and a half years of his existence being open to people's half-formed thoughts, asinine suggestions, and pointless, dumb**** stories.
"Jesus Christ," said Richman, taking in the overwhelming volume of useless crap he's actively listened to over the years. "My whole life I've made a concerted effort to give people a fair shake and understand different points of view because I felt that everyone had something valuable to offer, but it turns out most of what they had to offer was complete bull****."
"Seriously," Richman added, "what have I gained from treating everyone's opinion with respect? Nothing. Absolutely nothing."
According to Richman, it was just now hitting him how many hours of his life he's pissed away listening intently to nonsense about celebrity couples, how good or bad certain pens are, and why a particular sports team might have a chance this year. The husband and father of two said that every time he's felt at all put out or bored by a bull**** conversation—especially a speculative one about how bad allergy season was going to be—he should have just turned around, walked away, and gone rafting or rappelling or done any of the millions of other things he's always wanted to do but never thought he had time for.
At various points throughout the day, Richman could be heard muttering to himself that he couldn't believe he was almost 40 years old.
"Twenty minutes here, 10 minutes there. It all starts to add up," said Richman, who sat down and figured out that between stupid discussions about favorite baby names and reviews of restaurants in cities he'll never visit, he'd wasted 390 hours of his life. "And you know what the worst part is? It's my fault. Here I thought being considerate to others by always listening patiently to what they had to say was the right thing to do. Well, **** me, right?"
According to Richman, he started thinking about how much time he's flushed down the toilet being an approachable person after a work meeting in which he let a coworker, David Martin, ramble on and on with an idea everyone knew was "total ****" the moment the man opened his mouth. Richman said that a single glance at the clock made him realize he had just spent 14 minutes of his finite time on earth not playing with his kids or being with his wife, but listening to garbage.
"It was like I stepped out of my body and saw myself actually listening to this man's worthless drivel—but it wasn't him who looked like a moron, it was me," Richman said. "I was nodding my head like an asshole and saying ridiculous things like, 'Right,' and, 'I see your point, Dave,' when I should have just said, 'Dave, your idea isn't good and you are wasting our time and you need to shut up right now.'"
By his estimates, Richman's receptiveness has resulted in 160 irreplaceable hours of listening to grossly uninformed political opinions, 300 hours of carefully hearing out both sides of pointless arguments, and at least a month of listening to his parents' bull**** about how important it is to be open-minded.
Eighty days have been wasted on the inane blather of his college friend Brian alone.
"All those hours I could have been relaxing, or reading all these great books, or getting into shape, or working on side projects that I'm really excited about," Richman said. "But instead I've been listening to overrated albums recommended to me by my asshole friends."
"Did you know that in my life I've listened to five days' worth of people talking about their furniture?" he added. "It's true. That's a trip to Europe right there."
While Richman has vowed to cease being open-minded to absolute horse****, acquaintances reflected on his approachability.
"I love Blake," coworker David Martin said. "He's such a good listener. A lot of people are closed-minded and self-absorbed, but Blake always makes an effort to hear where I'm coming from. The world could use more people like him." More News
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Keystone XL Pipeline Backers Dwarfed Opponents In Lobbying Efforts
By Josh Israel on Jan 20, 2012 at 10:50 am
Proposed Keystone XL pipeline map On Wednesday, President Barack Obama announced his administration was denying an application by the TransCanada Corporation to build a tar sands pipeline between Alberta, Canada, and Nederland, Texas.
This decision, a major victory for grassroots activists, comes after lobbying by TransCanada and its big oil allies significantly dwarfed that of environmental groups. TransCanada alone nearly matched the combined lobbying expenditures of all Keystone XL opponents on all issues, over the periods in which they lobbied for and against the pipeline in 2011, a ThinkProgress Green analysis shows.
An analysis of lobbying disclosure records for the first, second, and third quarters of 2011 suggests that the lobbying expenses of the 20 or more business and labor interests who backed the project were much greater than those for the seven organizations that actively opposed the measure:
– Thirty-eight different companies or organizations reported lobbying the federal government on the Keystone XL pipeline in general or on H.R.1938 (the North American-Made Energy Security Act, a bill which aimed to speed up the Obama administration’s consideration of the application). Thirty-one groups supported the pipeline, and seven groups opposed it.
– TransCanada’s lobbying efforts alone over the first three quarters of 2011 totaled at least $920,000.
– The seven groups in opposition to Keystone XL spent just over $1 million on all lobbying efforts. Corporate Ethics International, Defenders of Wildlife, EarthJustice Legal Defense Fund, the League of Conservation Voters, the National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, and the Western Organization of Resource Councils reported spending just over $1 million on lobbying efforts for the periods when they were lobbying on Keystone XL — little more than TransCanada’s spending. Lobbying disclosure forms do not specify how much is spent on individual issues.
– The 31 groups supporting Keystone XL spent $59.8 million on all lobbying. Combined with the massive lobbying prowess of supporters like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil, Exxon Mobil Corporation, the American Petroleum Institute, and the National Association of Manufacturers, as well as less expected players like the National Taxpayers Union and Deere & Company, supporters of the pipeline had lobbying operations over the periods in which they lobbied on application totaling at least $59.8 million.
– Oil and energy companies alone spent more than $37 million on total lobbying.
TransCanada has vowed to reapply. If these numbers are any indication, they will likely do so with some well-funded allies.
See the organizations who reported lobbying on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in the first three quarters of 2011:
Lobbied For Keystone XL ($59.8 million)
Lobbied Against Keystone XL ($1 million)
AMERICAN COUNCIL OF ENGINEERING COMPANIES
CORPORATE ETHICS INTERNATIONAL
AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE
DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE
BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION TRADES DEPARTMENT, AFL-CIO
EARTHJUSTICE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE USA
LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS
CONOCOPHILLIPS
NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION
CONSUMER ENERGY ALLIANCE
SIERRA CLUB
DEERE & COMPANY
WESTERN ORGANIZATION OF RESOURCE COUNCILS
DEVON ENERGY COMPANY
EXXON MOBIL CORP
IN SITU OIL SANDS ALLIANCE
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS
LABORERS’ INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA
NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION
NATL ASSN OF MANUFACTURERS
NEW ENGLAND FUEL INSTITUTE
SHELL OIL COMPANY
SMALL BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP COUNCIL
TRANSCANADA PIPELINES, LTD
UNITED ASSOCIATION OF JOURNEYMEN & APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING & PIPEFITTING INDUSTRY
Note: this chart does not include entities whose official position on the bill could not be determined
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
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