On Wednesday, Dr. Jeffrey Gleason, currently an avian ecologist for the the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement, was questioned by agents from the the Obama Interior Department Office of Inspector General about aspects of his involvement with Dr. Charles Monnett’s 2006 peer-reviewed scientific paper that linked Polar bear mortality while swimming in the Arctic to climate change. Dr. Monnett has been under investigation since late 2010. Scrutiny of Dr. Gleason’s actions related to the Polar bear findings dates back to his first interview, held on January 26th. His questioning on Wednesday resulted in a request by the investigators for him to undergo a lie detector test regarding a misplaced routing slip:

big oil, financial industry, Forest Service, fracking, George Washington National Forest, intent to defraud, right wing agenda, spreading ignorance

You can always count on Republicans to stick up for the little guy oligarchs.

Gas prices rose dramatically while George W. Bush was in the White House (after they had complained that gas prices were too high under Clinton), dropped significantly during the Bush/Cheney recession, and are now, because of the recovery, returning to the previous trend. It would be good if some reporter would ask these Republicans what they were saying while gas prices went through the roof under President Arbusto and Vice Preisdent Halliburton. But there’s also something absurd about Republicans demanding that the government do something about gas prices. Wouldn’t that be interfering the free market?

Imagine that, for absolutely no logical reason, the government was about to mail you a check for $4 billion, but some people want to stop you from getting that check. How much would you be willing to pay to make sure you got your hands on that $4 billion?

Oil production in the gulf is touted to be great for the U.S., increasing our own domestic production. To the contrary, it is so poorly handled under existing law that it produces maximum risk at minimum return for the U.S. Not just a temporary ban should be exerted on further production in the Gulf of Mexico – a total ban should be issued, until the U.S. public is served instead of threatened by that drilling and that production.

Republican Senators support bailouts, handouts and state-provided insurance–for big oil companies. Senators from Oklahoma and Alaska are fighting the effort to lift the puny corporate liability cap of $75 million for disasters like the Gulf of Mexico oil explosion.

We’re in the midst of possibly the worst oil disaster in US history. The damage to the environment could be catastrophic, and the economic impact, devastating. So what’s the Quitter worried about? Big Oil’s brand image.