Bad News Friday Roundup

"Jobs Bill Fails In Senate: Democrats Say Thursday's Doomed Vote Was The Last Chance" (Arthur Delaney):

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday that after Republicans once again defeated a bill to reauthorize several expired domestic aid programs, including extended unemployment benefits, Democrats are giving up on trying to break the GOP filibuster.

"We're going to move to the small business jobs bill," said Reid. "We can't pass it until we get some Republicans... It's up to them." MORE...

"Stabenow: Republicans in ‘Cynical Game’ to Crater Economy by Stopping Jobs Bill":

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), whose state has the second-highest unemployment rate in the country, just held a conference call with reporters, in which she expressed her belief that Republicans have cynically joined together to stop the jobs bill, also known as the tax extenders package or H.R. 4213, to keep the unemployment situation bad, or possibly make it worse, for their own electoral gains in the fall. MORE...

Tim Dickinson (Rolling Stone):

Here's what BP has in store for the Arctic: First, the company will drill two miles beneath its tiny island, which it has christened "Liberty." Then, in an ingenious twist, it will drill sideways for another six to eight miles, until it reaches an offshore reservoir estimated to hold 105 million barrels of oil. This would be the longest "extended reach" well ever attempted, and the effort has required BP to push drilling technology beyond its proven limits. As the most powerful "land-based" oil rig ever built, Liberty requires special pipe to withstand the 105,000 foot-pounds of torque — the equivalent of 50 Mack truck engines — needed to turn the drill. "This is about as sexy as it gets," a top BP official boasted to reporters in 2008. BP, a repeat felon subject to record fines for its willful safety violations, calls the project "one of its biggest challenges to date" — an engineering task made even more dangerous by plans to operate year-round in what the company itself admits is "some of the harshest weather on Earth." MORE...

Howie P.S.: I will endeavor to locate some good news today to balance this out.