What is perhaps the last play the tragically — not comically — reckless oil company BP should sponsor?

Seriously, what oil company has made more flagrant errors than BP?

I don’t know what PR genius came up with this idea, but here is the oil giant, oblivious to the irony, announcing on their website:

Directed by Amir Nizar Zuabi, The Comedy of Errors, supported by BP as the Founding Presenting Partner of the World Shakespeare Festival, plays in the Roundhouse in Camden, as part of the What Country Friends Is This? trilogy.

This epic trilogy of Shakespeare’s shipwreck plays, exploring love, loss and reunion, is performed by one company of actors.

Yes, the Comedy of Errors is a “shipwreck” play. Well, the BP disaster certainly looked like a shipwreck — but did a lot more damage:

And let’s not forget the irony that “BP had central role in the Exxon Valdez disaster,” a true shipwreck.

Of course, according to Big Oil and drilling advocates in Congress, BP should be sponsoring Much Ado About Nothing instead (see “Five Reasons We Can’t Forget About The BP Oil Disaster“).

Mitt Romney has long been trying to Etch-A-Sketch away his rich guy persona.

He’s said that at times in his life he’s worried about getting a pink slip and, more recently, that ”I’m also unemployed.”

On Friday, he personally guaranteed that the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would be built if he’s elected president:

“I will build that pipeline if I have to do it myself,” Romney said during a speech before state Republican Party leaders gathered at a retreat in Arizona.

I suppose now that he’s put the plans for his La Jolla car elevator on hold, he needs some project to keep him busy. But who knew he was a steel-drivin’ man?

Then I checked and sure enough, Bruce Springsteen had written a song about Romney. Here’s one of the verses:

Mitt Romney told his captain
“Lord a man ain’t nothin’ but a man
But before I let that steam drill beat me down
I’m gonna die with a hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord
I’ll die with a hammer in my hand.”

Still, if the pipeline to Canada’s climate-destroying tar sands must be built so we can export more refined product overseas, shouldn’t the few thousand jobs go to people without a quarter billion dollars?

After the Environmental Protection Agency issued rules for regulating carbon emissions from coal plants, the President of the United Mine Workers of America oddly compared the coal industry to Osama Bin Laden.

“The Navy SEALs shot Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan and Lisa Jackson shot us in Washington … the coal industry is not far behind with respect to what happened with Osama Bin Laden,” said UMWA’s Cecil Roberts.

It’s hard to think of a worse analogy for your industry. Leave it to faux-pundit Stephen Colbert to run with this one, coming up with an even better comparison for coal:

“Well done, sir. Osama Bin Laden was definitely the sympathetic figure in that story. And who can forget how upset the American people were when the American government took Bin Laden out. If you’re comparing the coal industry to homicidal maniacs, I would have gone with Sadaam Hussein. The guy knew a lot about fossil fuels and he spent some time in an underground shaft.”

Watch the whole segment:

We’ve detailed the exhaustive list of dramatic changes Mitt Romney has made to his energy policies in a few short years. As a previous supporter of cap and trade, climate science, vehicle efficiency, electric cars, and public investments in clean energy, Rommey was once the poster child of progressive ideas on energy.

As the press continues to pick up on the story, Romney needs to find a way to change the conversation. How’s he going to do it? No, not with an Etch A Sketch. As the Onion New Service reports, he’s built a time machine to go back and snuff out previous versions of himself.

With Romney once taking a completely different stance on almost every issue he stands for today, is this the only way he can wipe the slate clean?

Romney To Travel Back In Time To Kill Liberal Versions Of Himself

Inhofe family igloo, which they claim is "Al Gore's Home." Leaked emails prove otherwise.

Internal documents acquired by Climate Progress reveal that the Flatland Institute is planning to indoctrinate infants with a “Baby Inhofe” series of DVDs and videos. Flatland is a right-wing, anti-science think tank funded by the Koch brothers, the Resources Development Administration, and other corporate pollutocrats.

These shocking videos, which have also been acquired  by Climate Progress, use famous children’s songs to spread disinformation to those who are most at risk from coal pollution. Here’s one grotesque example:

Frosty the coal man is a jolly happy soul…
There must be magic in clean coal technology
For when they looked for pollutants
There was nearly none to see.

I played the entire DVD for my daughter and I swear she turned on every light in the house and started babbling about cosmic rays and the medieval warm period.

UPDATE: I originally reported that the website DeSmogBlog explained, “An anonymous donor calling him (or her)self ‘Flatland Insider’ has released the Flatland Institute’s budget, fundraising plan, Baby Inhofe strategic distribution plan, emails from Inhofe proving neither Al Gore nor his family ever lived in an igloo … and sundry other documents that prove all of the worst allegations that have been levelled against the organization and Inhofe.”

I must now confess that I am that insider, and I acquired those documents through an incredibly elaborate deception. Allow me to explain.

Two weeks ago, I sent the following email to every staffer and board member at the Flatland Institute:

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

FROM: Dr. Volde Mort
Central Bank of Nigeria
Lagos, Nigeria
01-658-21-2658

Dear Sir or Madam:

I have been requested by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company to contact you for assistance in resolving a matter. The NNPC has recently concluded a large number of contracts for oil exploration in the sub-Sahara region. The contracts have immediately produced moneys equaling US$40,000,000. The NNPC is desirous of oil exploration in other parts of the world since Nigeria is pretty much tapped out and covered with oil from spills and general negligence on our part; however, because of certain socialistic regulations of the Nigerian Government, developed I think by Barack Obama in his youth, it is unable to move these funds to another region.

Your assistance is requested as a non-Nigerian citizen who believes in drill, baby, drill to assist the NNPC, and also the Central Bank of Nigeria, in moving these funds out of Nigeria. If the funds can be transferred to you or your excellent non profit in a U.S. account, then you can forward the funds as directed by the NNPC. In exchange for your accommodating services, the NNPC would agree to allow you to retain 10%, or US$4 million of this amount. Plus free gasoline for life and a 10%-off coupon for inhalers.

However, to be a legitimate transferee of these moneys according to Nigerian law, you must presently be a depositor of at least US$100,000 in a Nigerian bank which is regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

I also need every single confidential document and email relating to the operation of your wise non-profit to confirm that you are funded by U.S. oil companies and generally destructive of the environment as we are.

If it will be possible for you to assist us at your earliest convenience, we would be most grateful; very quickly the liberal Nigerian Government will realize that the Central Bank is maintaining this amount on deposit, and attempt to levy certain depository taxes on it, just like big government bureaucrats always do.

Thank you for your help.

P.S. This is not a scam.

I am sorry to admit publicly that there is no Dr. Volde Mort of the Central Bank of Nigeria. That was me. I have pledged to return the $2.3 million I collected from 23 Flatland employees. I feel particularly bad about the 2 marriage proposals I received.

Let me explain that my motivation for this deception was that global warming is the gravest threat humanity faces. It is one of those things that cause our children great suffering even though they are not to blame. Kind of like American Idol or Adam Sandler movies, but I do think global warming is more serious. That I suppose is no excuse for crossing the line, and again, I apologize.

Memo to: Fellow Members of Congress

From: Darrell Issa, Republican of California

Re: Support for legislation to abolish an antiquated law.

I urge you to join us in sponsoring the Hall-Latta-Flake-Issa-Upton-Noem-Goodlatte Act.

For too long, science has been trotted out to justify environmental protection, when it is actually being used to mask tax-and-spend policies that sink our economy. With that in mind, I ask you to support the next logical step in our Republican Caucus’ crusade to abolish job-killing “environmental” laws and excessive regulations. Please join us in cosponsoring H.R. 32174, a bill to repeal the Law of Gravity.

Congress never passed this law. No president signed it. No court reviewed it. Not even Al Gore voted for it. As Sen. James Inhofe has said of putative “global warming,” so-called gravity is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

Congress never intended that whatever goes up must come down — with the exception of taxes.

H.R. 32174, also known as the “Newt, not Newton Act,” simply restores scientific understanding to where it was before 1687. Our bill would give this Congress the opportunity to consider economic impact when setting gravitational levels, and roll back a law that, as Gov. Rick Perry said of evolution, is really just a theory.

Even President Obama observed in his inaugural address that we need to “restore science to its rightful place.” So, after government scientists officially declared that global warming is harmful, we voted to repeal their finding. To restore a proper balance between Americans’ health and healthy profits, we voted to undo key administration proposals issued under the Clean Air Act.

Now, my House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will conduct hearings, with scientist witnesses representing both sides of the “gravity” issue, just as we did on supposed “global warming.” “Gravity” skeptics will testify under oath that “gravity” is a fraud.

“Gravity” alarmists covered up internal emails that demonstrated their own questions about “gravitational pull,” which the emails acknowledge has remained unchanged for 324 years. So, we will hold a hearing next week, “Gravitygate: How Do You Like Them Apples?” Read more

A cyber-penny for your thoughts.

Stephanie McMillan has kindly given me permission to reprint her cartoons. So I said I’d post the link to Paypal where you can donate to her if you like her cartoons.  CLICK HERE (then click where it says donate).

Inspired by Politico’s “Emails We Didn’t Open,” I give you “New Stories We Didn’t Finish Reading”:

George W. Bush says Keystone Pipeline is a “No-Brainer”

TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from landlocked Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast, is a “no-brainer” that would create jobs and bolster the economy, former President George W. Bush said on Tuesday.

Let’s see. The Bush administration ruined the economy and destroyed jobs. He himself is a former oil-man who said “we are addicted to oil.”

Oh, he also said this:

Why is anybody still listening to this guy now that we don’t have to?

The NY Times has a killer cartoon by McFadden [click to enlarge]

One party has moved far to the extreme while the other has moved to the center, “forcing” the media to become center-right just to maintain its he-said/she-said “objectivity.” It was a brilliant plan by the Koch-fueled Tea Party.

The result: Even super-centrist ideas like “explaining climate science” and “pricing externalities” are now routinely attacked by some in the media as leftist, out-of-the-mainstream ideas. We are through the Looking Glass.