Hopeless

A dead sea turtle washed onto the shore at Waveland, Mississippi. Endangered sea turtles and dolphins are still dying in high numbers in Mississippi, which continues to be impacted by tar balls and weathered oil following the Deepwater Horizon oil leak   [Mario Tama/Getty Images]

From the above link:

[T]he view from her submarine is different, and her attachment is almost personal. On her descent to a location 10 miles from BP’s well in December, Joye landed on an ocean floor coated with dark brown muck about 4cm deep. Thick ropes of slime draped across coral like cobwebs in a haunted house. The few creatures that remained alive, such as the crabs, were too listless to flee. “Most of the time when you go at them with a submarine, they just run,” she says. “They weren’t running, they were just sitting there, dazed and stupefied. They certainly weren’t behaving as normal.”

Her conclusion? “I think it is not beyond the imagination that 50% of the oil is still floating around out there.”

At a time when the White House, Congress, government officials and oil companies are trying to put the oil disaster behind them, that is not the message from the deep that people are waiting to hear. Joye’s data – and an outspoken manner for a scientist – have pitted her against the Obama adminstration’s scientists as well as other independent scientists who have come to different conclusions about the state of the Gulf. She is consumed by the idea that she – and other colleagues – are not really being heard.”It’s insanely frustrating,” Joye says.   . . .

The Guardian article included this little tidbit:

[K]en Feinberg, the independent administrator of BP’s $20bn compensation fund, says he is close to finishing compensating individuals and businesses who were hurt by the disaster – without even coming close to exhausting the $20bn.

He paid out only $3.6bn last year   . . . .

In other news, I see Hapless Hopeless, our iron-deficient so-called leader, is in Annandale today for a dry run, with some hapless kids, of the speech he will give at Facebook tomorrow.

We are blessed to have Leader with us for two whole fucking days.  Here on Wednesday and Thursday in Los Angeles. 

Something around 35K per ticket.

Oh right!  The Democrats pretend to take  a principled, spine-filled stand against the Citizens United SCOTUS ruling.

Bridges for sale and moving fast over in Aisle 4!

[M]ore than 150 dolphins, half of them infants, have washed up since the start of 2011. At least eight were smeared with crude oil that has been traced to BP’s well, NOAA said, and 87 sea turtles – all endangered – have been found dead since mid-March. [that would be 87 in just over a month – Mcat]

“To me it makes no sense to think that it is random consequence, but it is kind of maddening because there has been a lot of energy and effort put towards beating the drum of everything is wonderful, everything is going to be fine by 2012,” says Joye.

Other studies have disputed Joye’s findings. Terry Hazen, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, failed to detect any traces of underwater oil in the six weeks after the well was capped. But he did find evidence of naturally occurring bacteria that ate the oil. John Kessler, a scientist at Texas A&M, found that the huge quantities of methane gas, which were released along with the oil, had also rapidly degraded.     . . . . .

Oh please.  Lawrence Berkeley (Chu had been head of it) and Lawrence Livermore Labs are part of the Defense Industry.  Get a clue.  Lawrence’s widow has campaigned for what seems like two decades to have his name taken off the labs.

None other than RUSH, as in Limbaugh, loves to push that oil eating bacteria.  I have no doubt that such an organism exists and functions with naturally occuring oil leaks.

We’re talking massive, on-going disaster here.