Speech… 29 August 2010
Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Lie Down Fall Down Dems, The Battle for New Orleans.33 comments
I linked to this in the last thread, an illustrated children’s book on, what else?, what Mama Democrats do, having found it at SMBIVA, one of several great posts in a row from Al Schumann… infantilization being the theme…
We’re infantilized all right. (I like this illustration a lot, as well.)
Speech in New Orleans today…. then, wheels up! Back to the Vegetable Patch on Penn Ave, then an address to the nation on Tuesday.
A busy social calendar. Speechmaking is hard work.
***********
Sunday 8 August 2010
Posted by marisacat in DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, The Battle for New Orleans.37 comments
A leopard cub sleeps on a water bowl in its air-conditioned cage on a warm summer day, at Shanghai Zoo [AP]
Jerry Cope, with whom I am not familiar, has an interview, text and vids, up at HuffPo, with Riki Ott, the marine biologist, Exxon Valdez clean-up worker who has been in the Gulf for weeks…
It’s a litany of horror: What if anything, do we know… It’s still an immense experiment we have been forced into.
Riki Ott: Well I have been down in the Gulf since May 3rd. It’s pretty consistent what I have heard. First I heard from the offshore workers and the boat captains that were coming in and they would see windrows of dead things piled up on the barrier islands; turtles and birds and dolphins… whales…
JC: Whales?
RO: And whales. There would be stories from boat captains of offshore, we started calling death gyres, where the rips all the different currents sweep the oceans surface, that would be the collection points for hundreds of dolphins and sea turtles and birds and even whales floating. So we got four different times latitudes/longitude coordinates where (this was happening) but by the time we got to these lat/longs which is always a couple of days later there was nothing there. There was boom put around these areas to collect the animals and we know this happened at Exxon Valdez too. The rips are where the dead things collect. We also know from Exxon Valdez that only 1% in our case of the carcasses that floated off to sea actually made landfall in the Gulf of Alaska. I don’t believe there have been any carcass drift studies down here that would give us some indication that when something does wash up on the beach what percentage it is of the whole. But we know that offshore there was an attempt by BP and the government to keep the animals from coming onshore in great numbers. The excuse was this was a health problem — we don’t want to create a health hazard. That would only be a good excuse if they kept tallies of all the numbers because all the numbers – all the animals – are evidence for federal court. We the people own these animals and they become evidence for damages to charge for BP.
In Exxon Valdez the carcasses were kept under triple lock and key security until the natural resource damage assessment study was completed and that was 2 1/2 years after the spill. Then all the animals were burned but not until then.
So people offshore were reporting this first and then carcasses started making it onshore. Then I started hearing from people in Alabama a lot and the western half of Florida – a little bit in Mississippi – but mostly what was going on then there was an attempt to keep people off the beaches, cameras off the beaches. I was literally flying in a plane and the FAA boundary changed. It was offshore first with the barrier islands and all of a sudden it just hopped right to shore to Alabama that’s where we were flying over and the pilot was just like – he couldn’t believe it – he was like look at that and I didn’t know what he was looking but then he points at the little red line which had all of sudden grown and he just looked at me and said the only reason that they have done this is so people can’t see what is going on. And what that little red line meant was no cameras on shore and three days later the oil came onshore and the carcasses came onshore into Alabama.
I love this idea pushed by some media, BP and the gubmint that masses of oil and dispersant (“no more poisonous than Dawn dish soap!”) can spew for months and there not be death and destruction.
Cope, described as an environmental activisit, has also appeared on Democracy NOW!
AMY GOODMAN: … What happened, do you believe, to the animals in the Gulf, to the marine life?
JERRY COPE: Well, there were two dramatic sequences that were described by workers that were out at the source, which is what they called the Canyon 252 site where this incident occurred. And they reported seeing, just as far as the eye could see, dead carcasses of all kinds of marine life out near the source. And then there was also—we heard numerous accounts of a large wave of marine life being pushed into shore as the dispersant and the oil, the first wave, came in and approached towards the end of June. And then, all of a sudden, it was simply gone. All of these animals disappeared. They didn’t show up in the lagoons in any large numbers. And everyone—all the scientists were questioning, where did they go?
I spoke to Hal Whitehead, who studied extensively sperm whales, specifically, the ones down in the Gulf of Mexico, and there was an unusual pod that was resident in the area of the Mississippi Canyon site, and they’ve also disappeared, the entire pod. And that was an unusual social structure there in that those particular sperm whales were not terribly nomadic. They seemed to stay there, as well as the usual whales that moved in and out with the population.
effluvia 31 July 2010
Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, Culture of Death, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, The Battle for New Orleans.21 comments
Seashells coated with oil on the shore in Dalian, China, nine days after a pipeline blast leaked 1,500 tonnes of heavy crude into the sea [Greenpeace/Reuters]
Beyond the horror in the Gulf, which is essentially a huge, ugly experiment we have been forced into, the struggle of the local people, on their own in Dalian to clean up the masses of heavy crude by hand, unprotected hands moving oil to barrels and buckets, navigating the thick oil in the small wood fishing boats, their legs, arms and faces bare, is a terrible thing to watch.
****
While we are eye balls deep in oil, lambert at corrente led to this… a story of BP, Blackrock, Larry Fink [ Here is the Vanity Fair profile on Larry Fink: Larry Fink’s $12 Trillion Shadow ], Obbie’s ever present minders and bookends (as I see it), Geithner and Summers and recent events in the US Gulf. AND Kaufman, the EPA whistleblower, who has been on Democracy NOW! and cable as well…
The close of her post:
[N]ow let’s connect the dots. The Obama administration owes Larry Fink bigtime for his central role in keeping the U.S. economy from completely crashing. The corporation owned by Larry Fink, Blackrock has been the recipient of millions (billions?) in government contracts. BlackRock also owns a majority–one billion shares–of BP Therefore Larry Fink has a powerful economic motivation to keep the full horror of what BP has done to the Gulf of Mexico hidden from the American public.
Now I have no idea if President Obama is aware of all this or not. I think this situation strongly suggests that Tim Geither has even more influence in the administration than anyone has previously thought. Kaufman mentioned in the Democracy Now interview that Larry Summers is also close to Larry Fink. Apparently the two became friends when Summers was working in hedge funds. (Oh, and BTW, 49% of BlackRock is owned by Bank of America, according to that link.)
I hope I’ve made my point clear. I believe that the reason President Obama has failed to act forcefully to deal with the worst ecological crisis in U.S. history because he or someone who has great influence over him doesn’t want to cross Larry Fink.
Now it could be that President Obama is simply a figurehead who follows orders from his underlings. Or it could be that Obama has made the decision to go alone with all this. But whatever role the president has played, the result is that BP has been permitted to dump around 2 billion gallons of Corexit into the Gulf of Mexico, and that will result in horrendous consequences for both wildlife and human beings.
I will have another post on the toxic effects of Corexit mixed with oil soon–perhaps later today or tomorrow.
I’d never give Obbie credit for being an independent operator. Nor credit that he commands some crew of ”underlings”, who do as they please as he stares into space…. I do think he feels he is USDA grade “prime” fixer to the oligarchy and his pay-off, post pretzelness, will be inclusion. Yeah right. Whistle Dixie honey.
The thread to the post is rather interesting, in particular for what I think are very mistaken, blinkered takes on both Hillary and Reagan. Hillary, as seen by several commenters, is some savior we were denied.
Oh gah. Save me from the pre-digested Democratic party baby bird food.
And Reagan is over and over described as a “true believer”. Who later was senile. He seems to be seen as less cynical than Obby.
Oh puh-leeze. I realise much of the nation did not catch the Reagan of the early, middle, or late sixties, nor even the RR of the early seventies… Both his venality and his political sleekness were much in evidence…. but he was what he was, a GE mouthpiece and, tho adept for the medium, a B movie actor, who Buckley and others of the conservative movement latched onto and very successfully used.
Even when semi- or pre-senile (and shot up in what could be argued was an attempted take over from within his own party), he was well represented by his alter ego who served as his AG here in California, Edwin Meese III. (It is rarely mentioned, but he served on the 9/11 Commission.)
And his ”kitchen cabinet” of a dozen or so very wealthy California businessmen.
****
I am getting a kick out of ‘new fixer man’ calling out ‘old time fixer man’. And calling him over and done with…
President Obama to Harry Smith, on the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric”:
“I think Charlie Rangel served a very long time and served his constituents very well. But these allegations are very troubling, and, you know, he’s somebody who is at the end of his career, 80 years old. I’m sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity, and my hope is that that happens.”
Charlie is to be escorted to the side of the bus!! Some white-gloved lackey, playing Master of Ceremonies, indicates he is to get under the bus, thus becoming, as lambert calls it, unterbussen.
Politico:
–Glenn Thrush and Jonathan Allen:
“[A] person close to Rangel tells POLITICO the embattled Democrat ‘doesn’t give a damn about what the president thinks about this’ and won’t step down. Yet, Obama’s statement changes the dynamics and makes it much harder for the tenacious Rangel to hold on … One member of the Congressional Black Caucus … expressed bitterness that the president would turn publicly on Rangel, a decorated Korean War combat veteran. ‘Charlie Rangel has served our nation with honor and distinction for more than four decades – before I was born and the president was a twinkle in his parents’ eye,’ the CBC member said.”
Twinkle twinkle… All things come to an end. Rangel, meet Ob’s white grannie while you’re under the bus. She conveniently died (shed a tear, he did) on the eve of the election that would deliver him as a transcendant hero figure, her death showing he is subject to the ordinary tragedies of mortals.
Quite the political story-making.
****
Fantastical landscape 27 July 2010
Posted by marisacat in DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Lie Down Fall Down Dems, The Battle for New Orleans.42 comments
Oily Sand Blown Far — Photograph by Chris Combs, National Geographic
Madman linked to a series of National Geographic photographs taken down on the Gulf beaches, using a high powered UV light to expose oil, where it does not appear to be.
Oily Sand Blown Far
Photograph by Chris Combs, National Geographic
Many yards from the Gulf of Mexico, dunes at the Gulf Islands National Seashore appear dotted with constellations of oil-contaminated, glowing sand under ultraviolet light.
Describing similar dunes, Kirby said that “dried sand particles that were contaminated by oil were blowing into the dunes of the back beach. If you consider how much sand can be moved in a short period of time by wind, this is a big deal.”
If clean-up workers on a beach are using a net to sift lumps of oil from sand, “clean sand goes through the oily net and gets coated with oil,” he said. “You’ve contaminated another quart of sand in order to get a couple of ounces of oil out, and it’ll end up in the [dunes].”
Published July 8, 2010
Mission creep… 20 July 2010
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Border Issues, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, San Francisco, The Battle for New Orleans, WAR!.71 comments
A vinca flower floats in brown, oily sludge in a canal behind a home just off Lake Pontchartrain near Slidell, Louisiana [Chuck Cook/AP]
But it’s capped now and little things like sludge in Lake Pontchartrain, which lies to the North of NO btw, will be dealt with soon.
Sooner than soon.
Yes?
The local talk radio tonight, in so liberal San Francisco, is pushing a real war with Mexico, as in, ‘go in and clean up that problem’, a shooting war with Mexico. Or, at least the North of Mexico. (Little wars always promise to stay that way, I guess…)
WE can’t have that on our border.
That should work… take care of all those pesky problems.
Sean Penn is on with Charlie Rose… and did manage to say an interesting thing or two about Haiti… but all goodness lies with Pretzel Clinton, and “the First Lady”, by which he means Mother Michelle. Clinton really got everyone on board, and MM will see to the education.
I think she is so busy hunting for baby fat that she has no time. Meanwhile the babies are being thrown out, bath water or no…
And, Haiti suffers as “there is no Warren Buffett there”.
Vote the party! Early and often! Then, take the only rational next step: lie face down in very wet mud and breathe deeply.
“Full spectrum dominance” 14 July 2010
Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Lie Down Fall Down Dems, The Battle for New Orleans.66 comments
Image: The White House via Flickr
President Barack Obama reworks his address to the nation regarding the BP oil spill with, from left, Carol Browner, assistant to the President for energy and climate change, Senior Advisor David Axelrod, and Director of Speechwriting Jon Favreau, in the Outer Oval Office, June 15, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Moving right along… this is the boileroom… oh, I am sure I mean Brain Trust, that worked on the June Oval Office speech. The speech that said it, that problem down South, would be a “trickle” in a “few days”.
Faith, Hope and Charity. They extended all of that to BP.
[T]he very Democratic president whom that right-wing loathed responded by opening much of the offshore U.S. to oil exploitation while promising lavish public subsidies to jumpstart a renaissance of nuclear energy.
Bold new technology, he assured his countrymen, had made both energy sources safe as banks. Safe as the risk-taking investment banks that had just gone down, perhaps.
The petroleum industry had, for decades, made wastelands of the Niger River Delta, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Ecuadorian jungles, and more, but as long as the oil kept flowing, few in the developed world cared. And then they had to.
…
Turning to Prayer
President Barack Obama gave his first Oval Office address, invoking the spirit and know-how with which Americans had won World War II and landed men on the moon, then wound up asking for prayer. Americans prayed, but the oil kept coming in with the dying pelicans and porpoises.
President Obama had, after all, staffed his administration with bright but blinkered technocrats who, as critic Chris Hedges remarked, “mistake the art of manipulation with knowledge.”
Obama’s Nobel Prize-winning Energy Secretary — who had earlier brokered a lucrative marriage of BP and the University of California to develop genetically altered biofuels without mentioning the dangers entailed — announced a “dream team” of the nation’s best and brightest scientists and engineers to devise a solution to the gusher, and then Secretary Steven Chu went mute.
If BP and the government could not contain the blowout they could try to control the flow of information about it.
….
Ever more umbilically dependent upon machines and the fossil fuel-derived energy that drives them, they live with a young technocrat in the White House who promised change but who — bereft of any vision of how the earth’s resources could be more equitably distributed and its technology more wisely used — delivered instead the status quo.
As the lethal cloud spreads unchecked in the sea, few yet understand that a dead ocean means dead land.
… As the worsening news from the Gulf becomes chronic, it retreats into the inner pages of dying newspapers, displaced from the front page by the World Cup and Tiger Woods’s comeback.
That much of life could be ending on Planet Earth would be a bummer for many, and very bad for business. The lights must never go out, wrote Auden at the outbreak of World War II, the music must always play.
Tho I’d say Tiger is not having much of a come back. Other than that….
Oh yes, that “full spectrum dominance…” idea:
[B]ut the money had not run out for the military whose budgets engorged on the conviction that the U.S. could, should, and, indeed, must police the planet like a frontier sheriff patrolling an unruly mining camp.
Reagan’s successors and disciples called that military fantasy “full spectrum dominance.” At the start of the Twenty-first Century, Congress unstintingly funded foreign wars while further slashing taxes and starving domestic programs.
The emaciated “beast” of public services at the core of democratic governance not so much slouched as staggered and gasped toward its terminus, its mangy hide stretched taut over brittle ribs.
Freed of constraining regulation and barriers, the world economy morphed into a hybrid pawn shop and casino, its winners luring suckers into the pool with promises of ever-increasing prosperity. Few alive remembered the year 1929 and what followed. Then, in 2008, the house came down. …
“Hyrid pawn shop and casino”. Yes, that’s us. And “winners luring suckers ino the pool”, that’s us too… “Frontier sheriff patrolling…”, that too…
With a “God Bless America” band-aid for all.
Cue the survivor anthem 10 July 2010
Posted by marisacat in Culture of Death, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, The Battle for New Orleans.45 comments
This is Kevin, a baby kestrel who broke his leg after falling from his nest in St Albans. Nurses at St Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital, in Buckinghamshire, have used metal pins to fix the 4 week old bird’s leg and expect him to make a full recovery. He will live in the hospital’s aviary before his released back into the wild. Picture: Jeff Moore
Have to have a soft spot for any country that uses the words: St Tiggywinkles…. whose rescues sometimes turn up in the various wildlife galleries at the Telegraph…
*****
A snip from Joe Bageant:
Under God, with fees and compound interest for all
From the outset, capitalism was always about the theft of the people’s sustenance. It was bound to lead to the ultimate theft — the final looting of the source of their sustenance — nature. Now that capitalism has eaten its own seed corn, the show is just about over, with the nastiest scenes yet to play out around water, carbon energy (or anything that expends energy), soil and oxygen. For the near future however, it will continue to play out around money.
As the economy slowly implodes, money will become more volatile stuff than it already is. The value and availability of money is sure to fluctuate wildly. Most people don’t have the luxury of escaping the money economy, so they will be held hostage and milked hard again by the same people who just drained them in the bailouts. As usual, the government will be right there to see that everybody plays by the rules. Those who have always benefited by capitalism’s rules will benefit more. That cadre of “money professionals” which holds captive the nation’s money supply, and runs things according to the rules of money, can never lose money. It writes the rules. And rewrites them when it suits the money elite’s interests. Capitalism, the Christian god, democracy, the Constitution.
It’s all one ball of wax, one set of rules in the American national psyche. Thus, the money masters behind the curtain will write The New Rules, the new tablets of supreme law, and call them Reform. There will be rejoicing that “the will of the people” has once again moved upon the land, and that the democracy’s scripture has once again been delivered by the unseen hand of God.
****
Just a photo 6 July 2010
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, The Battle for New Orleans.65 comments
Hong Kong: Protesters at the government headquarters after a pro-democracy march [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]
Just a photo, tossed up to carry the hours of the day on its back…
Not up to much today, but I did notice that CBS, I think it was, on their Monday national evening news used a photo of a dead dolphin, and not the poor little one that died on the beach the other day. Along with several photos of dead sea turtles. And, almost sotto voce, commentary that ‘time is running out’ for the Gulf wildlife.
I guess you could say they took a tiny baby pinkie finger and grazed the air somewhere near, but not touching, the collective cheek of the USCG, NOAA, US gov and BP.
When of course what should happen is
LINE UP THE ELECTRIC CHAIRS AND PULL . THE . SWITCHES .
*******
Wave upon wave… 30 June 2010
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Lie Down Fall Down Dems, Sex / Reproductive Health, The Battle for New Orleans.57 comments
Hurricane Alex delays Gulf oil clean-up efforts
A containment boom is placed along a beach in Elmer’s Island, Louisiana as efforts to clean the beach from effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill arehalted due to bad weather. Hurricane Alex disrupted the BP oil spill clean-up in the Gulf of Mexico as the storm gathered strength and was expected to make landfall.… Read more »
(AFP/Getty Images/Joe Raedle)
hmmm they don’t mention that Elmer’s Island is FEDERALLY protected beach… public land. Or, I should say, previously open to the public.
HOWEVER, after a few days of unfettered access following the explosion of Deep Water Horizon, a truck from the sheriff’s office appeared, parked at the single road turn-off leading to EI, telling media and others, locals too, that if they wanted access they had to go to a BP center and APPLY.
Glory in our freedom. To be serfs.
****
I snagged this directly from a thread at The Oil Drum… a handy comment from someone shut-in today and thus spending some productive time looking at Corexit and its banning in the UK:
[new] k3d59 on June 30, 2010 – 5:58pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Parent subthread | Comments top
I brought you all a present. Have to wait for the weather to improve to go outside, so I spent the day researching previously discussed TOD topics. Ever wonder why Corexit was banned in the UK? Here’s excerpts from the documents of the entity that is responsible for monitoring and approval over there. BTW, note that the Rocky Shore Test used an exposure period of six hours followed by rinsing. That’s not even close to what’s going on in the Gulf. Brits They have a nice way of handling bioremediation products too. EPA could take lessons. All protocols are on the Marine Management site as are the results for each product approved for use in UK.
Oil spill treatment products approved for use in the United Kingdom
All products approved after 1 April 1996 have been required to pass both the Sea/Beach and Rocky Shore Toxicity Tests. Any products coming up for renewal that have only passed the Sea/Beach toxicity test in the past are required, before they can be renewed, to pass the Rocky Shore Test also.
The following products have been removed from the list of approved products because they did not pass the Rocky Shore Test when submitted for renewal:
Chemkleen OSDA JAC (removed from list 21/01/1998)
****Corexit 9527 (removed from list 30/07/1998)
Corexit 9500 (removed from list 30/07/1998)****Sea Test
“This test is based on the premise that if oil treatment products are correctly applied to an oil slick at sea,marine organisms will be exposed to a mixture of oil and product, rather than to a suspension or solution of product alone. The test therefore compares the toxicity of oil dispersed under standard conditions of mechanical agitation, with that of the same amount of oil treated with the product in question under the same conditions of mechanical agitation.
Research has shown that concentrations of oil especially dispersed oil) under slicks reduce rapidly in the first few hours (Cormack, 1977). It was, however, technically difficult and unrealistic in a routine andreproducible laboratory test to reproduce this phenomenon. Therefore, it was decided to base the test on the exposure of a marine organism to a fixed concentration for a fixed period.”Rocky Shore Toxicity Test
“The intertidal zone is of great value both in amenity and ecological terms. Toxic effects of beached oil treatment(dispersant spraying etc.) are likely to have only limited impact on commercial fisheries e.g. cockles etc., on sandy beaches and will be relatively benign on dynamic pebble beaches where there is good drainage and a relatively impoverished species community. Therefore,for these environments (i.e. sandy/pebble amenity beaches) it is assumed that a product passing the Sea Test will be of an acceptably low risk. However, the death of grazing organisms (e.g. winkles and limpets)that inhabit rocky shores can lead to a much more significant deleterious ecological change due to extensive uncontrolled growth of seaweed. Consequently a toxicity test was developed using a typical intertidal grazing organism, the common limpet (Patella vulgata L.).
“…When products are used to clean oil from beaches,animals are exposed to very different conditions to that experienced at sea. Both oiled and unoiled animals may be exposed to neat product and left exposed until they are washed by the next incoming tide or the use of water hoses. The Rocky Shore toxicity test for all dispersants and bioremediation agents has therefore been based on these exposure conditions…
“Preliminary tests in the laboratory showed that the mortality of limpets exposed to oil is high and the detection of a toxic effect due to the product over and above that of the oil would be difficult and less accurate than determination of the effect of the product alone. Additionally, a product is likely to be applied over wide areas of shore and the evaluation of a particular product should also take into account the effect of the product on those parts which are un-oiled as well as those which are oiled. Therefore, the test finally adopted was designed to assess the effect of application of the product on un-oiled limpets. The amounts of product applied to the test organism were based on the density of application likely to be encountered in practice. Similarly, the test sought to simulate the initial exposure to a product for an ***average period of 6 h followed by successive tidal rinsing***. In order to compensate for seasonal variations in the susceptibility of the test species, the effects of a standard oil alone were also assessed…”
Apparently tar balls — from whatever source — have hit Texas beaches… and at today’s presser Admiral Allen somehow already knows it is seepage from the Keys.
Ex-ray eyes! Mind reading! He tele-ported! Communication with the shell fish down in the Keys…! A great big sea shell called him up!! E-mailed him! One of the Hemingway cats told him! The coral soon to be under threat told him!
He just knows.
*****
THIS via the People mag for politics… gave me a laugh. Calling him on his hypocrisy.
Gay soldiers subpoena Obama
The gay soldiers arrested outside the White House protesting “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will annouce today that they’re demanding that President Obama testify in their trial on minor civil disobedience charges.
Their novel argument: Obama himself called on gay rights advocates to pressure him, so they were just following orders.“Don’t Ask” has energized gay rights activists frustrated with the White House’s deliberate pace, even as Democratic leaders are frustrated with continued protests, as repeal is on track for next year.
The subpoena in the defense of Lieutenant Dan Choi and Captain James Pietrangelo’s arrest [….]
****
President Obama, accompanied by Mayor John Dickert, tries a pecan kringle during an unscheduled stop at O and H Bakery in Racine, Wis., Wednesday, June 30. [AP Photo/Charles Dharapak]
Oh just have a kringle and shut up. Be happy…
Could it possibly look angrier? 29 June 2010
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, The Battle for New Orleans.74 comments
Oil clouds the surface of Barataria Bay near Port Sulpher, Louisiana [Sean Gardner/Getty Images]
Or more like a bloom of cancer?
I don’t know that anyone has the heart for it… but I left the gallery of 20 photos at the Guardian at a section of several images of Barataria Bay and Bay Jimmy in Louisiana… and they are so very sad.
The battle, what there was of it, was lost. Has been lost. Is being lost…
I had almost not opened the gallery, feeling it might be national propaganda for BP, even at a quasi left media resource…
At the same time I am looking at the pictures of bits of soaked boom and masses of oil, deep thick sludge and tiny hoses, etc… film of Haley Barbour is on my TV, saying he has to be ”honest” (!) there is not enough boom, nor skimmers, for all that is “headed north”.
Of course, “north” is where he been, for weeks. Whether Dallas, DC, Central Park (yes, with the missus), other points N.. at R fundraisers for his supposed run for pretzel.
I say he is just dropping in on the national bag men.
Biden and Mabus, the former MS gov who is Ob’s part time Czar for the oil, are on the coast today. Not that it matters much, full or part-time, I read yesterday Durbin wants Ob to appoint a WH Czar for the Chinese carp that are invading the Great Lakes.
More toadies. With titles. And collection plates.
Line them all up, with Haley, and punch their lights out.
*************************
Marisacat 
