Here Be Monsters...

Imagine YOU are Anonymous

2011-12-23T06:22:00.000-08:00

Imagine We Are Anonymous.

Imagine there is no heaven. It's easy, if you try. No hell below us. Above us, only sky.
Imagine all the People, living life in peace? You may say I'm a dreamer.
But,
I'm not the only one.
John Lennon

Turkey Point - bidda boing! bidda BANG.

2011-08-20T06:54:00.000-07:00

How good are you with NUCLEAR energy to power your world? Frankly, I consider it all insanity! How' long is the shelf life? You've got to kidding me... where has the leadership of this and so many countries lost their moral imperative for the people they are working for? And here is a local buzz:

This from Patel on the Sun Sentinel:

Florida Power & Light employees heard a "loud bang" Thursday at the utility's Turkey Point nuclear plant 24 miles south of Miami when a large valve carrying water unexpectedly closed, turning off a system that cools equipment in one of the reactors, according to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission report on the incident. Regulator have not yet determined the safety significance.
FPL employees followed their procedures, immediately opening one of two backup valves to fix the issue within 20 minutes, said FPL Spokesman Mike Waldron.
"This situation did not impact our ability to operate safely," he wrote in an email. "The noise was caused by the two-feet wide valve closing."
On Tuesday, a three-person NRC team began a special inspection of the plant because the cooling system “failure resulted in the loss of a safety system," the agency wrote in a statement.
The inspection will include reviewing maintenance and testing performed on the valve. The NRC report noted that FPL did not have to shut down the reactor in this case, as nuclear operators often do to be on the safe side when problems arise.
NRC Spokesman Joey Ledford said the system cools "important safety systems, including reactor cooling system pumps."
"It is a concern when the component cooling water system is not working," Ledford said. "We are very closely observing the repair efforts and we’re looking into this in depth to see if there's a need for regulatory action."

Macondo well fractured and leaking.

2011-08-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

I'm reposting from LA lawyer Stuart Smith's blog:

No, this isn’t a post from last year. Oil from the Macondo Well site is fouling the Gulf anew – and BP is scrambling to contain both the crude and the PR nightmare that waits in the wings. Reliable sources tell us that BP has hired 40 boats from Venice to Grand Isle to lay boom around the Deepwater Horizon site – located just 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The fleet rushed to the scene late last week and worked through the weekend to contain what was becoming a massive slick at the site of the Macondo wellhead, which was officially “killed” back in September 2010.
The truly frightening part of this development, as reported in a previous post (see below), is the oil may be coming from cracks and fissures in the seafloor caused by the work BP did during its failed attempts to cap the runaway Macondo Well – and that type of leakage can’t be stopped, ever.
Catch up on how this could possibly be happening – again – by reading or re-reading my July 25 post below. Stay tuned as we will be all over this story as it continues to develop.
Is BP’s Macondo Well Site Still Leaking? Fresh Oil on the Gulf Raises Concerns and Haunting Memories
Fresh oil is surfacing all over the northern quadrant of the Gulf of Mexico. Reports of slicks that meander for miles and huge expanses of oil sheen that look like phantom islands are becoming common, again. Fresh oil, only slightly weathered, is washing ashore in areas hit hardest by last year’s massive spill, like Breton Island, Ship Island, the Chandeleurs and northern Barataria Bay. BP has reactivated its Vessels of Opportunity (VoO) program to handle cleanup. It’s a sickeningly familiar scene that has fishermen, researchers and public officials searching for answers, as haunting memories of last year’s calamity come roaring back.
The fifty-thousand-dollar question, of course, is where is all the new oil coming from?
One theory: The Macondo Well site, located just 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, is still leaking untold amounts of oil into the Gulf. Some argue that the casing on the capped well itself is leaking. Others believe oil is seeping through cracks and fissures in the seafloor caused by months of high-impact work on the site, including a range of recovery activities (some disclosed, some not) as well as the abortive “top kill” effort.
In January 2011, a prominent “geohazards specialist” wrote an urgent letter to two members of Congress – U.S. Reps. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and John Shimkus, chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and Economy – suggesting that the Macondo site is leaking oil like a sieve. Here’s an excerpt from that letter (see it in its entirety at link below):
There is no question that the oil seepages, gas columns, fissures and blowout craters in the seafloor around the Macondo wellhead… have been the direct result of indiscriminate drilling, grouting, injection of dispersant and other undisclosed recover activities. As the rogue well had not been successfully cemented and plugged at the base of the well by the relief wells, unknown quantities of hydrocarbons are still leaking out from the reservoir at high pressure and are seeping through multiple fault lines to the seabed. It is not possible to cap this oil leakage.
BK Lim, the letter’s author, has more than 30 years of experience working inside the oil and gas industry for companies like Shell, Petronas and Pearl Oil.
More from Mr. Lim’s letter:
The continuing hydrocarbon seepage would have long term, irreversible and potentially dire consequences in the GOM (Gulf of Mexico)…
The letter is dated Jan. 14, 2011 – and we’ve been seeing more and more evidence that the scenario Mr. Lim describes is indeed taking place deep below the Gulf’s surface.
For example, on March 28, 2011, Paul Orr and his team from the Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper – an organization I’ve worked with frequently over the course of the last year – conducted a 50-mile boat patrol and sampling tour of Breton Sound, which lies just off the southeast coast of Louisiana. The excursion was prompted by multiple, increasingly frantic, reports of oil in the area by fishermen and others, including On Wings of Care pilot Bonny Schumaker, who has dozens of Gulf flyovers under her belt.
Mr. Orr took a sample from the southern end of Breton Island National Park – and sure enough, lab-certified tests results established a fingerprint match to BP’s Macondo Well (see link to my previous post and test results below).
The most alarming part of the finding was not simply that the Breton Island sample had BP’s fingerprint on it, but that the test results were nearly identical to those from the fresh oil seen in the early days of the BP spill – instead of the heavily weathered and degraded oil we’ve come to expect in recent weeks and months.
Those test results seem to disprove the other theory surrounding this spate of recent “fresh oil” reports. That is: All the oil BP strategically sunk to the seafloor with nearly 2 million gallons of toxic dispersant is beginning to break free and rise to the surface en masse, and in turn, blacken the coastline with fresh oil. According to civil engineer and petroleum expert, Marco Kaltofen, oil that has been lying on the seafloor for several months would be much significantly more weathered than the fresh oil we’re seeing more and more of.
As you’ll notice from the histograms, the Breton Island sample mirrors the submerged oil sampled from Pensacola Bay on Nov. 5, 2010 (see link to original post with histograms below) and a sample taken from Panama City Beach on July 14, 2010. You don’t have to be a marine biologist to see that this is the same oil with nearly identical weathering.
So we had fresh oil with BP’s signature on it coming ashore in March – more than eight months after the Macondo Well was capped. And since then, members of my team and other researchers have reported fresh oil, of the “only slightly weathered” variety from Grand Isle to Pensacola. One charter boat fishing captain, who frequents the waters around Louisiana’s barrier islands, is describing the current, hauntingly familiar situation on the Gulf as the “second wave” of the BP disaster.
Read my entire July 25 post (with referenced documents) here: http://www.stuarthsmith.com/is-bps-macondo-well-site-still-leaking-fresh-oil-on-the-gulf-raises-concerns-and-haunting-memories

Lets call it OBAMAVILLE.

2011-07-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

Lake Eola Park Orlando: FOOD NOT BOMBS is a group dedicated to bringing wholesome food to the homeless. We have plenty of them. They are out on the streets and living in our parks. On the fringes of generosity and their own sanity, fathers and mothers are staying close to public parks because they are safer than back alley's in deserted parts of town... the parks are a cleaner life that they might hold on to. They panhandle or they scavenge or they hit the shelters not closed because of budgetary cuts by the heartless corporate hack Republican agenda sweeping through the state. But the homeless numbers are building in Florida, the only growth pattern Gov. Rick Scott's office seems bent on sustaining. The Poor pay taxes, everyday. They spend whatever comes into their hands, each day to survive and in this continuing disaster capitalism agenda of corporate plutocracy their expenditures are significant to the barely maintainable economic stability in the state.

[In defiance of a public ordinance that bans 'large group feedings,' defined as gatherings that attract and feed more then 25 people, volunteers with "Foods Not Bombs" are being arrested in Orlando, and there are appears to be no compromise in sight which will satisfy both city officials and event organizers.

The group's name and mantra "Food Not Bombs" may sound innocent enough, but not to city of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who has referred to the volunteers as 'food terrorists.' Dyer said organizers knowingly violate the law by providing free vegan and vegetarian meals to the hungry, within the city limits of Orlando. The organization operates in 1,000 cities, in over 60 countries feeding starving people.

"Food Not Bombs' was started by eight friends in the Boston, Massachusetts, area in 1980 to protest the Seabrooke Nuclear station in nearby New Hampshire. Through a massive food gathering network that arranges food collection from grocery stores, bakeries, and markets, the mission of the organization is "to motivate the public to focus their resources on solving problems like hunger, homelessness and poverty while seeking an end to war and the destruction of the environment." The group hopes that their example of how individuals can work together to provide essential needs like food, without the support of state, city and county officials, will motivate others to join in the grass-roots effort to affect change in the lives of those who need help with basic necessities, including housing, eduction, and heath-care.

The twice-weekly group-feedings in Lake Eola Park attract a variety of hungry people to the free meal, and this same element is what city officials are attempting to move out of public sight. Official's told the Sun Sentinel that events that encourage gathering of "undesirable types to public parks, encourages littering and repels free-spending tourists from downtown — and downtown businesses." The city has offered an alternative solution that is considered unacceptable by the leaders of "Food Not Bombs." They have suggested the group move to a location set up by the city for feeding the homeless.

Food Not Bombs said the location is no more then a caged area, under a highway bridge, that isn't suitable for animals, much less the feeding of dozens of needy people. At the most recent arrests, "volunteers stood behind a makeshift table, offering corn on the cob, pasta, rice, beans and watermelon to those in need," including many children. After more then 25 people were served city police officers moved in to arrest six more activists accused of violating the controversial ordinance, according to a report by the Orlando Sentinel. As hungry children were shoo'ed away, police led the peaceful volunteers to transport vehicle to be taken to the local jail and processed for their crime. Video of the arrests show that the volunteers are offering no resistance to the police officers, who are following instructions that have come down from the top. The homeless, some who are left behind without receiving the much needed daily meal, along with supporters and spectators could be heard chanting "food is a right, not a privilege" and "public parks, for public needs." The group had presented their argument to the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, which determined that "city rules regulating how often large groups of people can be fed in a park do not violate the Constitution" The twenty-one "Food Not Bombs" members who have been arrested in the past two weeks, face a $500 fine, 60 days in jail, or both for their criminal behaviour. Support for their efforts continue to build on the group's Facebook page, where information on an upcoming rally to protest the arrests is being posted. The Press Democrat reports the Food Not Bombs leaders "have filed for an injunction against the city in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, which is presided over by Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr" Judge Perry has recently become nationally known as "the no-nonsense judge in the Casey Anthony murder trial." Orlando "Food Not Bombs" volunteers say they will not give up on their efforts to feed the homeless. They vowed to continue the group feedings, despite the continued threat of arrest to "bring attention to what they consider an unjust law."

Peter Fonda is a good lookin' sonvabitch!

2011-05-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

Peter Fonda has my complete attention. He's in Cannes, France touting his new film collaboration, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill documentary The Big Fix.

“I sent an email to President Obama saying, ‘You are a fucking traitor,’ using those words,” said Fonda according to the Telegraph during a Cannes press conference for the political doc, which Fonda appears in and executive produced. “‘You’re a traitor, you allowed foreign boots on our soil telling our military — in this case the Coast Guard — what they can and could not do, and telling us, the citizens of the United States, what we could or could not do.’” The “foreign boots” in question refer to representatives from BP.
Is it too early to coin the phrase “pulling a von Trier?” Because Peter Fonda added even more outspokenness to the controversy-laden Cannes Film Festival this week, calling President Barack Obama out during at Tuesday press conference for his BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill documentary The Big Fix. Not riding so easy anymore, eh Pete? Read Fonda’s expletive-laden accusations after the jump.
“I sent an email to President Obama saying, ‘You are a fucking traitor,’ using those words,” said Fonda according to the Telegraph during a Cannes press conference for the political doc, which Fonda appears in and executive produced. “‘You’re a traitor, you allowed foreign boots on our soil telling our military — in this case the Coast Guard — what they can and could not do, and telling us, the citizens of the United States, what we could or could not do.’” The “foreign boots” in question refer to representatives from BP.
Directed by Rebecca and Josh Tickell, The Big Fix premiered out of competition as the only documentary in the official selection in Cannes and examines the scandal behind the BP oil spill and its impact on people in the region.

From Deadline’s Cannes report:

Unfortunately the Tickells’ half-baked movie never rises to the occasion, settling in to be an overly slanted agitprop that is bleak and hopelessly depressing. The directors have chosen interview subjects who offer repetitive theories on how the problems that got us into this mess will never be solved so why bother. The only solution and positive suggestion the filmmakers come up with is for people to rise up, as in Egypt and Wisconsin (there’s lots of footage), to take to the streets against the oil companies . *No fucking shit!*

The film also comes out swinging against President Obama, repeatedly stating he is no better than George W. Bush and even implying at one point that his administration and all government is corrupt. It presents the most aggressive attack from the left on Obama yet seen. *Quite right about it too!*

Fonda, meanwhile, had words for BP as well as the president, calling the oil corporation “a bunch of Brits — I thought we kicked them out a long time ago. They tried to get back in in 1812, but they didn’t make it.”

Well fuckin' A sure it's depressing! Christ, do these asshatt critics understand what IS going on in the Gulf of Mexico and on the shorelines?

Rick Scott: lets boot this bastard as fast as we can!

2011-05-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

Any buyer's remorse ebbing in on this asshatt? There is no way in the world to describe what Gov. Rick Scott destroying in the state of FLA. He's more interested in collecting back door profits through his wife for the mandatory drug testing he's subjecting the states' failing economy to and now he's after the school money of Lotto to bring into his sticky, filthy hands. But wait! MORE RETHUG AGENDA:

{Despite the governor's campaign promise to focus on job creation, Florida Governor Rick Scott and the Florida legislature have focused their attention on other matters.

In the legislative session that ended Saturday, lawmakers passed no job creation bills for Scott to sign. But they did pass five bills restricting abortion rights and a state budget that cuts nearly 4,500 public sector jobs.

The five bills, which Scott is expected to sign, force women to undergo ultrasounds prior to having an abortion, prohibit private insurance coverage of abortion care in the new state health-insurance exchange, require young women to prove the medical necessity of their abortions before a judge in order to bypass parental permission, establish state-sanctioned license plates that funnel money to anti-choice "crisis pregnancy centers" and changes the state constitution to prohibit the government funding of abortion.} - read @ HuffPo

More: "The number of lobbying firms that reported earning a least a half-a-million dollars in the first quarter of 2011 rose from seven to 11. Among those firms that reported earning money was The Rubin Group, the firm led by long-time lobbyist William Rubin. Rubin is a friend of Gov. Rick Scott."
- "Gov. Rick Scott signs sweeping property insurance changes into law".
"With a sweeping property insurance reform bill awaiting Gov. Rick Scott's signature, supporters and opponents of the proposal continue to battle." "Sides battle over Florida insurance bill as it awaits Gov. Rick Scott". See also "Insurance Reform Post-Session Battle Begins".
- The hubris runs deep in Tally: "people who have talked to the governor about the 2012 Republican field say Scott has a presidential bid lurking in the back of his mind." "Rick Scott for president?".

The list expands longer than my nerves will endure. These are just some of the highlights. Talking about these issues even at the new Publix down the street is a must! We must stand up to this Republican agenda and push it back to the grot hole is spawned out of... Corporation Earth! And it's come high time to remember that not all of the corporate agenda movers are Republican. Who is your Representative standing with? And who do they champion? Humanity? The environment? Revival and recovery of the economy through the proper regulation? It bears looking at the new Chairperson / Head of the Democratic Party too! Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is following a party line... is it the party line you feel well represented by? Take a look at the issues and where Rep. W-S is standing on issues. Blind loyalty to President Obama is not what I consider standing up for my best Floridian interests... the President told folks to go swimming in the Gulf! Children who did are being hospitalized. Big oil will drilling off your shores with Rep. Wasserman-Schultz's handy approval! Take a hard look at what politicians are supporting!

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Here-Be-Monsters---Liberal-Radio-News--Living---Dying-in-Gulf-Poison.html?soid=1101377850277&aid=ZCe9eA1nbbs

2011-05-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Here-Be-Monsters---Liberal-Radio-News--Living---Dying-in-Gulf-Poison.html?soid=1101377850277&aid=ZCe9eA1nbbs

Essene Earth Blessing

2011-04-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

Lois Frankel, Rick Scott & the downbound GOP train.

2011-04-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

Lois Frankel was the controversial mayor of West Palm Beach for two consecutive terms of office. I like what she did to downtown. I realize there are quibbles about how she accomplished it... yet, I have to say, it takes a strong set of ovaries to accomplish any motion in today's version of city, state, nation building. I double dog dare ya to take issue with that statement. It's a fact, jack. So, out of a job and looking into the next thing, Ms. Frankel has announced:

I'm all for removing Alan West from any public office. I tend not to look at candidates, any longer, as Democratic or Republican... as mom used to say.... I'm looking for the right person, period! So, when she opens her office for the election... I'll be over to see what's up. I highly recommend it to all.

Ok, so onward but not necessarily upwards, in fact the judge says it's all sliding backwards! A ruling on new Rethug Gov Rick Scott:

{The federal judge presiding over a contentious Everglades restoration lawsuit took a swipe at Gov. Rick Scott's water quality policy Tuesday and announced his intention to strip to Florida environmental regulators of their role in enforcing the Clean Water Act and return those powers to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold issued a harsh, 117-page ruling to clarify the scathing 48-page ruling he issued in April 2010, in which he accused the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Florida Department of Environmental Protection and South Florida Water Management District of failing to enforce the Clean Water Act.

Gold's ruling was the latest action in a 2004 lawsuit filed by the Miccosukee Indians, who live in the Everglades, and the non-profit Friends of the Everglades, Both are pressing the state and federal governments to enforce the law and move ahead with the restoration.

The case is on appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. However, Gold said if the appeals court sends the case back to his court, he will strip the state DEP of its authority to issue permits under the Clean Water Act and turn over those responsibilities in Florida to the federal environmental agency. Normally, the EPA delegates enforcement to the state agency.} - Palm Beach Post read it

The judge has a point, Repulitards have peopled the agency in the last few years and they have found no great value in protecting the water tables, land rights or recovery of the Everglades. A corporate cuckhold is what remains. Like the other Rethug Gov's elected in 2010, Scott, in January, suspended all rule-making by state agencies, would likely hamper the state environmental agency's ability to create rules to enforce water quality standards. His recent instructions to the DEP to petition the EPA to rescind its limits on nutrients in Florida waters - basically limits on how much phosphorus, mostly from farm runoff, is allowed in Florida waters.

Gold noted an executive order signed by Scott in January, which suspends all rule-making by state agencies, would likely hamper the state environmental agency's ability to create rules to enforce water quality standards.

Also troubling is a recent proposal to cut $100 million from the district's budget and the retirement of Carol Wehle, the district's executive director, and Peter Silva, a top EPA water administrator, Gold wrote. "Simply stated, the entire situation is rapidly sliding backward."

The judge's vow to severely cut the DEP's power pleased environmentalists.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So there you go.

TODAY I MOURN.

2011-04-20T08:13:00.001-07:00

As this mile marker comes into view: 1 yr later, THE GULF OIL SPILL

2011-04-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

Please read the following commentary from my post over on RoundTree7. It's about the Gulf Oil Spill. It was posted by Patricia R Springstead RN who also posts on Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog.

Sent to Congress also. Like they give a shit.
TO: The Surgeon General and all Affiliates or To you Assholes who do not Give a Fuck
FROM: Trisha Springstead, RN
DATE: April 13, 2011:
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
Image by lumis via FlickrI am a registered nurse licensed in Florida. I trained in medicine at Loma Linda University, UCSB, and Riverside State College. I have over 36 years experience in the medical field in a myriad of specialties and have been clinical educator and administrator for two HMA Hospitals. My husband Richard W. Springstead is an MD and has seen a few of these patients with me. He is an orthopaedic Surgeon with 35 years and a Graduated from Emory College of Medicine. He has listened to me talk to these patients and is willing to help but in order to start up a clinic we need assistance for these patients. Richard and I both have taken the Certification Courses from Metametrix Clinical Labs in Atlanta, Georgia.
Since the beginning of the Deepwater Horizon oil blowout disaster I have been working with patients from the Gulf States that are demonstrating a wide variety of serious symptoms of toxic chemical exposure and poisoning. I currently have over 200 families reporting to me. These families are terribly ill. They have shortness of breath, horrific skin lesions, neurological impairments, and short term memory loss. Their immune systems have been highly compromised, they are bleeding from every orifice, bruising is occurring spontaneously, their lung capacities are declining and their hearts are enlarging. Most are financially so broke that they can not even begin to afford the necessary testing for VOC’s or PAHs, let alone treatment. This truly is a public health crisis that urgently needs to be addressed.
Metametrix Clinical Laboratory is the lab of choice for these people and we are begging for doctors and funding to be able to help these people. Many of them are going to
die quickly, and are dying from undiagnosed poisoning. I assume because there is no insurance coding for “chemical poisoning,” that this is one of the key reasons they are being misdiagnosed with the flu, or mycoplasmic pneumonia, delusional, due to short term memory loss and confusion from elevated hexane levels, and Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon levels (from exposure to water, air and the vicarious spraying of Corexit.) Without a defined insurance codes, the doctors can not bill the insurance companies and be reimbursed for their work.
From the blood test results we have seen, the levels of Hexane in bloods samples is creeping up to the 95th percentiles in the population I’ve been seeing, indicating that the air quality in this area is contributing to the demise of the health of the local population. One of our dearest friends and friends, Lisa Nelson, was a lovely young woman in her 30’s. She died two weeks ago. All indications are that it was as a direct result of exposure to Corexit on the beach last September. I personally know of approx 20 other people who have died or whose deaths are imminent. These people are scared, have families and children who are also becoming ill as the air becomes warmer.
A large number of the people I am seeing were oil cleanup response workers for the Deepwater Horizon and they are now very ill. Per my observations, they are consistently being misdiagnosed by ERs, medical clinics and hospitals. In addition to the lack of the reimbursement insurance coding issue, few doctors and others in the medical profession are educated in Environmental Medicine and this is exacerbating the situation.
From numerous first-hand reports I have received, the spraying of the toxic chemical dispersant called Corexit goes on to this day on the beaches and open waters. This is completely unacceptable and must be stopped. I have been told by about over 1OO of the patients reporting to me, that they witnessed Corexit (being sprayed from a boat, a plane and I have my own first-hand experience of watching planes spraying at night in Applachacola and Panama City.
I would be happy to testify to the above statements and can provide more detailed information, if it is needed (within the legal framework of patient confidentiality laws).
Sincerely,
Trisha Springstead, RN MS

We approach the one year point ... what of the GULF OF MEXICO?

2011-04-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

Listen to internet radio with Here Be Monsters on Blog Talk Radio

What Cherri Foytlin says should move you to activism! The Atlantic and the Pacific, Father and Mother Ocean are being murdered by Corporate Earth.

The above BTR "Here Be Monsters" ALL LIBERAL TALK RADIO discusses the state of the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf shoreline states from the perspective of the environmentalist, conservationist - Sierra Club, fishing families, political activists in Gulfport MS. This is two hours of revealing radio that is explaining what Project Gulf Impact is doing their best to bring to the national table with NEWS. The MSM is being purposely steered away from this subject. We can not allow this to happen!

Here is the latest:

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Japan is melting into the sea.

2011-03-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

This information, that Fukushima is 10 million times more radiated, is now being disavowed by Japan. I will keep writing this: I think we are being lied to! On the 26th, the fist signs of radioactive traces were found in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Thursday, China's nuclear authorities said on Saturday.An infinitesimal amount of radioactive iodine-131 was detected in the atmosphere in northeast Heilongjiang Province. After conducting tests, China's National Nuclear Emergency Coordination Committee (CNNECC) confirmed on Saturday that the radioactive material was from the Fukushima plant.

In an extraordinarily similar or even corporate SOP fashion, just as after the first two weeks of the Gulf of Mexico BP oil spill began to degrade in the national conscious, so too, Fukushima and Japan fades into a backdrop of war, politics and the urgency of money over the urgency of care for the Japanese people and Earth Mother. Shame. Shame. Shame. Japan is melting out of our consciousness and into the sea; quite literally.

On March 19, CNN reported that spinach and milk (for babies) 65 miles away from the melting reactors were found to be contaminated. On March 21, the Japanese plant caught fire and workers had to be evacuated since the grayish smoke is full of plutonium, which they now admit using in their reactors. And “one particle of airborne plutonium can cause cancer.” March 24, The tap water of Tokeo, population 12.9 million, is now unsafe for pregnant women, babies and children. March 25, According to an international scientific group monitoring radiation around the world, the Fukushima reactors are emitting nuclear toxins at levels approaching those seen in the “aftermath” of Chernobyl. Chernobyl had 180 tonnes of nuclear fuel on site. Fukushima has 1700 tonnes of nuclear fuel on site. The Chernobyl reactor spewed out at least eight tons of radioactive poison, about 200 times more radioactivity than was released at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By some estimates, its fallout surpassed the total released by all nuclear weapons tests up until April 19966. www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18223691.html . (At this rate, war mongers peopling our governments could point to nuclear holocaust as more humane, the every fucking carrion profiteering bastards!)

Representing in Des Moines this weekend, a line up of hate, fear, war mongery crouched in "national economic remedies / policies" and consumptive stupidity brayed forth in Tea Baggery and Rethugery. The real problems of world gone mad and the fate of the national community / common citizen was ignored in rehtoric and vitriol among some scrappy promises to make your take home pay larger through the destruction of Unions and to rid you of the immigrants that mean to ruin the "American way". Xenophobia is the hook with those who are called in this direction ... don't cha think? Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour delivered an all-out focus on economic policy and a point-by-point attack on the policies of the Obama administration. In his southern drawl, he lashed at the Democratic administration for growing government at the expense of the private sector. * Funny, it looks like Obama has been doing very very well by corporate America! * U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota issued a populist call for conservatives to rise up in 2012 and reverse Obama’s economic and social policies. “Don’t look to Steve King,” Bachmann said, referring to the Iowa congressman and House ally who hosted the daylong forum. “The preservation of our liberty is far too precious to entrust to any mere politician.” The forum was held by Rep. Steve King, the would be McCarthy of the new age. And what of the Obama policies for energy resources? "Clean" coal mining (after some of the worst coal mining disasters in a century taking place in this administration), oil drilling (with the BP fiasco still smoldering over 36 permits were issued in the last month to begin drilling anew in our dying Gulf of Mexico; the first was issued to BP! This would be the audacity of being a corporate hack, for the President.), natural gas mining ala fracking... the very dangerous and polluting process preferred by corporate mining companies now and (as Obama's heavy contributors would have it) nuclear power reactors! It's not cleaner... it's
fucking insanity~!

Chernobyl Survivor Natalia Manzurova, a nuclear plant engineer, one of the few survivors of the 800,000 involved in the cleanup of the 1988 Chernobyl catastrophe. She said, “The first symptom of radiation poisoning is feeling like I had the flu, then high temperatures and shivering. After suffering from a thyroid removal, sky high blood pressure, and epileptic like fits, the doctors called me crazy and wanted to put me in a psychiatric ward, but finally admitted it was from radiation.”
“It’s Nuclear Slavery.”
That is why she advised the Japanese to “Run away as quickly as possible. Don’t wait. Save yourself and don’t rely on government lies. They don’t want you to know the truth and are so powerful that executives aren’t accountable to the cleanup crews, finding ways to strip us all of benefits. It’s nuclear slavery. Because radiation stays in animals’ fur and can’t be cleaned, the 100,000 evacuees cried as they were forced to abandon their pets that all turned into dried-out mummies.”

What are you thinking about? Permaculture? Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that are modeled on the relationships found in natural ecologies. Sustainability? Sustainable development (SD) is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come (sometimes taught as ELF-Environment, Local people, Future). The term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Japan is melting into the sea.

Ides of March...AWAKE THE STATE

2011-03-05T12:22:00.000-08:00

How this world on fire thing going for you?

I think it's pretty fantastic, and I think it's damn dangerous and also a bit of the ancient seer's grand old program... the middle east is heated but it's not anything like anyone ever thought!~ And you'd think that the emblem of such upside down eventualities would open up on the eyes of the rest of the worlds' despots and tyrants... but no, the Republicans are still as deaf, dumb and blind to the People, as ever.

Here in Florida, the sun is still aloft and the ocean breezes still come ashore... that's about all that is well.

Be Advised Floridians:

Awake The State is scheduled for March 8th in several communities. Please go to the website to become a part of the solution to Republican-ism in the Sunshine State! While even NPR has advertised this event as only Tallahassee began as a Tea Party event, this info is all false. The event is multi-community invested and the Koch Bros... are paying for bussed in Teabaggers to disrupt the core event. Awake The State is a series of local rallies taking place throughout Florida on March 8th opposing budget cuts Floridians simply can't afford. These budget cuts are the first steps in privatization of government jobs / programs. More graft for our corporate whoring Governor. Ya folla?

Sen. Marco Rubio is planning to try to insert a measure in the forthcoming budget resolution that would bar the EPA from implementing water pollution rules that business groups in Florida oppose. The move, certain to draw criticism from environmentalists, mirrors an effort by U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta. The rules are the product of contentious legal battle in Florida in which the EPA agreed to set new limits on how much nutrient pollution is allowed into waterways. Critics say the regulations will be too costly. Even Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson has worked to get the EPA to hold off. According to David Guest of Earthjustice, the law firm that successfully pursued the lawsuit against the EPA, congressional action cannot undo the new pollution rules.

Since the rules are already in place "that means people have to comply with it," he said. To argue otherwise "is like saying the Clean Water Act doesn't apply south of the Georgia line." (read all)

Of course Mr. Rubio has the backing of that fellow in Tallahassee who claims now to BE THE LAW... Gov. Scott, still the fellow is not as bold as Walker, huh? (A small mercy for Floridians).

From FL Daily Kos: The story of how Rethug Gov. Scott is trying to shut down the state wide crack down on "pill mills". Could it be his nefarious connections to drug dealing through the back door of his last job? The one he was indicted for and paid the largest fine to Medicade in history for ?

New to this story? In short, bogus "doctors" practicing out of "pain clinics" throughout the state of Florida prescribe more powerful addictive prescription meds than the other 49 states combined, contributing to a skyrocketing rate of overdose within the state, and a flood of illegally-obtained drugs like OxyContin, Percoset, Vicodin, etc, up the "flamingo express" to other states up and down the Eastern seaboard, with devasting consequences particularly in Appalachian regions of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

If it weren't for all of the other instances of Republican overreach in states like Wisconsin and Ohio, along with Scott's own headline-grabbing rejection of federal high-speed rail dollars, I believe this story would otherwise be getting more attention in the national media. (read more)

Get on out there and AWAKE THE STATE. We are want to show our support for a nation wide struggle against the corporate whoring of politicians (most Republican - but not all!) along side the rest of our ken:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

LETS GET OUT AND GET GOING~!

The lie of political COMPROMISE.

2011-01-23T09:31:00.000-08:00

Really… the Bush Tax Cuts? Did you buy into that? If you did, pull your head out of your ass!

More deregulation is on the White House state of mind. While HCR is on repeal legally in six states (including FL), growing the economy through the old GOP remedy in planet destroying deregulation of such “energy independence making” industries as oil drilling, coal mining and natural gas fracking processes are on the re-election agenda for this right of center President. His ‘grassroots’ campaign to be elected was one of the most brilliant political tent shows’ in modern history… all of his Yes We Can’s were merely a means to an end to herd those drained and dispossessed by the Bush-Cheney catastrophe into the voting booth again while youth genuinely clung to the promises of Hope and Change. Tune into the Sunday morning rhetoric of Joe Lieberman to understand the completeness of betrayal to the original “grassroots” contingency who elected Obama to the White House and then drearily sat out the last election. Your Social Security is on the table… and ‘blue dogs’ (you know, the ones with their collective head up their ass?) who claim to be progressive, pooh poohing the notion that Obama won’t give up Social Security any more than he would Medicaid need to take a long look… Obama gave up Medicaid / Medicare with the gush of insular corporate medical insurance industry profits to be had through the HCR bill. [The truth on that is that is whether it is repealed or put into effect, HCR bill on either side makes huge money for medical insurance companies and pharma industry. Take a peek at the rising insurance rates!] The GOP move to “repeal” HCR is a political saber rattling exercise to keep a ‘base’ of ignorant, white, mainly Christian racist trash from screaming that the Rethugs aren’t doing enough to get Obama out of the White House. Tea Party or no, the nickels and dimes from those poor, dwindling middle class fear mongers account for 35% of GOP platform election funds. Something lacking since the tenure of Michael Steele. Wonder why? Keep in mind, too, that this is first time that Obama has had respectable "poll" numbers across the board with both Republicans and Democrats in collective response to his speech in Tucson. As numbers go, this is a fluke… one the President who wants to be re-elected is anxious to keep trending. If anyone thinks that these numbers have anything to do with ‘compromise’ among the Republicans… the results will wilt quick enough to genuinely reflect what People are worried about: true leadership… for instance __ loosing their homes, seeing the 'new homeless' with their children on the streets of large and small towns or cities....farms failing from crop manipulations for over 60 years! Have you watched the rising prices of groceries? It's not the fuel costs as it is the lost resources and the gov fix is Monsanto. The Gulf of Mexico has lost vitality in over 76% of bathos and that has shifted the patterns of the Gulf Stream thereby shifting weather patterns thereby creating greater need for fuel in western EU thereby... do you see where I'm going here? It's not just Faux News lying to you.... Obama is lying to you. Congress, those who know, those who suspect, those who are complicit, they are lying to us and to the world. No, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I've just employed common sense as I've watched the state of the world. Fuck the State of the Union. The globe is screaming HELP.

Can I get a YES WE CAN?

The Congressional argument that JOBS JOBS JOBS are the way to win the nation… the President appoints the ex CEO of GE, a corporate hack whose reputation for centralizing and perfecting the outsourcing of jobs to third world industrial profit making destinations defies belief.

Is America fucking stupid?

Not stupid actually; afraid.

AFRAID, and all trained up to be! Corporate media disallows the truth; it uses information on a 24/7 cycle to push an agenda of consumerism, conformity to one flavor or another that is subsidized by them and to hear exactly what they want to be heard. To keep the numbers fluctuating and people against one another. I point to the non conforming integrity for truth represented by Keith Olbermann and his exit the very instant GE succumbed to Comcast. Rachel Maddow has been blue dogging for the White House for the last three months. One hopes that this is just a passing dalliance?

Take a look around. The planet Earth is in a state of decomposition. The natural elements, the voice of the planet, are screaming at us! Still, corporate profiteering takes precedence over any other consideration, most especially human or animal life. That’s the cost of Judeo-Christian-Islamic monotheist “belief” structures… placing the significance of the Self into an outside ‘power’, a one eyed sky goblin who condemns and roasts’ your everlasting soul with this resolute war leadership mentality. This kind of sociology … crowd control has been working well for the upper tier of profiting western society … a small pack of alpha personalities, in an often persterpies hierarchy for all of 'published' history.

YES WE CAN

-Listen to WikiLeaks and shift the population / general knowledge.

-Search out credible media in social networks, linked blogs & rebuke mainstream lies.

-Develop our conversations... social networks provide us with the tools for gathering and forming or finding like minded groups to share resources and invite demonstration: boycotting

protest

email campaigns to leadership.

-Support peaceful dissent.

-Reach out across borders!

-Take whatever environmental action you are capable of.

-Stand up for your ideals and say what you think, who you support and why, peacefully.

Instead of just pounding out keys and bitching about how it's going or not, taking some responsibility by taking what actions we might according to our own specific ethics and values is called for.

There is hope and there is change.

It just hasn't been where we expected it.

And that can be an adventure... exciting!

We are capable of creating a healthy planet. Or choosing not murder one another.

Imagine that. Right?

They say we did, but we didn't DO Health Care.

2011-01-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

Boca West Community Hospital. My nephew was born there. I've heard from so many what I great hospital it is. State of the art in birthing babies.... but I'll tell you what, they are no state of nothing when it comes to the care of the babies! I visited the Pediatric floor to see Matthew, our Murphy's Matt.

Last week Matt complained of severe pain in his groin... and voila~! appendicitis. So, our Murphy rushed him to Boca West. He was taken from ER into surgery and then....

THEN:

There can not be anything more terrifying in the world than worry over the immediate health of your child. Your little child. How would I cope, I wonder? To have a friend, who is family, going through it certainly brings into perspective what is actually important in life and what can hang fire until real life is attended to.... on New Years Day.

The complaints here are not about the things that a parent can handle... such as washing her child, changing the diapers, changing the bed sheets, rushing out of the hospital to buy what the hospital has always had and now mysteriously doesn't provide, like fucking diapers! or wash clothes! ... it's about the complete and total lack of cooperation on the part of the nursing staff and the hounding this family took from the administrator drone dogging Kim even as she was in tears trying to clean her son without any kind of bath linen because "we don't have that" was the stat response from the nurses. Her son was going through a reaction to penicillin, red faced, hives, blood pressure and pulse rising... the nurses argued with her as to what was going on and when finally they attended to this symptom it was barely in time. The point is, a mother and father with their little boy, a mother and father who have sacrificed to be able to have health insurance for the family, through multiple fiscal emergencies and calamities, are now being hounded for a co-payment, sans any kind of compassion, and then ignored by what nursing staff is on the floor. I noticed not one nurse in the halls or at the desk when arriving or leaving. Unusual is not a well formed description... something is WRONG. And imagine Joe's dismay when he re-entered the Peds ward and the fellow swiping his card referred to it as "the dungeon". To a parent who is worried sick that his son could die from the lack of care in this horrid place. Imagine it! Do you have a precious little boy with sweet eyes and a gentle heart? The awful truth?

AMERICA IS MORE & MORE ONLY OFFERING THIRD WORLD HEALTH CARE.

It's not unusual to have to wait for a nurse or care to come when it's something like an IV or non life threatening situation ... nurses are always busy. Not these nurses. I witnessed them sort of hanging around a bed they were supposed to be moving for twenty minutes.... while the need for their care was being silently demanded by sick children all along the hall. I was astonished. I was crazed with anger. I was heartsick for Kim and Joes and Matt.

When I was confined to a hospital bed in the state hospital... Delray Emergency... because I am a small business owner and can not afford insurance I was on 'state aid' or Medicare. I received very good care. The exception being the 'orderlies' or nurses' assistants.... they were generally immigrants working for a very low wage and they were actually mean. I said MEAN. They would wake patients at 2 am, 5 am, (generally whenever you fell asleep lol) by shoving your bed or kicking it and their temperament was severely nasty. The nurses told me they used to complain about them and the quality of care decline they felt these barely 'trained' individuals were responsible for. But admin threatens their jobs if they bitch. Yep. They were apologetic for the lack of care these folks were distributing through the hospital.

It's about PROFIT.

GREED.

Doctors are rare who care.

Nurses, the primary HEALERS of the health care industry, vacillate in quality of care from one block to the next in hospitals.

My neighbor, works as a teller for Wacovia Bank. On the day before New Years Eve she went in for a root canal procedure. The dentist did something very wrong ... I don't know what she did, but my neighbor still has a face double the size and she looks as though she's been into a bad car wreck. Black and blue eyes, nose, side of her mouth. That's something applied, administered, procedure bad... somefuckingthing WRONG! She's told me that she called her boss to say she didn't know whether she would be able to work tomorrow. She explained her condition. Her boss, in the midst of a holiday season, warned her that not coming in, as they were in a rush for new customers, would result in her dismissal. The truth is that once her boss sees her, no doubt she'll be sent home. Because anyone who sees my neighbor will question the policies of an institution who make anyone in this condition work. I would think.

But look how many Republicans won this last election. Yes, I do think Rethug politicians are responsible for much of this.... they have allowed and enable Corporate America to be the masters of the universe. As Democrats fell asleep at the switch.

Kindness and mercy are a pox upon profit.

My neighbor is an 'everyday' lady. She grew up locally. She went to high school and paid attention. When she could afford to she went to a 'junior' college to learn more. Her job with the bank is big part of her life... in the regard that she considers herself well done for having been able to gain the job and to have the talents she needs to be a bank teller. She was quick to say she understood that the bank needed to make profits and she needed to comply with that. I was aghast! Then I began to see and understand, for my neighbor, the job in the bank is something she's accomplished with her life. I admire her for it. I try to remember that she's not so aware of the corporate overlording ... she considers herself grateful for being given the job in the bank. She, self depreciating. Self sacrificing. Corporate property, almost. Her real love is her son. He's a toddler whose father left as soon as the paychecks from her job stop coming in, after she had her son. I'm careful not to say anything to hurt her feelings because she is genuinely doing her very best ... her very best.

But I come home to a few problems and I am put 'in place' by the challenges of my neighbor and my Murphy. I cry for them. Injust. Wrong.

What was it that Marley said to Scrooge? "Mankind was my business".

We have to make choices that change the forecast of futures by these conditions. Because mankind is our business. Making a healthy home for our children and neighbors is our business.

It's time to evolve.

A new year?

Lets make it a new vision... one where mankind is our common business... lets place our creativity there.

Closing 2010 in FL

2010-12-31T12:47:00.000-08:00

Well my friends.... it's time to say sionarah to 2010. None too soon? Yeah, me too.

The mid term elections were not at all kind to Florida. We have a new Governor who comes to us as the largest fraud indictment and prosecution in the history of Medicare. His proposals are already despair invitation. We gained Marc Rubio for a state Senator. My district has to weather whatever nastiness new Rep. Alan West manages to make happen... every one of these mentions will not just ignore our direst needs for environmental protection and assisting the poor... they have proclaimed their vows to work against any kind of resolution to these blights'. Corporate America won the state of Florida in the mid term elections of 2010 and as far as I can tell, it's the largest hit global climate change re: issues local, took. Consider the healthy new infusion the mega big banks just took with a renewed 'rocket docket' for foreclosures in Tallahassee... with a proven corrupted Governor coming to take up a four year run...fresh from the uproar of trying to pay off his employed election staffers with bogus gift cards. Geeze.

We've just endured the hottest (by temperature) year on record in the 130 years since these records began being kept with accuracy.

While Haiti, our neighbor!, started out the year with a nation destroying earthquake, the rest of the year witnessed unprecedented humanitarian disasters throughout Asia.

The worlds' gravest 'hot zone' traveled from the LA Cali coast deep into the heart of Russia. Fires there were due to its hottest summer on record and massive drought. The crop failures and human hardship and death that resulted are, unfortunately, a sign of things to come if we don’t clean up our act fast.

Heart broken, I have to acknowledge that the Climate Change AND the Clean Energy bills have both been overwhelmed into a death FIRSTLY because of the inaction and weakness of Obama's leadership on this front and the partnership of Republican obstructionism. Fuckers, both. It's shameful that intelligent people are sucked up by corporate Earth. But the evidence is compelling our awareness to grasp that this President is a corporate hack. The Rethugs even opposed their own strategies for combating climate change.... I mean the American political reality has gone mad!

We witnessed an event of unprecedented environmental disaster man made with the Gulf / BP Oil Spill. Six months of highest attention via the media, the resulting calamities to man and his nature while the lame, lack of cause, lack of action White House further screwed the pooch as it drew out.... resulting in the destruction of bathos in the Gulf of Mexico. There is no diminishing this. It's dire. And equally ignored. While the Obama White House has filed suit again BP, FINALLY, the damage is done and it will, if it follows past experience, hang fire til perdition boils up. This President has failed as an environmental leader... probably the most vital leadership we really do require at this time.

Climate Science Finds a Ton More Evidence that We’re Screwing Ourselves (or, more accurately, our children and grandchildren), Even Worse than Previously Thought

From the finding that global warming can be blamed for a 40% decline in the ocean’s phytoplankton to the finding that future temperatures could exceed human livability to the finding that sea levels could rise 3 times faster than the IPCC has estimated to the possible creation of astounding, decades-long droughts to the fact that soils are emitting more CO2 as the world warms to the possibility that we are causing the largest mass extinction in the fossil record and currently have put about 1/5 of all animal species at risk of extinction to the fact that we could increase temperatures 13-18°F over most of the U.S. and 27°F in the Arctic in the next 50 years, the top climate science stories of the year are not uplifting. Lovely, eh?

(from Planetsave:)

And here’s one stimulated by Joe Mohr’s answer to my question “what are the top environmental stories of the year so far” in the middle of the year. Joe said:

Same as it is every year; the creation of cheap useless crap. Our economy (based on chrematistics) creates phony needs for useless junk. We then deal with the environmental outfall of producing, transporting, consuming, and wasting said junk. The whole process is a toxic mess that poisons our air, water, and soil. Until we can really discern between needs and wants with our own critical minds, this environmental, economic, and social disaster will perpetuate.

I would add onto this our irresponsible addiction to and daily dependence on automobiles, coal, and a meat-based diet. These are the drivers of the environmental problems that damage our health, quality of life, and future livability on our planet.

China wins the award for considering and implementing the solutions to global warming, pollution and green technology. They are ahead of every other major industrial nation in working towards manifesting solutions.

I found the video of Gary singing Suicide is Painless, because I can't find anyone who did not have a difficult year. My pic for most difficult .... Mother Earth.

This year has watched Corporate America take a foothold, once again, and seems to have a strong ally in the White House. Corporate Earth is doing it's collective best to destroy our home. And we allow it by voting for asshatts or not voting at all. We allow by not getting up and out and making a demonstration against the wrongness of corporate profiteering over the sanctity of our HOME! So, I picked Gary and his song to drive home an awareness that we a committing species extinction! Why do so many think that

Suicide Is Painless?

Let's do better next year?

Some personal triage to end the dilemmas of this decade.

2010-12-12T06:32:00.000-08:00

Remember 2008? It was quite a year. I was admitted into the local state hospital for gall bladder surgery after they took a week to flush my system of the poisons I had managed to live with before getting in, in the nick of time before I would have crossed from the contamination… mind you… a contamination my body allowed to flood. Shit. Ok, so recuperating I became a very enthused supporter of Barack Obama and consequently went into campaign mode for him, reviving a long hiatus from political activism I had been on since … well, days at Cornell. At the same time, I was suffering the horrible resales downturn affecting my little manufacturing company from the economy beginning to croak under several years of deregulation and corruption ala banking, hedge funding and real estate speculating… you know, the kind where mostly young families are looking to invest quickly and easily into the ages old “American dream”? Yeah, that downturn about to cough up more banking calamity than you can shake all you have left at. Ok ok ok. So I took the only side job actually available that I judged would not wreck me for my own little handmade company but would put me into some significant cash extras. I drove a cab. Did you know that it’s the fourth most dangerous job on the whole planet? I learned that one… not as hard a way as might have, but I learned that. It had it’s elements of excitement. Yet, all in all, it was a horrible kind of energy for me to immerse myself in. Regardless, I did my best with it, long nights, lonely afternoons at the train station… you can imagine the drill. One night, around midnight, I picked up a very intoxicated woman downtown west Palm Beach on Clematis St and conveyed her a mile away to a pony chic hotel on Belvedere… and I got out of the cab to assist her to the lobby…she began to fall, I caught her and in that moment my back spasm-ed with a deep tear or pull or …. PAIN~! I could not move. Had to scream for the bell hop to come get the woman. Took me at least 10 mins to get back behind the wheel. Drove to the Dunkin Donuts and told my boss I was gone… home. Injured. The old man of the ‘yard’, Matty gave me 5mg Valium. The news went out over the radio’s and my good friend screeched into the DD parking lot and came over to hand me 6 of those white barred Xanax’s. Thanks dude! At least it’s something to help me relax and lay down. I was injured, no insurance… hey, I’m sure plenty of you get the idea. I went home, to a white xanax and another half of one and finally fell to sleep.

8am my taxi radio phone went off and as it was on my headboard I answered it. In hindsight, I no longer keep any communication devices on my bed… even set the iphone to OFF when I go to sleep. But on that morning I answered. The asshole who was the dispatch called at first begged, then told me he’d fire me if I didn’t get out there for a couple of hours to ‘cover’ until someone came on duty. I thought I needed the money. Well, I was still nearly paralyzed. Think back on it… when have you absolutely felt you had to go to work when you knew it was detrimental to your health or worse… put in complete pain? There I was picking up coffee at Starbucks and was resetting coffee, cigarettes, iphone, cabphone all in the cab as I drove to the first light, getting a green light and not being in the turning lane, but no cars around, I turned from the middle lane onto the next road to get immediately into another lane to turn (essentially making a large small town u turn, and I didn’t see the sheriff pull out to follow me. He followed me for city block then road up on my back bumper in that way that you know he’s going to put his lights on and beep you with his siren. Which he did. I pulled over, suddenly tensed and back went into overdrive with pain. I could barely move.

Now, in my little ibprofen tin (I used an old mints tin to carry vitamins, ibprofen, pills in general, and at that moment was one xanax and a half. I’m thinking you know where I’m going here. I had no idea that it was now a felony to have any un-prescribed pill on you. That's No. 1. No. 2, I just naturally tell the truth. Another crucially bad move. Just give them your lawyer’s number! I was not actually DUI. That was resolved in the video and tox tests that showed conclusively that I was not either. I ended up being in jail for over 48 hrs. Til a judge released me with a court date. It was a pretty shocking experience… but I did manage to hold an impromptu ‘the meaning of flowers’ class in jail to keep a couple of larger women from being really mean to me. Yes, that can happen.

But you know the state… And the new DA (not the top dawg, just a gal hired up) was only 6 months in the job (after being downsized from corporate job… which tends to make 30something women pissed off – I learned)… and I learned as I got to court and my PD (remember how broke I am) told me I faced a felony charge (the shock was still freaking me out) while this new DA was planning on asked for a mandatory 30 sentence. I was stunned. She told the judge it was a second offense. I nearly lost my ass… Yes, it were true … back in college I got a DUI on a race weekend in Watkins Glen, NY. Circa 1978. This was 2009. I thought this held a midigating circumstance. Statute of limitations? (Un, not when the state can make money off of you!) But friends and neighbors, what hit me was the idea of a felony being charged against me. There is no excuse for not understanding or realizing the law… I am guilty of having a xanax and a half on my person. I didn’t (like a goddamned fool!) try to ditch it (as I was driving a cab, I could have thrown it in the back and disclaimed it reasonably. But I don’t think that way) and I was guilty. There were some circumstances but the court is no so interested in that … especially since it’s all about money these days. I traded down for a first offense DUI (I was going to beat that rap and I’ve consequently found out the DUI adds more money and service to the state / they could say it was first offense but they have made me pay and do second / third offense level school / service / pay / since I had the previous (you remember – 30 years be- fucking –fore?) Still, on and off with court dates and probation and court costs and the endless pay out meetings classes group therapies etc they sock you into with no forwarning… life has had it’s challenges. And I’m broke. Month to month. For three years now. I have no car (the leased business car is in my partner's name and I haven't gotten behind a wheel since this) nor way to get around save my sister and good friends.. oh yeah, you do learn where the friends are. But all of mine have helped where they can. Still, I’m in a new town (my hometown is a county away and I’m close to my sister and a good friend… but that larger network isn’t there. I’ve had wonderful support… people have stood by me as they can. But I haven’t had the where with all the pay the large price of court costs they levied on me… I gave the PO my tax returns so I might get hardship help but the PO did not follow through. The cost of the DUI school and ongoing costs have been much but I’m pushing through. The point is not that I have this challenge. Nothing poor about me except the bank account, which is not the exacting quality of my character. I am willing to admit my mistakes, do what I can. Community service? I’ve got time with 503’s not for profits… but the state doesn’t recognize them yet or they are out of county because they were who I was enabled to work with from home. And YOU DO have the guilt. Gee, I’m a criminal. ESPECIALLY BECAUSE I HAVE NO MONEY. People will look at you and remark that gee, you’re so smart and college educated and why can’t you get the money? Find a job from home? I can’t tell you how that had stricken me, to be accused of less than (?) because I could not manage to market myself for some part time income as I have struggled, pretty much by myself, to keep a small manufacturing company alive and vital with good intentions and expanding where I could. I remember the PO saying to me that ‘women’ always seem to ‘get through it’ when I told her I had challenges financially and logistically this year to meet these court probation mandates. AND the ones they do not tell you about will be there for endless fees and services they never fully represent during the initial legal process but you are expected to fulfill. Those women ‘who get through it’ are, I’ve learned, generally women who have men paying some bills or all bills and have many avenues of someone else to ‘pick up the slack’. I do not choose a life like that. I am a small business woman, on my own, happy to do so… but challenged. In this economy. Started out great guns in 2006 with sales and such after nearly twenty years of creating a catalog, unique and with excellent products… yet, only not even two years on the shelf when boom go down economy. I’ve watched stores and shops and centers in my marketplace fall to the wayside. Close with out warning… and new ones are opening. Yet, with all I’ve had to stress …. Scratch that! CHOSEN TO STRESS OVER… I’ve been hanging in there like the kitty cat looking for Friday. And here it is Friday.

THIS… is a challenge. I’ve not completed ‘pay outs’ or community service so I’m told I could get a mandatory 10 days in jail during January or Feb. THAT scares hell outa me. Monopoly for real?

Tomorrow I will find some way of filling my day with positive energy and perhaps this writing is my own segway into it.

I have tweeting and blog buddies and neighbor friends who are 99-ers. They are all pretty devastated by the mechanization's of our government. The very idea of politics hurts their hearts. Whatever lies ahead of me in the next few months.... I'll face it with as much good grace as is in me. I am a healer, a writer, a political activist, a good friend and an American who has voted in every election since I was old enough to. I took up the cause again in the last Presidential one. It dovetails honestly into the path I've chosen for my life and I'll continue no matter if I have 'time' on my record. I hate to think this might happen. It's about not having court costs. A few thousand dollars and I'm a criminal for not having it.
You bet I'm an activist. The first half of my life the taxes I paid were capital gains. Now I'm walking the other side of the bank account. And you know what? There is no difference in who I am. But I've always known that ... I was raised to understand that you don't judge a book by it's cover. Money is no qualifier for character. What I think. Or the color of my blood. I'm just sans bank account. But not sans brains. Or heart. Wish me luck? So, I might be absent for a 10 day stretch in Jan or Feb. I’m trying to get past the fear… and then there is this:

What to be thankful for.

2010-11-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

There is always something we must find, to be thankful for. On the first thought, we all imagine family and our ties keeping us sane and loving during difficult times. It's a mass of confusion! On the one hand it's pretty easy to get up in the morning, make the coffee, it seems to easy ... the electric still works, the toaster works, the is bread in it's house (the mircrowave above the stove), I have MSNBC on in the background... it's business as usual. Nothing is wrong. Darkness does not hover at the edges of our world and my breath is as vital and clear as my nephew's grandchildrens' will be. Safe as houses. That's what we are. No troubles about the wasting oceans, I can't see Russian from here but if I get a President who can from her back yard... well, what's so bad? She'll receive the world's leaders with crib notes on her hand! The atmosphere is not receding away and climate change, global warming is a hoax.

On the other hand;

my President is not the leader I had thought he would be. The massive environmental crisis (ongoing) that has ruptured on his watch has been destructively handled by the high offices... his choices in leadership have failed. And the world has passed over it, leaving the southeast of America to decay and decline in a slushie foam of corexit, crude oil and frozen methane warming up along shorelines of acid-like snap crackle and pop nastiness under the blanket domain of Corporation Earth. The Gulf of Mexico shoreline states are left to die an environmental death without a word, in despicable Republican crony - ism with big corporate oil under the eyes of President Barack Obama. Two short years ago I was deeply grateful for his rise. This year I am filled with remorse over his failures.

Witness:

PRESS RELEASE-RALLY FOR THE GULF-SATURDAY

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Karen Mayer Hopkins, Dean Blanchard Seafood, Gulf Change
grandislekaren@yahoo.com

Actor Stephen Baldwin Rallies His Support for the Gulf Coast

Grand Isle, Louisiana - Actor, director, producer and author, Stephen Baldwin, announced Thursday that he will be attending the Rally for the Truth, which is set to be held this weekend, November 20, beginning at 1:00 pm.

Baldwin, who has been producing a documentary on the truth of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, will come to “show his complete support” for the people, ecosystem and economy of the Gulf Coast, which has been ravaged by the still lingering effects of the catastrophe.

He will be joined by other film makers, activists, fisherman, oil workers, local politicians and coastal citizens, coming together to unite in their struggle to let the rest of the world know the truth of what is happening on the Gulf Coast.

This weekend’s rally, which has been organized by a coalition of Coastal citizens, is to expose the fact that the Gulf States are still, very much, under assault by legions of oil on a daily basis.

Although BP and federal officials have all but declared the disaster over, local citizens, politicians, environmental and industry groups understand the effects of the April 20 spill are still in the early stages.

“The objective of the event is to meet with Gulf Coast Residents and present our case, regarding the health of our people, the impact on our communities, etc. We want to compile a "history" of our feelings, experiences, beliefs, whatever they may be, since the oil spill. It is not a "bash BP and/or the govt. event", it is a RALLY FOR THE PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO TELL THEIR TRUTHS,” explains event organizer, Karen Hopkins.

With a growing number of coastal citizens now ill from the effects of the dispersants and oil, the scientific disputes surrounding the validity of the FDA’s safe seafood claim, the continued suffering of the local ecosystems, the devastating economic effects of the offshore drilling moratorium and the recent discontinuance of the VOO program, and the consistent and ever prevalent sub-sea/ surface oil and dispersant discoveries; Coastal citizens are facing major, unaddressed complications that are affecting humans, wildlife and domestic animals.

This rally will center around sharing of information by those who live, work and play at ground zero for the spill, and their unique experiences.

Independent test results, interviews and all relevant information will be available to the press.

All local and state politicians; as well as, the EPA, FDA, NOAA, Coast Guard, DEQ and other involved entities have been invited to attend.

Speakers for the rally will include: Cherri Foytlin, Kindra Arnesen, Billy Nungessor, Karen Hopkins, Drew Landry, Susan Felio Price, Mac Mackenzie, Dean Blanchard, A.J. Varner, Jessica Hagan and a representative from the law firm of Leake & Anderson, additional speakers to be announced.

Donations will be taken to send a delegation to speak to congressional leaders in Washington D.C., and Coastal Heritage Society of Louisiana will conduct a Christmas toy and food drive.

Food in the form of Bar-B-Cue and Shrimp will be available free of charge.

The event will be held. at the Pirate Island Daquiri Shop in Grand Isle, several hundred people are expected to be in attendance.

Early voters....

2010-10-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

It's Monday the 18th in the Sunshine State. What rats is gettin' killed?

It's all rah rah sis boom bah for Marco Rubio ... in polling. Will that hold? Is the Tea bagger er, Party serving the feast or are Democrats going to rise to the occasion? I can't help but think that Independents and many Dems are going to reach out for Gov. Crist in the Senate seat run. All I can truly say is, that gosh it's not that wimp Harry Reid vs the crazy batshit woman Angle in Nevada! They say she might actually win! OMG! Voting Americans really want this kind of lunacy in their government? Gee!

[As early voting gets underway Monday, these and other probing questions were put to two of Florida's best political minds: Republican Brett Doster, who led George W. Bush's successful re-election campaign in Florida in 2004, and Democrat Steve Schale, who was at the helm of President Barack Obama's victory here in 2008.] Miami Herald

Our local economy is off anywhere between 25 to 40% ... how can this bode well for any incumbents? You have to wonder. Still, [Customers who used to ring up a $45 tab now stop at one pizza and a two liter soda, said owner Robert Behzadi. The single father of two now works seven days a week.

Behzadi says he doesn't always vote -- but will pick Republicans this time because when the GOP were in charge ``the economy was good.''] Yes, well, mr. republicans make the economy good... on the backs of Democratic policies and legislature. And what did that Republican economy get you? Near fiscal collapse... the rhetoric has found it's bullseye. And Obama's middle of the road stand with Rethugs is boomeranging.

I'm feeling extraordinarily hornswaggled. By my Democrat leadership. And so is a significant number of us. Big assed phoney baloney money in middle classed Boca Raton are voting for the like of batshit crazy Alan West, who openly advocates armed rebellion over voting! Tells you where the mentality of public is. Faux News central. It's an OMfG story up and down the block!

So take a peek at this:

In Boynton Beach, city manager Kurt Bressner has noticed an uptick in domestic violence calls and shut offs for not paying utility bills. Delinquencies on utlity bills has roughly quadrupled the past two years to about $1.8 million -- both a reflection of non-payment and vacant properties.

I can go further, down the street from me a huge power cable is strung across the road through the evening and in the morning.... I'm encouraged to notice a sense of community where neighbors are extending some help to one another~!

Cesar DaCosta, 54, struggled in English to explain his disagreement with Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio over legislation that would grant citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants who are in college or the military.
``The Republicans say no to everything,'' said DaCosta, a Democrat, after loading six-packs of Malta soft drinks into his trunk. ``The students who come here at five years old or seven years old, the kids, are not the problem.''
Also loading groceries was Nelson Alvarez, a 37-year-old computer technician who said he is leaning toward Rubio because ``he's more on the level than some of those tea party guys.'' Alvarez, a Republican, voted for Obama for president.
``It's one of those things you wish you could do over,'' he said. ``I don't think he's to blame for everything, but the things on his agenda have never come up.'' - Miami Herald
In a nutshell... friends and neighbors... this is it all over the country.

As this plays out you have to notice, only the larger races or the more crazy folks running races are being covered. I don't even see any state wide news on Alan Grayson. What's up with that? Is he leading or loosing? [``It's the battle over who is less likable,'' said Sutton, a Republican. ``It's a turnoff when you have to wade through all the mud.''

Sutton was especially indignant about an ad aired by Democratic congressman Alan Grayson that selectively used remarks by Republican Daniel Webster to suggest that he thinks women should be subservient to men. With the GOP to take over Congress, Grayson is among the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents.
``That should amount to political suicide to throw stuff around like that,'' Sutton said.] Evidently Mr. Sutton has the genius mark of Republican double standards in check. Geesh. This needs no smartassed commentary from me.... let alone the fact that Alan Grayson is using drama to expose the actual attitude and ethic of his opponent. Mr. Sutton obviously likes his women subservient? Mr. Sutton is more interested in Article 4 on the ballot, which intends to stop run away over development and allow the community a say in plans for any development. Not much assured for profit there ... is there? Corporate voting.... not so much for me. How about you?

Whats' extraordinarily crazy is that Republicans who were led to make a choice for Obama in the last big election feel just as cheated as the Democrats and are going to vote the 'party line' even though they are scared that Rick Scott is probably dishonest. How do label that one in the dumb or dumber category? I'm confused.

The overall problem in the state of Florida, President Obama has let the people down and the vote in 2010 will reflect it. They will pick stupid over substantial solutions because the fear card is trumping the intelligence card. And those who crossed the isle to vote Democratic are the most upset and urging others to vote a straight Republican ticket

and this being Florida

they are pretty much doing it. The truth is

it ain't over til the fat lady sings.

I'll post when I know.... lol.

Lets get to the rat killin'~!~! LETS VOTE FLORIDA!

2010-10-14T18:02:00.000-07:00

I'm sharing my vote with you. This is FLORIDA 2010, midterm election.

Lets look at the Proposed Constitutional Amendments:

NO. 1 - Repeal of public campaign financing requirement.

Nope, nope, nope... I don' think so. This would repeal a provision in the Constitution that requires public financing of campaigns for statewide candidates who agree to spending limits.

The state voted for an approved public campaign finance amendment in 1998. To reduce costs and make campaigns affordable for more potential candidates. But, lawmakers have raised spending limits considerably.

If the amendment is approved, fewer candidates might seek office and special interests could have more impact than they have now. Legislature should be focused on reducing spending limits. I'm voting NO.

NO.2 - Homestead ad valorem tax credit for deployed military personnel.

Hey, dude, it seems right! But you really have to think this one over for yourself. This gives military personnel who are under deployment a year prior re: property taxes. Where ever they go deployed by the government. You just have to remember this; maybe there already are already too many homestead exemptions available to special categories of residents. Adding more would shift some of the local tax burden from military personnel to teachers, firefighters, police and everyone else. That may seem patriotic, but it’s unfair. Especially in this economy folks...perhaps our good thoughts should begin in our own kitchen cubbards and bank accounts? I'm voting NO.

NO. 4 - Referenda required for adoption and amendment of local government comprehensive land use plans.

Well friends and voters... here's another fine argument for allowing developers, unscrupulous, corrupt and greedy to run amuck .. amuck! I'm seeing this as an opportunity to make a conscious choice for the Earth Mother and her Florida fractal. Environmentally speaking, this 'referenda' .... this is YES vote for quality of life and resource preservation in our state. How many local and state officials have been charged criminally for monetary corruption via land developers? This amendment is all about restricting and containing the ability of our politicians to push new zoning into place for campaign donations. You follow ? I'm voting YES YES YES~!

NO. 5 - Standards for legislature to follow in legislative redistricting!

Yeah, baby. You know what? No one party or person should have the 'deck' stacked (in favor of them only). This is a change item! It requires state legislative districts not be drawn in favor of an incumbent or particular political party or in any kind of denial of racial minorities from an equal opportunity to vote. We are the new south... right? Contiguous and general use existent city, county and geographical boundaries... should be fair and reflective. This amendment stifles gerrymandering district lines to favor incumbents or political persuasions. Hey! Our district-ing is a mega mess. This reduces the quality of our law making choices drastically~! Lets change this old bullshit. This belongs in the state Constitiution! I'm voting YES. That would be a huge, bigtime, have a drink on me YES YES YES!

NO. 6 - Standards for legislature to follow in congressional redistricting.

This is a big DITTO to NO. 5 with the distinction of drawing lines for congressional districts rather thank state House and Senate line. And it distinctly relative to my own district; gerrymandered by Alcee Hastings' that goes from Miramar to Ft. Pierce. I'm voting a ditto-ed YES YES YES here, just putting an olive in the martini.

NO. 8 - Revision of the class size requirements for public schools.

In 2002 FL state approved of a class size amendment. Caps have been gradual. Here is a proposal for increase of permissible class size in providing for flexibility ... including average numbers of students to teachers. It permits districts some flexibility on student / teacher ratios. It's been a $16 billion project for the state. (doesn't lottery cover this stuff?) Staying under the current requirements would require billions more in funding that we apparently don't enjoy from lottery sales and have none. Done none. And we are undermanned in qualified teachers. This is an important issue. Future education is in question .. the quality of it for our children. This amendment will not negate the previous amendment, it will just allow for shifting during such hellacious economic downturns... or you know .. the current recession so deep deep deep? It's just a fix for the existing amendment. It's a YES vote for me.

Now; there is the question of:

Balancing the Federal Budget (referendum)

My first response to this is bullshit, bullshit, and buckets more bullshit provided by the courtesy of the American Chamber of Commerce. Just read it! Here, let me give you hand...

"In order to stop the uncontrolled growth of our national debt and prevent excessive borrowing by the Federal Government, which threatens our economy and national security, should the United States Constitution be amended to require a balanced federal budget without raising taxes?" When exactly did Mitch McConnell and John Boehner get into Tallahassee? Fer cripes sakes! Here's your Rubio crowd waiting in the wings for their marching cue on vote day. This is more anti progressive, anti liberal, anti Democrat, anti Obama bullshit... approximately 10lbs of it in a 1lb teabag. You follow? That's a FUCK NO!~ vote by this kitty cat. And the local League of Women Voters agree with me.

Requiring a county code of ETHICS, independent ethics commission and independent inspector general:

Are you effn' kidding me, man? Ok, they call it "scandal plagued Palm Beach County" and this seems to masthead many counties in the state (or country for that matter), yet I'm thinking this is a twist at Mayor Lois Frankel .... isn't it? And if you research the whole magilla here you are going to discover 'conservative Republican Rovian agenda laden' folks crawling all over this IG and the office of "inspector general" from Lake Worth Police. Her name is Sheryl G. Steckler and you really don't have to know that much about her once you research who is the support and overview of the 'office of inspector general' and the "Ethics Commission" (talk about your fundamental ironies!) for PB county. Do your homework! Four county commissioners during the past four years resigned from office to face criminal charges for misuse of office and I think this Ethics Commission is more to see that folks are not 'caught up' then it is about preventing unethical fiscal behavior. All of the board of this Ethics Commission reads as the primary fund raiser list for conservative candidates, especially Republican and if needs be, Tea bagger. This is a personal vote of NO fucking way.

Ok ... so who's your buddy? Who's you pal? The Candidates and the Offices they are trying to take.

United States Senator: I'm voting for Charlie Crist!

Marco Rubio is an asshatt teabagger. Not too eloquent, but adequate in explaining 'why'.

Rep. Kendrick Meek, pay to play politician... he refuses to explain himself... so we are left with simple evidence. No go there.

Representative for District 23: I've abstained my vote. None there I feel are good enough including old pal Alcee Hastings. Bad showing.

Governor and Lt. Gov.: I'm voting for Gov - Alex Sink! Well done!! Lt. Gov - Rod Smith.

Attorney General: Dan Gelber. The least sketchy of the lot.

CFO: Loranne Ausley. Least sketchy of the lot.

Commissioner of Agriculture: Thad Hamilton - hands down the most qualified and experienced and less conservative than the rest of the crew here.

County Court Judge /group 7 - Laurie Cohen because when in doubt, you have to go intellectual over tits and ass. Honestly, there isn't too much information on Laurie. But Marni Bryson is a definite fluffanutter.

Commissioner District #2 - The man is Christopher McVoy. Committed, sincere and smart.

There are several Judges / circut, district and supreme to look up and decide on. Do the homework~!

The Place to FIND OUT about your FL candidates! (this is a link - hint)

The Audacity of Collusion vs The Audacity of the Truth.

2010-08-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a word for a lady in Mississippi, Linda St. Martin. She addresses Haley Barbour, Gov. Asking to be heard even while she's avoided with pseudo-polite entreaties to take a seat, she presses further to demand that the Gov. appoint conservationists and fisher-persons to the group. Every appointee / volunteer on the group is being overseen with BP collusion. Please listen to her:

Somebody is paying attention among Democrats in Gulfport. Ms. St. Martin is advocating for the fishing families and to address the creeping death she and her frightened neighbors are watching overtake their coastline and wetlands. She is presenting the death of an economy, a way of life and the abundant nature they have traditionally made their living within. She is also putting the reality in the government face; the death of estuaries, wetlands, the bathos of the Gulf of Mexico.

[Martin, a Gulfport native, has been organizing community meetings, working with the Mississippi chapter of the Sierra club and speaking out on issues relating to the April 20 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
She told the Jackson Free Press today that she did not like having to yell at the governor, but she was frustrated by his response to the oil spill.
"I hated having to do that," she said. "You don't know how distasteful that was to me. ... But, there is not a single shrimper or workboat person on that entire 34-member panel and they are the ones who are going to be the most directly affected." - Lacey McLaughlin]

The Gov does his level best to direct the conversation back to "Katrina recovery" and away from the growing reality of fishing families ... allowing them to fish and laying them open to possible litigation for poisoning.

Individual residents in the panhandle of FL are finding white powdery substance on the surface of the incoming tides and they are taking it in for analysis ... it's corexit. It is a poison. They are doubling down with worry, and who can blame them? If the White House (in the person of the President), the USCG (in the person of Thad Allen) and NOAA are leafleting out the kind of "bilge" that tells the southeastern United States that 'the oil has disappeared' and 'evaporated' and been otherwise handled by the oh so conscientious folks at BP... well, I'm sure you follow where I'm going here. Our government and BP do NOT WANT THIS TOPIC BLEEDING AND LEADING.

Please follow this link to CNN review of the science and lack of science regarding the toxcity in the Gulf.

There are several blogs dedicated to the ongoing dissemination of any news regarding the disposition of cities along the Gulf Coast. They include local commentary, observation and the national response which reads in lockstep with British Petroleum. When the pollsters (from whatever techno darkness they hunker down in) begin to publish low numbers for the White House and the President, it should always be mentioned that his Liberal / grassroots Democratic base in the southeast of the United States is in shock at his lack of response. Mute or dishonest was not what was expected. One would wonder why national news does not take the grassroots of the southeast into consideration and expose our outrage. Like Ms. St. Martin, who steps past the 'handlers' and restraints to address the larger political power before her and asks; "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DO RIGHT?" Metaphorical, but accurate.

A supportive grassroots organization for you to reach out to:

- There are more than one of these "plumes" of the corexit, petroleum and methane mixture roaming the Gulf in bathos (the deep). Their presence will be revealed quicker than the BP and the White House expect. Affecting the most basic foundations of the food chains first, fishing enterprises will reflect the depletion of Gulf abundance. And what they do dredge up will eventually all be poisoned.

More and more residents along the Gulf coastline, including 5 states, are discovering powdery white substances or mangled marinelife frightening them, on the incoming tides. For help you can contact many citizen founded groups that will give up support and testing. One such group is:

Testing The Gulf Water - Citizen's Initiative

Our grassroots movement of concerned citizens is dedicated to ascertaining the true magnitude of health risks associated with exposure to oil and chemical dispersants in the Gulf waters through independent laboratory testing. Our citizen's coalition supports the advocat...ion of the Precautionary Principle when it comes to Environmental Protection. (you can easily find them on Facebook)

Here is a sampling of their contribution:

Testing The Gulf Water - Citizen's Initiative As we reported in our water sampling tests yesterday through the TESTING THE WATERS citizen's initiative Bob Naman at ACT Labs in Mobile Alabama identified 13 pars per million of the highly toxic (and supposedly banned) 2-butoxylethanol in a water sample taken from Cotton Bayou Alabama (near Orange Beach - and not far ...from the Florida border). We have reason to believe that dispersant operations are still intensely active throughout the Gulf region as an active cover-up of the still extensive release of oil (and oil resurfacing from the immense quantities under water) is very much in progress. We believe that not only is the public being misinformed about the use of dispersants in the now "supposedly" non-producing blown out well (is it well A or well B??), but that there may be destabilization of the methane hydrates within the seabed, as evidenced by Texas A&M's oceanographical discovery of up to 1,000,000 times than higher levels of methane in areas near the blow out. We must press forward to have the waters tested for methane, as well - a topic that is not even being discussed in the mainstream media.http://www.wkrg.com/gulf_oil_spill/article/corexit-found-in-orange-beach-waters/916773/Aug-19-2010_6-03-pm/

Hey, are you as insulted by the BP propaganda commercials as I am?

Holocaust deniers and a true Mark Twain in the Gulf of Mexico

2010-08-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

It's an aquatic holocaust. The Deep is done in, in the Gulf of Mexico. As the oily, methane infused and corexit puttied droplets by the zillions swirl across the ocean floors, not all of it is caught in the sea bottom. What does not remain in the Deep is going to seep into the aquifers of Gulf coast states and attempt to foul the fresh water base. It's the UNnatural conclusion. Me, I'm up at night grieving the bottlenose dolphins of Barataria Bay. I keep seeing them expressing breath through blowholes stained with crude oil and corexit... the BP toxicity murdering marine life every second of every day. I can't sleep for explosion of whale flesh in the midst of oil glutted white caps, the carcases too big and too heavy to scoop up for the 'waste disposal' facilities waiting without public scrutiny back on shore in Louisiana as our United States Coast Guard oversees the whole atrocity.

On a warm and muggy day, Obama pledged to "keep up our efforts until the environment is cleaned, polluters are held accountable, businesses and communities are made whole, and the people of the Gulf Coast are back on their feet." President Barack Obama declared Gulf Coast beaches clean, safe and open for business Saturday as he brought his family to the Florida Panhandle and promised residents that the government wouldn't forget them once efforts to stop the leak are finished. HuffPo - This IS AN OUTRIGHT LIE BY A POLITICIAN who is colluding with British Petroleum.

You already know that BP is trying to hide the amount of oil which has leaked into the Gulf in order to reduce the amount of fines it has to pay under the Clean Water Act (see this and this).
Similarly, BP is also trying to secretly dispose of endangered animals killed by the spill in order reduce its fines under the Endangered Species Act.
Linda Hooper-Bui, Louisiana State University Department of Entomology Associate Professor, writes in The Scientist, “My PhD student’s ant samples were taken away by a US Fish and Wildlife officer at a publicly accessible state Wildlife Management Area because our project hadn’t been approved by Incident Command.”   Who is the 'incident command'? It's the USCG under the direction of BfuckingP ... BP!   She shares another similar experience, “Where our research trip was halted after driving more than 150 miles to a study site. On the way to our sampling sites in Grand Isle, LA, [we] were turned away by a sheriff’s deputy blocking the road who said that he was told to allow no one who wasn’t associated with BP or NRDA.” The NRDA (National Resource Damage Assessment) process “is overseen by state, tribal and federal science agencies and is partially funded by BP.”]

Another point is, no independent water testing is being done. Gulf coastline states are in harms way, at great risk. Our aquifers, our marine wildlife and the ongoing toxicity of our shorelines are being left to rot by the Obama White House.   Most of us are aware, by now, of the fish kills up on the northeastern shorelines of the United States. It's not about crude oil, it's about the levels of oxygen in the sea because the sea waters are over heating. I've heard and read the term hospice wilderness in describing the badly ruined seas and shorelines of our Gulf.    It's accurate.   I am a Floridian. I've grown up in Florida and on Caribbean seas and in the Gulf of Mexico. I love my home, I am shocked that the President is allowing this cover up and ignorance of an ongoing environmental crisis.
He's taken this non-stance on climate and global warming issues, too. All in all, President Obama has left the LEFT out in the cold.

"Despite an ever-expanding estimate of the volume of the spill, relatively little oil washes ashore at first, and only a small portion ever will. Instead, trapped in the deep, the oil fouls the ocean's twilight and dark zones: the mesopelagic and the bathypelagic (bathos: deep). After April 20, the dumbwaiter rising through the waters of the Gulf of Mexico will be ascending an ocean fouled with a toxic broth of oil, methane, chemical dispersants, and drilling mud. The relatively small amounts of oil washing ashore, and the relief felt when the surface oil began to dissipate, hardly account for the devastation being wrought in the dark world beyond our sight."

An eco-writer for MoJo [Mother Jones], Julia Whitty has new book on the shelf last month: " DEEP BLUE HOME : An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean"

The lady knows what of she speaks. She's spent many hours at sea and now rides the oily waves pitching on top of the Gulf of Mexico. Ms. Whitty is one of many emerging sources that ask us to stop, look and listen... BP has the collusion of the Obama administration and the USCG (in the persona of "retired" Admiral Thad Allen) helping them to cover up and thereby escape fiscal and moral responsibility for this eco-holocaust. Even Fox News is reporting that BP is removing dead marine life from the beaches. From local reporting: Jerry Cope and Charles Hambleton report:

The numbers of birds, fish, turtles, and mammals killed by the use of Corexit will never be known as the evidence strongly suggests that BP worked with the Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, the FAA, private security contractors, and local law enforcement, all of which cooperated to conceal the operations disposing of the animals from the media and the public.The majority of the disposal operations were carried out under cover of darkness. The areas along the beaches and coastal Islands where the dead animals were collected were closed off by the U.S. Coast Guard. On shore, private contractors and local law enforcement officials kept off limits the areas where the remains of the dead animals were dumped, mainly at the Magnolia Springs landfill by Waste Management where armed guards controlled access. The nearby weigh station where the Waste Management trucks passed through with their cargoes was also restricted by at least one sheriff’s deputies in a patrol car, 24/7.
Robyn Hill, who was Beach Ambassador for the City of Gulf Shores until she became so ill she collapsed on the job one morning, was at a residential condominium property adjacent to the Gulf Shores beach when she smelled an overwhelming stench. She went to see where the odor was coming from and witnessed two contract workers dumping plastic bags full of dead birds and fish in a residential Waste Management dumpster, which was then protected by a security guard. Within five minutes, a Waste Management collection truck emptied the contents and the guard departed. Federal laws makes BP liable for up to $50,000 per dead animal on the endangered species list, such as a Kemp’s Ridley turtle.[It’s not just the Kemp’s Ridley. Sperm whales and hawksbill turtles are also endangered animals living in the Gulf.So are Brown pelicans, which have been hit hard by the oil spill.In fact, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service lists 29 endangered species in the Gulf which could be harmed by the spill.

Here is the link to a great BTR show that listening to will enlighten and give you greater tools to take what ever actions you are able on a grassroots level: Shared Sacrifices
Here is a link to a grassroots organization working to ensure independent water testing in the Gulf of Mexico and the region: Testing The Water

To top it all off, BP has been cheating on all facets of the 'clean up'. [In Pascagoula, Mississippi, a county sheriff alleges that an incident involving an oil spill cleanup supervisor accused of raping a colleague could have been prevented if basic background checks had been used in hiring the workers, CNN reports.] A supervisor raped his worker ... a known sex offender. The only oversight BP is giving to any of the many facets of 'clean up' are in bribery. It's like; hey? So a sex offender was hired. Not our problem.
This is the measure of commitment from our politicians and BP... the Mark Twain of the Gulf.
Can you feel me? The are responsible for the spoilage of the sea, the wetlands and People. And they simply don't care. They don't feel any real press to be ultimately responsible. That is our governments' fault. BP feels entitled. Didn't Heyward make that plain enough?
This morning while I drank my cup of coffee, I read the 'sheets' of the internet. I learned this:

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video.

Why don't they do Right? "Frist rule of a Miami City Commissioner - Lying."

2010-08-08T17:06:00.000-07:00

MIAMI - City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff and stand-in Commissioner Richard Dunn II abandoned a project to "alleviate blight" in the Overtown and Omni neighborhoods so they might extend fuller budgets into their own offices. Where does this sound familiar? Hum mm? Isn't Richard Dunn in office as a stand-in for Michele Spence-Jones, accused and slung out of office for the same kind of shenanigans with Barbara Carey-Schuler? And where in the world, btw, would the Congressional Representative for this District be standing in all of this? He's out campaigning for the Senate seat opening up as the Democratic candidate battling against a retooled Rethug who helped sweep over the state a few years back with predatory lending that has since created the housing / foreclosure crisis for so many Floridians; you know... Jeff Greene?.

There is some awesome despair in Overtown and Liberty City. Poor? The poor do better than these communities. While Rep. Meek is out stomping for a better pay check and higher visibility, why doesn't he stop by his own district and check out the corruption? Or is pay to play politics his best hometown game?

No one is speaking to what is sitting plainly out on the table for all to see.... where are the ethics and values (let alone the legality issues) of a city commissioner who gives monies earmarked for community projects (who have applied for them and been told they are going to receive them) over to her own companies? Where are the concerns for her constituents? In another fish fry or chicken dinner? That's how you win a community? Not in providing new jobs and new industry? Not in drawing new opportunities into the community in valuing their culture and the art they are cable of inspiring and creating? Not in an invitation to sustainable businesses who will value the people and their needs for stability? Decade after decade city commissioners and politicians who pay to play and vice versa have kept Miami's poorest towns, Overtown and Liberty City, a hub of misery, crime and poly-ignorance. An outdoor urban prison ... American inner city desperate, where you work as hard as you can to 'get out'. Is it, in the end, simply too difficult to not become corrupted by money in the city of Miami? It's certainly cement in the poorest of neighborhoods. The communities 'trust their own' to do right. So where is the "do right"?

Barbara Carey-Schuler has declared that she did sign the letter that allowed Spence-Jones to give the monies to the proper city projects. That would be a personalized health spa in Liberty City?!? over the waiting and long committed projects of Osun's Village, Community Builders HDC is a 501 c-3, Harlan Woodard and Nathaniel Styles? Or Marvin Weeks of Timbuktu arts gallery? Both are trying to establish community interests offering some home grown opportunity in developing indigenous cultural / self awareness.

[To the left: Chief Nathaniel B. Styles, Jr. Olosun, Dillard University President Dr. Marvalene Hughes and Harlan E. Woodard with then Governor Charlie Crist. 2009]

Like I said, why in the world does the community keep trusting them? I am told it is the occasional display of community care with fish Fry's or chicken dinners for the whole neighborhood. You would think that the non-reciprocal nature of these politico's would wake citizens up. And people trust their spiritual and religious leaders, some of whom have been happy to take a lil' graft sometimes too. How else do these obvious cheats keep hauling the constituency to their side? It certainly isn't in deeds.
How many of the people of Liberty City are employed by Michele Spence-Jones' spa? Or her other family businesses? I'd really like to know that. How many tourists is it drawing in?
I'm thinking one of the reasons that this urban blight stays put is because of this lack of leadership and abundance of cheating.

Still, Timbuktu - Marvin Weeks has hung on. Community Builders HDC - Harlan Woodard and Nathaniel Styles are keeping their faith, they continue to plan and work towards their dream of a sustainable arts program that brings business and tourism into the Osun's Village Caribbean corridor along 7th Ave in Liberty City. Bless them. They are up against it.

[Thanks to Channel 7 for the title play.]

Could the Gulf go boom? Where lies responsibility, since those who SHOULD will NOT?

2010-08-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

[Operation TOP KILL of filling the hole with "mud" has been declared a success Tuesday at 11:40am Wed review by the White House, sans President, was highly irresponsible and continues a pattern of ecological abuse and environmental spoilage rubber stamped by the Republican administrations. As of this neglect of the most important issue I consider for supporting a politician, Obama has lost my vote, my support.]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There is a lot of talk about due diligence lately.

It's all over the place....so there's that need for duly diligent.

When I read commentary and blogs for the opinion of like minds, don't we expect 'vetting' to be at least cursory well done? No lying perpetrated.

It's up to me, on this blog, to do it for myself and I do my best. All of that said, I think we need to pay some specific attention to the words and how an idea or fact is contextually used.

Is it wishful or is it factual?

To think that it's over is perhaps, natural? Why not wish it away? The White House has. It's easier.

Gregg Hall and the Coastal Warriors are keeping video vigils. They know better. They're right on top of it. And it matters that they remain duly diligent. They ain't making it up. Neither is the Hurricane Creekeeper over at BPSlick. His videos are brought to the table to expose reality. Michael at Hands Across the Sand is keeping vigil too. Skepticism is still clinging to the shorelines as the government washes away.

Something uppermost on my Floridian mind? The aquifers of my state, as well as those Gulf states surrounding us, are going to be tainted with the mix of crude, methane and corexit dispersant. Sooner or later, all the marine life, the crops and soil of my state and it's oceanic territories will be tainted and despoiled by this "oil spill". That's the empirical short end of it....No "authority" has released any data correlating amount of crude mixed with methane and corexit left in the Gulf to already (neglected or denied) effects of it. There are effects beginning to appear. The shellfish are infested with it. The oyster beds are saturated. The wetlands are seeped through with it, to determine the extend of their violation will take some time. To not begin is a crime, one the government is committing every day a schedule is not hoisted and the specialized marine scientists are not working overtime to accumulate the data through samples and cataloging.

Four separate methane gas leaks / bubbles seeping out of the ocean floor / are around the Deepwater Horizon capped well. [The most disturbing element of deep water oil extraction is always going to be the unknowns that are ignored in favor of ambitions for getting and selling oil. The biggest unknowns include the pressures and physical challenges of installing, maintaining and operating equipment in places that have never been accessed and which cannot be accessed by humans. It is all just educated guesswork combined with human decision making and judgment that has been demonstrably unacceptable, given the risks of greater disaster than the BP oil spill has caused. If a company that had all but one of over 700 egregious safety violations can continue to operate in even more controversial deep water extractions, than it will be no wonder if another major disaster happens.] - Reuters 7/19/10

So the question is, what is really going on the ocean floor?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And the nagging question that swims around the situation.... what about the methane still escaping the ocean floor surrounding the capped well?

Much ado....about everything, especially baby sea turtles.

2010-07-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

Down in Miami's District 13, Liberty City... news on the slung out of office City Councilwoman Spence-Jones. It's another bait and switch story concerning a hand written note by prosecution witness (and indicted too!) Councilwoman Carey-Shuler. [Prosecutors then cast the letter as a forgery -- part of a scheme by Spence-Jones to take over the $50,000 grant, originally intended for two other organizations.] The dance here is one of tumble stumble and get up and do it again! There is no question that the money's involved were improperly spent on Ms. Spence-Jones personally owned (or family named) businesses... the question is did she outright steal it out of the deserving hands of Liberty City artisans at Timbuktu and Osun's Village? Carey-Shuler has changed her story from no she didn't authorize and give Spence-Jones the money to yes she did. [Carey-Shuler now says she approved the payment Karym after MMAP officials told her that Spence-Jones' company was working with Osun's Village and Timbuktu.] Miami Herald

Still, the proprietors of Osun's Village and Timbuktu said they had no such agreement with Spence-Jones and said letters to MMAP suggesting a partnership were either misleading or fake, court records show.

My friends... that's just what they call some big assed bullshit! But the saga continues with Ms. Spence-Jones declaring her altruistic angelic political demonstrations for Liberty City and people suffering under the corruption of City Council hacks for generations seem to keep buying her ersatz promises that she is blameless.

So why should we support Kendrick Meek? The FL Dems and Scott Maddox says to! That's why! Well, I'm not sheeple, and I'll bet you aren't either. Mr. Meek's congressional record is no dazzler, it's a lack luster rank and file. Contribute local demonstrations, not the days on the House Floor voting with an unerring Democratic policy standard throughout his 'step right into it' career, then you have to wonder why ... would I vote for him? He's not addressed the criminal issues of the Stackhouse scandal nor does he address the questions of his family pay to play politics for the last few years. To my mind, that clearly isn't Senatorial behavior or material. According to an article over at Politico, much of the Democratic Party in DC, though not voicing it, agree. His support is thin, it dribbles in. The President's support is in the form of all Democrat candidates (so far) and who might blame him? Meek didn't back Obama until the very end ... still, that makes him loyal to those who he had promised fealty to. Hillary. No bad there... I don't vote just because the party tells me to. This is the awful truth in American politics these days... and it's another form of corporate politic-ing. I refuse. And I don't think that makes me an "Independent", because I hold the Democratic Party to a higher standard in political America and I don't think I should quit it just because I'm not voting for every Democrat to come down the pike. That's a political blindness and absolutism. Screw that. In the end, I don't really question his effectiveness, he could end up being a titan. What I question is what he has never addressed, what he has pushed aside or ignored. The corruption of south FL pay to play politics .... all documented in the Miami Herald. If he had explained his part in it, had addressed the affair and explained whatever might have been his tie to family in it... then I would respect his chances as a leader. He did not. He continues to avoid it. Shame on him. District 17 (his) is one of the neediest in the entire country. He's been on the periphery of scandals in District 13 / Liberty City, another hugely needy community plagued with corrupt politico's who serve closely with Meek's retired Congresswoman mom, Carrie Meek as one of their 'consultants' ... which, lets face it! Consultant in most circumstances is nice way to say government parasite. I mean, after the hallmark service to this state and our country that Carrie Meek earned! To be part of the Miami City Council corruption clique is just unbelievable. Mr. Meek's district is not that much better off for his services. He has achieved a great deal and I can't say his congressional work has failed his community. It just hasn't changed it much and in one of the neediest in the country... it is not what I expect especially with the challenges we face today.

It's good to see that idjit Jeff Greene spending so much fluff money here in a state that he personally helped to shatter with predatory lending. All these commercials are adding something to our state economy. Fox channels are playing hell out of them. Life long Rethug, running as a Democrat playing to the Glen Beckites left in what was blue FL in the last election. Are we getting crazy yet? In a state with 11% unemployment, Greene spends freely to convince you that he's your buddy, he's your pal and he'll fix all your troubles that he lies and snarks Meek responsible for. Wingnutters are supporting Rubio, though. There's some real demonstrative ethics and solutions! Under suspicion for defrauding the state and refusing to spend or tax to as cure all to our economical woes... typical no talent strategy by a corporate politico who is adjusting his bank account in a higher paying under the table job. Crist has my eye, still. I'm watching him closely now. The situation on our west coast beaches keeps me focused on him. It's our eastern beaches soon enough.

Are you keeping some good thoughts for our Animal brothers and sisters of marine life in the Gulf? Please do. That other country within our boarders, Texas, has done the unthinkable! They are releasing baby sea turtles by the thousands into the Gulf of Mexico. [Federal biologists are releasing thousands of endangered baby sea turtles into the western Gulf of Mexico, betting that by the time the silver dollar-sized swimmers make it to the oil-fouled waters of the eastern Gulf, BP will have cleaned up its goopy mess.] Miami Herald You can bet your ass some Republican bureaucrat is responsible. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service are proceeding with the annual release of Kemp's ridley turtle hatchlings off Padre Island National Seashore because Texas has not been significantly impacted by the oil spill. Before you can think 'you gotta be kidding me'... it's done. Another atrocity in one that keeps amassing so much more to list, it's unthinkable that more marine life would be purposely put into harms way. [However, Crouse acknowledged the release does present a risk of oil exposure. It took a team of 14 experts days to decide whether to release the Kemp's ridleys.

"It was a balancing act between the danger of holding them in captivity vs. the damage that could be done to them by the oil," Crouse said. "That's why it was not an easy decision."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that as of Wednesday, 167 visibly oiled sea turtles of various species had been collected alive. At least 482 have been found dead, but no oiled turtles have been found in Texas.

Carole Allen, director of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project's Gulf office in Houston, is a vocal critic of the hatchlings' release in Texas. At least some of the babies and nesting mothers should be kept in captivity until the oil is cleaned, she said.] The Kemp's ridleys are at the base of the ecosystem of our southern oceans. How can scientists do such a thing? Here in Florida, because of the proximity to the oil, loggerhead turtle nests are being collected and incubated. Hatchlings are being released on the state's eastern coast, far from the oil. They are an endangered species since '73. Call your reps. Call your senators. Call the White House. Do something. Anything. Make much ado....

BP Cover Ups - Sand Everywhere & the Boiling Surf.

2010-07-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

This is an older vid of the sand dumping in LA in Grand Isle. In a shocking interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on June 29th, Allegiance Capitol Corporation V.P. Fred McCallister said that BP is deliberately sinking oil with the toxic chemical disbursant [sic] Corexit, to hide the size of the oil spill. By sinking the oil before it can be collected, BP won't have to pay fines on it.
McCallister said, "Everybody in Europe, where the standard practice is to raise the oil and collect it, is scratching their heads, and quite honestly laughing at what's happening in the Gulf." He added, "Everyone is looking at us and wondering why we're allowing this to happen." The Examiner

This is one of my suspicions confirmed. Using dispersant never seemed to make sense to me. I could see using it near the well, where it would clear the water and improve visibility, but using it elsewhere just made no sense to me. It's not like dispersant makes the oil "go away."
And this isn't the only way BP is trying to cover up the damage and hide the oil. They seem to be trying (and thankfully, failing) to literally bury the story under tons of sand.

The sheer magnitude of spoilage, poisoning, murder of wildlife, the assurance of cancer causing pollution seeping into our state aquifers, the ongoing spew... though there is a cap, there is still leakage and it all asks each of us southerners the quiet, solitary question; how can we sit still for it? How could any of us apologize for our government past or present? They have allowed this to persist with corporate criminals in charge of the whole incident and resulting needs for accountability and clean up. As if BP can find a proper solution! How can any who hope for a family legacy, for children and grandchildren, how can anyone on the entire planet sit in passive silence day by day without erupting with the screaming inner terror and anger? How can you? If you can excuse the profiteering that corrupts the well being of our country, our personal health, our character and moral / ethical goodness... if can excuse any of it... shame on you.

How can BP or the USCG even hope to hide the hugeness of this with sand dumping ... which can only last a few weeks at best... a strategy that sends untold numbers of summer beach goers to the emergency rooms (as it is right now on west coast FL beaches?) BP seems to be thinking 'out of sight out of mind' and our government is back this play? How fucked up is this? From Barack Obama's White House? Bad shit, man. It's as if the cutting corners policy in profiteering standard at BP that is responsible for this ecocatastrophe is the strategy for 'clean up' efforts and our government is standing along side either twisting their hands in procrastinating delusion or complete collusion. Fuck. The President has lost my vote if any decent replacement steps up to the occasion. Done.

Those who would stand aside from this and pooh pooh the event, are complicit as goddamn fools.

[The following excerpt from a blog by the BPoilslick blog]
1. The beaches look great because there was a massive clean-up that took place all night the night before with heavy equipment on the beaches. Lighting was set up and dozers worked all night to cover up the oil on the beach in sensitive turtle hatching areas.

2. They worked almost up to concert time to keep the touristas unaware of the oil that is just under the fresh sand brought it to cover it.

3. Just down the beach in West Gulf Shores, (out of range of your send button) this is what the beach looked like.

4. People were in the water because the politicos said it was o/k. Not one MD has signed off on such statements. Governors are screaming come on down the water is fine... NOT.
We are calling it the Jaws syndrome. "We can't close our beaches during tourist season... Someone must die before we loose money!"

5. It matters not if there are large mats of oil on the beach, the dispersant mixes the toxins in the water column making it very difficult to see but it is there. The water has a pinkish hue to it and the surf foam is reddish brown.

6. Since the 4th weekend, there have been many complaints registered at local clinics with rashes, respiratory, and eye burning complaints. The mainstream media is not covering that. (no, I will not research the info for you and post links, no time, do it yourself)

7. Of course you are seeing and hearing the for profit media saying it is safe... The oil and coal industries are the highest paying customers they have. I can see where you would want to believe them but you really are blind if CNN or Fox are your sources.

Here is the real story...
A child's play bucket with seawater taken from the Gulf just 5 minutes before this photo was taken. There is oil in the water but the parent said he could not see it while in the surf.

The dumpsters full of contaminated sand was well out of sight of tourists.

Just a short boat ride across the bay on Dauphin Island these signs are posted but not on public beaches where tourists are, down on the West end where it was fairly deserted. I am not sure how they can claim the water on one side of the bay is contaminated and the other not.

I bought a new pair of tennis shoes on 06,06, 10. I wore them to Mexico then back to the beach. No problems until the week of 07/04. Weather kept us from flying so I worked the on beach for a while. On 07/07/ when I got in the truck and kicked the Bon Secour sand off of my shoes, I found gaping holes in the shoes. The tops were letting go from the soles and the rubber was soft as if being dissolved.

You believe the oil advertisers who say it is safe. I will continue to tell folks to come and bear witness to this disaster but STAY OUT OF THE WATER!

do the damn right thing! when?

2010-07-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Mr. Landry is pure American. Ms. Baez, so long ago, brought attention to the downtrodden masses with her guitar, successfully. Three days ago, Mr. Landry mimic-ed her methodology successfully in front of several politicians whom he graciously accounted for as 'caring'. But do they? Does the White House really care, either? BP is still running the show in the Gulf.... clean up? What exactly is the clean up? BP is hiring contracting services that will work at cut rates. Piling sand over large spates of beach to cover up the oil gluts on the shore line... so fucking stupid! As the tide comes and goes it reveals so clearly how the layer of sand cover up and height that BP took it to.

Hundreds of workers in the Gulf Coast cleaning up BP’s oil disaster have reported symptoms of nausea, vomiting, nose bleeds, and headaches, but those “almost all have been heat related,” according to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab.

Republican corruption and corporate handiness rules: The natural instinct to “do something!” when in danger has run up against the cold hand of reality. Bobby Jindal thought he had this great idea to spend countless amounts of money – all of which he funneled to a wealthy campaign contributor – on building sand berms to stop the oil in the Gulf from reaching the Louisiana coast. Scientists told Jindal the initiative could harm more than it helped, but he didn’t care, using the lack of an Army Corps of Engineers sign-off to his political advantage. The federal government gave in, and allowed Jindal to go ahead with the sand berms. And they washed out. Firedoglake

Charlie Crist is using the oil spill to strategize his campaign against the machine of wingnutter Rubio: I suspect the goal of painting Rubio as a radical played a role in Crist using his gubernatorial power to call a special legislative session to put a constitutional ban on offshore drilling on the November ballot. Due to the BP oil disaster, support for offshore drilling has collapsed in Florida, shoving Rubio’s pro-drilling stance far outside the mainstream. Sticking the measure on the ballot will keep the issue front and center until the election.

Now, batshit crazy moron's (opps, that's morans!) are accusing the President of using the oil spill to 'push a new energy bill' through the legislature. Fuck... ya know, if this oil spill and it's disastrous effects do not spur, galvanize this country to take a major step into an OIL FREE America... then we are truly captured by stupidity, manipulative fear based morals and point me towards Bimini. Michelle Bachman has capitalized on the oil spill in shoving out more moronic themes of leadership than than Truman Capote ever rolled syllables.

Upper Floridan aquifers are being slowly polluted by Gulf of Mexico waters. Soon there will be crude oil stains in the Okeechobee. It's so intolerable. And there is this video, since removed by BP buying it up from the network: BP employee whistle blowing

And here in FL, NOAA researchers are accused of hording spill demographic information. Yeah, well, they do / are its against the law. I realize we are choking on this steady diet of fear, disinformation, inequity INEQUITY!, spoilage, pollution, corruption, corporate crimes, yet we have to wait for the commissions and government to speak. Not like we can storm the castle with our pitchforks and hammerhandles. We vote in those who are supposed to be doing that. If any point finds any clarity in all of this ... it's be careful who you support and vote for. I feel chumped myself right about now for all the work I've done in the last two years for the Democrats.

NEW ORLEANS (Associated Press) - The plan to start choking off oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico was suddenly halted as government officials and BP said further analysis must be done Wednesday before critical tests could proceed.

No explanation was given for the decision, and no date was set for when testing would begin on the new, tighter-fitting cap BP installed on the blown-out well Monday.

In the meantime, oil continued spewing into the Gulf. AND YOU JUST WANT TO SCREAM!

A hopeful avenue opened up less than a month after the spill: I have assembled a team of the top law firms in the country whose combined experience, knowledge and proven success are available to assist you if you have been impacted by the BP oil spill. Please contact my colleagues at Levin Papantonio at 1-888-435-7001 to discuss your situation or email my law partner, Kevin Madonna, at kmadonna@kennedymadonna.com. / Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s website gives you options if you are Gulf resident ... Gods.... slouches in our direction ... and I am grieved awful.

And what the hell is UP with Al Gore? The best he can do for any kind of leadership on this is to NOTHING? I even googled his name with gulf oil spill and not a goddamn thing rolled up until a page of links later.

Sunday School....

2010-07-11T00:43:00.001-07:00

Who better to give lessons? The Goddess wordsmith lute mastery and melodious miracles.....

BP media lock down is a US Corporatocracy

2010-07-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

The law enforcement agencies are colluding with BP to intimidate journalists.

Anderson Cooper has given a report on this story. The story revolves around Lance Rosenfield - ProPulblica.org alternative media reporter. Taking picture of a BP refinery, in full public view, while on public road he was survealed and followed by the local constabulary to a local gas station where the law enforcement officials demanded to 'look at' his photos. As this transpired, a BP security officer arrived with an official from the Homeland Security offices. They began to intimidate Mr. Rosenfield. As a member of the press he refused to give access of to his story and the evidence of it until the collective goon squad threatened to incarcerate him, citing the Patriot Act. Mr. Rosenfield relented under this threat and gave up the photo's he had just taken. As the impromptu interrogation continued, a BP security goon asked Mr. Rosenfield for his personal information... he, very rightly, refused to. So! The police turned it over to the BP security goon.

As he related the incident on CNN:

"The BP -- the BP security guard showed up at that point and asked me for my personal information, and I declined, because he's a corporate security guard. And he turned to the police officer, who then turned over all my personal information. And I protested. I said I didn't understand under what legal -- what legal grounds he was able to give him my personal information."
The reporter, O'Brien, then asks him: "So, when you asked him, what did he say?
Lance replies, "He didn't give an answer. He said, well, we can -- we're going to do it anyway, whether you like it or not. And we can call our Homeland Security officer, Tom Robison, to come down here and explain it. But, you know, this is what I'm going to do anyway. And he didn't give me an answer. And then he did call Tom Robison. ...this Homeland Security officer came, Tom Robison, it seemed like his only point of being there was to intimidate me."

This is an example of local law enforcement and Homeland Security working FOR British Petroleum. It is "police state tactics" and in the name of a corporation that is out to harm the citizens of the United States... given authority by our government (ah, yeah, that would be the administration under President Barack Obama) to do so. To cover up the depth and destruction and ongoing poisoning of our shores and our inland water tables by BP. Under the eye of Admiral Thad Allen.
[If you pick up a professional camera and start snapping photos of a BP refinery, or a BP cleanup vessel, or a beach with an oil boom on it, you risk being followed, detained, questioned and intimidated. And if you don't surrender your own rights and consent to an illegal search of your photos or film footage, you will be hauled into a federal holding facility and held by the Department of Homeland Security until they feel like letting you go.] What this is establishing is this:
America is now a fascist corporatocracy that answers to the financial interests of the corporations -- at the expense of the freedoms of the People.
It goes on to repeat text from Newsweek, which states:

"As BP makes its latest attempt to plug its gushing oil well, news photographers are complaining that their efforts to document the slow-motion disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are being thwarted by local and federal officials -- working with BP -- who are blocking access to the sites where the effects of the spill are most visible. More than a month into the disaster, a host of anecdotal evidence is emerging from reporters, photographers, and TV crews in which BP and Coast Guard officials explicitly target members of the media, restricting and denying them access to oil-covered beaches, staging areas for clean-up efforts, and even flyovers."

Salon concludes with this surprisingly blunt statement: "The very idea that government officials are acting as agents of BP (of all companies) in what clearly seem to be unconstitutional acts to intimidate and impede the media is infuriating. Obviously, the U.S. Government and BP share the same interest -- preventing the public from knowing the magnitude of the spill and the inadequacy of the clean-up efforts -- but this creepy police state behavior is intolerable. "

What it all means

On one hand, it's fascinating to see the mainstream media suddenly discovering that we all live in a police state. Gee, Alex Jones and other freedom commentators have been warning about this for years, and they all got written off as "conspiracy theorists." But it turns out they were dead on.

There is a conspiracy under way right now. It's a conspiracy between the U.S. government and British Petroleum to cover-up all evidence of what's really happening in the Gulf Coast. "Conspiracy" is precisely the correct word to describe their behavior in all this, and I can only wonder how long it will take before the mainstream media reluctant utters the "C" word on air.

What's happening is exactly a conspiracy. The Random House Dictionary defines "conspiracy" as:

1. an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; plot.

2. a combination of persons for a secret, unlawful, or evil purpose.

3. an agreement by two or more persons to commit a crime, fraud, or other wrongful act.

Does that sound like what's happening with BP and the federal government? It sure does.

BP and the U.S. government are now clearly conspiring to use police powers to intimidate, threaten, detain and potentially imprison anyone who seeks to report on the truth of what's happening in the Gulf Coast.

And this, in turn, is the classic definition of what happens in a Police State.

From the same dictionary, a "Police State" is "a nation in which the police, especially a secret police, summarily suppresses any social, economic, or political act that conflicts with governmental policy."

Once again, that's exactly what we're seeing in the Gulf Coast. BP's private security goons are the new "secret police." And with the help of local and federal law enforcement officials, they are actively suppressing the public's right to know the truth about what's happening there.

You see, the real loss of what's happening with the BP oil catastrophe isn't merely the damage being caused by the oil; it's the destruction of our freedoms as BP stream rolls the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights to destroy our freedoms and once again place us under British rule!

You are now subjects, not citizens, once you enter the Gulf Coast zone in America. Your "rights" have been stripped away and replaced by threats and intimidation, backed by an armed band of corporate-sponsored secret police.

You are witnessing the end of America the free and the rise of a fascist corporatocracy where all your rights and freedoms have been suspended until further notice.

And now, shamelessly, even local law enforcement isn't on your side anymore. They've sold out to their corporate slavemasters to the point where BP is now covering the salaries of nearly all the cops and Sheriffs working in certain areas there. As Mac McClelland from Mother Jones reportedly said, "One parish has 57 extra shifts per week that they are devoting entirely to, basically, BP security detail, and BP is paying the sheriff's office."

The truth is too scary

All this can only make you ask the obvious question: What could possibly be happening in the Gulf Coast right now that's so scary that BP and the federal government is willing to destroy your rights in order to protect their secrets?
That's the relevant question here, no?
Clearly there must be a very big secret in the Gulf of Mexico -- a secret so devastating to BP's financial future that it is willing to do almost anything to avoid that secret from getting out.
Why are beach cleanup workers being required to sign non-disclosure agreements? Why are journalists being threatened and intimidated? Why are local cops being used as BP's private security force?
I can only shudder at the possible answers to this all-important question. A secret so dark and so dangerous that BP would do anything to keep it from getting out.
There can only be a couple of possible answers to this that would justify such police state actions:

• Perhaps BP and the federal government is about to unleash a nuclear explosion to stop the oil outflow, and they don't want anyone knowing about it until it's already done.

• Perhaps the U.S. government is planning a multi-state roundup and evacuation of the population to clear out the entire Gulf Coast region in anticipation of something big and dangerous (such as a nuke, or an oil-soaked firestorm of a major U.S. city, or a dangerous new chemical being dumped in the Gulf by BP, etc.)

• Perhaps human bodies are washing up on the beaches for some unknown reason, and the shock of it would be too much for the public to bear.

... or maybe there's some other unimaginable reason none of us "little people" have thought of yet.
In any case, the situation doesn't look pretty. The very freedoms that we just celebrated on Independence Day have been obliterated by a British corporation which now rules our U.S. law enforcement and Department of Homeland Security.
I can only conclude that our government has been infiltrated by a foreign corporation that is now using our own government to enslave us by destroying the very freedoms we once fought so hard to acquire. We are now living under a fascist corporatocracy, and we are seeing first-hand that these corporations will stop at nothing to protect their interests, even if it means sacrificing our freedoms.
B.P. = Beyond Prosecution.

Fresh Repast! The Soma Center & CityPlace for Protest!

2010-07-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

LAKE WORTH: ORGANICS Just about every blog entry for so long has been captured by the ongoing eco-crisis in the Gulf of Mexico... but you have to take care of your body and soothe your soul. Downtown on Lake Ave. you can discover your fill for both at The Soma Center: a Raw & Vegan Cafe' / Yoga Studio (and there is the Simply Shanti Boutique beside it!). Boost your immunity and de-stress, The Soma Center offers more than meals... discover the "Yoga by Donation" program! The cafe' menu will invite you back again and again, conscious choices for eating healthy assure it. In fact, setting your consciousness is all a part of Soma's anchor in our community. A wellness lifestyle encouraged and presented: the Soma Center has several events, classes and seminars. Music, local artisans and really good food. Did I mention the dancing? There's dancing!!! Cultural excursions and indigenous art. So popular in our downtown district that they have opened up another Soma Center on Clematis St in downtown West Palm Beach. No excuses for not eating and living healthier when The Soma Center so conviently placed in our community!

Contact: 609 Lake Ave, Lake Worth PH: 561.296.9949

300 Clematis St, West Palm Beach PH: 561.429.5509

So !!! Did you know that the ACLU has had CityPlace in court for the last year? Do you want to know why? And what has come of it?

{Do you have an issue close to your heart, but don't want to go anywhere scary to protest it? Do you define "scary" as any place without valet parking? Then have we got news for you! For the low, low fee of permanent yuppie status, you too can now protest on the streets and sidewalks of CityPlace!

After kicking out an artist (who had the audacity to set up an easel) and a woman whose t-shirt decried puppy mills, downtown West Palm's glorified outdoor mall announced yesterday that it would relax its protest rules to end a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union. Just don't even try it under
storefront awnings, people. Kapish?} New Times article here

Figuring out the Governor's race! If you can...

In a standard, two party race, the Republican is running in front of the Democratic candidate by mere 2 % points. The largest vote is currently going to the "I don't know" candidate. Republican Bill McCullum is a career politician offering more of the same old Republican shit, recycled. An old, tired Rethug politico. No changes and probably an eventual platform for big oil and offshore drilling... HE's A REPUBLICAN~! McCullum has run for everything forever... he offers us no new solutions. Yet folks who are questioned and answered that the sate is heading in a bad direction... 6 out of 10 will vote for him. Dumb and stupid don't learn. As Attorney General he has held governance over and ignored the corruption and fiscal malfesience of the state's Republican Party. In a state where Glen Beck book sales are topping the nation (gad! doesn't it make you want to gag?) "bubba dumb" is enjoying a minor heyday. Considering the BP Gulf spill and the subsequent despoiling of our shorelines, oceans, reef, seagrass beds and angling industry... it will take a sincere experience in solutions / problem solving!

The only candidate that is offering that kind of integrity and known quantity is Alex Sink.

Alex Sink is the new blood. Her North Carolina roots lend her the sincere accent and her business sense gives her a grasp of how to successfully organize, delegate and follow through on the issues and in implementing new state policies. She as a proven record as FL's CFO. Even if she does tend to demonstrate "Blue Dog" politics, she offers solutions vs sell outs and further spoilage of our home.

On the other hand is Bill McCullum: a total wingnut! The lowdown on Mr. McCullum is best explained as total waste of time in the Reid Report blog:

{Bill McCollum is Florida’s attorney general, and he wants to be the state’s next governor. So why is he wasting his time, and the state’s time, joining fellow wingnut A.G.s in threatening fruitless lawsuits over healthcare reform instead of doing his job? It’s not like McCollum hasn’t got anything to do, between the veritable criminal enterprise his party is running here in the sunshine state, with Republican lawmakers padding their lifestyles with donor money and then hiding the evidence, the soon-to-be-revived “leadership” slush funds (cue the grand juries!) … and the endless parade of corrupt public officials being taken down by the feds, and occasionally, by the always late to the party state attorneys. The only thing, in fact, that McCollum has paid attention to during his tenure, or at least pretended to on television, is cyber crime. That’s it. That’s his legacy. Commercials saying Bill McCollum cares about cyber crime. The rest of McCollum’s time is spent sniping over federal legislation he has nothing to do with anymore, because, and this is important, Bill, he isn’t in Congress anymore.
And this guy is ahead in the polls? Forget what’s the matter with Kansas. What the hell is the matter with Florida?
UPDATE: Changes to the vote procedure means that as of today, there’s no “deem and pass” to sue over in the healthcare vote. What to do, what to do, what to do …}

You'd think we could get a majority clue! Vote for Alex... !

They have made our SEA a DYING HELL.

2010-07-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

We are fighting against vicious, big profiteering oil ...it's like swinging away in the dark. We make our stand with Mother Nature. We are trying not to fade away as it plays out before us__ helpless, no outcry, as big corporations crush our humanity and savage our animal brothers and sisters, the planet in pursuing profits. They consume our relations! Is this the future we create for our children? We live in the midst of a family of living creatures, in eco-systems... refusing to share our world. This relentless murder of our environment diminishes us; morally. Our souls are in atrophy! What makes us human is becoming Unseen. Industrialization rules us, we don't rule it. We rape the Earth Mother who cares for our existence in silent constancy, world without end. We are reaping what we have sowed. And we might now understand en masse that there is a world with an end. A filthy, dirty, corrupted ending choking on our 'comforts', ..... this is day 73 of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico without end and coastlines suffering deeper in the oncoming high tides of Hurricane Alex.

A very large thank you to Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen: BPoilslick Blog

The video he filmed shows us too much for some to bear. There are those who refute it as lies. Yeah, they hired the dolphins and that sperm whale to star in an eco-disaster film... How can people be so heartless and cold and purposely blind?

......{But when that spill occurred two months ago, it soon swamped the Marine Spill Response Corp.
MSRC "has never had to deal with anything even remotely this large and chaotic," said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, which is suing BP for damages under the Clean Water Act.} Washington Post read it all here

Overwhelmed and standing still, the agencies and stop gap facilities big oil corporations and our government had 'in place' to 'handle' this kind of eco-disaster is failing miserably. There is no in between or 'ongoing effort' here ... there is only failure. The Gulf of Mexico is a dead zone in the making and there is nothing, no response, no plan, no tactic being used to stray from this course.

Today: The oil that's spewed for two and a half months from a blown-out well a mile under the sea is expected to surpass the 140 million gallon mark, eclipsing the record-setting Ixtoc I spill off Mexico's coast from 1979 to 1980. Even by the lower end of the government's estimates, at least 71.2 million gallons are in the Gulf. As the Gulf gusher neared the record, Hurricane Alex whipped oil-filled waves onto the Gulf Coast's once-white beaches. The government has pinned its latest cleanup hopes on a huge new piece of equipment: the world's largest oil-skimming vessel, which arrived Wednesday.

The tanker / recycler "The Whale" has been brought in to scoop and recycle surface crude oil in the Gulf. It is a huge vessel, a floating city! It takes in contaminated water through 12 vents on either side of the bow. The oil is then supposed to be separated from the water and transferred to another vessel. The water is channeled back into the sea.

Meanwhile,
A lawsuit filed on Wednesday says BP is violating the Endangered Species Act and other laws with their "controlled burns" in the Gulf of Mexico.

The complainants, Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Centre for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Animal Legal Defence Fund, have asked the Federal court for a temporary restraining order to stop all burning activities "until...mechanisms are implemented that will prevent any additional sea turtles from being burned alive."

"It is horrifying that these innocent creatures whose habitat has already been devastated by the oil spill are now being burned alive," AWI president Cathy Liss told the court in Louisiana.

Containment efforts put in place since a BP-leased offshore oil rig exploded April 20 unleashing the worst oil spill in US history include "controlled burns", in which oil is gathered by ship-towed floating booms and set on fire.

"Endangered sea turtles, including the Kemp's ridley, one of the rarest sea turtles on Earth, are caught in the gathered oil and unable to escape when the oil is set ablaze," the animal welfare groups said.

They said some 430 sea turtles from endangered species have perished so far in the oil spill.

$$$$

In his first appearance before Congress since taking on the job, Kenneth Feinberg on Wednesday criticized BP's (BP) process for compensating those who have lost their livelihoods in the spill's wake. The oil company has paid out almost $130 million so far on 41,000 claims -- but more than 80,000 claims have been submitted. "It is not sufficiently efficient. It is not paying all that many small business claims," Feinberg said in testimony before the House Committee on Small Business. Instead of the month-to-month emergency checks going out now, Feinberg plans to have his new entity, the Gulf Spill Independent Claims Fund, send out six-month lump sum payments "to give small businesses more certainty." Exactly what constitutes a "legitimate" claim is still being determined, but Feinberg said that he envisions limits.

That $20 billion seems to be finding it's ceiling!

Elsewhere: The President has NOT put a moratorium on oil drilling. Since the spill, 17 new offshore oil drilling projects have been permitted. Even the six-month deepwater moratorium was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge June 22, leaving it void if not overturned on appeal or reinstated on different legal grounds. (Nevermind that the judge has invested in Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded, Halliburton, which handled the faulty cementing of the well, and about a dozen other companies involved in offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.) And Obama has always been a supporter of offshore oil, though some of his environmentalist supporters seem to have forgotten that; he made good on a campaign promise shortly before the BP oil spill started and proposed opening additional offshore waters to oil and gas exploration – in the Gulf of Mexico, along the Atlantic coast and off Alaska. (Permits to start drilling in those new waters have been suspended temporarily.)

It's touted that boycotting BP gas stations makes no difference to the big oil corporation as they are individually owned and __BP disinvested in its U.S. gasoline chain in 2007, leaving independent owners invested most heavily in local stations. They pay BP a licensing fee and may (or may not) be more likely to carry BP gasoline, but the economics of wholesale oil and gas is such that BP, Britain's largest company, is unlikely to suffer much from a retail gas boycott, but BP the local station owner could. Anyway, what's the better alternative? And unfortunately, oil ends up in a lot of products other than gasoline, under a lot of different brands, making it difficult to avoid one company's product. You know what? If we boycott BP successfully.... who the heck is going to do business with them? It doesn't matter... it doesn't affect them? Horseshit! Another reverse psycho-babble from big corporate PR for you to fall for.

The U.S. imports 57% of the oil we burn, and two-thirds of those imports come from politically unstable or hostile countries. As a nation, we spend more than $700 million a day on imported oil (the figure was more than $1 billion as recently as 2008, when oil prices were higher). There isn't enough oil offshore to offset that imbalance. An analysis by the Energy Information Administration, the most credible government voice on energy issues, predicted that new offshore oil drilling would result in a whopping 3-cent difference in the price of gas by 2030.

There are those who claim this incident is isolated.... unusual to the deep water off shore drilling community. More bullshit! The facts keep piling up showing negligence – or at the very least, bad decision-making – by BP, and many of those decisions and conditions may be unique to BP, which has been criticized before this for a culture that put profits far ahead of safety and environmental protection. But disaster preparedness by other oil companies drilling in the Gulf, and oversight by the government, is virtually identical.

Just how many barrels of oil are spilling a day? BP doesn't want that to ever be calculated.

_______________________________________

Many people, lots of them taking an active part in protest or clean up with wildlife, are overwhelmed by the film of ongoing atrocity the oil spill is triggering. Many can not watch the films ... there are some who "poo poo" it all as lies or 'nonsense' or bullshit. Just as BP would have it. As long as you know that sticking your head in the sand, the oil soaked sand, is another small 'win' or victory in the fight for big corporate oil. We must witness what is happening, we must not fade away from this! The people in Mexico, during the Ixtoc spill in the 70's, were too afraid of the police, politicians and big corporate oil to say a damn thing. It was international groups that appealed to the world for a justice for nature.... which, for the most part, was ignored. The demographic of environmentalists, conservationists and green defined Americans has swelled vastly. Our voice can make a difference. Our outrage can mean the difference! Please don't turn away in apathy! Please continue to voice you outrage and to urge your local politicians to do the same and to make a political / fiscal difference where it is needed in the 'clean up'.

This made a big impression on my life. I still feel it. I hope you do too. How many know that this commercial was 'thought up' by a few young Republicans who first peopled the Environmental Protection Agency?

Facebook Revolutionaries - online eco-activists!

2010-06-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

If you don't network using Facebook, this post should give you an idea of how you can network with like minded folks in the community reaching out to make a positive difference in this crisis. If you are one of the kindred who, in swift growth, are accessing Facebook to network events and ideas to combat the Gulf Oil Spill Crisis, then you know all about the Facebook Revolutionaries. because you have become one! The ones I keep my eye on are in Florida. Yet the contributions to revolt come from all over the world.

You can find a Boycott BP page and the wonderful group Dave created called Hands Across The Sand. Both are eco-active in this crisis. Just search Facebook for the pages concerned with the Gulf Oil Spill crisis and come up with loads of site / pages where you might contribute to a small MISS. coastal town to helping the community at large in a specific town in any one of four states. As the west coast of Florida becomes saturated with this crude black death rolling in on each wave, the more important it becomes to take a stand, support those community groups working to resolve this situation in the temporary as it comes upon us.... and to keep connected to other like minded folks who are seeking a solution. I know.... what fracken' solution can there be? One: we need to keep a voice strong to our community leaders in making BP responsible to get the funds into the proper accounts so we will not have to struggle all the more in initiating "clean up" ....!!!! That's a vital message to keep visible and heard in our communities. Here are a few Facebook pages to interact with!

Bike Past BP

Boycott BP 1

Boycott BP 2

Hands Across The Sand

Gulf Healing Energy Vortex

Make It Public - a demand to know just how much is leaking per day!

___________________________________________________________________

ALEX: A BLOW ME DOWN?

Pensacola: Here it is. The threat of a hurricane and 70 to 135 million gallons of crude oil floating in the Gulf of Mexico (that's just this week's total). Will a hurricane dilute the oil and speed its breakdown? Or would it pollute bays and the surrounding land and cause health problems for area residents?

The bottom line: No one really knows.

"This is a very, very complex problem with multiple dimensions," said W. Ross Ellington, chairman of the Oil Spill Academic Task Force at Florida State University.

Unsure of the level of health risks and the ultimately added destruction of the crude oil in the wind and rain... Floridians are left in the storm-path without any real precautionary remedies nor even the idea of what is to come. This opens up the question of questionable Florida insurance coverages and who will ultimately take care of these bills? I said there was something very 'slick' in how BP ponied up the $20 billion so swiftly. Though they exclaim no 'cap' on damages or loss of income... there are those who have awaited 21 years since the Exxon Valdez incident. And there is no comparison to the ongoing damage in the Gulf. Who satisfies the ongoing generational needs to the environment? Our government leaders have been real soft on climate policy and clean energy solutions. From this President, it's a major disappointment. (to say the least) Are they aware of the damage that will be done to the whole state of Florida in this crisis? An impending hurricane? I don't think so. Call the White House! Let them know! Call your Reps, the Senators. Bitching is about all that can be done.

ECO-ACTIVISM MUST BE EMPLOYED AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY~!~!~!

Meanwhile on the west coast folks are loosing their tempers with not just BP but the what they experience as the inefficiency of the Obama Administration. Skimmers are lined up in the Gulf on standby at day 71 ... NOT being utilized yet. State and local budgets are paying for what BP is supposed to be (according to their fucking PR commercials) expediting payment for. No BP money has come as far east as Florida while the oil hits our beaches in growing volume.

Another major problem: the dispersant STILL being used regularly as the oil keeps gushing is called "Corexit". Its mega toxic. Swimming in the gulf or the ocean where the oil has reached, or is approaching should absolutely NOT be permitted.We are learning just how toxic this chemical is and how badly we need to be using the proper protection by anyone helping in clean-up efforts.

And here's another stick to stir the waters:

“The Coast Guard Friday “redoubled” efforts to keep the Deepwater Horizon oil spill from impacting Gulf states by calling in more skimming boats and equipment from the Netherlands, Norway, France, and Spain after previously telling one Dutch official “Thanks, but no thanks,” to an offer of help.
That revelation comes as Florida lawmakers beg for more skimmers to ward off Gulf spill oil approaching the state’s white sand beaches and as the Unified Command – led by Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen – struggles with chain-of-command issues as BP changes its on-scene leadership.
The news of more foreign ships steaming toward the Gulf also comes amid a heated political debate over the role of the 1920 Jones Act, a protectionist law that prohibits foreign-flagged boats and crews from doing port-to-port duty within 3 miles of the US coast.
On Friday, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) of Texas filed legislation to waive the Jones Act to welcome more high-tech foreign clean-up boats, saying the Jones Act is standing in the way. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said last week “that we have not had [a] problem” with the Jones Act. At the same time, US marine interests complain that up to 1,500 US-flagged skimmers sit idle, and should be used first.”

To waive or not to waive? The Obama Administration seems more focused on getting around laws than complying with them, but it might be good to get those skimmers.

_______________________________________________________________________

Has anyone noticed how much this has become just POLITICS? An ECO-CRISIS? It's shameful and shattering the lives of millions of southeastern Americans. Moreover, it is streaming through the Gulf and winding its' way down through the Dry Tortugas and into eastern Caribbean waters along the "Treasure Coast" of Florida. My home. I keep myself focused on what possible positive actions I can take, especially any kind of ECO-ACTIVISM. That's all any of us can do ...

until election day.

The Monsters are coming and Suicide is Painless.

2010-06-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

LAKE WORTH, FL. EAST COAST: A test of your seaworthiness was in your ability to climb up onto the flybridge with a drink in each hand. Unless you've stood at the helm on a flybridge, making way through the ocean, navigating the waves and searching the sea or the horizon for the pleasure of it or with the skill to determine where the fish are... well, it's a lifestyle. One that rapidly vanishes in the southeaster seas of the United States. Perhaps it's now that ... it has vanished... no more pleasure boating. No more deep sea fishing, angling. No more dolphin spotting... oh hell no! Today a baby dolphin sought her refuge in the arms of shocked citizens on Pensacola beaches surveying the latest oil spoiling the beaches and died soon after. This is our ocean. This our sea. This is our heart.... and for one of us... a captain for twenty years, it was too much. Suicide was less painless, and so he climbed the ladder up to his flybridge with a gun and ate it. Fuck you BP ... would be my best guess at a suicide note... but why bother.... the Alabama boat captain had the whole of the Gulf of Mexico for a suicide note to leave.

Our mettle is being tested. Mettle testing describes life now, all along the shores of LA, MS, AL, FL and I think it may be coming all the way 'round before it's.....? There are those who say it may never be 'over' ... capped. How do we cope? Today we live with the horror as a baby dolphin washes onto the Pensacola beaches and we learn about William Allen Kruse, a charter fishing boat captain ... known as the "Rookie" for the last 20 years, "Rookie" the name of the vessel.

GULF SHORES, Ala. -- A 55-year-old charter fishing captain preparing Wednesday morning to launch into another day's work with the oil spill cleanup sent his crew members on an errand at a Fort Morgan marina and then, while they were within earshot, shot himself in the head, authorities said.

[But then, two months ago, the leaking BP oil well began pouring crude into the waters where he took families fishing for snapper and amberjack.

Two weeks and two days ago, with his fishing grounds closed, Kruse, 55, took a job working for BP's cleanup crew. For the very people who'd caused the mess.

Other boat captains said Kruse, like them, found the effort confusing, overly bureaucratic and frustrating. He told them to keep their heads down, not to worry about the hassles. But those close to him saw he was losing weight.

On Wednesday morning, Kruse drove to his boat as usual. As the deckhands prepared for the day's work, Kruse, as the captain, was supposed to turn on the generator. But after a few minutes, the crew members said, they didn't hear anything and went looking for him. A deckhand found him in the wheelhouse, shot in the head.

'Reality's kicking in'The Baldwin County, Ala., coroner's office called his death an apparent suicide and said Kruse didn't leave a note. There's no way to be sure why he would have taken his life. But his friends see the tragedy as a clear sign of the BP spill's hidden psychological toll on the Gulf Coast, an awful feeling of helplessness that descends on people used to hard work and independence.

"We're helping cover up the lie. We're burying ourselves. We're helping them cover up the [expletive] that's putting us out of work," said a 27-year-old deckhand who was working for Kruse on Wednesday and spoke on condition of anonymity. He said Kruse was facing the same problems as others in his business: "It's just setting in with 'em, you know; reality's kicking in. And there's a lot of people that aren't as happy as they used to be."

Around the gulf, social service providers are dealing with a rising tide of mental health crises. Groups of Baptists are deploying extra chaplains in parishes along the coast. In southern Louisiana, where the impact was felt first, about 1,500 people have received counseling services from Catholic Charities.

From past disasters, such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, health experts say they expect a wave of physical health problems, such as high blood pressure and heart disease. But they also expect more-subtle problems, as people absorb the spill's impact on their lives: depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic issues.

"We're seeing already an increase in suspiciousness, arguing, domestic violence. . . . We're already having reports of increased drinking, anxiety, anger and avoidance," Howard J. Osofsky of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans said during a two-day hearing this week on the physical and emotional impact of the spill.

Michele Many, a social worker who helps fishermen's wives, said the stress of the spill is compounded by its uncertainty. Oil is still pouring out, spreading, with an unmanageable toxicity that evokes comparisons to disease.

"The oil spill is like a cancer or tumor," said Many, who works at Louisiana State University. "It is creeping and unpredictable from whether people will have livelihoods or health issues later from helping clean it up. You just don't know whether it is benign or malignant."

In Lafitte, La., 200 hundred miles from the marina where Kruse died, Claudia Helmer heard about the suicide Wednesday afternoon.

"Oh, Lord," she said. "That is really, really sad."

And she immediately began to fret about her fisherman husband, Gerry, and their 19-year-old son, who were spending five days on the Gulf, helping clean up oil.] msnbc.com

If the monsters are coming, they might like a cool pitcher of Margaritas with the parrotheads. Jimmy Buffet has dedicated a July 1st free concert to helping out the Gulf Coast region ... where his new Pensacola beach hotel, Marguriatville is located. There is no doubt about the dedication and love Mr. Buffet carries for the southeastern United States. His mettle is being tested too. His vessel is as oil soaked as are all the rest.

In the meantime, oil floods out from a mile below decks. Its despoiling the ocean... the whole big ole Mother / Father Ocean of mamma Earth. I've recently experience the dilettante mindset of this crisis online. The humidity is oppresive right now, even at night. Last night the humidity tasted slightly of petroleum. What with a half assed Health Care bill, a non-starter of a banking reform bill and now the atrocity of corporate greed and profiteering... we are definitely a 'third world country'.... at least down here close the Conch Republic, we are. The bigger monsters strain to break free and join the ongoing nasty; the suggestion of a nuclear warhead to eventually plug the hole makes it seem to me, and so many like minded, that the government is just as stupid as we feared they were during Bush years. (oh how that hurts to utter)

These are our ocean babies. The children of our friends, a sailor's friend. How can we allow this?

An URGENT PLEA TO FREE CAPTURED DOLPHINS ON FL WEST COAST

2010-06-15T04:53:00.000-07:00

I grew up on the ocean in south Florida and the Caribbean. I was seven the first time I bow rode (held on to the bowrail on my mom's 42' Chris Craft and hung my feet over as we made way) through Hillsboro Inlet into the open sea. We were only a few moments past the inlet markers when beneath my dangling feet appeared dolphins riding on each side of the bow of the boat and delighting my little sister and I. I still remember that first time. Later, as we grew, we would go out to sea on mom's boat a mile or so and cut the engines, put on mask, fins and take a scrub brush to clean the hull of the boat. I swam with dolphins all of my young life and up to the last time I owned a boat... I was in my 30's. Friends and family know how I feel about capturing dolphins to swim with. I swear this is not a plea in those (urgent) animal rights.... THIS IS A PLEA TO SAVE THE LIFE OF PORPOISES HELD IN CAPTURE TO 'SWIM WITH THE DOLPHINS' AS THE GULF OIL SPILL FILLS THE BASIN COASTLINE OF FLORIDA. It isn't a political statement or argument. These are my friends. I love them. Please don't let them be caught in the vaporous, often seawater invisible poison of the BP oil spill. They are my friends. Don't let them die. They were my childhood friends, they are my friends all my life... please, please, if you own a business that trades in dolphin swimming events, please release them so they will have a chance to leave the area.

Each day now more than 70,000 barrels of crude oil despoil the Gulf of Mexico. The same Gulf of Mexico basin of the west coast of Florida, where several 'swim with the dolphins' businesses exist. Please, please... let them live. Give them their freedom.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Why Crist?

2010-06-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

I'm a liberal commie pinko extreme Greenie kinda gal. I worked my ass off for President Obama while my bff, the famous TLH, worked as his FL teleprompter. I still hold a hope that the fellow who penned "The Audacity of Hope" will return to the day, to the stage... fill the oval office. I mean, it's been hell. Like dissing Labor? Geesh. Here's another point: for months, after doing the due diligence on Kendrick Meek, I've been against him as the Democratic candidate. I actively blogged and worked in the DCCC office local to say NO TO MEEK. He has a great deal to answer for, take a gander at the Miami Herald's series of articles "Poverty Peddlers" that reveals Meek and his mom to be play for pay politico's out of corrupt Miami. So now my homestate is in the midst of a senatorial race without mud flaps and even much much worse:

The Gulf Oil Spill traveling traveling traveling down through the seasgras Dry Tortugas up alone the eastcoastline of the 'Treasure / Gold Coast' onto our shorelines. Gov. Crist is making choice for us in this looming crisis as he handles all of the presiding issues....

In the midst of all of this, running for the senate seat for our state he stays his own course:

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Charlie Crist rejected a controversial abortion bill Friday, using his veto pen to repudiate the conservative Republicans who elected him and championed the legislation as ``the most significant pro-life measure in Florida's history.'' Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/12/1676357/abortion-veto-puts-crist-in-the.html#ixzz0qdlzF2VL

Mr. Crist did not allow the dispicable law being enforced within the 'bible belt' state of Oaklahoma to be cast over the Palmetto State (FL). His veto sends a message to independent women voters that speaks volumes on the ageless issue of whom has ultimate say over the sanctity of a physical body. He get's my "arrgh matey!" on this veto.

``This bill places an inappropriate burden on women seeking to terminate pregnancy,'' Crist wrote in his veto message, saying he put his personal ``pro-life'' views aside in making the decision. ``Personal views should not result in laws that unwisely expand the role of government and coerce people to obtain medical tests or procedures that are not medically necessary,'' he said.

Gov. Crist reminds me of my uncle, Rep. Frank J. Horton of 34th District of NY from 63 - 97, the man who penned the Environmental Protection Act! Not all Republicans are in politics to make money and enjoy power pushing. There are those who are aching to make positive contributions.

[``All pro-choice women of this state will be supporting Kendrick Meek,'' said Barbara DeVane, a lobbyist for the National Organization of Women. ``He's not a Charlie-come-lately.'' ] Ms. DeVane exposes the fundamental problem with politics today in a two party system... because Meek is a Democrat, he should get the vote. Even the laudable and effective Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz from south FL has put her support behind Meek, but only in that 'party dispensing' formula. You don't see her stomping for him ala statewide with enthusiastic aplomb. I would think it's because Ms. Wasserman-Schultz is an intelligent politician with a personal integrity .... yet, then again, she is playing 'party line' in supporting him. What went with her integrity?

[Crist's action marks the third veto of a high-priority bill passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature. Earlier, Crist rejected campaign finance legislation he said would reinstate lawmaker ``slush funds'' and vetoed a controversial teacher merit pay bill known as SB6. Overall, Crist vetoed 17 bills and struck a number of spending provisions from the state budget.]

SEA TURTLE TIME!

PLEASE REMEMBER.... MORE THAN EVER, TAKE THE TIME TO HELP AND VIEW. THAT BP OIL LOOMS CLOSER TO US AND THREATENS OUR SEA LIFE.

A voice goes silent...Kristin Hoke succumbs to cancer.

2010-06-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

When any one of our voices' is kept silent, for any reason, we are diminished. Awfully more so when the voice of a community is hushed after such care full and considerate choices on what to say and when. A voice goes silent.

Kristin Hoke, the WPBF-TV 25 anchorwoman whose valiant 5 1/2-year battle with congenital breast cancer inspired viewers and fellow cancer warriors, died early this morning at her Jupiter home. She was 42.
Hoke, whose personal stories earned her four regional Emmy awards, waged a public fight against her disease, even as it aggressively metastasized. Her video journal entries, which recount her operations, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and her 10-trip commute to Boston for clinical trial sessions at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, stand as a testimony to Hoke's perseverance in her struggle to survive.
"Kristin's will to live inspired family, friends and strangers alike," her family said in a statement to WPBF. "Sharing her journey and knowing it helped others fueled her determination."
But along with her private pain, Hoke also shared with viewers her greatest joy: the birth of her "miracle baby," Isabella "Bella" Margaret Cecere, now 3 years old. - Liz Balmaseda

KRISTIN, IN HER OWN WORDS:
As told to The Post
"The good and the bad in life are side by side, and what you choose to notice will dictate how your life will be. That's whether you're sick or not." (March 2008)
"I sometimes think, 'How did I get through those first six months?' I was going through treatment and raising Bella and up all night with her. It was a crazy time. Someday, I'll tell her all about it, when, hopefully, it's all just a distant memory." (March 2008)
"I try to focus on the people giving me the treatment -- they're the most wonderful people in the world. We sit there and joke and laugh. I truly believe that your immune system knows what you think, and it wires itself accordingly. So I think it's really important to be positive. If you dread every part of it, it's only going to make it worse. It doesn't help. I mean, yes, there are days that I'm tired or discouraged, but you just have to keep going." (March 2008)
"My message is not to be in denial or push feelings under. Face what you're facing, but stay positive. Look, I don't want people to read this article and say, 'Oh, she has no problem with anything.' No -- it's tough. It's definitely tough." (March 2008)
"I realize now that having Bella was all for a reason. She has given me the focus to keep fighting. She makes us laugh every day," Hoke told The Post in February 2009. "I don't know how it's possible to have so much joy, but it is." (Feb. 2009)

Mean Season so far....Bring out the Parrotheads~!

2010-06-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Is a dilly....huh? How's this....
The brown pelican might likely become extinct through this ... the incident in the Gulf is being called at wildlife apocalypse along the Gulf Coast that everyone has feared for weeks is fast becoming a terrible reality.

Pelicans struggle to free themselves from oil, thick as tar, that gathers in hip-deep pools, while others stretch out useless wings, feathers dripping with crude. Dead birds and dolphins wash ashore, coated in the sludge. Seashells that once glinted pearly white under the hot June sun are stained crimson. No one feels or thinks there can be a halt to the eminent destruction and cost of precious animal life. Shameful and emotionless, the government still drags its' heels to make BP cough up the $ to begin a meaningful clean up and response.

It should be noted that this story can not be confirmed nor verified. I have chose to add it here because multiple sources have reported this incident even though they are unverifiable.
As early as May 9 it was announced that FEMA evacuation protocol for forest fires in and around Tampa, Florida could be activated at a moment’s notice in the event of the oil slick approaching Florida’s coastline. One proposal is to undergo a ‘controlled burn’ of surface oil in the Gulf to prevent the oil reaching Florida’s coast. This would result in highly toxic fumes blowing ashore. In fact, toxic fumes have already been reported elsewhere as Gulf residents complain of breathing difficulties and nausea:
If a regular storm can displace oil like this, what would a hurricane do in the upcoming hurricane season? This season is predicted to be ‘fierce‘, by the way. If weather systems can dump fish and frogs there’s no reason why oil couldn’t be lifted clean into the atmosphere to then fall back to the ground many miles inland. Stranger things have happened.
There is also the dispersal agent ‘Corexit 9500′ that BP has been used in unprecedented amounts (700,000 gallons). Sounds like very toxic stuff (it’s banned in many countries around the world because it is so toxic), and fishermen have already reported getting sick from inhaling it. What are the chances that any oil that either evaporates off into the atmosphere from ‘controlled burns’ or is lifted clear from the water by storms then falls back to land with this toxic chemical mixed in with it?

But what about the legalities? More than half of the judges who will sit on lawsuits brought against BP are financially connected to the oil industry. Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean – and others who regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells, according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed 2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.
This really isn't a very good sign....what with the White House response to this crisis still built on 'industry expertise' to resolve the catastrophe. Here in Florida we are already seeing the signs of the infamous 'tar balls' arriving along the panhandle. More follows. Gov. Crist, with Mr. Buffet addressed

concerns of locals...in Pensacola wearing his Margaritaville-brand flip-flops, stood Saturday on a pier at tar-ball blotched Pensacola Beach and led a pro-beach rally, urging Floridians to "not get a 'sky is falling' attitude" over the looming oil slick.

Buffett said he has survived hurricanes, getting shot at in Jamaica and a plane crash, and he insisted he's ready to ride out the oil-spill disaster that in the last two days has hit the white sand beaches of the Florida Panhandle.

"This is an environmental disaster nobody asked for, but Floridians are a tough people," Buffet said to the crowd of 1,000 beachgoers.

While Mr. Buffet's intentions are all good and active, the reality is; the sky is falling and only real parrotheads have a chance of surviving: lets just get drunk and screw.

It's extremely important at this point that we do everything we can to prevent the next oil spill from ever happening. Take action now to tell Congress: No drilling, no coal, clean energy now! And if you want to do even more, check out this post I put up over on our Grassroots Blog to find toolkits for holding rallies in your community, writing letters to the editor of your local paper, and more: Want to help prevent the next
catastrophic oil spill?

Our team on the ground in Louisiana has sent us a number of new ways you can get plugged in to the animal-rescue and clean up efforts if you're in the Gulf region. There are 6 Ways to Help posted at that link, including how to report oiled wildlife (they recommend you don't try to help the wildlife without a trained expert), who best to donate to, and this bit on volunteering:

Tristate Bird Rescue & Research is coordinating on-the-ground volunteer efforts. Several other groups are helping to organize volunteers to help cleanse birds and otherwise protect both wildlife and human populations along the Gulf Coast. Our favorite ... is The National Audubon Society, which is helping connect volunteers with the best government or non-profit agency doing work related to the oil spill response. (But there are many many many others.) The government also has a volunteer hotline at 1-866-448-5816.

In general, organizations are urging people not to travel to volunteer.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade and Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation are also great places to check out for ways you can help.

We're all horrified and saddened beyond words by the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf. If you find yourself actually close enough to lend a hand in mitigating the impact this disaster will have on the Gulf's coastline and wildlife, there's a volunteer info hotline you can call: 1-866-448-5816. That number also works if you want to report an oiled shoreline.

A website has been set up to help manage the response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster: www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com. You can also find numbers to report oiled wildlife or discuss oil spill-related damage, plus find updates on the cleanup from the Coast Guard, on that site.

Requiem for the Gulf

2010-05-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

The underwater 22 mile thick oil plume discovered by independent oceanographers is now seeping into the sea 'canyon' where it will be flushed towards the FL west coastline and eventually down into the FL Keys, covering the Dry Tortugas where it will enter the Gulf Stream to travel up along the East Coastline of the US. UFSC Marine research vessel Weatherbird II confirmed the plumes' movement and size on Thursday, updated today.

{Larry McKinney, executive director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said the DeSoto Canyon off the Florida Panhandle sends nutrient-rich water from the deep sea up to shallower waters.

McKinney said that in a best-case scenario, oil riding the current out of the canyon would rise close enough to the surface to be broken down by sunlight. But if the plume remains relatively intact, it could sweep down the west coast of Florida as a toxic soup as far as the Keys, through what he called some of the most productive parts of the Gulf.

The plume was detected just beneath the surface down to about 3,300 feet, said David Hollander, associate professor of chemical oceanography at USF.

Hollander said the team detected the thickest amount of hydrocarbons, likely from the oil spewing from the blown out well, at about 1,300 feet in the same spot on two separate days this week.

The discovery was important, he said, because it confirmed that the substance found in the water was not naturally occurring and that the plume was at its highest concentration in deeper waters. The researchers will use further testing to determine whether the hydrocarbons they found are the result of dispersants or the emulsification of oil as it traveled away from the well.

The first such plume detected by scientists stretched from the well southwest toward the open sea, but this new undersea oil cloud is headed miles inland into shallower waters where many fish and other species reproduce.

The researchers say they are worried these undersea plumes may be the result of the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants to break up the oil a mile undersea at the site of the leak.

Hollander said the oil they detected has dissolved into the water, and is no longer visible, leading to fears from researchers that the toxicity from the oil and dispersants could pose a big danger to fish larvae and creatures that filter the waters for food.

"There are two elements to it," Hollander said. "The plume reaching waters on the continental shelf could have a toxic effect on fish larvae, and we also may see a long term response as it cascades up the food web."

Dispersants contain surfactants, which are similar to dishwashing soap.

A Louisiana State University researcher who has studied their effects on marine life said that by breaking oil into small particles, surfactants make it easier for fish and other animals to soak up the oil's toxic chemicals. That can impair the animals' immune systems and cause reproductive problems.

"The oil's not at the surface, so it doesn't look so bad, but you have a situation where it's more available to fish," said Kevin Kleinow, a professor in LSU's school of veterinary medicine.} Matthew Brown and Jason Dearen @ HuffPO

But there's more: Firedoglake

The researchers say they are worried these undersea plumes may be the result of the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants to break up the oil a mile undersea at the site of the leak.
Hollander said the oil they detected has dissolved into the water, and is no longer visible, leading to fears from researchers that the toxicity from the oil and dispersants could pose a big danger to fish larvae and creatures that filter the waters for food.

And before I stop the tap of the keys.... How much is a turtle worth? You can read completed cost factoring at Oiled Wildlife Care Network.

and remember, when you cry, your body is releasing toxins. I say it's a good resonant energy for the situation. So,
I cry.

Fierce, Urgent, Now "...the ocean is sacred..."

2010-05-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

For those of us who feel prayers are not enough, then a demonstration, no matter how seemingly small or less significant (like calling the White House to let them know how you feel) is how you act in crisis. You take an action. You think, 'what can I do'? 'how can I help'? You are compelled to make that effort. For us, the ongoing crisis in our nation's largest ecological disaster - revolving unchecked still at the moment, we have to try to do something. A 'fierce urgency of Now'. The wash up of sea life including porpoises, sea turtles, all variety of fishes, the sea foul and the birds that make home on the shores... a whole eco-system is being murdered by crude oil and many of us just can't sit here and type out on it... we do crave to make a contribution for the need of it. "...the ocean is sacred..." The only action I've been capable of, in outrage and disappointment, has been to call the White House switchboard and tell the President how I feel about it. Because until yesterday, it has nationally felt like he didn't have a handle on this crisis at all. BP has been running the show. Not until the citizens began calling, while journalists like Maddow, Goodman, AC Cooper, Olbermann, etc. revealed the public emotion of this lack of response and action from the White House ... not until a crescendo of ill will over this captured someone in the White House, did the President take hold the situation in front of the nation yesterday. To give you some idea of how much damage we face:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The political ramifications of this incident become more clear and exposed; if you ride the fence, you're bound to knocked off it. Middle road political compromises might ensure a brilliant man only one term in office. It's very hard to resolve the President I have to the Presidential values and ethics so clear in the man who wrote "The Audacity of Hope" ... singularly the one thing through this current crisis he has not provided the nation... no Hope, no leadership... until yesterday. Yesterday he stepped into a more public and expressive leadership role in this crisis. Yet for the first time ever, I heard a bit of Presidential spin baby spin. Politics Plus posted a good response to this. Like Tom, I think Olbermann summed up the situation well:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

For anyone who may think that the President has 'done what he can' and it remains the techies' or oil companies responsibility to resolve this, yesterday the man himself took complete responsibility for it all. I am proud of his demonstration on that. Letting science lead the way in all of this, having the best science oversee the operations... NOAA and the EPA's scientists' and research vessels...not even their best and brightest have been tasked to get into the Gulf ... and I don't take the word of White House reports or even what the President has said about 'day one'... the "Brown" (largest, best of NOAA research vessels') has only this week been dispatched into the Gulf of Mx. Reporting before Congress, the White House 'experts' on this crisis have come up short on even describing what is being done; the contingencies on many levels of clean up that must be put into place LIKE FUCKING NOW! Yet; after yesterday, perhaps now more definable, positive action will be forthcoming from the government facilities. While all the official departments of our government that has been 'sent in' ... they have been woefully slow and seemingly unclear or un-knowledgeable concerning this crisis. It is nationally overwhelming. I can't imagine the levels of stress and overwhelm in the Oval Office. My gosh.
I hold this President up to higher standard than any other President I've ever voted for. I won't back away from that, because I feel that we are in the midst of changing times where the actions anyone of us takes' makes a difference to the whole of us and leadership through this time of paradigm shifts due to climate change / global warming / pollution crisis, global economic meltdown, corporate consumption of the planet's resources and destruction of nature, the unfairness of own judgments against each other and ourselves... during this fear ridden journey, we require an integrity in our leadership and own personal demonstrations. Personal opinion. We have become a global community... anyone who uses the internet must be aware of that? This disaster is a global concern and soon the international implications are going to be rolling back at the United States. Bet on it.

You can do something to help by calling the White House and telling them how you feel. It always counts. You make a difference. 202-456-1414
If you live on the East Coast of the United States or along the West Coast of FL or in the Gulf of MX basin... you can volunteer right now to help with the clean up on the shores / inland bleeds. If you live in the Gulf basin this link will help you to find an effort in clean up: The Daily Loaf blog.
You will be put through a short training in hazmat clean up. If you work on this you will get sick. You should know that. And you will only be able to do it for a couple of hours at a time or suffer ill health. That's in the worst affected coastal and sea areas. Which are blooming larger. The need will become great, I'm thinking. Here is the GreenPeace link.
Do what you can.
Pray towards heaven; but row towards shore.

Robert Redford enjoins the ECO GROWL AT OBAMA

2010-05-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

More Spill Baby Spill:
The oil is coming ashore in Louisiana beginning the landmass ecological destruction cycle. Gov. Jindal joins local politico's to address and asses the situation.

On Keith Olbermann's Countdown last night Robert Redford came onboard publicly to denounce Big Oil profiteering corporations and to ask the President to do something about this.
I like Robert Redford. I think he lives right. He walks his talk. He takes a personal responsibility to make a difference... and as the intensely private person he usually is, it's to his credit that he is standing up to this. First 'recognizable' face I've seen so far.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

SUGAR continues to DESTROY the EVERGLADES

2010-04-14T11:13:00.001-07:00

This is a repost / update ongoing troubles of restoration for the River of Grass: our Everglades. Aggregated from PB Post: 3/29/10 - Paul Quinlan

Two of the nation's largest sugar growers, Florida Crystals Corp. and U.S. Sugar Corp., are fighting a new push from the federal government to regulate them under the Clean Water Act.The companies, which own 342,000 acres of land that was once part of the Everglades south of Lake Okeechobee, have filed federal suits that say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suddenly and improperly began requiring wetland destruction permits to converted their lands to non-agricultural use.

The requirement would allow the Corps to either block new plans or force the companies to pay for "mitigation," the preservation of wetlands elsewhere in proportion to those being destroyed .

It's a sign that federal officials have taken new interest in the future of the farming region, whose lands are seen as critical to Everglades restoration. At the same time, so have rock mining companies and other industries feared to be counterproductive to environmental goals.

In the suits, Crystals argues that the requirement has impeded plans to create a 100-acre ash dump for its cane-burning power plant. The company now trucks the soot 60 miles away. U.S. Sugar complains of the delay in commencement of rock mining by Stuart Mining Industries, which is leasing land from U.S. Sugar and could be paying rent and royalties if work had started.

The lawsuits have profound implications for Florida's 700,000-acre Everglades Agricultural Area, land south of Lake Okeechobee that was flowing Everglades marsh before the government drained it half a century ago to create fertile farmland.

Crystals and U.S. Sugar argue that the implications extend far beyond South Florida's cane fields to the 53 million acres of U.S. farmland that was once wetlands. They call it a major policy shift that deserved public notice and comment.

"We have legislation here that's been promulgated by bureaucrats," said Dan Riesel, who represents Crystals. "They've done it in a way that is sort of clandestine."

Environmentalists counter that the move merely represents an interpretation of existing law. They say the wetland permit is necessary because the Everglades Agricultural Area, unlike other converted wetlands, requires the use of pumps, locks, levees and drainage canals to keep dry. Without active drainage, the land would revert to wetlands, the Corps argues in a 2009 memo cited by the U.S. Sugar suit.

"They're farming a riverbed that is pumped actively to remove the water from the land," said Eric Draper, lobbyist for Audubon of Florida.

The companies disagree and cite a 1993 Corps ruling that said farmland legally converted from wetlands in prior decades would not be subject to Clean Water Act requirements.

"It doesn't mean they can't have a mine and that they can't have a landfill," said Draper. "The real issue here is that there's going to be more mitigation. They don't want to have to mitigate."

In the suits, Crystals says the cost to offset destruction of one acre of wetlands in the region runs about $90,000. U.S. Sugar says the permits can cost, on average, $272,000 and take more than two years to obtain.

Corps and Department of Justice officials declined comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

UPDATE: by Eye On Miami author Gimleteye
While on Air Force One to Miami, President Obama should take fifteen minutes to read yesterday's decision by US District Judge Alan S. Gold. Then he should make a single phone call: to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. Heads should roll at EPA.

In a contempt ruling against the State of Florida and the EPA on failing to clean up the Everglades according to provisions of the Clean Water Act, there is only contempt, no accountability. Accountability is the one place where President Obama could actually do some good for the Everglades, right now, with that call from Air Force One. Order Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, to clean house and remove regional officials who are responsible for the Everglades mess detailed by Judge Gold. Do it now. Do not delay. Fire the SOB's. Now.

I won't go into a lengthy diatribe about the EPA and its sham hearings around the state that will likely end up as more and more delay for numeric standards for nutrient pollution. The EPA problems and "politics" didn't start yesterday or even the day before: former EPA Administrator Carol Browner and former Senator Bob Graham bear their share of historical mistakes in the Everglades. What came later, under Bush appointees, was truly horrendous: the EPA surrendered wholesale to the State of Florida and the nonsense that industries self-regulate better than regulations. (For that, thank Jeb Bush.)

Today, under a president who had the full support of the nation's environmental community, the abuses of the EPA are still institutionalized. That's unforgiveable. Read Judge Gold's decision, Mr. President. Heads should roll at EPA. The White House can make that happen with a single phone call; and it would do more than any other single act to signal change we can believe in Florida.

~ RELEASE THE FLORIDA CRACKIN' ~!

2010-04-09T13:49:00.001-07:00

So you're thinking if the title is true, Gwen is blogging about the Republican fiasco in FL for the Senate seat that's up for grabs... and you would have a point. But it's not the point you think.

Snuggled up here against a boarder to a "Conch Republic" along the Gold and Treasure Coast shorelines we are about to engage in a nationally quixotic political Republican electorial dynamic complete with Club for Growth GOP phenom Marco Rubio VS the often thought of 'moderate' Republican Gov. Charlie Crist. What is left on the sidelines is the Democratic candidate, Rep. Kendrick Meek, son to past FL State Rep and official 'heritage woman of Florida' Carrie Meek. I am here buttressed between our West Palm Beach core of 9-12-er Beckites and the radio studio in downtown West Palm Beach of the likes of (...yuck, photoey ...'toouey ...) El Rushbo.

The story down this o way is about Rubio vs Crist. The latest comes from the Gov's office decrying another Rubio news smear that he (Charlie Crist) will be running as an Independent VS a Republican candidate Rubio because Rubio has hoisted him from the Republican party platform. NEWSflash: Gov. Crist (basically says) bullshit. It doesn't matter that Beckites, Rushbo simpletons and frightened FL GOP hierarchy are rank and filing beneath Rubio with his Tea Party election rhetoric... the Gov is staying true to his 'authentic' Republican ethics and values. He's a Republican Governor running a Republican campaign though he is dropping miserably in the polls local (state wide) against Rubio. Rubio's mudflaps are working for him. Rubio's claim that Crist is going to run as an Independent are gaining mudflat ground in the exposition of Crist's plans to call the state Legislature into special session this summer to overhaul the state ethics laws .... something the local Republican leadership has avoided (always does always do). All of this to highlight the recent blemish of spending by Rubio's campaign this year, the ethicacy of Rubio's funding has put that agenda onto the field, even if he's quickly washing the mud away with Tea Party rhetoric twist / turn the issue political fear strategy. Rubio is collecting large $ while Crist is trailing.... ain't it nasty what ethical governing and values will do to your war chest in the FL Republican Party?

Gov Crist vetoed an elections bill he was expected to sign by fellow Republicans. Add his seeming reluctance to back the teacher tenure bill pushed by Jeb Bush / formidable FL repub... couple it to the ethics complaints into Republican state authority, well, you have a dicey strategy design for party backing! Crist is risking state Repub backing ... which would cancel him out as Republican Senate candidate. The Gov has until the end of the month to make up his mind and dance a wingnut tune or get into the race via Independence.

Then you have the Democratic candidate, Meek. He's bootstrapping it (ala FL DCC), more or less. As a Democratic Party member I've been tasked with putting forth the effort to have candidate Meek elected... phone calls, stomping... whatever is needed. Here's that point I am going to make about the whole FL (going newsy national) Senatorial race...

I can not in good conscious, support or work to elect Rep. Kendrick Meek for the Senate seat. (Not that he might have a snowballs' chance... well, you see where I'm going there...)
Kendrick Meek, on the surface (& probably at heart) all the best bona fides you could ask for. Take a look:

In my due diligence on Mr. Meek I discovered that he has been caught up in old time Dade County 'pay to play' politics and has not come forward with his complicity (whether by just association through his Mom or because he has been counseled to ignore it for political solvency) yet he has not taken any responsibility for the District 9 / Liberty City fiscal troubles I've blogged about [here be monsters - FL political blog] previously. So too, he has not offered any empirical / evidentiary for his complicity in the Miami - Dade Empowerment Trust ongoing abuse and depletion scandal. There is the awfully troubling nature of his involvement in proposed bio-tech park in District 9 with Boston scam artist developer Stackhouse.

Here's the other problem I have. If you have clicked the links and take a hard look at the events and evidence regarding Rep Kendrick Meek's involvement in 'play for pay' and Miami corruption ala District 9 - Liberty City... then you might understand why I am taking this stance ... it's Mr. Meek's integrity that is bothering me. Yet; I realize he was badly advised, probably a victim of political compromise that he did not understand involved corrupt fiscal / business dealings with the community... but as this information has unfolded, he has not come clean to start over. Which I could accept. His absence of responsibility in it leaves me searching for another candidate. While respect and support Rep Debbie Wasserman - Schultz, I think she towing the party line and probable that she might have the same reservations, she knows that this kind of compromising makes for stronger party politics overall. Well, I challenge that one too. As written recently in HuffPo and witnessed by a whole nation, making 'due' without diligence (like supporting non supportive Blue Dog Dems) just doesn't pay political hardcash. It just depletes your ethics and values in the long run.
So

I can't give my vote to Rep Kendrick Meek.
Nor can I give my vote to anyone or any party that does not hold the same ethics and values that I do politically...
so
I probably won't be voting for the Senatorial candidate.
This ain't Massachusetts ~!

Paradise in Limbo....

2010-04-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

My sister says they are going to remove - kill all the inland mangroves. The tea trees. She says that many species of trees and plants are marked for purposeful extinction because they aren't indigenous. They have ruined the ecosystem. Yes, well...they have none the less made their place here. Like so much humanity rushing down into the sun as twilight time sets in or as the lack of opportunities in cold climes convince them that it's frozen financially where they are. All too well.... from the industrialized settlement of Florida one hundred and thirty years ago on through the bootlegging ambitions building the major roadways of the most southern shorelines... or even the American Indians who were run down into the rivers of grass as outcasts, south Florida has generously hosted the misplaced. And now my Indigenous younger sister tells me that some of the plant life is to be made extinct even as our most beautiful natural resources languish in courtrooms, yet again. Paradise... the River of Grass. One of the most unique and special ecosystems' on the planet is dying. Our Everglades. As stewards, south Floridians have failed miserably. Marjorie Stoneman Douglas weeps celestial tears as we halt, step aside from the effort, exclude the most urgent... she who continued on for 108 years ... most of it spent in advocating the restoration and preservation of the Everglades. The most unique of ecosystems, the Everglades nurture plant and animal species found nowhere else on the planet. Or as Ms. Douglas opened up her book; The Everglades: River of Grass (the term she coined) "...There are no other Everglades in the world..." Here in 2010 south Florida, there still are no other Everglades in the world, yet these might be gone before your children grow into retirement. They might not even last that long. The fresh waters flowing from the Okeechobee Lake into the southern glades has atrophied to such extent that plant species are burned up and out. Indigenous animal populations are gone extinct and many continue into that category. While these are global symptoms of a greater dying planet, acting locally and thinking globally is still the most sustainable and moral lifestyle to choose. What can we do to reverse it?

In February of last year:

[The Everglades would get $183.4 million for restoration work this year under a spending bill unveiled today by House Democrats.
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of the Appropriations Committee, said the funds would ``go a long way toward fulfilling the federal government’s commitment to help restore the Everglades. These funds will also help provide construction-related jobs for Floridians at a time of real economic need.”
The Everglades money is tucked into a sweeping $410-billion ``omnibus’’ spending bill released today by the committee. Wasserman Schultz’ staff said the House will consider the bill as early as Wednesday, with the Senate likely to take up its version next week.
The federal government has poured millions into preliminary work in the Everglades but has yet to meet its commitment to pay half the costs for construction under a comprehensive restoration plan. The state, already paying for construction, plans to cover the other half.
The House bill would provide funding for the current fiscal year ending in September. Funding for this fiscal year had been long delayed because of disagreements in Congress along party lines.
Everglades proponents also hope to get restoration funding through the economic-recovery bill that Obama signed into law.
The $183.4 million for the Everglades includes $123.4 million for projects carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers, including work on Picayune Strand in Collier County and the Indian River Lagoon in Martin County.
It also includes $60 million through the Department of Interior for a Modified Waters Deliveries Project, which is designed to allow a more natural waterflow across the Tamiami Trail in Miami-Dade County into Everglades National Park.] Sun Sentinel

After nearly two years of political fights and legal battles over Gov. Charlie Crist's Everglades-restoration land deal, the Florida Supreme Court now decides whether the public benefit is worth the cost to South Florida taxpayers.

Supporters and opponents of Crist's $536 million bid to buy 73,000 acres from U.S. Sugar Corp. argued their sides Wednesday morning before the Florida Supreme Court.

Opponents, led by the Miccosukee Tribe and U.S. Sugar rival Florida Crystals, maintain that $536 million costs taxpayers too much and takes money away from already overdue Everglades-restoration projects. / Sun Sentinel

The battle enjoins the local Miccosukees who do not have a record at all as stewards, rather they are more content to share out winnings at Hard Rock. And they are the severest against the land deal going through as Miccosukee Attorney Dexter Lehtinen complained that the South Florida Water Management District has no specific plan for, or ability to pay for any construction of reservoirs and treatment areas proposed for the U.S. Sugar land.

Yet wildlife and environmentalist groups have steadfastly pushed to see this project go forward in conservation of our natural environment, especially the River of Grass.

"This land acquisition provides the best and last chance for significant Everglades restoration," attorney Thom Rumberger, representing Audubon of Florida, told the justices. "It's an essential part of Everglades restoration."

So why are the local Indians so against this plan for natural environmental conservatism? Here is some background by the Miccosukee:
Water Quality Issues in the Everglades
The tribe filed a lawsuit over 10 years ago challenging the water quality standards in the delicate marshland. They say they are caught in the middle. Their land is caught between protected agriculture land and Everglades National Park; the agriculture land is releasing high phosphorus-laden water into the marshland. This water is then making its way through the tribal lands creating serious problems for the Miccosukee.
"Former U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen sued the state in 1988, claiming it was not adhering to its own regulations for clean water. That lawsuit was settled in 1991 in a deal which laid out a plan to clean up the Everglades by 2002. However, the state Legislature passed the Everglades Forever Act in 1994, which altered the dates of the restoration and some of the standards. It also does not provide for the elimination of pollution from the western basin, an area of the Miccosukee Reservation. The tribe claims the area would have been cleaned under the original settlement." (Testa) The tribe wants the state to comply with the original timetable to restore the Everglades.
B. What the Miccosukee want done to preserve their Land
The tribes have set up their own environmental projects to help protect and preserve the Everglades. These projects are designed "to protect the land and water systems within the Reservation while ensuring a sustainable economic and cultural future for the Tribe". (Land) In November 1989, the Seminole Tribal Council created the Seminole Water Commission to oversee the Water Resource Management Department(WRMD). "The WRMD's mission is to protect and evaluate the Tribe's land and water resources and to facilitate the wise use and conservation of these resources by other departments." (Water) The Tribal Environmental Programs include: authority to implement the Clean Water Act within the Tribe's jurisdiction, spill prevention plans for above ground storage tanks and removal programs for underground storage tank facilities, participate in task forces to restore the South Florida ecosystem. (Land)

What stands right now is an ongoing fight as to who has the natural environment best interests in value. The troubling aspect of it all is that as the legal battles endlessly circulate, the River of Grass continues to die. And this provokes a question___ why hasn't US Sugar Corporation, a company responsible for active destruction of the Everglades and profit in Florida for decades not enjoined the restoration project and contributed much more of the land in question? Humm?

A message from Osun's Village:

2010-03-13T12:31:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to share with you an opportunity to host a screening of the 70 min film, "The Lady from Osogbo." The film chronicles the efforts of the Austrian Artist, Activist and Yoruba High Priestess Susanne Wenger, who spent 50 + years in Osogbo, Nigeria fighting the Government and Developers to preserve an Ancient Sacred Grove with rare herbs and plants. She established the Sacred Artist Movement also called the Osogbo School of Art, which has exhibited globally, yet this will be a first for Miami.

Susanne Wenger's daughters will be in town visiting from Nigeria, March 14th-30th in support of our Osun's Village and African Caribbean Cultural Arts Corridor Artists Exchange. They are available for question and answer sessions after the 70 min documentary screening, book signings as well as demonstrations of their sacred art and ancient indigo textile dying techniques.

Ironically, Harlan and I like Susanne Wenger are having parallel experiences, as we fight "THE SYSTEM!" Both Osun initiatives in Osogbo Nigeria as well as Miami, are demonstrating the significance the arts and culture play in stimulating our local inner city economies, while creating: cultural pride and training opportunities that eventually lead to jobs in the Cultural Arts and Tourism industries.

The Lady of Osogbo, highlights the legendary Susanne Wenger and Oshun, who is celebrated by Miami's multicultural communities, and is the inspiration for the Osun's Village concept, here in Miami.

What a wonderful opportunity to close Women's History Month! Please share your ideas with me as to how in this short time frame, we can create an opportunity to showcase these cultural treasures with the greater community who have an appreciation for indigenous art and customs.

I await your feedback...

Nathaniel

Community Builders Holistic Development Corp. a 501 c-3 Org.

The Osun's Village and African, Caribbean Cultural Arts Corridor

5601 NW 7th Avenue

Miami, FL

33127

786-344-1153

http://whc.unesco.org/en/events/477/#

A letter from Congressman Alan Grayson...

2010-02-26T08:37:00.000-08:00

It's been a month since the Supreme Court spoke.
Now it's time for US to speak.
The Democratic Leadership has finally come out with a plan. And, thanks to your participation, the plan includes three of our proposals.
So far, the plan would:

Stop foreigners from buying our government.
Prevent government contractors like Blackwater from stealing our elections.
Force disclosure to shareholders when a company wants to bribe and threaten elected officials.

The Supreme Court needs to understand that this is a democracy. OUR democracy.
It's urgent that we act. I'm going to be speaking with a key congressional committee chairman, Rep. Bob Brady, with a simple message: Let's go!
Chairman Brady is in charge of the House Administration Committee. Our bills are assigned to his committee. He needs to hear from all of us that saving our democracy just can't wait.
Please join me. Call Rep. Brady's office in the House Administration Committee and ask him to save our democracy. The phone number is 202-225-2061. Tell him that he needs to move the bill as fast as possible. You can also weigh in at the committee web site.
In the weeks ahead, I'll be keeping you informed. I'm working to include all of our proposals in the final bill, and make it as strong as possible. After all, it's not enough to disclose political looting and bribery. We must STOP it.
Call Brady's office in the House Administration Committee and tell him to MOVE the bill: 202-225-2061
Seven out of ten Americans think corporations ALREADY have too much influence over elections.
Eight out of ten Americans want restrictions on corporate spending on elections.
Almost eight out of ten Americans think that shareholders should get to vote before their companies spend one dime on elections.
Call Bob Brady's office at 202-225-2061 and tell him what you think. What we think.
Corporations are not people. Corporations do not breathe. Corporations do not fall in love. Corporations do not have children. Corporations do not lose their jobs. Corporations do not fight and die in war.
This is obvious to everyone but five justices on the Supreme Court.
Time to fight back.
Courage,
Alan Grayson
Member of Congress

Here is the link to contribute: ActBLUE

West Boca Bull vs Boca Bobcats - Lacrosse!

2010-02-20T11:47:00.000-08:00

It was a treat. Here are a few of the photo's for you to look over of last nights' pound down by the West Boca Bulls over the Boca Raton Bobcats. Final score 9-5.

All up!

In play....

Bring it on!

#7 Bull in action.

Ball in play....

Multidimensional collision....

A double DeMaria blurrrrrr.....

War!

I'll post more on FB once I can... apparently Facebook is having technical problems... uploading or my profile is ...
Hope the WEST BOCA BULLS LACROSSE TEAM is able to grab a few of these!

Here Be Monsters...

Imagine YOU are Anonymous

Turkey Point - bidda boing! bidda BANG.

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Essene Earth Blessing

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Some personal triage to end the dilemmas of this decade.

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Lets get to the rat killin'~!~! LETS VOTE FLORIDA!

The Audacity of Collusion vs The Audacity of the Truth.

Holocaust deniers and a true Mark Twain in the Gulf of Mexico

Why don't they do Right? "Frist rule of a Miami City Commissioner - Lying."

Could the Gulf go boom? Where lies responsibility, since those who SHOULD will NOT?

Much ado....about everything, especially baby sea turtles.

BP Cover Ups - Sand Everywhere & the Boiling Surf.

do the damn right thing! when?

Sunday School....

BP media lock down is a US Corporatocracy

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Fresh Repast! The Soma Center & CityPlace for Protest!

They have made our SEA a DYING HELL.

Facebook Revolutionaries - online eco-activists!

The Monsters are coming and Suicide is Painless.

An URGENT PLEA TO FREE CAPTURED DOLPHINS ON FL WEST COAST

Why Crist?

A voice goes silent...Kristin Hoke succumbs to cancer.

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Robert Redford enjoins the ECO GROWL AT OBAMA

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Paradise in Limbo....

A message from Osun's Village:

A letter from Congressman Alan Grayson...

West Boca Bull vs Boca Bobcats - Lacrosse!