The Sunday Show on Here Be Monsters 2-10-13

Join us on Here Be Monsters radio for the THE SUNDAY SHOW ... this week with Cherri Foytlin discussing the upcoming BP trial / Gulf Oil Spill.   http://www.blogtalkradio.com/here-be-monsters/2013/02/10/the-sunday-show

No Settlement for BP - Full Trial. Full Disclosure. Citizen Voice.

• Target: Eric Holder, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
• Sponsored by: Cherri Foytlin

We the undersigned demand that the civil phase of the BP Macondo trial proceed on Feb 25, and that BP not be allowed to buy their way out with a premature settlement. For the sake of our national security, oilfield workers and their families, gulf coast communities and ecosystems, and all who depend on a stable and growing economy in the gulf, we ask for:

Full trial, no settlement, full disclosure and citizen participation

The board of directors who made excessive demands on drilling engineers and offshore operations for cost cutting should suffer criminal and civil liability for human fatalities and injuries as well as ecosystem destruction caused by land and water pollution.

The record of the Joint Hearings task force (MMS/US Coast Guard) shows that in every case where BP had a choice, they ignored health, safety and environmental risks in favor of production and profit. The Oil Spill Commission’s report on the Deepwater Horizon blowout described the incident as “an entirely preventable disaster.” BP employee email traffic captured in the report shows an extremely dysfunctional chain of command, a stressed workforce, and an alarmingly uninformed management team. The report describes the causes of the disaster as being due to “Overarching Failures of Management.”

BP already had a record of disasters including the Texas City refinery explosion, Thunderhorse, Atlantis, and the Alaska pipeline leaks. Jeanne Pascal, former EPA debarment attorney wo obtained four convictions against BP in Alaska, said that "BP is a a serial corporate polluter and a serial corporate killer."

The most important thing the Department of Justice can do to re[resent the public interest is to make sure there is a full and complete record of what happened during the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Transparency is synonymous with justice and a closed door settlement between DOJ BP Transocean etc. will undermine the public trust. If DOJ proceeds in the sunlight, then we won't be required to question their calls. However if these matters are settled through a secret deal before the scheduled February 25, civil trial then we will be required to hold additional hearings to unearth what really took place during the largest envrironmental disaster in U.S. history.

We further request that any verdict or settlement in the case require the establishment of an interdiciplinary advisory committee on oversight of offshore drilling comprised of public and private stakeholders who are involved in or impacted by Gulf of Mexico offshore drilling.

BP management operates on the edge of unacceptable risk and should be held accountable. We respectfully request full trial, no settlement, full disclosure and citizen participation. 

 

Imagine YOU are Anonymous

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.

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."

Related articles

• Carnival of Nuclear Energy 60 (nextbigfuture.com)
• Robot may monitor nuke plants (futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com)
• Nuke Plant Inspections Find Flaws in Disaster Readiness (propublica.org)

Macondo well fractured and leaking.

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

Related articles

• UPDATE 1-BP says seepage unrelated to Macondo leak-spokesman (reuters.com)
• BP Bid to Permanently Plug Well Delayed By Storm (businessweek.com)
• Oil spill report seeks better emergency procedures (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Lets call it OBAMAVILLE.

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."

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/308671#ixzz1RBFIo4pG]

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Peter Fonda is a good lookin' sonvabitch!

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!

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! 

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• Wasserman Schultz elected chairwoman of the DNC (seattletimes.nwsource.com)