TODAY I MOURN.

They have made our SEA a DYING HELL.

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. 

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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!

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!

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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.

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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.