Showing posts with label Gulf Oil Spill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gulf Oil Spill. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

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


[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.]

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?

Sunday, July 25, 2010

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

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....





Friday, May 28, 2010

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

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: 

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:

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.