The President's National Oil Spill Commission released preliminary findings today from its investigation into BP's oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Read more about how the White House hid the truth on the spill, and what we know now.
Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.
Peruse the eKos Library to find previously listed diaries. You can also follow eKos on Twitter.
Tonight's editor: ellinorianne
Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 104
And don't forget to read tonight's Ecojustice,EcoJustice: Tribal chiefs help rape victims.
All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.
I am so proud to be included in the Gulf Recovery Blogathon. I was a lurker for many years here at Daily Kos until the day the Deep Horizon oil rig exploded and ripped a gash into Mother Earth causing her blood to gush into the Gulf of Mexico. Since that day I have spent my time on Daily Kos deeply immersed in the Mothership and her child ROV's finding comfort and commiseration with people who have shown me that America will always have hope as long as such people exist.
I have watched with tears in my eyes and pain in my heart as wildlife came out of the ocean covered in oil and struggling for life. The loss of every one of the creatures who have died in this unparalleled disaster leaves us poorer and sadder. I have watched as the fishermen and oystermen's livelihoods have been destroyed and the Gulf Coast way of life decimated.
Below the jump you will find a list of organizations that I have been compiling for months. Please consider donating or volunteering to help support these organizations who spend their lives trying to help people, wildlife and even family pets recover from disaster. Thank you.
One of the interesting side-effects of Hurricane Katrina for me has been the outpouring of music born of the hurricane and its aftermath. Not all that surprising actually, given the rich musical history of New Orleans and the surrounding area. But this past weekend I heard the music from New Orleans tack in a different direction. I heard a song that deserves to be the title track for any eventual documentary on BP's gulf oil gusher - John Boutte singing Nobody Knows Nothing.
If you aren't pissed off enough already with the slow-motion disaster in the Gulf, watching this news report from over the weekend might force you to let out a few more expletives. The video is genuine but still unbelievable.
Via WKRG in Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida.
After reading her most recent works, How to Thrive in Changing Times and Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation, I wanted to find out more about Ms. Ingerman’s intriguing ideas for healing both our soul and our planet. A couple of weeks ago we got to chat about everything from how to overcome despair and defeatism in light of the tremendous problems humanity is faced with to the shamanic symbolism found in the Gulf oil disaster.
Boomers! Yesterday! A date which will live in fuckery.
"It has been indeed fuckery most foul."
-- Kossack Onomastic in yesterday's Gulf Watchers ROV liveblog diary.
Yesterday, Our Government bought in to BP's lies and maneuvering. Yesterday, Our Government approved the Integrity Test. That test is now underway. If anything bad happens, and there are many many bad things that can happen, Our Government will be visited by the Ghost of Richard Feynman.
The Standard Oil Company was the largest and arguably the most powerful corporation in the history of mankind. In 1904, Standard controlled 91% of production and 85% of final sales of petroleum products in the USA. Because of its monopolistic powers and unlawful business practices, on May 15, 1911, the Supreme Court declared the Standard Oil group to be an unreasonable monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act, and ordered Standard to break up into 34 independent companies.
Last night I dreamed that I was interviewing Oscar the Grouch. But when I woke up, I discovered that it was only a leg cramp that had caused the dream. Do you know how to cure leg cramps? Here's how. Use an exercise that physical therapists call "The clam shell".
Assuming that this evil cramp is in your right leg, then lie down on your left side, thrust your right hip as far to the left as you can go, bend your right leg half-way, and then move your right knee up to the ceiling and down to the bed or floor a few times -- like a clam shell opening and closing. Voila. End of cramp.
Seeing the picture spreading on the Internet of a sign at a BP gas station with the company policy "you are responsible for all spills" made me think of something.
Let’s say you are filling your car at a BP gas station, the numbers on the pump steadily ticking. But when you pull out the pump you give it an extra squeeze, spilling oil on the ground. The meter on the pump just keeps rolling. In other words, you spill it, you buy it.
Boomers! I'm going to be on Virtually Speaking with host Jay Ackroyd and fellow-guest Riki Ott! We'll be on July 8th at 6:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 PM Eastern.
There'll be a podcast available for those who want to listen later. We'll also be on Second Life. I've never done Second Life, so if my avatar scratches his balls or struts around squawking like a huge ckicken or starts humping Jay Ackroyd's leg... please forgive me. I'm really nervous about fat-fingering the Second Life controls.
The most popular feature of my diaries here has always been my explanations of oil and gas technology and processes. Today, I'm going to talk about gas, oil and water separation. It's something I actually know a lot about. Let's splash over to the other side of the baffle.
The addition of a $40,000 fine and felony charges for media caught closer than 65 feet to oil recovery operations, is not just a clampdown on the media, it is also a sign of growing resistance from residents and activists, everywhere.
The White House Thursday enacted stronger rules to prevent the media from showing what's happening with the oil spill in the Gulf Coast.
CNN's Anderson Cooper reported that evening, "The Coast Guard today announced new rules keeping photographers and reporters and anyone else from coming within 65 feet of any response vessel or booms out on the water or on beaches -- 65 feet."
Glenn Ford with Black Agenda couldn't have made it any clearer: leaving BP in charge of the oil spill response, and make no mistake, they are in charge, despite Coast Guard declarations to the contrary, has left the four gulf states, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, an enforced, corporate state in the midst of a major catastrophe. Creating and finding ways to fight back are key here. Let's consider the implications:
Fair warning: I'm not going to include a lot of comments about the trip. I just want to say that this is something I very much needed and I'm glad we made it, despite the universe's attempts to thwart us (I had to call Newburyport Whale Watch to ask them to wait for us, since we were delayed by traffic and construction).
After the other photos, I've got a couple comments, some personal, some political.
A philosophical question for you. If no reporter is ever allowed to speak or meet with any of the many oil spill clean-up workers about the medical treatment they may or may not be receiving at a Federal Clinic, much less visit said clinic, do they really exist? And by that I mean oil spill clean-up workers in general, sick or not:
By Teryn Norris and Clifton Yin
Published by The Huffington Post
When President Obama and key Senate leaders meet today to reach a compromise on energy and climate legislation, they should strongly consider increasing federal investment in clean energy technology to at least $15 billion annually. This is a comprehensive third way strategy to improve U.S. energy independence, economic competitiveness, and climate security, and it deserves bipartisan support.
We are a Democrat and Republican. One of us campaigned for Barack Obama in 2008, the other as a delegate for John McCain. One of us worked on energy and climate policy for the progressive Breakthrough Institute, while the other worked on similar issues for the conservative American Enterprise Institute. We disagree on a wide range of issues, and we hold different economic philosophies.
[Editor's note: This began as a comment this morning to "Oil spill: The nightmare becomes reality" a Carl Hiaasen piece on the arrival of BP's poisonous gusher of crud on the shores of Pensacola.]
Originally posted at my site Bob Higgins
Carl,
You're right; it is difficult for people living far from our coasts to feel the horrible weight of this disaster.
I live in Ohio but have lived on the coasts of California and North Carolina. I have also lived through and helped clean up an oil spill near San Francisco in 1970 or thereabouts. I have friends and family though who have never seen or at least never lived near the sea and had it become, as seems inevitable to me, a part of them.
In the wake of the BP disaster, we've heard powerful stories from fishermen whose livelihoods may have been destroyed for decades or longer. However long it takes for the Gulf's fish, oyster and shrimp harvests to recover, those who've made their livelihoods harvesting them will need to create a powerful common voice if they're not going to continue to be made expendable. A powerful model comes from Seattle and Alaska salmon fisherman Pete Knutson, who has spent thirty-five years engaging his community to take environmental responsibility, creating unexpected alliances to broaden the impact of their voice, and in the process defeating massive corporate interests.
"You'd have a hard time spawning, too, if you had a bulldozer in your bedroom," Pete reminds us, explaining the destruction of once-rich salmon spawning grounds by commercial development and timber industry clearcutting. Pete could have simply accepted this degradation as inevitable, focusing on getting a maximum share of dwindling fish populations. Instead, he's gradually built an alliance between fishermen, environmentalists, and Native American tribes, persuading them to work collectively to demand that habitat be preserved and restored and to use the example of the salmon runs to highlight larger issues like global climate change.
Boomers, I didn't want to have to do this. I didn't want to have to spend time and room on Daily Kos's rec list (if you so honor me) debunking pure bullshit. But in recent days, the bullshit has gotten wider and wider circulation. I've had to write a form letter to use in replying to emails asking me about bullshit. First, it was the Matt Simmons' bullshit about the seafloor opening in a huge gash, which is where most of the oil was coming from.... and so we should nuke the well (????).
Most recently, I've had to contend with the dougr bullshit from an otherwise wonderful website, The Oil Drum.
Both, doomsday scenarios (as if we needed those right now). Both, bullshit.
Jump the manure heap with me and I'll explain why this is all bullshit and I'll also issue a challenge to anyone in the Oil and Gas industry, or anyone else, to prove otherwise.
