Monkeyfister

Thanks Bucketoffunk, this is good stuff.



There are times that I miss not having a TV. Anderson Cooper is doing a pretty fine job in his reportage.


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Labels: American Fascism, Anderson Cooper, BP Fail, BP Security, CNN, Corporatocracy, First Amendment

They have pushed the opening date back by one month.

via PressTV

Iran's nuclear point man says the country's first nuclear power plant will be inaugurated in the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr by September.

"Today we passed one of the most important and final test, the hot water tests, of Bushehr power plant before its inauguration," IRNA quoted Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi as saying on Wednesday.

"After 37 years, grounds have been prepared for the plant's opening," he further explained.

"We have reached the point of no return. Grounds are prepared for the final opening of the reactor," he stressed.

The construction of the plant started in 1975 when Germany signed a contract with Iran. Berlin, however, pulled out of the project following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran then signed a deal with Russia in 1995. Under the deal, the plant was originally scheduled to be completed in 1999, but the completion has been repeatedly delayed due to financial and technical problems.

And this doesn't sound too promising:

via Moonie UPI

Syrian President Bashar Assad met with Spanish leaders in Madrid following his tour last week of Latin America.

The president said during his meeting that "the prospect of war grows" in the Middle East because of lingering disputes between Israel and Turkey, The Jerusalem Post reports.

Israel was scrutinized for a raid on a Turkish-flagged vessel trying to break a blockade on Gaza in May. Israeli forces killed nine civilians on the vessel in international waters.

Israel justified the raid as a defensive measure meant to keep goods that may have military uses out of the hands of Hamas militants.

Assad said during a news conference in Madrid said if "relations between Israel and Turkey are not renewed, it will be very difficult for Turkey to continue its role in (regional peace) negotiations."

Ankara has threatened to sever ties with Israel completely if it didn't receive a formal apology for the raid. Energy and defense ties were cut in the wake of the May 31 incident.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said his country had "no intention of apologizing to Turkey," the Post said.

And I apologize about these two links, but this via Fox Noize isn't good at all.

ASPEN, Colorado -- The United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that the benefits of bombing Iran's nuclear program outweigh the short-term costs such an attack would impose.

In unusually blunt remarks, Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba publicly endorsed the use of the military option for countering Iran's nuclear program, if sanctions fail to stop the country's quest for nuclear weapons.

"I think it's a cost-benefit analysis," al-Otaiba said. "I think despite the large amount of trade we do with Iran, which is close to $12 billion … there will be consequences, there will be a backlash and there will be problems with people protesting and rioting and very unhappy that there is an outside force attacking a Muslim country; that is going to happen no matter what."

"If you are asking me, 'Am I willing to live with that versus living with a nuclear Iran?,' my answer is still the same: 'We cannot live with a nuclear Iran.' I am willing to absorb what takes place at the expense of the security of the U.A.E."

Al-Otaiba made his comments in response to a question after a public interview session with the Atlantic magazine at the Aspen Ideas Festival here.

Their hatching some godawful horrible ideas up there, in festive Aspen. Someone needs needs to pull the plug on that shit.

I am the sort of guy who looks for patterns in the news. When I see this sort of stuff posted on the news wires on the same day, I tend to light up. Israel's leadership is so over the top bat shit crazy right now, that they believe a preemptive attack on Bushehr will grant them 1000 years of peace. It very well may at that, because they, and the rest of us will all be dead, and the world will be radioactive for at least that long. Does anyone sane have any influence in Israel anymore? Does the Knesset, and Benji, really think that Iran will simply roll over? Do they not consider that Russia has invested a LOT of time, money and energy to get Bushehr online, and might just get a bit angry having their investments blown up? Do they not believe that Russia will have valid reasons to back Iran's counter-strikes? Why the fuck did Obama have Benji here, posing for the cameras, over a round of Kumbaya at this moment?

Oh, Israel. You MUST return to sanity. You are a nuclear nation without having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, contemplating a preemptive strike on a State that IS an NNPT signer, and allows regular and spot inspections. Your actions, executed in the belief of self-defense, will result in your own self-destruction. What in Heaven's Name are you thinking? Even if Iran HAD a bomb, which they do not, they would not use it on you.

Consider your prevailing winds, if nothing else. If Iran nuked you, the blast would kill Palestinians. If the blasts didn't, the fallout would, as well as many in Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, possibly Cyprus, or even Crete, as well. Iran might hate you, but they don't want to kill Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Lebanese, or Cypriots. They sure as hell are not going to preemptively blow-up the Dome Of The Rock, The Western Wall, or Jerusalem on bare-faced, simple principle. Please, Israel-- come to your senses about an attack on Iran. Down that path lies world destruction.

We don't need that right now.


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Labels: Bushehr, Iran, Israel, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Stupidity, Nuclear War, Pakistan

Brother Joe hits a home run with this fine essay. Here's an appetizer...

via Joe Bageant

Capitalism wouldn't be around today, at least not in its current pathogenic form, if it had not caught a couple of lucky breaks. The first of course, was the expansion of bloodsucking colonialism to give it transfusions of unearned wealth, enabling "investors" to profit by artificial means (death, oppression and slavery). But the biggest break was being driven to stratospheric heights by inordinate quantities of available hydrocarbon energy. Inordinate, but never the less finite. Consequently, the 100-year-long oil suckdown that put industrial countries in the tall cotton, now threatens to take back from subsequent beneficiary generation everything it gave. The Hummers, the golf courses, the big box stores, cruising at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic -- everything.

You'd never know that, to look around at Americans or Canadians, who have not the slightest qualms about living in that 3,500 square foot vinyl sided fuck box, if they can manage to make the mortgage nut, or unashamedly buying a quadruple X large Raiders Jersey because, hey, a guy's gotta eat, right? Why don't I deserve a nice ride, a swimming pool and a flat screen? I worked for it (sure you did buddy, your $12,000 Visa/MasterCard tab is proof of that).

The doomers and the peak oilers gag, and they call it American denial. Personally, I think it is somewhat unfair to say that most Americans and Canadians are in denial. They simply don't have a fucking clue about what is really happening to them and their world. Everything they have been taught about working, money and "quality of life" constitutes the planet's greatest problem -- overshoot. Understanding this trashes our most basic assumptions, and requires a complete reversal in contemporary thought and practice about how we live in the world. When was the last time you saw any individual, much less an entire nation, do that?

Compounding our ignorance and naiveté are the officials and experts, politicians, media elites, and especially economists, who interpret the world for us and govern the course of things. The go-to guys. They don't know either. But they've got the lingo down.

Somehow or other, it all has to do with the economy, which none of us understands, despite round the clock media jabbering on the subject. Somehow it has to do with this great big spring on Wall Street called "the market" that's gotta be kept wound up, and interest rates at something called The Fed, which have got to be kept smunched down. The industry of crystal gazing and hairball rubbing surrounding these entities is called economics.

In heaven, there are no jobs

The following may be old news to some who studied economics in college. However, I did not. And, for me at least, this gets at the heart of our dilemma (if dilemma is the right word for economic, environmental and species collapse). Here goes:

The human economy is made up of three parts: nature, work and money. But since nobody would pay people like Allen Greenspan or Milton Friedman millions of dollars if they talked just like the rest of us, economists and academics refer to these three parts as the primary, secondary and tertiary economies.

Of these, nature -- the world's ecosystems and natural capital -- is by far the most important. It comprises about three quarters of the total value of economic activity (Richard Costanza et al. 1997). To western world economists, nature -- when it is even give nature a thought -- is considered to be limitless.

The second part, work, is the labor required to produce goods and services from natural resources. Work creates real value through efficient use of both human and natural resource energy. A potato is just a potato until people sweating over belt lines and giant fryers turn it into Tater Tots.

The third economy, the tertiary economy, is the production and exchange of money. This includes anything that can be exchanged for money, whether it is gold, or mortgages bundled as securities, or derivatives. In short, any paperwork device that can be rigged up in such a fashion that money will stick to it. Feel free to take a wild-assed guess which of the three economies causes the most grief in this world.

To an economist, work -- the stuff that eats up at least a third of our earthly lives, is merely a "factor" called labor. Work is considered an unfortunate cost in creating added value. Added value, along with nature's resources, is the basis for all real world profits. Without labor, the money economy could not gin up on-paper wealth in its virtual economy. Somewhere, somebody's gotta do some real-world work, before bankers and investment brokers can go into their offices and pretend to work at "creating and managing wealth."

Paying the workers in society to produce real wealth costs money. Capitalists hate any sort of cost. It represents money that has somehow escaped their coffers. So when any behemoth corporation hands out thousands of pink slips on a Friday, Wall Street cheers and "the market" goes up. No ordinary mortal has ever seen "the market." But traders on the floor of 11 Wall Street, people who've deemed themselves more than mortal by virtue of their $110 Vanitas silk undershorts, assure us the market does exist. No tours of the New York Stock exchange are permitted, so we have to take their word for it.

In any case, in the money economy, eliminating costs, even if those costs happen to be feeding human beings, citizens of the empire, is sublime. That is why economists in the tertiary economy can declare a "jobless recovery" with a straight face. By their lights, the perfect recovery would necessarily be 100% jobless. Human costs of generating profit would be entirely eliminated.

Much more at the link. Go read it!


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Labels: Capitalism, Joe Bageant

With the death of Senator Byrd, the Financial Regulation Bill is dead in the water. As a result, absolutely nothing has changed, except the Banksters have an awesome lifeline on our dime.

Using TARP funds, the Banksters didn't scale back, and pay down their outstanding investments, instead, they doubled-down with more OTC Derivatives. Ticking time-bombs.

I just heard it brought up briefly on NPR. I got the shivers. It all needs to settle out, and reconcile at some point. It won't be pretty.

At any rate, Barry Ritholtz has a great article on Contrarian Investing at his place.

Here's the Brief Overview of the GEAB #46 Special Summer 2010 Edition from LEAP2020. They are quite legit. Bookmark the LEAP 2020 Home Link. Always fascinating reading.

World GDP is ~$64 Trillion. How's that for leverage?



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Labels: Collapse, Fail, Global Economy, Globalization, Wall Street Casino

Damn if it just doesn't keep getting better and better. Good thing the Media is now subject to fines and jail time for reporting on this shit. GAH!

via News.Com.AU

In a further blow, an operation to permanently cap the ruptured well on the seafloor far below the surface cannot begin until engineers finish drilling relief wells, in mid-August at the earliest.

Imperial College London researchers warned the effect on the environment could worsen unless clean up efforts were hastened.

Researchers published a study which found oil stops the ocean’s natural filtering process of arsenic.

They said the arsenic then gets “magnified” up the food chain, as fish eat small amounts of the deadly poison and may eventually impact humans, researchers said.

Professor Mark Sephton said arsenic, which is found in seawater, was normally filtered out of the ocean when it combined with sediment on the sea floor.

“But oil spills stop the normal process because the oil combines with sediment and it leads to an accumulation of arsenic in the water over time," he said.

"Arsenic only needs to be a 10th of a part per billion to cause problems.”

He added: “Our study is a timely reminder that oil spills could create a toxic ticking time bomb, which could threaten the fabric of the marine ecosystem in the future.”

Prof Sephton called for a comprehensive mapping of arsenic levels around the world which would allow authorities to consider banning oil drilling in areas with dangerous levels of arsenic.

The findings were published this month in the journal Water Research.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/more-bad-news-for-bp-as-arsenic-levels-rise-in-seawater-around-the-gulf-of-mexico/story-e6frfkyi-1225888272667#ixzz0sxWEPOQC

More at the link.

BP-- YOU are AWESOME! Boot to the head.

Meanwhile, not even NPR is spending more than a few minutes per hour on reporting on this fucking disaster, when it should ALWAYS be front and center in the News Cycle. It's old news, donchaknow. Don't want to hurt BP's feelings.

Of course, it will be somewhere around 2025 before we're allowed to even fish in the Gulf again. If fish are still alive in the Gulf by then.


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Labels: BP Fail, BP's Gulf Of Mexico Environmental Catastrophe

This is a modified repost from last year. After four days of vacation up at the most exquisite Land Between To The Lakes," I came home to loads and loads of ripe, red Heirloom Roma Tomatoes, and I needed to do something with them. So here is what I did.

Let me tell you-- the results are spectacular, and my house smelled wonderful all day!



via Grist

Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes In Olive Oil

Makes about 3 pint jars

10 pounds heirloom tomatoes
1 head of garlic, cloves separated but not peeled
A couple of shallots, halved, but not peeled, optional
A handful of thyme sprigs
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2-3 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
Your favorite fresh herbs for tomatoes—- basil, marjoram, or oregano
A few dried red chili peppers, optional

Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper or foil. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.

Rinse your tomatoes, and slice them in half across their equator [MF says-- I used Romas, so I trimmed the stem spot off, and sliced mine top to bottom], or into thirds if they are particularly large. Line them on the baking sheet in a single layer, seed side up. Drizzle generously with olive oil. Scatter the garlic cloves, shallots, garlic, and thyme over the tomatoes. Sprinkle each tray of tomatoes with one teaspoon of salt.

Place the tomatoes in the oven and roast for about 6 hours [MF says-- I started checking mine after about 2-1/2 hours, it took ~5 hours for me], until much of the tomato juices have evaporated, and the slices have shrunk to about ½ their original size.

Let the tomatoes cool at room temperature. Then with a spatula [MF says-- I used a big spoon or my clean fingers, it was easier than balancing a tomato on a spatula] transfer the slices to your very clean pint jars (wide mouth canning jars will be easiest to deal with.) Layer fresh basil, or your preferred herb, between the slices of tomato, as well as the cloves of garlic and shallots that you squeeze from their hulls. Leave about 1 inch of headspace at the top of each jar."*"

The link provides SEVERAL different preserving methods, and much, much more. IThe recipe author says to pack the tomatoes in "very clean jars," but, I ALWAYS sterilize mine-- even brand new ones-- by boiling for at least 15 minutes before using.

I made several pints. Some with basil, some with oregano, and some with rosemary. I added dried chilis from last summer to a few, and roasted some yellow bell peppers, and some sweet banana peppers along with the tomatoes with a mix and match plan. This way, I can use different tomatoes for different recipes-- from simple marinara to pizza sauce or lasagna sauce, or whichever fits a recipe.

I mash them up as is, and use them as a pizza sauce, and I'll tell you, it is better than using fresh, or even sun-dried tomatoes. So tender and full of concentrated flavor!

I can tell you, it is a wonderful thing to open one of these little jars of sunshine come February, on a snow day, and making some delicious, summery dish.

"*"-- Depending on which preserving method you use, that one-inch of headspace is sort of variable. If you freeze them in the jars, you need that headspace, otherwise, I really recommend reducing that to a 1/2-inch of headspace. Whichever way you choose, make sure the tomatoes and other ingredients are covered completely. Less air means a longer keep time-- and a safer long-storing product.


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Labels: Recipes

This is one of the days that I was truly worried about. Lake Pontch is a brackish "lake." Fresh water pours in from land, but tidal salt water is always present. It's more of a lagoon, than what most people think of as a lake, and it is very big, and host to a myriad of unique species. Driving over the causeway, one would always be impressed at the vitality of Lake Pontch-- people on it, swimming, fishing, boating... The legendary Speckled Trout of Lake Pontchartrain are now doomed. Sad. Those Speckies made for some great fishing.



Thanks BP! You FUCKS.


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Labels: BP Fail, BP's Gulf Of Mexico Environmental Catastrophe, Lake Pontchartrain

I had no idea that this happened.


via NPR

Back in the summer of 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb in outer space, some 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean. It was a weapons test, but one that created a man-made light show that has never been equaled — and hopefully never will. Here it is:

More at the link.


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Labels: 4th of July, Nuclear Test Films, Nuclear Weapons

I'm getting away, finally. Going up to "Land Between The Lakes" for camping, hiking, and fishing. I need some R & R.

I'll be back posting on Monday.


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Labels: My Life As It Is

I am holding out my judgment for now. Matthew Simmons has a great mind. His choice of venues for his latest interview is odd. His statements are sometimes at oddswith what I have witnessed with my own eyes.

If what Matt Simmons is saying is true, then we need to add a whole new layer of seriousness to our perceptions of this disaster.

Simmons is laying more than his neck on the chopping block. I cannot, for the life of me, think of a reason why someone of his stature and placement would say such things if they were not true. He has everything to lose, and nothing to gain with his statements.

His appearances have not been good. He looks in rough shape. I cannot hold jugement on that.

His words horrify me, but, I recoil at hearing them.

Here's the long interview. Why he chose such a venue as via "True" News is a freakin' mystery to me.

It is very difficult for me to understand why Simmons would unleash all this wild talk without a website set up to handle and provide all of the proof.

Oh, well. There's the link. Hash it out.


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Labels: BP's Gulf Of Mexico Environmental Catastrophe, Matthew Simmons

**SNAP** Mary-- you better recognize!**SNAP**

via Crooks and Liars

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted Wednesday to create a congressional bipartisan commission to investigate the spill, with Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and others saying a separate panel is needed because the White House commission has four environmental advocates -- three members and the executive staff director -- but no oil industry representation.

"Maybe the commission that the Congress sets up, in a more balanced fashion, with both very strong environmental views and very strong industry views, could actually come up with something that really might work for the dilemma and the challenge that this nation faces, which briefly is this: We use 20 million barrels of oil a day," Landrieu said. "That was true the day before the Deepwater Horizon blew up. It is true today. And we need to get that oil from somewhere."

I'm so old, I remember when we all had such high hopes for Mary. Unfortunately, she' found herself a Sugar Daddy who doesn't whump her, as long as she doesn't listen to those Dirty Fucking Hippies.

OK.. I am sorta pissed at a couple of Senators...

Senator Ben Nelson needs to be taken to the cloakroom:
Via TPM

If Robert Byrd had been alive and on the Senate floor last night, the Democrats would have broken the Republican filibuster of the unemployment insurance extension bill. But Ben Nelson (D-NE) stepped forward to kill the bill and put any extension off until July.

What the fuck is WRONG with you, Senator Ben Nelson? 9.7% Unemployment, asshole. This cheap extension means the difference between people paying rent or their Mortgage, and being forced out of SHELTER. What kind of monster would stand between a U.S. Citizen having Shelter, or being thrown to the wolves?

What the hell is wrong with your head, Ben Nelson?



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Labels: Bad Democrats, There is No Political Solution

By odd chance, I happen to know the ACLU Lawyer. I know Dan's the type that will get this to SCOTUS, if need be, and actually have a chance to win.

via ACLU

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Michigan in partnership with the law firm of Daniel W. Grow, PLLC, filed a lawsuit today against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and the manager of its Battle Creek store for wrongfully firing an employee for using medicinal marijuana in accordance with state law to treat the painful symptoms of an inoperable brain tumor and cancer.

The lawsuit charges that Joseph Casias, 30, the Battle Creek Wal-Mart’s 2008 Associate of the Year, was fired from his job at the store after testing positive for marijuana, despite being legally registered to use the drug under Michigan’s medical marijuana law. In accordance with state law, Casias never ingested marijuana while at work and never worked while under the influence of marijuana.

“Medical marijuana has had a life-changing positive effect for Joseph, but Wal-Mart made him pay a stiff and unfair price for his medicine,” said Scott Michelman, staff attorney with the ACLU. “No patient should be forced to choose between adequate pain relief and gainful employment, and no employer should be allowed to intrude upon private medical choices made by employees in consultation with their doctors.”

Casias, married with two young children, has suffered for more than a decade from sinus cancer and a brain tumor in the back of his head and neck that was the size of a softball when it was first diagnosed. Casias’ condition has forced him to endure extensive treatment and chemotherapy, interferes with his ability to speak and is a source of severe and constant pain. Nonetheless, he had been successfully employed for more than five years by Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, where he began as an entry-level grocery stocker in 2004 and worked his way up to inventory control manager.

“For some people, working at Wal-Mart is just a job, but for me, it was a way of life,” said Joseph. “I came to Wal-Mart for a better opportunity for my family and I worked hard and proved myself. I just want the opportunity to continue my work.”

In 2008, Michigan voters enacted the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, which provides protection for the medical use of the drug under state law. The pain medication Casias’ oncologist had previously prescribed for him provided only minimal relief and as a side effect caused Casias to suffer from severe nausea. After the law was enacted, Joseph’s oncologist recommended that he try marijuana as permitted by state law, and so Casias obtained the appropriate registry card from the Michigan Department of Community Health. The results were immediate and profound: his pain decreased dramatically, the new medicine did not induce nausea and Casias was able to gain back some of the weight he had lost during treatment.

“Joseph is exactly the kind of person whom Michigan voters had in mind when they passed the state’s medical marijuana law,” said Daniel W. Grow, a St. Joseph, Mich.-based attorney. “Medical marijuana is legal in this state because voters recognized its ability to alleviate the pain, nausea and other symptoms associated with debilitating medical conditions, and no corporation doing business in Michigan should be permitted to flout state law.”

Michigan’s medical marijuana law protects patients registered with the state of Michigan from “arrest, prosecution, or penalty in any manner” for the use of medicinal marijuana as prescribed by a doctor and also protects employees from being disciplined for their use of medical marijuana in accordance with the law. The law does not require employers to accommodate the ingestion of marijuana in the workplace and does not protect employees who work under the influence of the drug.

The outcome of today’s lawsuit, filed in Calhoun County Circuit Court, could have ramifications beyond Michigan.

“Today, 14 states and the District of Columbia provide protections for patients who use marijuana as recommended by a doctor,” said Kary L. Moss, Executive Director of the ACLU of Michigan. “This case will be closely watched by patients across the country who rely on this medicine for pain relief and on their state laws for protection against unscrupulous employers.”

Casias is represented by Daniel W. Grow, Scott Michelman of the national ACLU and Kary L. Moss, Michael J. Steinberg and Dan Korobkin of the ACLU of Michigan.

A copy of the today’s complaint is available online at: http://www.aclumich.org/sites/default/files/file/casias%20complaint%206%2024%2010.pdf

Keep it clean and straight, Dan. This is one you can win.


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Labels: Medical Marijuana, Michigan Music, WalMart

I think this is one of the best roll-ups of the BP Oil Disaster yet. It's cheeky, but the linked sources are good, and in context, the narrative hangs together really well. If you have an under-informed, or mal-informed friend or family member wondering "Why isn't this fixed?" this might be a good article to share with them. Tony Hayward as Gollum is pretty funny.

via Energy Bulletin.net

If French intellectual Jean Baudrillard were still alive to deconstruct the unfurling Gulf oil disaster, I’m sure he’d marvel at the hyperreality of it all. Me, lacking the vocabulary, I’m going to call it reality TV.

True to the genre a dysfunctional cast – Tony Hayward, Barack Obama and Martin Feldman – must coexist in an unlikely situation, promoting themselves while being constantly upstaged by video footage from robots 5,000 feet (1,500 m) below sea level. Watch as they try to cope with reality, each other, and their investment portfolios! Squirm as they star in their own tragedy! Gasp as Hayward, left, reassures you that there’s nothing toxic about the dispersal chemicals!

Want drama? The Gulf of Mexico is becoming toxic, poisoned by both the crude oil surging out of BP’s ruptured well and the million-plus gallons of chemical dispersant, Corexit 9500, being dumped on the slick. Oil is making landfall along the area – if whipped up by a hurricane, it would likely be sprayed over communities along that seaboard – and, it is claimed, a mixture of oil and Corexit seems to be raining throughout the region causing widespread crop damage. People helping clear the oil are coming down with a range of symptoms that suggest poisoning, just as they did after the Exxon Valdex cleanup.

How about some tension? The oil is still gushing out, and the poison is still being sprayed. The blowout preventer is widely believed to be on the verge of collapse, and relief wells might be facing an impossible task, depending on what is left of BP’s wellbore – we don’t know much about this, because no-one will tell us. But then, that’s reality TV for you.

But viewers, I’m jumping ahead of myself – let’s go back to the start of this sorry mess.

Much more at the link.

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Labels: BP Fail, BP's Gulf Of Mexico Environmental Catastrophe

Two days ago, I went out to the gardens. My cat, Mountain Girl, came out with me. I was weeding and picking veggies, and looked up to see M.G. drinking out of the gack-covered "control" pot. I shooed her away. An hour later, she was vomiting violently and repeatedly. I had to rush her to the 24-hour Animal Emergency Center down in Memphis. I just got her home today-- three IVs, and an X-ray later. X-ray showed nothing in her stomach. The only strange thing she got into was that damned pot of water.

Whether the sheen on my water is local or Gulf-borne doesn't matter. It's there, it's airborne, and it's not healthy.

I'm done leaving water out.


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