Needlenose

Louisiana Republican

The gushing goo destroying the livelihoods of the folks who live on Louisiana’s coast hasn’t damped the ardor of Louisiana Repug leaders to drill, baby drill.  You know, I feel bad for the poor Louisianans, but riddle me this – why do they continue to vote for abusive politicians?  Let Jindal go clean up the fucking mess his philosophy has created.

*Update 9:50P PT* Forrest Gump in 2010: bad news, BP oil spill destroyed his livelihood, his entire shrimping fleet had to be shut down.  Good news – he bought Apple stock, and held on to it!  Only question is, will he vote for David “double down on offshore drilling & liability cap” Vitter again this year, or will he realize that his shrimping business would be better off with a vote for Melancon?  Remember, stupid is as stupid does…

As Richard M. Nixon could have told Barack Obama, any time you’re on the beach in dress clothes and the press is watching, it’s probably not good news.

In this case, in an embarrassingly small-ball version of “Message: I Care,” President Obama got himself caught on video explaining to Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph how tar balls could be cleaned up manually from the beaches where they’ve washed up.

If Ms. Randolph asked the president, “Um… but what about the marshes around the corner drenched in floating oil, or the massive underwater plumes — how do we clean those up?!”, it didn’t make it into this clip.

But, to be fair, in his prepared remarks at the scene, Obama made a seemingly honest effort to recognize the grave toll of the catastrophe wrought by Big Oil, and how the government he heads is obligated to respond:

As I’ve said before, BP is the responsible party for this disaster.  What that means is they’re legally responsible for stopping the leak and they’re financially responsible for the enormous damage that they’ve created.  And we’re going to hold them accountable, along with any other party responsible for the initial explosion and loss of life on that platform.

But as I said yesterday, and as I repeated in the meeting that we just left, I ultimately take responsibility for solving this crisis.  I’m the President and the buck stops with me.  So I give the people of this community and the entire Gulf my word that we’re going to hold ourselves accountable to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to stop this catastrophe, to defend our natural resources, to repair the damage, and to keep this region on its feet.  Justice will be done for those whose lives have been upended by this disaster, for the families of those whose lives have been lost — that is a solemn pledge that I am making.

. . . To the people of the Gulf Coast:  I know that you’ve weathered your fair share of trials and tragedy.  I know there have been times where you’ve wondered if you were being asked to face them alone.  I am here to tell you that you’re not alone.  You will not be abandoned.  You will not be left behind.  The cameras at some point may leave; the media may get tired of the story; but we will not.  We are on your side and we will see this through.  We’re going to keep at this every day until the leak has stopped, until this coastline is clean, and your communities are made whole again.  That’s my promise to you.  And that is a promise on behalf of a nation.  It is one that we will keep.

Fine, Mr. President; we’ll be watching to make sure you do.

And for myself, I acknowledge that an epic, slow-motion disaster like this is a tough situation to deal with, and I’m sure President Obama feels like he’s doing the best he can within the constraints he has to operate under… just like with everything else.  It’s just painfully awkward to watch, that’s all.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

From his recent attack on the Civil Rights Act it was pretty clear that Ayn Rand Paul is pretty extreme even for wacky Libertarians.  But from Paul’s criticism of Obama over his handling of the recent mining tragedy and BP oil catastrophe, I’m beginning to suspect that he’s actually quite stupid as well:

“And I think it’s [Obama's call to have BP stop the leak] part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it’s always got to be somebody’s fault instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen,” Paul said.

“We had a mining accident that was very tragic. … Then we come in and it’s always someone’s fault. “

Yeah, dumb-ass, accidents do happen.  That’s why we have these things called ‘regulations’ to put technology and processes in place to minimize the chance of accidents occurring, and to mitigate the effects of accidents after they occur.  ”Blame” is quite fitting when an actor such as BP actively worked to undermine additional safety regulations targeted to avoid just such an event, not to mention BP making numerous mistakes, shortcutting their own internal safety regulations and procedures.  Paul – you are a fucking nitwit!

And speaking of stupid, hypocritical conservatives, Loserman is also attacking Obama over the BP oil leak response, complaining about the government’s lack of preparedness.  WTF?  Loserman minced across the aisles during the recent 8-year Repug Reign of Error, gleefully voting against industry regulations left and right, including voting for legislation that would ‘cap’ BP’s liabilities for such a spill at $75M – petty cash, compared the billions this will end up costing in the end.

These two tragedies are perfect examples of industry lobbying, combined with pliant political tools, privatizes profits and socializes the risks of extractive industries.  And yet another compelling argument (as if we needed one) of why we need not merely to stop industry donations to political campaigns, but should also impeach frickin “Justice” Samuel Alito.

Faux News and the teabaggers keep asking “Where is all the oil?”

BP live oil spill cam

I’ve got it live on my screen at work.  Surreal.

*Update* They just moved the cam to look away from the gusher.  They must be getting ready to try their Crap Shoot, or whatever they call it.

*Update 9:23P PT* Looks like they’ve got a waldo attaching a pipe to some underseas gizmo.  Check it out, it’s really cool!

*Update 9:35P PT* I think I’m seeing a long tube that they are attaching to some type of injection mechanism.  The gushing pipe is out of view, but it’s below and to the right.  My guess is that once this is attached and secure, they’ll lower it on the pipe to prepare for the mud injection.

*Update 10:12P PT* looks like they are dropping underwater buoys around the site.  Is that to help them orient their approach?

*Update 5/26/10* oil still spewing, they must have called the top kill off for some reason.

*Update 11:47A PT* They are doing stuff again, looks like they are adjusting stuff on what I believe to be the injector mechanism.  ROV cam keeps panning around the hardward, very interesting again.

*Update 2:02P PT* I think they are injecting mud.  Not too exciting to look at, and they say it could be a couple of days.

*Update 5/27/10* BP declares victory on the ‘top kill’ effort.  Cam view is kinda dull, ROV just seems to be sweeping across the apparatus, presumably looking for leaks or whatever.

*Update 11:02A PT* Cam is back on the injector thingie, looks like they are pumping more mud again?

It seems like only yesterday when politicians were shouting Drill, Baby Drill to a growing chorus of SUV-drivin’ whiners.  Frankly, given the history of oil spills, I couldn’t help but wonder how politics in the U.S. could have shifted so sharply in my lifetime from a moratorium on new drilling to supposed Totalitarian Liberals like Obama and a ‘moderate’ Repug like Schwarzenegger pushing for renewed coastal drilling.

What a difference a multi-million gallon oil spill off wetlands, fisheries and resort beaches makes.  Now, thanks to BP’s fuckup and the failure of an oil rig that was supposedly spill-proof, it looks like additional coastal drilling may be off the table…at least while this is still in the news.

It really comes down to this – I don’t believe Americans can really remember stuff that happened before the current news cycle.  Seriously, just watch – somebody will discover some politician or celebrity’s reproductive organ lodged somewhere it isn’t supposed to be, the oil spill will fade from memory (along with countless threatened and endangered spills in the Gulf of Mexico), and Palin et. al. will be out screaming Drill, Baby Drill with renewed vigor.

It’s like all that talk a few years ago about how nuclear power was gaining new support. Obama even included building a few new of the unstable light water reactors in his energy plan.  What the hell will it take to take that option off the table, another Three Mile Island or a Chernobyl (history of those nuclear power accidents, in case you too have amnesia)?

Remember the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?  It’s got a buddy in the Atlantic now.   Bad news for sea life:

Charles Moore, an ocean researcher credited with discovering the Pacific garbage patch in 1997, said the Atlantic undoubtedly has comparable amounts of plastic. The east coast of the United States has more people and more rivers to funnel garbage into the sea. But since the Atlantic is stormier, debris there likely is more diffuse, he said.

Whatever the difference between the two regions, plastics are devastating the environment across the world, said Moore, whose Algalita Marine Research Foundation based in Long Beach, California, was among the sponsors for Cummins and Eriksen.

“Humanity’s plastic footprint is probably more dangerous than its carbon footprint,” he said.

Plastics have entangled birds and turned up in the bellies of fish: A paper cited by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says as many as 100,000 marine mammals could die trash-related deaths each year.

The plastic bits, which can be impossible for fish to distinguish from plankton, are dangerous in part because they sponge up potentially harmful chemicals that are also circulating in the ocean, said Jacqueline Savitz, a marine scientist at Oceana, an ocean conservation group based in Washington.

The opening paragraphs of this Washington Post story on Sunday sound more like a pitch for a science-fiction movie:

For plants designed in a lab a little more than a decade ago, they’ve come a long way: Today, the vast majority of the nation’s two primary crops grow from seeds genetically altered according to Monsanto company patents.

Ninety-three percent of soybeans. Eighty percent of corn.

The seeds represent “probably the most revolutionary event in grain crops over the last 30 years,” said Geno Lowe, a Salisbury, Md., soybean farmer.

From there, the story goes on to what it sees as the important issue — Monsanto is steadily raising the prices of the seeds, and the Obama administration is considering antitrust actions.

But me, I’m still stuck on this 80-90% of seeds being genetically altered based on a single company’s patents.  And it gets even more disturbing when you learn the reason why these seeds dominate the market:

The modified plants can stand up to the powerful herbicide glyphosate, best known commercially as Roundup, allowing them to use the weedkiller not just before planting but also after the crops have come up.

And who makes Roundup?  Why, Monsanto, of course!

Before it jumped into biotechnology, Monsanto was already one of the nation’s largest chemical companies and had patented glyphosate, bringing it to market as Roundup in the ’70s.

The product kills just about all weeds, and for farmers it served as a wonderfully effective herbicide. Instead of tilling the earth, they could simply blanket it with Roundup. . . .

If there was a practical drawback with Roundup, it was that it couldn’t be used after planting: Applying Roundup at that point would kill the crops, too.

But where there’s science and profit involved, there’s always a solution:

Monsanto was producing Roundup at a plant in Luling, La., and the water and sludge in the waste ponds around the plant were exposed to the chemical. . . . After bacteria discovered in the pond sludge proved resistant to the chemical, scientists isolated the gene that gave the bacteria Roundup tolerance and placed that gene, known as CPS4, into soybeans, then corn.

The resulting plants, called “Roundup Ready,” represented a billion-dollar breakthrough and, as Monsanto sees it, a just reward for its $1.5 billion investment in biotech research.

Got that?  A chemical company develops a near-monopoly on the weedkiller market… and before too long, it’s an agriculture company with a near-monopoly on corn and soybeans that are compatible with the weedkiller.  And the only problem anyone seems to have with it would be if Monsanto gets a little too greedy in its pricing.

“Everybody likes Roundup Ready,” said William Layton, a grain farmer on the Eastern Shore. “Maybe it costs a little more than we like. But everybody’s going to keep using it.“

It’s not hard for me to imagine this going horribly, catastrophically wrong at some point.  And I don’t even read that much science fiction.

Limbaugh the Nazca denounces the liberal tree hugging alarmism

Well okay, maybe rampant deforestation created conditions for terrible erosion and floods that brought down the Nazca civilization, but otherwise…poppy-cock!  Er…and of course the deforestation of Easter Island had similar consequences…oh yeah, and the Anasazi had a similar problem…but under no circumstances is that anyway comparable to today’s increasing desertification and global warming which of course have nothing to do with human activities and certainly won’t lead to the collapse of our civilization…

In the very beginning of the Judeo-Christian bible, God allegedly grants humanity

“…dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

And so it came to pass.  And speaking of creeping things that doth creepeth, it seems the creeps have inherited the Earth, creeps that seem intent to stomp every creeping thing over which they have dominion into extinction (and don’t forget the permanent snuffing the fowl of the air).

You’re probably wondering why I’ve decided to bum you out tonight.  I’m blue because of these new bummer tidbits, the massive die-off and looming extinction of nine species of shark due to the charming practice of ‘finning’ the poor critters for shark-fin soup while tossing the still alive but mutilated shark back into the ocean to effectively die slowly from blood loss and asphyxiation.

I can’t tell you how depressed I get knowing that over the course of my lifetime I’ve watched the biggest species die-off since the disappearance of the dinosaurs.  Except for a few modest successes (think a few species of whales, wolves, American bison), people world-wide seem driven to destroy as many habitats and species as rapidly as possible, whether through global warming, deforestation, desertification, strip mining, urban sprawl, polluting and increasing the acidity of fresh and salt water, overfishing, poaching and just polluting the air and land in general.  Is the game to see how many of them we can take with us before our fossil fuel runs out and civilization collapses?

In the case of creatures like pelagic sharks or other deepsea fish, we’re looking at the classic tragedy of the commons writ large.  Unless some modern day, environmentally-motivated Captain Nemo decides to take matters into his own hands, it’s pretty much all she wrote for these poor creatures.  Wouldn’t hurt to have some more (and less gentle) Bruno Mansers on land as well.

There might be a bit more hope for the poor vaquita which recently lost funds for protection due to the economic downturn.  Rather than watch it follow the Yangtse River Dolphin, perhaps a campaign funded by private donations run by a group such as the WWF could make up the shortfall?

The only thing that depresses me more than the actual mass extinction event underway is how people seem to care so little about it.

Recently I railed about the high levels of pharmaceuticals found in fish caught off the coast of several major cities.  I had naively thought that stemmed from medicines passed from overmedicated Americans through their urine that weren’t being filtered out by wastewater treatment plants (an earlier explanation I had read).

Well that could certainly be a contributor, but who would have thought Big Pharma would just be dumping medicine-laden water directly (and legally) into the sewer system?

Three woeful facts here – one, that discharges of these chemicals isn’t regulated, two these discharges are mostly not even monitored, and three – we don’t filter these chemicals out of the waste stream before they enter our seafood pantry.

Enough to make me a vegetarian.  Oh wait…I already am one!