Posted today on Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog...
If you're wondering why television news coverage of the oil spill is dwindling, you can thank the chemical dispersants that are pushing the oil to the bottom of the Gulf. No oil-covered birds on the shore means nothing to show on television. But...
In some cases, these dispersants could be more harmful, ecologically speaking, then letting the oil wash ashore. We don't know what's in these chemicals and there's a very high potential that they could do a lot of damage to the food chain in the Gulf. Indeed, that's why Exxon was constrained from using dispersants in Prince William Sound back in 1989.
This is a tragedy that's going to unfold over years, not months. But we won't know the extent of the damage because we're already beginning to move on and pay attention to things like Elena Kagan's softball skills. That is until people, and especially children, begin to drop dead from mysterious illnesses.
No matter how you slice this thing, it's awful, awful, awful. And to a significant extent, the American penchant for myopia and ignorance will be almost as guilty as BP, Transocean and Halliburton.
Digby:
We are a nation of cover-up artists. And most people are good with that because the scope of the disasters we are confronting are overwhelming.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Babies Are Born Already Polluted
"You say they're where? Toxic chemicals - some known to cause cancer -- are in our bodies, our newborns as well. In fact, researchers have found some 300 contaminants -- industrial chemicals, consumer product ingredients, pesticides and pollutants from burning fossil fuels -- in the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies, rendering our babies 'pre-polluted' according to the esteemed scientists and medical experts of the President's Cancer Panel," writes Wendy Gordon on Huffington Post. For the complete article go here.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Dispersants And The Gulf Oil Spill
National Geographic News has an excellent article on the use of chemical dispersants used by BP oil after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010 and the subsequent massive oil spill that is moving toward shore in the Gulf of Mexico.
Gulf Oil Spill Turns To Chemicals
By Ker Than
April 30, 2010
Breaking oil into droplets
Oil dispersants have been available to combat spills since the mid-1980s. They are detergent-like chemicals that break up oil slicks on the surface of the water into smaller droplets, which can then be broken down by bacteria in the water and by other natural processes. Dispersants also help prevent the oil droplets from coalescing to form other slicks.
According to the U.S. National Research Council, oil spill dispersants do not actually reduce the total amount of oil entering the environment. Rather, they change the chemical and physical properties of the oil, making it more likely to mix into the water column than to contaminate the shoreline.
The NRC report says that evaluating the environmental trade-offs associated with dispersant use is “one of the most difficult decisions that oil spill responders and natural resources managers face during a spill.” The reason is the increased oil exposure for fish, as well as for corals and creatures that live in the lowest level of the water, such as oysters, the report said.
"Dispersant only alters the destination of the toxic compounds in the oil," redirecting its impact from feathered and fur-bearing animals on shore to organisms in the water column itself and on the seafloor, Richard Charter, senior policy adviser for marine programs at the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife, said in an email.
"No good answers to a mess this big, only degrees of damage to various life-forms," Charter said.
I'll be updating this as I learn more.
Gulf Oil Spill Turns To Chemicals
By Ker Than
April 30, 2010
Breaking oil into droplets
Oil dispersants have been available to combat spills since the mid-1980s. They are detergent-like chemicals that break up oil slicks on the surface of the water into smaller droplets, which can then be broken down by bacteria in the water and by other natural processes. Dispersants also help prevent the oil droplets from coalescing to form other slicks.
According to the U.S. National Research Council, oil spill dispersants do not actually reduce the total amount of oil entering the environment. Rather, they change the chemical and physical properties of the oil, making it more likely to mix into the water column than to contaminate the shoreline.
The NRC report says that evaluating the environmental trade-offs associated with dispersant use is “one of the most difficult decisions that oil spill responders and natural resources managers face during a spill.” The reason is the increased oil exposure for fish, as well as for corals and creatures that live in the lowest level of the water, such as oysters, the report said.
"Dispersant only alters the destination of the toxic compounds in the oil," redirecting its impact from feathered and fur-bearing animals on shore to organisms in the water column itself and on the seafloor, Richard Charter, senior policy adviser for marine programs at the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife, said in an email.
"No good answers to a mess this big, only degrees of damage to various life-forms," Charter said.
I'll be updating this as I learn more.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
What They Aren't Telling You About The Gulf Oil Spill
The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico just makes me sick. Now we have news that it is worse than we first learned.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
YES WE CAN...YES WE DID!
Butch and I got involved last fall when the health care reform debate started to heat up. We joined other friends in the Democratic party to show our support for affordable health care for all Americans. We stayed involved and signed petitions until it passed. We feel proud that we did our part to help make this historic change in health care.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Koch Brothers Quietly Remake America
In my March 15 blog titled "How's That Trickle Down Economy Working For You?" I published a shocking graphic image that showed how the wealthiest Americans' incomes have increased over the past 15 years. Here it is again...
After looking at the graph and thinking about how this happened, I started thinking about who those 400 wealthy Americans were. Sure, I knew that Bill Gates was there, and Warren Buffet, Oprah, Steven Speilberg, Steve Jobs and those guys at Google. It didn't surprise me that four Walton siblings were in the top 15. But who were some of the others that weren't quite so famous and what had they done to amass their fortunes? Yesterday, my curiosity was rewarded when I found an article about Charles and David Koch. Have you ever heard of them? Me either.
Well, they happen to share the #19 space on the Forbes 400 richest people in the world, with each of them posting a cool $14 billion apiece. These two senior citizens got started when they inherited a successful business from their wealthy father. But more importantly they inherited his idealogy. You see Fred Koch founded the John Birch Society.
The brothers run Koch Industries, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas with over 70,000 employees in 60 countries and more than $100 billion in sales each year. Pretty impressive, right? Then why haven't we heard about them or their company?
They prefer to operate below the radar because it allows them to spread their anti-government, corporate-controlled vision of how to reshape America. They've been at it for awhile and they are really good at it. You'll want to learn more about these brothers. Trust me.
Today, I found this article from Climate Science Watch that explains how the "brothers Grimm" influence the global warming debate while financially supporting climate change deniers.
UPDATE: And Greenpeace recently came out with this article published in Huffington Post.
Keep your eyes on the Koch brothers. They are reshaping America and it's not for our benefit.
After looking at the graph and thinking about how this happened, I started thinking about who those 400 wealthy Americans were. Sure, I knew that Bill Gates was there, and Warren Buffet, Oprah, Steven Speilberg, Steve Jobs and those guys at Google. It didn't surprise me that four Walton siblings were in the top 15. But who were some of the others that weren't quite so famous and what had they done to amass their fortunes? Yesterday, my curiosity was rewarded when I found an article about Charles and David Koch. Have you ever heard of them? Me either.
Well, they happen to share the #19 space on the Forbes 400 richest people in the world, with each of them posting a cool $14 billion apiece. These two senior citizens got started when they inherited a successful business from their wealthy father. But more importantly they inherited his idealogy. You see Fred Koch founded the John Birch Society.
The brothers run Koch Industries, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas with over 70,000 employees in 60 countries and more than $100 billion in sales each year. Pretty impressive, right? Then why haven't we heard about them or their company?
They prefer to operate below the radar because it allows them to spread their anti-government, corporate-controlled vision of how to reshape America. They've been at it for awhile and they are really good at it. You'll want to learn more about these brothers. Trust me.
Today, I found this article from Climate Science Watch that explains how the "brothers Grimm" influence the global warming debate while financially supporting climate change deniers.
UPDATE: And Greenpeace recently came out with this article published in Huffington Post.
Keep your eyes on the Koch brothers. They are reshaping America and it's not for our benefit.
Monday, March 15, 2010
How's That Trickle Down Economy Working For You?
On March 3, 2010 the Economic Policy Institute published this graph that shows the income growth of the top 400 American households compared to the rest of us over a 15-year period. 
What it shows is that while pre-tax income grew by a staggering 409% over that 15-year period, after tax income increased even more... by 476%. The third line shows the change in the pre-tax median household income over the same period, which grew only 13.2% (that's us).
The median pre-tax household income for a family of four in 2007 was $50,233, while the top earning 400 households earned a median income of $345 million, almost 6900 times as much income.
For the original article click on the headline.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Is the Military Threatening To Kill Obama?
Conspiracy theories are thought provoking and down right scarey. I happened on this article last night about midnight and couldn't put it down. "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!!?" It is long. Very long. There's a lot of background information...so much that your head will spin. Keep reading. You'll find a hundred places where you will want to stop. Your head will throb. Your eyes will blur. Your acid reflux will flare up. Keep reading. Then leave a comment, please. DiAnne
Barack in the Crosshairs
By John Hankey
2-21-10
There is a financial oligarchy in this country, that tries, by every means available to it, to control all essential political activity, including the education of the citizens, their thinking, the information available to them, etc. Some politicians genuinely see themselves as public servants, and wish to serve the public good. They can give passionate and inspiring speeches, spoken truly from the heart but they know good and well that if they want to get elected they must carry out the agenda of the elite.
All politicians, even those trying to make society more fair, must be brought to heel, one way or another. It is not a simple game. And the tools used to control politicians are varied: controlling the information they receive is often effective; some times bribery or a scandal is necessary. It was necessary to shoot John and Robert Kennedy in the head. The bloody deaths of the Kennedy brothers sent a message to every politician, that still echoes today. And I think the evidence shows that Obama received a reminder of this message recently.
The parallels between the administrations of Barack Obama and John Kennedy are stunning: (more)
Barack in the Crosshairs
By John Hankey
2-21-10
There is a financial oligarchy in this country, that tries, by every means available to it, to control all essential political activity, including the education of the citizens, their thinking, the information available to them, etc. Some politicians genuinely see themselves as public servants, and wish to serve the public good. They can give passionate and inspiring speeches, spoken truly from the heart but they know good and well that if they want to get elected they must carry out the agenda of the elite.
All politicians, even those trying to make society more fair, must be brought to heel, one way or another. It is not a simple game. And the tools used to control politicians are varied: controlling the information they receive is often effective; some times bribery or a scandal is necessary. It was necessary to shoot John and Robert Kennedy in the head. The bloody deaths of the Kennedy brothers sent a message to every politician, that still echoes today. And I think the evidence shows that Obama received a reminder of this message recently.
The parallels between the administrations of Barack Obama and John Kennedy are stunning: (more)
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