Here Comes Single Payer in Another State David Swanson
A bill to create single-payer healthcare in California has passed that state's senate for the third time now. Californians just need to persuade a governor to sign it. Single-payer healthcare bills...
In Florida Slavery Still Haunts the Fields Mischa Gaus | Truthout
The trailer, 24 feet deep by 8 feet wide, is muggy this early August afternoon in Manhattan. Eight of us—church ladies, iPhone-wielding denizens,...
God Is Not on the Side of Union Busters
Tuesday, 06 July 2010
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Dick Meister | Truthout OpEd
God may or may not be on the side of unions, but a Catholic scholars group says that being on the other side, that is being against unions, is a "grave violation" of the church's social doctrine....
Water Test Sample Explodes
Monday, 19 July 2010
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Human Rights Examiner
One of the water test samples from multiple beaches in and around the Gulf region where children...
The Peace Movement's Progress 05 July 2010 14:59 The peace movement has made significant progress in the United States since its low point of late 2008, and just about everything anyone in it has done has been a contribution. If everyone keeps...
Help Elect Marleine Bastien (FL-17) 20 August 2010 14:59 Marleine Bastien’s campaign for Congress to replace Kendrick Meek representing District 17 first came to my attention when she was being considered for endorsement by the Miami chapter of...
Help Elect Marleine Bastien (FL-17) 20 August 2010 14:59 Marleine Bastien’s campaign for Congress to replace Kendrick Meek representing District 17 first came to my attention when she was being considered for endorsement by the Miami chapter of...
One of the water test samples from multiple beaches in and around the Gulf region where children were playing and swimming, when mixed with organic solvent used to separate the oil from the water, exploded.
The News 5 investigation team collected the samples, finding that the one from Dolphin Island Marina explosive according to Intel Hub's Alex Thomas.
"The obvious reason for such an explosion is methane gas.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) asked EPA head, Lisa Jackson, if dispersants could become the "Agent Orange of the Gulf," and then opened the door to the possibility that Mikulski will subpoena the manufacturer, Nalco Holding Co. at a future date. The maker of Corexit 9500 refused to attend the Senate Appropriations science subcommittee hearing on Thursday.
Mikulski began mildly, saying "I am sorry they did not come," but by the end of her blistering questioning of Jackson, it was clear that the Senator was like a pit-bull with a bone and was not going to let Jackson's deference to "lawyers" ride, adding "we don't have time for a lot of in-house bureaucratic vetting or screwing around."
It sounded like someone was finally in charge besides Joint Unified Command's NOAA, the Coast Guard, BP and the EPA. "We need to tighten up so we don't screw up," Mikulski charged.
This was the same day that BP had hopefully capped the wellhead that began spewing anywhere from 60-100,000 barrels of oil a day since April 20. BP has used more than 1.8 million gallons of dispersant in the Gulf since the catastrophe began in April; angering environmentalists, scientists and Gulf Coast residents over the potential for long-term public health consequences.
Jackson looked worse than an oiled pelican in Barataria Bay as she tried to extricate herself from Mikulski's sticky questions. The Senator from Maryland demanded to know why Jackson did not know the extent or limits of her authority as head of the EPA to order that BP stop the use of Corexit. In response to a direct question from Mikulski as to whether she, Jackson, could ban or limit the use of dispersants, or whether Admiral Thad Allen has the ultimate authority, Jackson hedged, blinked and said it was "a matter of untested law," adding "I would not know, I am not an attorney."
Journalists and independent observers of the oil cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico could be fined up to $40,000 and be charged with a felony if they get too close to booms and oil cleanup areas, and activist group Seize BP wants to know how authorities can justify such a muzzle on independent information gatherers.
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on behalf of Seize BP, demanding specific information on the US Coast Guard's justification for establishing 20-meter security zones around cleanup areas.
Seize BP is an activist group calling for the government to freeze BP's assets to provide comprehensive compensation in the Gulf.
Last week, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said in a news conference that the security zones were implemented in three cities - Mobile, Alabama; Morgan City, Louisiana; and New Orleans, Louisiana - after officials complained that booms being used to clean up oil could be damaged or vandalized. The Coast Guard can grant journalists permission to enter the zones on a case-by-case basis.
Carl Messineo, the attorney who filed the FOIA, told Truthout that Allen's justification is "suspicious" and "highly doubtful" considering BP's record of spreading misinformation about the oil spill - and the government's habit of backing it up - while using police and private security forces to keep journalists at bay. The FOIA filed specifically asks whom these civil officials were and if BP had anything to do with the decision.
"This attempt to muzzle the press on behalf of BP is just the latest in a series of actions that indicate collusion between the federal government and a giant corporate entity that has created an environmental disaster due to criminal negligence," Messineo said.
In a recent response to concerns about the security zones, Megan Moloney, a spokesperson for Allen, said the zones were required "due to recent instances of protective boom being vandalized or broken by non-response vessels getting too close."
Hundreds of workers in the Gulf Coast cleaning up BP’s oil disaster have reported symptoms of nausea, vomiting, nose bleeds, and headaches, but those “almost all have been heat related,” according to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab.
So reported Michael Whitney for FireDogLake, who has been following the struggle of workers and Gulf Coast natives affected by the disaster. Whitney joins us along with Jordan Flaherty, via Skype from Louisiana, to discuss the ongoing struggle of fishermen and the other local communities that make their living and run their lives around the water in the Gulf.
In southern West Virginia, it used to look as if three Democrats, who have served in Washington for a combined 115 years, had figured out the delicate, occasionally violent politics of Appalachian coal.
They were already being pulled in opposite directions by a Democratic White House and home-state interests, which had criticized administration policies on climate change and "mountaintop removal" mining. Now they are in the middle of a debate about whether the federal government let coal companies skirt safety rules.
The reactions have been as different as the men. Byrd, in Congress since 1953 and essentially untouchable, has become an unlikely critic of the industry he championed for decades. Rockefeller, first elected in 1984, has learned hard lessons about challenging coal. He has asked for patience during an investigation.
Rahall, elected in 1976, is facing a possible reelection fight against a close industry ally. His test in the next year will be whether the region's old political dance -- running for coal, but also against its worst attributes -- can work when the issue is newly divisive in West Virginia and Washington.
"Politicians are running this tightrope, where they want to seem like they're being responsive to issues with coal, like mountaintop removal" and mine safety, said John Poffenbarger, a political science professor at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, W.Va. "But at the same time, the state's dependent on it."
Help Elect Marleine Bastien (FL-17) 20 August 2010 14:59 Marleine Bastien’s campaign for Congress to replace Kendrick Meek representing District 17 first came to my attention when she was being considered for endorsement by the Miami chapter of...
New Black Panthers and the right's new Southern strategy 17 July 2010 09:43 The latest fake controversy makes clear the ugliness of the right's Obama era political strategy The right, as you may have heard, is all worked up about the Justice Department dismissing voter...
Life Imprisonment for $11 Robbery 11 August 2010 12:40 Thank you all who have called to demand justice for the Scott Sisters. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has assigned an individual to investigate the case of the Scott Sisters. His name is...
Contact House Committees Now 17 September 2009 05:00 About half the Democratic Committee members (in red) belong to the Blue Dog and/or New Democrat Coalition. These Caucuses oppose a public plan or support a more limited public plan:...
Environment
The peace movement has made significant progress in the United States since its low point of late 2008, and just about everything anyone in it has done has been a contribution. If everyone keeps...
The Department of Veterans Affairs is encouraging military veterans previously denied benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder to start reapplying Tuesday as the agency's tedious claims process...
Marleine Bastien’s campaign for Congress to replace Kendrick Meek representing District 17 first came to my attention when she was being considered for endorsement by the Miami chapter of...
One of the water test samples from multiple beaches in and around the Gulf region where children were playing and swimming, when mixed with organic solvent used to separate the oil from the water, exploded.
