Women of the Spill - And the Oil Men Who Love Them~Darwin Bondgrahm
~How is it that Women of the Storm came to be such a pro-oil interest group? Truth is Women of the Storm was never a grassroots "women's organization." It began as an elitist post-Katrina lobby that emphasized broad social and economic issues related to reconstruction of the city and region. Women of the Storm was founded by Anne Milling and other mavens of New Orleans' Uptown elite who convened strategy meetings in their St. Charles and Audubon Place mansions to create a kind of women's auxiliary group, one that would keep the Congress's attention on southern Louisiana, and support the corporate and political campaigns run by their husbands to restore the region's dominant extractive and environmentally destructive industries as quickly as possible. From its very beginning Women of the Storm was a pro-oil and gas lobby by virtue of its leadership, determining positions they would or would not take on major legislation. They were also strong supporters of tax credits and the major housing assistance program that cut checks to homeowners, but left renters with nothing. As philanthropists, all of their initiatives aligned with big oil and other dominant economic forces.
~Editilla Ho'tellas~ Thanks youz, Darwin, for this excellent expose! It was brought to our attention too late yesterday to add to our post about Women of the Oil's Petition PR Rip-off. What WOO doesn't seem to get about their duplicity yet is this: everyone has now been so Raped by Public Relations regarding "The Storm that didn't flood New Orleans", and now this Massive BP PR coup d'état across the Louisiana and the Gulf, that we can smell it on our shoes --and we know where we gots our shoes. Though these debutantes may think their shit doesn't stink --it sure as Hell won't float. They can try to package it however they want, but we are done with these Outhouse Flowers.
We would like to post about each of these women of the storm, but it appears that hopefully Darwin is on that case as he is Much Better at this than your Ho'so Humble Editilla. But we did snag this screen shot of the Executive Committee page --which has been removed from the WOO site. Though not listed on that page, we received this tip about a founder. We love tips!
~Norma Jane Sabiston: Woman of the Oil
~Norma Jane Sabiston has been a mainstay of Louisiana Congressional policy and politics for over 25 years. As Legislative Assistant to Congressman Billy Tauzin, State and Political Director for Senator Breaux and Chief-of-Staff for Senator Mary Landrieu, Norma Jane has been at the center of policy management in Washington, D.C.
Norma Jane’s desire to help New Orleans and Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita led her back home to join Marmillion + Company (MCO) as Vice President. At MCO, Norma Jane represented the America’s WETLAND Campaign to Save Coastal Louisiana, which allowed her to assist in the creation of the Women of the Storm and the Coast Guardians and other organizations and initiatives, to advocate for a steady stream of revenue to restore Louisiana’s coastline and provide necessary hurricane protection. Recently, Norma Jane has established an independent consultant company Sabiston Consultants, which is focused on public affairs and political consulting.

Layers of Lies and Be The One in the BP Oil Spin~Carol Forsloff
~Not long ago I wrote an article announcing the campaign "Be the One," highlighting it as a charitable move, starring Sandra Bullock. It turns out it was likely a Big Oil front, a manufactured item by BP and buddies to get out of taking responsibility for cleaning up the Gulf and passing it along to taxpayers instead. While I continue to wash my face of the egg all over it, I realize I made the cardinal mistake I ask people to avoid. That's not fact-checking.


And speaking America's Wetlands and the firing of Ivor van Heerden
~And his emergence as the Sold-out Spokescientist for BP...
~So I was amazed to learn that, shortly after van Heerden, wetlands protector, was given the heave-ho by LSU, a group calling itself "America's Wetland" gave the university a fat check for $300,000.After a little digging, I found that it wasn't really "America's Wetland," the group with the oh-so-green name and love-Mother-Nature website, that provided the money. One-hundred percent of the loot, in fact, came from Chevron Oil Corporation. Chevron had merely "green-washed" the money through "Wetlands."Was this Big Oil's "thank you" to LSU for canning van Heerden? The University refuses to talk to me about van Heerden's firing ("It's a confidential personnel matter").
~Editilla Scrowtellas~In June we contacted Greg Palast on Van Heerden's devolution from Mentor to Tormentor. Palast responded, but has yet to offer anything publicly to contextualize his beatification of Van Heerden. But this may explain some of why our former Jedi has passed over to the Dark Side.

BP oil spill is just the latest blow for Delacroix: Part one of four
~Bob Marshall~BP's oil lingers, seen and unseen

Some favor scaleback, but others say damage still real
~Brown Pelicans rest Saturday on yellow oil containment boom near Comfort Island in waters near Yscloskey. AP photo by Judy Buttoni

Coast Guard routinely allowed toxic chemical use on BP Oil

BP To Offer One-off Payouts To Cap Gulf Oil Spill Liabilities in return for stopping them from suing the company, Houston trial lawyer refers to victims as "uneducated people"

Spike Lee screens Katrina follow-up film that includes oil spill
~It picks up with the New Orleans Saints' Super Bowl victory and chronicles the impact of the spill on people who have yet to fully recover from Katrina.

Lesser Antilles may see a tropical storm late this week~Wunderblog

Reviving a New Orleans neighborhood's heart~James Gill

New HUD Administrator Appointed In New Orleans

Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Announces First Poetry Contest

Legacy~Citizen K

Orphans of Katrina

How It Was 2.5 Years Post-K by Valentine ~NOLAFemmes