Women of the Storm resorts to Spamming Petition Signers to counter-spin PR of their connections to America's Wetlands Foundation.
~Firstly: I highly resent being contacted this way regardless of signing their petition before realizing their connection to Big Oil through America's Wetlands.
I've never given them my email otherwise. I would assume everyone who signed that petition received this email blast. Now they use this to do Public Relations.
That sucks so in the BP way. It looks and smells like Crude Oil Public Relations.
~2ndly: I resent Women of the Storm portraying themselves as uninterested in having the American Taxpayer foot the bill for the devastation wrought by oil companies. They portray their activities as Apolitical Activists or anything other than a Political Action Committee, when it appears that is Exactly their function
For example, WOS in their first trip to DC, encouraged members of Congress to come to N.O. and see the damage for themselves. But in their second trip to DC, WOS pushed HARD for federal legislation. They lobbied for the Domenici-Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, S. 3711 WOS flew to Washington in a chartered jet and spent the day running all over DC lobbying for the Act. Read that bill, past the "revenue sharing" candy and tell me what you think.
~3rdly: One sentence in their spam bothered me: "The organization has never received direct funding from any oil company or from America’s Wetland Foundation. While America's Wetland Foundation is a strategic partner..." (bold emphasis mine) Oh? "Direct Funding", certainly implies "funding" and sounds like an evasion, a half-lie. What about "Indirect Funding"? I mean try running that one by the IRS who investigates money laundering. I bet they hear the "Direct -vs- Indirect Funding" line all the time. I mean really. And what the hell does "strategic partner" mean exactly. This bothers me because WOS and America's Wetlands are both Private Non-profit Corporations, which means they are not subject to open-records Sunshine Law, Freedom of Information Requests or any other public scrutiny over their financing the way WOS's fund raising front Greater New Orleans Foundation is due to its 501c3 status. Yes you can see who gives WOS money through GNOF but you will not see any financial connection to her husband's oil industry group America's Wetlands without a subpoena.
~Finally~ What does this group actually DO? It seems after they got S. 3711 they sorta just died down as I found reading Karen Dalton-Beninato's article Thursday in New Orleans.com. This statement has stuck with me all day: Milling's wife, Ann Milling, has revived Women of The Storm, which was founded post-Katrina. (Bold mine). This bothers me because I haven't really seen much On The Ground from this group. It did seem to me that they had disappeared after getting that law passed. It seems to me that they are a Political Action Committee, which wouldn't be so bad if this bill weren't such a boon to the oil industry and that her husband shills for oil industry legislation.
It also appears to me that this effort of WOS/AW will take away much needed funding, focus and personal commitment to other more worthy Wetlands Groups that I definitely support, such as Gulf Restoration Network and Voice of the Wetlands ---neither of which appear as "partners" or "sponsors" on the WOS website (which they have re-written since this boo'rah started) or AW.
I signed the petition because I wanted to help and this looked like it had people involved that I could trust and admire. I don't just dive into celebrity endorsements like a goddamn clueless idiot. Sandra Bullock has proven herself to be as straight-up as I thought. Harry Shearer, John Goodman, Drew Brees and even Dr John (all heroleroes of mine) have lent their expensive names to this cause. I was willing to let it shake out depending on how WOS responded. Instead I got Email Spam because I signed their petition.
I'm done with these Women of the Oil, having had quite enough of Oil Industry PR Lobby Greenwashing masked as environmental concern.
Been there, done that and all we got was an oil infected coastline.

BP's "Missing Oil" Washes up in St. Mary's Parish, LA
~The good news is that the cap is holding. The bad news is that, with the well no longer gushing, the oil is out of sight and out of mind and BP is pulling up boom and pulling back workers, skimmers, cleaners, and the rest of the clean-up apparatus all across the Gulf. Even without new oil, the 40,000 barrels a day that spewed from the Macondo well for nearly 100 days continue to wash up on shores, including ones which no one is protecting or cleaning.

Astroturfing Flypaper
~American Zombie

Plaquemines Parish Pres. Nungesser stops boom-laden trucks
~St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro also says he won't allow removal of any oil spill cleanup equipment from staging areas in his parish.
~La. delegation clashes on ban
~BRAF to direct BP grants

BP trying to sneak out before cleanup has ended~Thanks, Katrina

Fishermen arrested in Bayou La Batre, Ala after blockade protesting getting little oil cleanup work

No Place Like Home
~Bob Edwards presents interviews over the next six weeks or so, beginning with Times Picayune environment reporter Mark Schleifstein who got 12 feet of water in his house from Katrina after co-authoring that series of article called Washing Away which warned everyone of the danger. He’ll share the first show with environmental sociologist Shirley Laska, a professor at the University of New Orleans who founded CHART, the Center for Hazards, Assessment, Response and Technology. You can hear those first two conversations on Wednesday, August 4th on the Bob Edwards Show and then a few days later on Bob Edwards Weekend. Notella~This weekend Bob interviews Herolero Jon Cleary!

Chasing Ghosts ~American Zombie

~"We're ready to believe you.
Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS!"
~Anon Comment~Having been through Katrina and watched this whole area teeter and then right itself because of the people, not the Gov or the NGOs or the contractors who descended on us and sucked money out of our recovery funds like disaster junkie hyped up vampires, I am sickened to read this blather, these banal phrases of yours. The water is not okay, it doesn't look okay, the animals we usually see out there are not there. There were lots of them suffering in the oil, and now they are not there to be seen much at all. Dead. Yes. Many are dead.


~Hat Tweet~judyb1954
~ The_Gambit Despite Federal order limiting use of dispersants, Coast Guard approved every #bp request to do so http://bit.ly/aA7Oi4

Should I pack the tarballs in my carry on?~Bayou Girl

Twitter Not Working (For Us, Anyway) -Oil Spill Updates~SkyTruth
~Today's MODIS / Aqua satellite image of the Gulf seems to have good illumination conditions for showing oil slicks and sheen east of the Delta. We don't see much indication of the widespread sheen that was present on the July 28 imagery, although a large part of that oily-looking area is south and slightly west of the Delta and obscured by clouds on today's image. Stay tuned, this continues to be a very dynamic event.

Oiled marshes may grow back, scientists say ~Nikki Buskey

Oil, oil (still) everywhere~Gambit

Scientists point to better way to safer drilling ~TP editorial
~Robert Bea, a University of California Berkeley engineering professor who is in the study group, told Bloomberg News that regulators should halt drilling "on a case-by-case basis" and not indiscriminately. Specifically, the group called for regulators to focus on wells with "a history of abnormal repetitive well-control events" or substandard or poorly tested blowout preventers. They suggested new requirements for blowout preventers and that an individual regulator be assigned to every troubled rig to ensure compliance with safety requirements.
They also suggested that a centralized authority staffed by petroleum engineers monitor deepwater wells, with the authority to immediately shut down any rig flouting the rules. Mr. Bea equated it to the power of "a bank examiner who closes the bank, then asks for explanations."

DMR reopens Mississippi S Sound to fishing and consumption

Officials working to resolve levees, flood issues~Alexandria Town Talk
~JOINT HEARING with the Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery "Flood Preparedness and Mitigation: Map Modernization, Levee Inspection, and Levee Repairs"

29 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes

House approves oil spill legislation

BP oil spill: A Louisiana tragedy
~Tim Gautreaux

2,400 square miles reopened for fishing, shrimping ~WWL

Will Louisiana's Anti-BP, Feds And Moratorium "Bomb"?~Jim Brown

Blacklash Grows Against BP Efforts to "Buy Up" Gulf scientists~Chris Kromm
~Van Heerden's gadfly role after Katrina won him fans in New Orleans, but his BP video this year -- which downplays the damage caused by the oil disaster -- has put him in the doghouse. In the video, van Heerden says that despite the "media perception out there that there's oil everywhere," in reality oil "has only come ashore in a few locations;" that marshes are doing fine thanks to their "dense roots;" and that the spilled oil itself is "very, very light" and "breaks down very, very rapidly." All of which could be debated by reasonable scientists, but is suspect coming from van Heerden given one crucial fact: He now works for Polaris Applied Sciences, a company contracted by BP -- a relationship which a growing chorus of scholars says not only puts his impartiality in question, but also symbolizes a growing threat to academic freedom when the insights of scholars are needed most.

Jindal: Oil spill damage not exaggerated~Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal joined incoming BP CEO Bob Dudley in rejecting the notion from an article appearing in a national publication that damage from the oil spill has been exaggerated.
Michael Grunwald, an environmental reporter from Time Magazine, spoke with scientists from Louisiana. The scientists (BP Spokescientist Ivor van Heerden) quoted in the article said the oil spill was not as catastrophic as some would have the rest of the country believe.

The Oil Disaster Isn't Really Happening


Exactly~American Zombie
~This is exactly what I think is going on. They sunk this spill to create the cosmetic appearance that the problem went away quickly....it hasn't. There is little to skim because they sunk the shit.
~Editilla Doh'notellas~ The 3 linked articles below are only one day after Gunrwald's Oil Industry Fluff Job. Oh, and let's all thank Ivor van Heerden!
One day later and the PR News Spinfiltration is already this bad.
Give it another week or two and Louisianans will go back to being called Lazy Chicken-Littles who would rather hypescam this latest faux disaster to rip-off the American Taxpayers --just like they did when Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans! Oh snap, that article on our slothful nature is already yesterdays news.
~Is the BP spill enviro-damage as bad as we think?
~BP oil spill: Was Tony Hayward right after all?
~The disgraced BP boss enraged Americans when he played down the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Now it seems he was closer to the truth.
~BP oil spill: the disaster that never materialized
100 days after the spill began, American journalist Michael Grunwald exposes an over-hyped catastrophe.

Many in Gulf are outraged at reports of vanishing oil~Brett Michael Dykes

Reports Of BP Disaster’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated~Think Progress

Our Complicity ~truthout

Time for 'scaleback' in cleanup, says new BP CEO ~WWL~BP's incoming CEO says it's time to scale back the massive effort to clean up the oil spill, but adds that the commitment to make things right is the same as ever.
Dudley rejects the idea that the environmental effects of the spill have been overblown. He says that anyone who thinks it wasn't a catastrophe must be far away from it.
~Editilla But'wellas~But! But! What Would Ivor Say? WWIS?
~Marine scientist Ivor van Heerden, another former LSU prof, who's working for a BP contracted spill-response team, says, "There's just no data to suggest this is an environmental disaster. I think they lied about the size of the spill — but we're not seeing catastrophic impacts."

BP rejects Texas request for $25 mln clean up grant

US gas stations: Stay BP or change name to Amoco?

Sandra Bullock's request to be removed from controversial video sponsored by Big Oil/America's Wetlands is ignored

Women of the Storm denies HuffPo charge, seeks meeting with Bullock ~Gambit

BP Oil Spill - Curb Your Enthusiasm, Part 2 ~SkyTruth
~The MODIS / Aqua satellite image above, taken at 2 pm Central time on July 28, shows oil slicks and sheen (encircled with orange line) that we think are likely attributable to the BP / Deepwater Horizon oil spill, spread out across 11,832 square miles.~To the Naysayers...

Oil Spill Dispersant Shifting Impacts in Gulf Ecosystems, Scientists Warn

More crude washes up in Terrebonne, Lafourche~Daily Comet
~Various news outlets are reporting that oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill is increasingly less visible in the Gulf of Mexico, but the same could not be said for the different forms of crude washing up on Fourchon Beach this week.

As the berms turn part three: Jindal’s “Dutch Treat” not working out. Dutch dredging company Van Oord says Jindal is all wet ~slabbed
~SLABBEDblog Published Save the Delta 2 on Scribd http://scr.bi/awhuDS

Less Oil On Surface Means Less Work For Fishermen ~WDSU

After-the-leak issues debated
~Sandy Davis

Spillionares

Gulf of Mexico Has Long Been a Dump Site for Industry~Campbell Robertson

Gulf of Mexico Oil Rigs~Swordpress


Which is harder on coastal marshes, crude oil or crude engineering? ~LaCoastPost

We've been wasting the river, particularly the sediment, directing it offshore. The Corps of Engineers from the New Orleans District Office dredges more river sediment than any other district in the United States. ... The problem is, we don't put it [sediments] where it's needed. We should pipe it across the landscape, putting it into regions where we can build wetlands.~Robert Twilley

Soft-shell crabs are readily available, despite the oil polluting the Gulf
~Brett Anderson

As offshore oil war continues, quieter pollution battles being fought on land
~Jen DeGregorio, The Lens

Gulf of Mexico oil spill lawsuits should be consolidated, federal judges told

President Babar, brought to you by Big Oil?~Facing South

Critical Examination of Matt Simmons’ Claims on the Deepwater Spill~The Oil Drum

China Oil Spill Far Bigger Than Stated, U.S. Expert Says~China's worst known oil spill is dozens of times larger than the government has reported - bigger than the famous Exxon Valdez spill two decades ago - and some of the oil was dumped deliberately to avoid further disaster, an American expert said Friday. China's government has said 1,500 tons (461,790 gallons) of oil spilled after a pipeline exploded two weeks ago near the northeastern city of Dalian, sending 100-foot- (30-meter-) high flames raging for hours near one of the country's key strategic oil reserves. Such public estimates stopped within a few days of the spill. But Rick Steiner, a former University of Alaska marine conservation specialist, estimated 60,000 tons (18.47 million gallons) to 90,000 tons (27.70 million gallons) of oil actually spilled into the Yellow Sea.

Engineers say floodgate is suspect in Delhi dam failure

Bonnet Carre Spillway land use plan approved by Corps of Engineers
~Matt Scallan~Corps to stormproof more pump stations in Jefferson Parish and New Orleans

More PR for Harry Shearer's new movie

30 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Slide Show
~NOLAFemmes

Sandra Bullock Disowns BP-Backed Greenwashing Campaign
~Unbeknownst to Bullock, America’s Wetland Foundation is a front group established by Shell Oil in 2002 and funded by the American Petroleum Institute, BP, and a host of other oil companies. Women of the Storm was established after Hurricane Katrina by Anne Milling, the wife of America’s Wetland chairman R. King Milling, who is part of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R-LA) team to lift the offshore drilling moratorium. This greenwashing campaign, first uncovered by DeSmogBlog.com’s Brendan Demelle, subtly includes mentions of “safe domestic energy” and oil industry factoids, while implying that American taxpayers, not the unmentioned oil industry, should pay for restoring the region BP poisoned.
But Damn! Doesn’t Sandra Bullock look amazing? You’d think that having her husband screw around with her on a neo-Nazi, forehead-tattooed whore somehow agrees with her. This is Sandra Bullock June 5th in Culver City, at the Spike TV Guys Choice Awards, where she was awarded the “Troops Choice” award, which the men in the armed services voted on for their favorite entertainer/actress.
Sandra wore leather, and was presented her award by Robert Downey Jr.
Well done!
~This from the Times-Picayune
~waltwil~ July 29, 2010 at 1:25PM

Look at their sponsor list and tell me they are not a front for the oil industry.
This is an plot by the oil industry to stick it once again to the small people by making them pay for the total cost of restoring the wetlands the oil industry destroyed. Once Sandra Bullock does a little more research she will see how she was used by the oil industry. King Milling is probably just trying to protect the oil revenues his bank gets for all of the land they own that is now under water. But go ahead and if you donate money to AW you can help finance the America's Wetland yacht which Val Marmillion tools around in destroying more of the coast. Wake up New Orleans, these people are killing us.
~ skooks I don't why so many people need to keep being told that "Women of the Storm" is an Uptown ladies' lunch club and an oil industry front.
~And this from Sam Stein.

The Big Uneasy, coming to New Orleans
~New Orleans Film Society

MS Gov. Haley Babar asks AG to hold off on suit against BP

Surface of Gulf of Mexico looks better, but millions of gallons of oil remain below~Bob Marshall

OIL SPILL? NOT REALLY...THERE!
Ivor van Heerden, a BP spokescientist, tells Time: "Nothing to see here folks. Oil wetlands impact turns out to be just a big old overstated wet dream."
~Editilla Crowtellas~ Of course Van Heerden isn't alone this time, yet this is the sort of Flotsam Press we see rise above restrictions into PR Spinfiltration.
On the one hand, we have journalist Mac McClelland - recently reporting this:
(Notella~bare in mind she may not have the high level access to consultants as does Michael Grumwald in his story above. Indeed.)
~I sent one text message to Bloomberg's Lizzie O'Leary, who's standing on Grand Isle, Louisiana, right now, asking how the beach looks. "Lower part past the barrier untouched with globs of oil that washed up last night," she said. By "untouched," she means by cleanup crews, and that "barrier" she's talking about is the one the press isn't allowed past. I sent another text to Drew Wheelan, who's also in Southwestern Louisiana, doing bird surveys for the American Birding Association, asking him how big the biggest tar mat on Grand Terre—the scene of those now famous horrifying oiled-bird photos—is. "20 feet by 15," he said. "But bigger ones submerged slightly."
On another hand we have journalist Georgianne Neinaber -reported this (from Queen Bess and neighboring Grand Terre Island, 2 days after Van Heerden's NPR advertorial from there, 3 days after the damning Boston Globe photographs):
~There were rings of deflective and absorbent boom surrounding Queen Bess and neighboring Grand Terre Island, but something was very wrong. The boom was a neglected window dressing--broken, saturated, and coiled in some places like gigantic, filthy, bloated snakes.
Oil had crept over, under and around the abandoned boom that formed a moat around Queen Bess's castle. Pelicans on the shore that were not oiled were wading through puddles of gloppy red goo, literally trying to shake the stuff off their feet. Four unfortunate, completely oiled birds, bobbed in the sheen and dispersant-filled "moat" with no hope of flight or food. Uncounted oiled birds wobbled through the grasses or spread their wings in a kind of gruesome crucifixion tableau on the rocky shore.
But on the back hand we have the scientists, one here with Van Heerden saying the oxygen levels aren't that badly effected in the Gulf -- while yet another scientist, about to map the "NOAA designated non-existent" oil plumes, says that NO detailed surveys have been made in 2 mo. of anywhere covering the Source:
~A team led by oceanographer Samantha Joye tracked one plume during research voyages in May and June. She said no one has made a systematic sweep around the massive oil spill in the Gulf to find other plumes. Joye says it's been about two months since anyone measured underwater oxygen in the area.
~And yet another~Scientists Find Evidence That Oil And Dispersant Mix Is Making Its Way Into The Foodchain
~Marine biologists started finding orange blobs under the translucent shells of crab larvae in May, and have continued to find them "in almost all" of the larvae they collect, all the way from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Pensacola, Fla. -- more than 300 miles of coastline -- said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory.
So who ya'gonna believe? The Press has been restricted on land to 65 feet, under threat of Felony, they have been harassed by private security and local police working for BP, airspace above the oil spill has been strictly regulated...
---yet here, Ivor van Heerden and 3 other consultants and contractors with BP are allowed access to Michael Grunwald to present alternative "Expert Witness".
What is wrong with this picture? I'll tell you. When the Press Coverage is stifled, censored, pushed as far away from an event as here, then there must be a Replacement Story, a Competing Narrative from other "Expert Witnesses".
This is what I see wrong with this picture now being PR-hammered and sold as the BP Oil Spill. We have been waiting and watching to see Who in this stark reality of Press Censorship would be the reporter "given the story". Michael Gurnwald, goddamn. He used to do much more thorough cross checking and broader contextual narrative. Now he gets The Packet, what Editilla has come to call Smoking Jello Science. No News=No News. PR=PR. No News=PR News
But this is good news eh? There's no place with oil. There's no place with oil.
Close our eyes, click our heals together 3 times and whisper that over and over...
Oh! And PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE BOOM.
~Editilla dixclaimas~We remain hopeful and bare in mind that Van Heerden may just yet pull a rabbit out of his ass on his assessments that the oil is degrading sooner than later and that the wetlands grasses will survive its impact sooner also. Apparently his BP-subsidized company has this really nifty Smurfy technology that can wash that oil right outta your sand!

Imagine Editilla's surprise, I mean what a coincidence, to see Ivor van Heerden here with this article the day after an article on his BP-subsidized company getting denied a permit by the Corps of Engineers to use their Sand Sparkler.

Anatomy of an Oil Spill, part II
~American Zombie

Flyover at the Macondo Wellhead: Damage Control at "The Source"
~Georgianne Nienaber

Where has all the oil gone?
~Horatio Algeranon

Lament for the Gulf of Mexico by Tina Micula~Plutonian Mac

The Gulf Bird Toll: How Low Can You Go? ~Environmental Defense Fund

Scuzzbuckets of New York
~Thanks, Katrina

BP's Photoshop experts clean up entire region ~The New Orleans Levee
~BP executives in late July ecstatically announced their team of photo-editing experts have completely removed all traces of oil from the Gulf of Mexico.
The massive image-cleanup effort, which involved photography of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle, required teams of graphic artists working 14-hour shifts, said BP Chief Operations Officer Doug Suttles.

Tallying BP's bill for Gulf of Mexico oil spill could take a decade~Mark Schleifstein
~Also~Environmental groups propose framework for merging oil spill response, coastal restoration~Oil sheen on surface of Gulf of Mexico is hard to burn, treat with dispersant, or skim

Bring on the expense accounts into debate over location of oil spill lawsuits~Stephanie Grace

Drill, cher, drill!
~Walter Pierce, Gambit

New Orleans' Jail Advisory Group will not open meetings to the public, administration says
~Karen Gadbois, The Lens

31 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes

Federal government has no timeline in mind for determining flow rate from BP well~Kimberly Qeillen~Hat Tweet~skooks
~ NOLAnews RT @KimQuillenTP: CNN rolls out an interactive web page as the oil spill hits 100 days. http://tiny.cc/j3vo0 #oilspill

100 Days, 100 Photographs

Mainstream Media Helps BP Pretend There's No Oil~Mac McClelland

WTF is Thad Allen talking about No Oil? Click to enlarge.

Louisiana authorities report oil sightings from BP Oil Spill

No decisions on oyster death compensation

More &!#@% Oil Spills - Pipelines, Abandoned Wells ~SkyTruth
~And by the way, there are 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf of Mexico, including 3,500 wells that have been "temporarily" abandoned - some for years - without being permanently plugged. Maybe it's time to fix this.

Busted wellhead in Bayou St. Denis continues to spew


~Hat Tweet~kareng

The Final Lesson of BP~Robert Reich

Rut'Row! Corps of Engineers To Embed With La. Coastal Restoration Agency

One Man’s Lazy is Another’s Man’s Peace ~NOLA Notes

Vitter candidacy scarred by PTSD, among other disorders
~Mark Moseley, The Lens

BP contractor that employs Ivor van Heerden is denied permit by Corps of Engineers~An emergency permit application from BP asking to push oil-stained sand back into the surf in a technique called “surf washing” was withdrawn Tuesday, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The permit application was sent to the corps July 19 and asked for immediate approval to move forward with the surf-washing work on Grand Terre II barrier island — also known as East Grand Terre. Polaris Applied Sciences Inc., (Editilla notellas: employer of Ivor van Heerden) as a shoreline response technical advisor for BP, said they wanted to do the work last week.
~Editilla Dynomitas~ What an interesting DyNoMatic we have here.
The Corps denies a permit to the company that employs their nemesis Ivor van Heerden -who himself denied (on NPR) the impact of the oil on Grand Terre Island while working for BP- who themselves have denied that oil and water don't mix.
Do we live on the banks of the Mississippi or De'Nile?
Despite the double-think lockjaw implications of this Corporate Orgarchy, are we seeing more of the stripe down Van Heerden's back when he came out in June to understate the impacts of the oil.
Was he, wittingly or not, laying the PR ground for this permit application? He then followed that "pilot-show" a few weeks later with a full-blown BP Advomercial. Have we now found his Yellow Brick Road Home?
On June 6th I did call Polaris Applied Sciences, with whom Van Heerden is employed and who is under contract with BP. I was told they are free to speak to the Press. They will however get back to me on how Van Heerden came to make these statements to the nation from Grand Terre Island: "The damage from the oil coming ashore is overstated", "The oil has impacted only tens of miles" ~NPR, June 5th, 2010.~~15 minutes after I called and spoke to Gary Mauseth one of Van Heerden's bosses at Polaris, I get a call from Coast Guard Unified Command Public Affairs, a 3rd Class Petty Officer named Jonathan Lowery. He wanted to know what questions I had for Polaris Applied Sciences (so he could provide me with the answers)

Oil in the Air?~American Zombie
~We know it's silly to double-link a single blog but want to make sure y'all catch this one too: Mr Beholden To None ~Thanks Judy B

~“BP has done a lot of things very well, all things considered. Data isn’t one of them.” ~Kenneth Feinburg, BP Claims Master
~Editilla has a brainwreck~ Are we hearing this preternational corporation Double-think, cognitively dissonant side'mouf ass'talk???? There are so many holes in this Cheese that you couldn't fill the Albert Hall. "Data isn't one of them?" My ass? Is this Yankee Punk'mouth Carpetbagger kidding?

Research team will map underwater oil and gas plumes

ProPublica’s Unofficial Guide to BP Spill Claims

Despite science against jetties, Gov. Bobby Jindal rocks on~Bob Marshall

As the sand berms turn part deux: Dear Thad, time to end the madness~slabbed

Oil bills brought before Congress
~Gerard Sheilds

Saints coaches hand out supplies to oil spill victims~Two days before he was to open training camp, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton stood in the hot south Louisiana sun hoisting boxes of food and personal supplies into a steady stream of vehicles slowly pulling past him.

Corps of Engineers awards lakefront contract in New Orleans

Baby girl's name a tribute to New Orleans~Sheila Stroup

32 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes

Cleanup of spewing oil wellhead is under way in Barataria Waterway
~The accident between a dredge barge and an oil wellhead in lower Jefferson caused a 100-foot plume of oil, natural gas and contaminated water to spew into the Barataria Waterway, parish and Coast Guard officials said in a news conference this afternoon. Response to the incident is being handled by federal authorities because the wellhead, which is owned by CEDYCO Corporation of Houston is considered "orphaned" because the company is now defunct, said Deano Bonano, the Jefferson Parish chief of homeland security.

~ SkyTruth Huge #oilspill from pipeline into Kalamazoo River, Michigan yesterday - more than 800,000 gallons - http://tinyurl.com/2d4ffp8

Now the Feds say all that oil is gone???

BP expected to downsize Lafitte cleanup fleet by 87 percent ~WWL

These two Goobers look too much alike for Editilla to avoid the Total Creep Out.
Who'z Brownie and Who'z Dudley Do'Right?





BP Gulf Oil Spill Seeps Mapped In Google Earth – Feds Explanation Of Sea Floor Leaks Don’t Add Up
~Mathew Higgins

The Slick Is Dissipating~SkyTruth
~RADARSAT images taken July 26, 2010. Images courtesy CSTARS, above.

~68,000 Square Miles of Direct Impact

Research on gulf oil spill shouldn't take a backseat to litigation~WaPo

Some questions never get heard...

Anatomy of an Oil Spill, Part I
~American Zombie
~I have had the good fortune of being able to fly out over the BP/Macondo site, and over other Gulf areas affected by the oil spill, twice in 4 days. I say good fortune...I nearly lost my breakfast 20 or 30 times, but it was well worth it. I took a video camera up with uber-eco-warrior, fearless pilot, PhD of Theoretical Physics, and 2nd mate of the Sea Sheperd's anti-whaling boat, the Bob Barker (featured on Animal Planet's Whale Wars), Bonny Schumaker.

New "Storyline" of BPFUC Thad Allen:
"Where did the oil go?"~BP Fed Unified Command has begun a news marketing campaign called: FIND OILDO! Similar to the popular game Find Waldo, in this game each player searches America to Find the Lost 219 Million Gallons of Oildo. Aw! Y'all Forgetaboutit! That bad oil is just, just... gone ya'know? Dispersed! Just start saying that now! There's no place with oil. There's no place with oil. It's All Good Y'all! Just listen to BPFUC Public Relations News (BPFUCPRN) and --pay attention when we'talkin to'yaz-- Bo Dudley Do'Right BE BORN IN MISSISSIPPI and Bo'Dudley is an AMERICAN, reports BPFUCPRN.
~Editilla drills a cavity~Is It Safe? CAN'A'WE GAT GIDDY WIT'IT?


Environmentalists link oil spill response, coastal restoration
~Mark Schleifstein

How the Gulf of Mexico became the nation's 'toilet bowl'~John D. Sutter

BP Spill Costs Rile Gulf Towns Shut Out of $20 Billion Fund ~Bloomberg

Turns Out The Telegraph was Wrong… BP – Record Loss for 2nd Quarter... …kind of~Disenfranchised Citizen

Congressman Ed Markey: Hayward was either ‘lying or incompetent’

Kathleen Koch’s Rising from Katrina delivers the Katrina experience in her new book ~slabbed

Tweet, Facebook or comment: How are you coping with Hurricane Katrina 5 years later

33 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes

Hey Blake Pontchartrain, What is a "neutral ground"? ~Gambit

Haiti and New Orleans Meet at the Arts Market ~411 Nola

Returning to the Gulf After BP Destroyed It~Patricia Clarkson


Surgical Booming
~Library Chronicles

Hundreds of Thousands of patches of oil …skimmers?
~Disenfranchised Citizen

What Did Bonnie Do?~SkyTruth
COSMO-SkyMed radar satellite image showing center of circulation of tropical depression Bonnie, July 24, 2010. CSK-1 image courtesy CSTARS. Click to enlarge

Louisiana authorities report oil sightings from BP spill

BP's Campaign Contributions Not Toxic Enough For At Least 20 Congressmen

E Pluribus Piem~slabbed

State and local leaders divided over federal disaster declaration
~Brendan Kirby~Some local elected leaders have suggested that their constituents would benefit if President Barack Obama formally designated states hit by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as federal disaster areas.
Under the law, however, the president cannot make such a declaration unless a governor asks him to. Todd Stacy, a spokesman for Riley, said state officials determined shortly after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April that the resulting spill would be governed by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
"A natural disaster is an act of God. Nobody is responsible. There is a responsible party here," he said. "This is a manmade disaster. ... The Stafford Act does not apply to the Deepwater Horizon incident."

Gulf Co. officials face conflicts over BP spill

Local leaders concerned BP could scale back response~WWL

Culture clash: Flood of BP Oil Spill cleanup workers creates tension in some coastal Louisiana towns
~The women of Grand Isle are nervous.
Used to be, they say, they could walk the streets of their beachside town alone, getting a little exercise after the hottest part of the day or setting out the trash after midnight.
Now, a waitress won't let her 14-year-old daughter stroll to the store for a Coke, a souvenir shop owner is afraid to sit on her porch after dark and a bartender deadbolts her door, a newly purchased gun nearby.

BP Oil Spill is discouraging travel to Louisiana, study says

BP Tries To Block Release Of Oil Spill Research~"Setting aside any good intentions, the idea of being affiliated with BP was not a good thing," said Joe Griffitt, a scientist at the Gulf Coast Research Marine Lab at the University of Southern Mississippi, who initially signed a deal with BP, then changed his mind.
In the end, each side will try to get as many experts on their team as possible, removing knowledge from the public domain, said Mark Davis, director of the Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy at Tulane Law School in New Orleans. "That's not wrong. Those are the rules of the game," he said.
"It's the survival of a company, the survival of a crucial industry is at stake in a vital market area. This is serious business."
~Editilla gotta'Axe~But! But! What Would Ivor Say? WWIS?

BP's tree fell on my lawn~Roger Ebert

CNN's Documentary on Gulf Oil Cleanup Shows Workers Wearing No Respirators

Oil Spill Flow Has Stopped, but Berm Controversy Rages On ~Ben Sandmel

Here comes Dudley! Can he Do Right?
~Dudley, poised to become the first American head of the former U.K. state oil company, will need to convince politicians BP should be allowed to keep drilling in the U.S. after a runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico caused the country’s worst oil spill.
~Thanks fo'da Pic~ Eye of Polyphemus

Barges on their way back to the Rigolets

Oil Drum Beat

The First Step to Recovery...
~American Zombie

Slabbin' Monday

After dam failure, Iowa's nine-mile-long Lake Delhi is gone

34 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes

Tab Benoit coming to New Orleans!

Noble Nola Prince sells lemonade to help pelicans ~Kari Dequine
~At first, 4-year-old Jonathan Bush wanted to sell all of his toys to help save the oiled pelicans.
"How about Lemonade?" asked Mom. "YEAH!" responded our Hero.
Faubourg St. John neighbor Jonathan Bush, 4, right, tastes some of his Pelican Aid lemonade to make sure it has the right flavor before serving it Saturday at the corner of Esplanade and Mystery Streets by Fortier Park in New Orleans. Jonathan, 4, says that all proceeds will go to help pelicans recovering at the LSU Veterinary Hospital.

Long Live the Dirty Coast!

~ BPGlobalPR The t-shirt machine spill is ongoing. The folks at @healthygulf tell us they have "a lot of work to do". http://ow.ly/2gd2j

Bonnie fizzles, as Brave Citizens flock to Island Aid 2010 on Grand Isle
~Concert boosts beleaguered island’s morale.~Amanda Shaw and the Cute Guys perform during the Island Aid concert on the beach Saturday in Grand Isle.
“This is the way Grand Isle is supposed to be but hasn’t been this year,” said Anne Leblanc, of Metairie, La., who said her family has been visiting the island for years.

Deadliest Catch Crew Supports Island Aid in Grand Isle
~Karen Dalton-Beninato


1restorethegulf 100,000 signatures in just over 100 hours!
Keep it going at www.RestoreTheGulf.com


Ongoing air testing along Gulf Coast is a first~Naomi King
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Deepwater Horizon rig explosion came from greed~Jarvis DeBerry

Editilla~New Orleans Ladder July 25, 2010 at 9:48AM
Thanks Jarvis. Greed is a sawed-off shot gun with a wide spread across south Louisiana.

As a very young man I made $800/wk washing dishes on oil rigs in the bayous and Gulf. One summer as a mud bug I made over $1000/wk, often staying out on the rig a few weeks at a time. That was over 20 years ago. I never had any problems with the oil industry, for the most part it was pretty damn clean and definitely safe as you could make swinging around Tons of Steel machinery. So when you use the word Greed to describe peoples' motivations in this disaster, please understand that it could hit anyone no matter their place on the rig. And you are talking about nearly 100% of south Louisiana. The first step in beating any cancer is to face it and look it in the eye.

Some Perspective…BP Set to Announce 5 Billion Dollar Profit in 2nd Quarter
~Disenfranchised Citizen

What? No Pity In Da'Kitty?

"What Is Going On In The Gulf?"
~Running 'Cause I Can't Fly

Detoxify in the Wake of the BP Oil Disaster with Calcium Bentonite Clay?
~Ceryl McCoy

Editilla's little Sunday Dedication Thingy... to Youz Knowz Whoz


Sunday Funnies~Citizen K

35 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes

Floods Close Chicago Interstate, Damage Iowa Dam

Libraries: The Next Pop Culture Thang! ~Foxessa

Uummm jus'sayin things could be worse, much worse. ~Thanks Wonkette

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