Saturday, August 14, 2010

BP clears itself over oil spill disaster?
~BP has declared itself not guilty of gross negligence over the Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster after an internal inquiry.

BP yet to update emergency plan three months after Deepwater Horizon spill
Tar balls, dead fish & no clean up crews worry Hancock Co. residents, despite MS Gov Babar saying oil is "not toxic" ~WLOX~Hat Tip~Florida Oil Spill Law

As the Narrative Turns…Fraudulent Fisherman…Agenda Setting in the Gulf
~Disenfranchised Citizen


BP, feds uncertain about final stage of killing well~Sandy Davis

Efforts to cap well in Assumption face setbacks~Nate Monroe

Children don't mean a thing, if you aint' got that bling~American Zombie

Crescent City Farmers Market confronts demand for 50 monthly city permits ~Masako Hirsch

Plan for new teaching hospital conflicts with New Orleans master plan, consultants say~Bill Barrow

New Orleans scales back recovery vision ~Michelle Krupa

Your favorite Flood-inspired art?
~Editilla Moves Onward~ It is time we all moved on from calling this Katrina to calling it by its true name: The Anniversary of The Federal Flood, the Corps' Flood or, as levees.org aptly and strongly continues to label it, The 5th Anniversary of the Worst Civil Engineering Disaster in US History.
It was NOT Katrina that crucified New Orleans 8.29.05.
It was Engineering Failure by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Even as the Louisiana State Museum prepares to enshrine this catastrophe as Katrina, help us out here to keep the focus on what really happened and why.
For now I'll settle for just: The Flood of 8/29.

15 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes

Friday, August 13, 2010

An Absurd Experience on the Beach
~PDX 2 Gulf Coast
~Editilla Notellas~ Wish we'd found this blog sooner. Please make sure to hit the home page of this blog. Until you do: Making It Personal: Individual Stories From the Gulf
~The_Gambit Dear nat'l media: That "disappearing oil" is all over Orange Beach, AL. if you want to look: http://bit.ly/a8jeSK

BP's oil-spill waste dumped on communities of color~Facing South

Oil's toxic legacy not erased~Politico

FEMA will forgive $18 million hurricane recovery loan to St. Bernard Parish~Bob Warren

FEMA "boneyards" near New Orleans, ready to move in again?
~Judith Martin, GHN


Water control system to monitor closure of New Orleans floodgates

SkyTruth Work Helps Link Mountain- top Removal and Water Pollution
Oil expert: BP admits “4,200 psi on the well when it’s supposed to be dead”
~Florida Oil Spill Law


Thad Allen Pulls the Bullshit Train Again: New monitoring plan to be created to find oil from BP's oil spill

Did the Status Kill Work? Dissenting from the Company Storyline…shared opinions~Disenfranchised Citizen

BP Spill: Catastrophe, Sure. Disaster? Nah.~Mac McClelland
~Given the size and far-reaching devastation of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, you may have assumed that it qualifies as a federal disaster. Though you'd have been wrong, you wouldn't have been alone. "I am shocked that the Stafford Act has not been used for a declaration of federal disaster," says Mitchell Moss, disaster expert and professor of Urban Policy and Planning at New York University's Wagner School. "This is exactly why we have this policy tool—to provide federal aid in this kind of crisis." And that aid could be crucial to some coastal communities' survival.

President Barack Obama to visit NOLA for 5th anniversary of Federal Flood
~Editilla Conswellas~This is NOT an anniversary of Katrina missing New Orleans. This is the 5th year since the Corps of Engineers flooded New Orleans. Even though the Times-Picayune inexplicably REFUSES TO GET THAT, We All hope Mr President doesn't come here and say again that Katrina flooded New Orleans, as he did last year on his Elmer Gantry Tinkle Stop Tour.
The Rising Tide bloggers club might support the Corps of Engineers by again giving them a Venue, this time a rerun for their Corps Boy Tim Ruppert to misdirect away from current engineering malfeasance such as on Option 1, but let's hope our President will have finally learned by now who flooded New Orleans 8.29.05 and shows His'O'ners balls to admit it.
Frankly, given his past actions, I suspect and expect that he will use our Anniversary to deflect from his not only selling out the American People to BP but also, more importantly, not declaring this Oil Crime a Federal Disaster.

~Very Special Thanks to Humid Beings for watching our backs.

Facing the Oil: Women of the Louisiana Delta Nourish Hearts and Souls
~Georgianne Nienaber
~Our fearless Ladder reporter and known media felon in drag brings out the Big Ova of Women who will stand up next to a mountain and chop it down with the edge of their hand, like one of our very favorites Grandmere Mimi of the Wounded Bird.

The Ladies' Guide to the Apocalypse

Claims Magazine updates the changes in BP spill claims. ESIS still out. Worley still in ~slabbed

PRObama to visit Gulf for photo opps

2005 Texas City refinery blast dogs BP

Workers try to block oil drainage
~Environmental contractors worked Thursday putting up dikes to block oil from running into swamps west of a wild well that erupted Wednesday in Assumption Parish, as forecasters predicted up to 3 inches of rain through Saturday morning, emergency and weather officials said. Click pic to enlarge.

City begins new era with approval of master plan~Ariella Cohen, The Lens

Recent Flooding Underscores Need For Drainage Upgrades~WDSU
~Pumps operating properly during flooding

Most New Orleanians optimistic five years after Katrina, poll finds

16 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes


Kermit Ruffins new album Happy Talk

NASA astronaut to present space- traveling CD to Preservation Hall ~Keith Spera

A week's worth of good music in NOLA starting tonight! ~Allison Fensterstock

The Walker Percy Prize in Short Fiction

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Kindra Arnesen Fights for Plaquemines Parish~Alex Woodward, Gambit
~She's tired and getting sick. Arnesen lost 33 pounds in 100 days.
"Someone said I look like I'm on drugs, I'm like, 'Yeah, fucking have some Corexit.'"


*Please donate what you can to Coastal Heritage Society of Louisiana
If you can spare a little, please give a little. If you have a lot, GIVE A LOT.
~We are black and white and every shade between, we fish, we shrimp, we swim in the bayous with alligators and then eat them at our festivals. We are Catholics, Baptists, Atheists, Voodouns‘ and all brands of faith. Faith is in no short supply here. We love to cook and love to eat, love our football team and our traditions. We are artists and musicians, oilfield workers and doctors, lawyers, fishermen and waitresses. We are Moms and Dads, Grandparents and kids, sisters and brothers and while we may not be related , we are all family.
We ARE the people of Coastal Louisiana - a people like no other in a place like no other and just in case you didn’t know - we are fierce and protective of our way of life. We stand together, all of us of different backgrounds, political affiliations, nationalities and views, united to protect what we love. Protect it we will. Please consider helping us make a difference with a small donation of $5.00 - $20.00 by clicking the Make a Donation button on the right side of the page.

The BP Cover-Up~Mother Jones

Alabama sues BP over Gulf oil spill

*
USF says government tried to squelch their oil plume findings~Craig Pittman

We are getting reports that non existent evaporated oil is showing up again on Florida’s beaches ~slabbed

Where's the Oil? Here, There, and Everywhere~Georgianne Nienaber

Because we said so~Library Chronicles
~“The FDA is not monitoring fish and shellfish for the presence of Corexit in seafood because it is not considered a health risk,”

The Jaws Syndrome; Life Imitates Art On The Gulf Coast; The Crime of the Century Pt II~Jerry Cope

New Orleans Judge Picked to Handle Gulf Spill Suit ~NPR

British Petroleum, the Government and BlackRock – the Connection?
~Disenfranchised Citizen


Will BP Skip the Relief Well, Declare Mission Accomplished, and Abandon Ship Without Permanently Killing the Oil Leak? ~Washington's Blog

Gulf leaders wary over wavering on final plug

Relief Well Intersection Version 2
~Oil Drum


Sandra Bullock continues in Women of the Storm's Restore the Gulf campaign
~Bruce Alpert


Exploratory well blows near La. 70
~David J. Mitchel


Morgan City's Shrimp and Petroleum Festival is on, begins Sept. 2
~Brett Anderson


New Orleans' master plan moving forward with no clear source of funding for citizen participation element
~Ariella Cohen, The Lens


Film Screening: Harry Shearer's "The Big Un-Easy"~Humid Beings

17 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes


Dave Eggers wins American Book Award for 'Zeitoun,' set in New Orleans!

Five Years Later, The Big Easy Pushes Forward~Alan Greenblatt
~Five years after Hurricane Katrina broke the levees and New Orleans was flooded, the city's health is much improved. But like many patients still in recovery, New Orleans has its good days and its bad days.
~Editilla Ho'tellas~Despite the glaring, offensive, textbook Katrina Shorthand in that opening line, we hung this one for a few reasons.
1) We got it offa Humid Beings and we LOVE Humid Beings because they come from the Dirty Coast where everyone should go right now.
2) The article does our Herolero Mayor Mitch'mo up right.
3) We generally like Greenblatt and it is a pretty good article. So there.
*
*
Odd Words
~Odd Bits of Life in New Orleans


Pieces of Katrina: The Rising Voices of UNO Press~Chasing Ray

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Seafood Safety and Politics Don't Mix: Opening of Gulf Fisheries at Odds With Evidence of Harm~Riki Ott

Feds CONFISCATE independent LSU scientists’ samples because project not approved by BP, others
~Florida Oil Spill Law

~Linda Hooper-Bui, Louisiana State University Department of Entomology Associate Professor, writes in The Scientist, “My PhD student’s ant samples were taken away by a US Fish and Wildlife officer at a publicly accessible state Wildlife Management Area because our project hadn’t been approved by Incident Command.”

MS Governor Haley Babar, Oil Expert~Kate Shepphard
~"Once it gets to this stage, it's not poisonous," Babar the Elephant said. "But if a small animal got coated enough with it, it could smother it. But if you got enough toothpaste on you, you couldn’t breathe."
~Editilla gotta axe~ Is this man this big of a clueless dumbass? Is he this stupid? Wha'happen to this guy who seemed so on the ball when Katrina ripped his state a new ass crack? Oooh that's right, we forget he is now running for President on the Elephant ticket and must think he needs to act like a totally ignorant, over- medicated, grits-for-brains fool. Silly meeses. I mean he only needs to market himself as moderately more quicker than Sarah Palin, but not actually smart, which would scare away the Tea Baggers.
~Please also see~NOAA Tried to Silence Reports of Undersea Oil Plumes

Nothing like America's Wetlands/BP Chevron/Women of the Storm PR to ruin a good delta breakfast
~Editilla Crowtellas~Oh, and btw, the now infamous BigUneasy documentary is being shown to Newseum (WhateverTF that is) ad nausea tonight before New Orleans gets a look at it. So much for ONE DAY ONLY PR HORSHIT. SpaceyG: Anyone going to see @TheBigUneasy at @Newseum tonight pls Tweet some pics/vid while there.

~Oh Snap! Here's Harry Shearer doing the PR thing for The BigUneasy. Go see the movie. It really doesn't matter that he showed it to the Brits first at The Big Chill Festival and tonight is putting it into some weird place called a Newseum before showing it to NOLA under the lie that it is showing "One Night Only".
Does it really doesn't matter, since we are now under a full court 1984 BP/Federal Government PRESS with BP/Chevron (whom he supports through Women of the Storm) forcing us to believe that 75% of the oil is gone? It really doesn't matter that the Corps of Engineers will succeed in leaving the remaining floodwalls intact with their Option 1 on our outfall canals. We Just The People do not matter here.
I doubt you will find out from this movie how integrally Big Oil/BP (who is fucking our coast with this next/current "man-made disaster") works with the Corps of Engineers. But watch this movie, you may learn something that you haven't heard before. But how does this relate to BP/Ivor van Heerden/Women of the Chevron Storm? How? Go see the movie, but can you change your congressional representative in the midst of all this incredible self-aggrandizing Public Relations? Can you? Doubt it. This really wouldn't matter if Harry Shearer's PR People, Grayson Daughters, hadn't started hocking Shit Luggies about the flood to promote their own thing and blocking access to those who disagree with that. It really changed everything and you can follow my tweets about that. I mean after now 3 years of battling Corps of Engineers PR Propaganda we just don't have the patience for web links with those we thought knew what it means. (why couldn't Harry Shearer hire a local person like Humid Beings to pump this movie instead of some Atlanta Ho who does not know what it means to miss New Orleans? I still haven't gotten that one) Not all of us can afford the resiliency of a condo in the French Quarter or a fine house uptown. We don't have the luxury of Time on our side. Who are we supposed to fucking believe here? Go see this movie.
In the meantime, the Oil is gone, and South Louisiana really isn't disappearing in an oil slick. I'm so sick of people humping their thing on the back of the flood of 8/29/05 that I can't even see straight now. What focus we have worked so hard to build is getting DISPERSED all over the country before NOLA gets a shot at it.
But go see this movie. And watch the Simpsons, Spinal Tap and a Mighty MFKN Wind. Parse it with Ivor van Heerden saying for BP everything will be OK in record Time. Time may be The Revelator, but Death is the Existential Quantifier.
I mean, after enough Shock people are ready to believe anything.
Harry wants to tell us how the Corps fucked us when their bosses are fucking us again right now. So show your goddamn movie to everyone except who suffered from the Stakeholder's avarice and greed. What is the MFKN difference, Harry?
~letwits Thanx to everyone who came to DC screening of "The Big Uneasy", and stayed to ask questions. Next stop for the film: NYC?

An Open Letter to the Remaining Oil in the Gulf of Mexico
~Disenfranchised Citizen

~SkyTruth Space station astronauts photograph lingering slicks from BP #oilspill near Mississippi Delta on July 23 - http://bit.ly/bE65Zq

From oil to 'y'all': BP discovers the language of the people
~Roy Peter Clark


Louisiana Fishermen Slam Claims that Oil Almost Gone, Seafood Safe

Much to BP’s chagrin, oil-spill-related lawsuits will be tried in Louisiana

Markey Says For BP To 'Make Things Right' It Must Stop Low-Balling Flow Estimates

BP Spill Fund May Be Backed by Drilling Revenue~Bloomberg

Well capped, BP accused of reneging on contracts

19 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes


~Acrylic on cardboard. 18 x 9 1/2"~Polly Jackson

Monday, August 9, 2010

94L
~A area of disturbed weather (94L) over South Florida is generating disorganized heavy thunderstorms over Florida and the adjacent waters, but is not a threat to develop today due to high wind shear of 20 - 30 knots. The latest SHIPS model forecast predicts that wind shear will fall to the moderate range, 10 - 20 knots, tonight through Thursday. This relaxation in shear may allow 94L to begin to organize. However, 94L will not have much time over the Gulf of Mexico to become a tropical depression or tropical storm, as steering currents favor a westward or west-northwestward motion over the Gulf that would bring the storm ashore over the northern Gulf coast by Wednesday or Thursday. NHC is giving 94L a 20% chance of developing into a tropical depression by Wednesday morning. The Hurricane Hunters are on call to investigate 94L on Tuesday afternoon. ~Wunderblog


~Hat Tweet~
Rexdingler

Oil, Oil Everywhere, Not A Skimmer In Sight~Michelle Erenberg, GRN
~Today Jonathan Henderson and I flew over the wetlands in Louisiana and along the coast from Timbalier Bay to South East Pass. What we saw contradicted what we have been hearing from BP, the Unified Command, the administration, and the press.

Matt Simmons “drowned at his house”; “Found Sunday night in his hot tub”
~Florida Oil Spill Law

~Mr. Simmons, 67, had retired from the day-to-day operations of his firm in 2005 and left the firm in June, but he was still considered a major figure in the energy banking and research world, constantly speaking out on a number of controversial topics ranging from the “peak oil” theory to BP’s troubles in the Gulf of Mexico.~NYT

MS Governor Haley 'What Oil?' Babar says that nature will clean up oil in Gulf, says oil is non-toxic, no mention of dispersant

Oil penetrates previously pristine Mississippi marsh, weeks after well cap
~Swirls of oil float at the edge of stained marsh grass inside Horn Island's Garden Pond, one of several marshes on the island's interior, on August 8, 2010.
The oil penetrated deep into the green marsh grass, coating the stalks from the mud to about 18 inches up.
But MS Governor Haley 'What Oil?' Babar says Nature gonna fix it.

Lines Across La.'s Chandeleur Sound
Shrimpers greet uncertain season
~Kevin McGill
~Docked boats were bedecked with fluttering red, white and blue streamers and rainbows of balloons in a bayou-country, pre-shrimp season tradition known as the Blessing of the Boats. On the menu? Heaping trays of barbecued chicken, smoked sausage and potato salad — but no crabs or shrimp.

Bobby Jindal’s Lack of Transparency Rivals BP’s…~Disenfranchised Citizen

Past Disasters Offer Lessons On Legacy of Deepwater Spill~John McQuaid

Convincing public that Gulf of Mexico seafood is safe will take time, experts say~Chris Kirkham

Details of the Cement Kill~Oil Drum

Disasters and economic challenges may spur new entrepreneurial activity in New Orleans~Matthew Albright

How the U.S. Army Corp/Congress Destroys Cities~Creole Folks

Montegut faces strict regulations under new flood maps~Nikki Busky

What is the history of the Danziger Bridge?~Blake Pontchartrain, Gambit

20 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes


R.I.P. Chief Al Morris- North Side Skull and Bones ~R.I.P. Clyde Kerr, Jr.

A Very Silly Dream~b.rox

New Orleans - Day Three!
~Martina's Moments


What Are Burnt Ends? And Why Are They So Delicious?~Serious Eats

Tooth Bus rolls free dental care into New Orleans neighborhoods
~Humid Beings

Sunday, August 8, 2010

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu marks 100 days with 100 projects
~Michelle Krupa


Outside review of floodwall plans to be costly~Sheila Grissett

Dave Dixon, driving force behind our New Orleans Saints and Superdome, died this morning ~The team was to be called the Saints, a name Mr. Dixon had cleared with Archbishop Philip M. Hannan. "He thought it would be a good idea," Mr. Dixon recalled in an interview. "He had an idea the team was going to need all the help it could get."

Ladder Herolero Mark Schleifstein on Bob Edwards Weekend!

~When four young pelicans decided to put on a performance of 'synchronised billing' it became a hard act to swallow.The youngsters opened their bills together as a welcome downpour swept across the coast of New South Wales north of Sydney. ~Special thanks~Daily Mail
~Editilla jus'sayin~ Sometimes having such a Big Mouth can come in handy! Of course it helps if one doesn't usually have their foot stuck in it ahem. I love pelicans. It turns out that our Brown Pelicans are the only ones who dive for food. Here's more on our lovely threatened State Bird. ~Hat tip~ Sandy Rosenthal.
~Wonder what some birds say about BPFeds saying all the oil is gone?

Beauty of the Gulf of Mexico is only skin deep thanks to oil spill
~Bob Marshall

~Hat Tip~The Mosquito Coast ~Hat Tweet~docbrite

The Death of Delacroix
~Thanks Katrina


I will gladly pay you tomorrow, for the price of a hamburger today
~American Zombie


US urges more study of sea damage after BP spill

BP's next big gusher~J.P. Reynolds
~Since the tragedy in the Gulf struck on April 20, a veritable flood of litigation has ensued. As of the time of publication, over 250 civil lawsuits have been filed as a result of the disaster.

Corexit Poisoning: Coast Guard and Obama Administration Betray the People and Country They Are Sworn to Protect~Mark Sircus ~Hat Tweet~Jercope

Satan in a Sunday Hat~Bayou Girl

Oil spill plugged, but more oiled birds than ever are being found~Paul Rioux

NOAA map shows surface waters clear of oil, but crude sightings continue around coast ~al.com

Spike Lee to journalists: “You need to ask questions and not accept the lies being told” by BP and government
~Florida Oil Spill Law


Well plugged, recovery doubts remain
~"We're scared," fisherman Joey Yerkes, 43, said at a meeting Tuesday night in Destin, Fla., with Vessels of Opportunity participants, a BP program that pays boat operators knocked out of work by the spill to assist with response activities. "The end to the leak is good news, but the damage has been done," Yerkes says. "I believe they've destroyed our fish stocks, they've destroyed my living and I'm not sure the water is safe to be in."

Native people fight to survive BP oil

BP planning transition from cleanup to recovery~Naomi King

Semper Fi Nola!

Sunday Funnies~Citizen K

21 Days 2 Year 5:
A Photographic Journey
~NOLAFemmes


~"Trickster", acrylic on posterboard ~Polly Jackson
~Editilla Notellas~ We haven't been hanging Ms Polly's paintings for a while because we couldn't bring ourselves to mix them what's been going on in the Gulf. The link above goes to her blog, where she also posts wonderful short stories and essays as which never fail to level out my mood. I highly recommend checking out her paintings on her facebook wall and gallery website located there as well.

Glen Hall III, Leader of The Baby Boyz Brass Band~Red Cotton, Gambit