SkyTruth estimates spill rate at 850,000 gallons 20,000 barrels per day --4 Times more than the 'Unified Command' statements
~This, and other radar images that SkyTruth is getting, confirm what we've seen on the NASA/MODIS images so far, and support our conservative calculations showing that in the first week of this spill at least 6 million gallons have entered the Gulf.
That's a spill rate of at least 850,000 gallons
(20,000 barrels)(5,950,000 pounds) of oil per day.
~Update~At Press Conference Live Now:
Coast Guard backs BP Lie on flow rate. Direct question regarding this SkyTruth data and BP Lied, obfuscated and Bull Shitted. Federals are covering for BP.
They are not acknowledging this new Spill Estimate.
The Coast Guard Admiral Mary Landry should be Relieved of Duty for supporting emotionally BP and "the Response" over solid Data to the contrary.
There is a difference between "getting it wrong" and Lying With The Enemy.
Our reporter on the ground, Georgianne Nienaber, just filed this quote of the day, from the Secretary of Homeland Security and Head of UNIFIED COMMAND, Janet Napolitano: "There is reason now to know more than we knew originally...." Uuuhhm OK, Yogi!
WTFing What? HUH? This is NOT Encouraging.

But hey, don't just take our word for it...


Halliburton May Be Culprit In BP Oil Rig Explosion
~Though the investigation into the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon site is still in its early stages, drilling experts agree that blame probably lies with flaws in the "cementing" process -- that is, plugging holes in the pipeline seal by pumping cement into it from the rig. Halliburton was in charge of cementing for Deepwater Horizon.
"The initial likely cause of gas coming to the surface had something to do with the cement," said Robert MacKenzie, managing director of energy and natural resources at FBR Capital Markets and a former cementing engineer in the oil industry.
The problem could have been a faulty cement plug at the bottom of the well, he said. Another possibility would be that cement between the pipe and well walls didn't harden properly and allowed gas to pass through it.

Port of New Orleans Update On BP Oil Spill Affect Upon State

New Orleans officials monitoring BP Oil Spill, air quality in the city, Mitch Landrieu says
~"Just because this oil spill isn't physically touching New Orleans right now, it's going to have a devastating impact, potentially, if it turns out to be as bad as some people are predicting it is,"
said Landrieu, who continues to serve as Louisiana's lieutenant governor until he takes steps into the top job at City Hall.
"We are all in sync and have been spending most of our waking hours worrying about this," Landrieu said, adding that he spent most of his time Thursday at a joint operating center in Robert.

Unfavorable winds set to push Gulf of Mexico oil spill into Louisiana~Wunderblog

Heavy winds and high tides hamper BP Oil Spill fight

U.S. Gulf States Mobilize for Wrongly named "Valdez-Like" Oil Spill ~Bloomberg
~Editilla Crowtellas~Every Spill Expert that we have heard from maintains that this is NOT A SPILL and NOT AT ALL LIKE THE EXXON VALDEZ, to wit: Tankers Hold Only So Much, yet this is the Gift that Just Keeps On Giving! The operative description we have been hearing the most is: River of Oil.

Oil Man River,
Dat Oil Man River
He mus'know pumpin'
But don't say nuthin',
He jes'keeps flowin'
He keeps on flowin' along.

Everything's fine until the black swan lands at your end of the pool~Your Right Hand Thief

In case you were wondering how bad it can still get
~Library Chronicles

Gulf Oil Spill, or An Order of Magnitude~Nola Notes

BP Oil Drilling Disaster: Spill Comes Ashore, Booms Useless ~Gulf Restoration Network
~Sandy Rosenthal snagged quick interview this morning with the busy director of GRN, Aaron Viles, who is just about the most informed voice I've been hearing quoted in the media.
When GRN makes a statement, you can Take It To The Bank!
BP Oil Spill Disaster washing over boom in some areas, says Plaquemines Parish president
~Bob Warren~Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said this morning that a recent flyover showed areas where oily water was lapping over the boom set out to contain the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.
Also, he said, because of the rough weather in the Gulf, some of the boom appeared to have broken free and washed onto an area beach and other boom appeared to have sunk, he said.
"It's not keeping the oil out,'' Nungesser said. "And it's only going to get worse before it gets better.''

Oil spill bears down on La. coast today as History begins again
NOAA Graphic showing Oil Trajectory of May 1st.

UNIFIED COMMAND REPORT (where they call this New Man Made Disaster "The Incident")
~Friday, April 30, 1:30 PM CDT --Press Briefing
~Secretary Napolitano, Secretary Salazar, Administrator Jackson, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles will participate in a media briefing
@ Shell Robert Training and Conference Center
23260 Shell Lane Robert, La. OPEN PRESS*
* Media interested in attending must contact the joint information center at (985) 902-5231 or (985) 902-5240 no later than 10:30 a.m. to confirm. A joint information center representative will be at the gate at 12 p.m. to escort media.
(Because we wouldn't want any media running around on their own now Would We???)
~Federal Government's PR Website for "The Incident": Unified Command UPDATE 13 looks exactly like UPDATE 12, 11, 10, lots of pictures little information.

~Real Update 9:55 am:
Georgianne Nienaber has made her way into the Media Staging Area where everyone is waiting, the whole gang's in town:
Al Jazeera, CNN, MSNBC, All the acronyms and Big Shows. We'll keep you posted as she phones-in more updates and pictures.
~Real Update 11:15 am~
~GN just phoned again from Venice, La and reports that this Boom Operation isn't nearly as busy with "ships" as the Feds are trying to say. It just ain't happening. Furthermore, she reports winds in excess of 20 knots and high wave action coming in.
She also spoke to local fishermen who were returning from trying to lay boom and they say that it is bad but not as bad as what is coming, this is just the beginning.
~Real Update 12 noon~Docked Boom???
GN just sent this pic of a docked Boom Ships and idled fishing vessels.
The seas are to high to deploy, so we wait.
But of course... Slime Waits for No One.
She has declined the Club Fed Offer to 'Bed, to go on a 3 hour tour of a boom operation
--in favor of speaking to the Fisher Folk standing up on the ever darkening land.

~Editilla grades UNIFIED COMMAND: F-Troop...
--almost useless Fo'Real Time but great PR shots and graphics.
The movement on this site is Labyrinthine. The Video Updates don't load, the Text Updates are repetitive BS "Spill Facts", and the Operative Frame Word is "Incident."
For example: under the site's "Area Contingency Plans (Sector New Orleans)" you will eventually find this. This will not do.
We must have real time, responsive actionable Information.

~Al Jazeera's Sebastian Walker, reporting from a fishing port south of New Orleans, said fishermen were out in the early hours of Friday, trying to get as much of their catch as they could before the oil slick was expected to hit the shore.

'You just feel helpless'
~Looking out to sea, awaiting one of the worst oil spills in U.S. history, fourth-generation oyster farmer John Tesvich thought about the last major disaster to hit the Gulf Coast.
"It's just like what we saw with Hurricane Katrina," said Tesvich, 53. "At first, it was just another storm, just like this was just another oil spill. But by the time they realize how bad it really is, it's too late."
"Why is the response taking so long?"
"Why can't they stop this?"

Key info on BP Oil Disaster: local, state, fed response, emergency contact info, what you can do to plug in with BP ~GNO

MS Coast State of Emergency
~City and county governments on the Coast are meeting today to declare a state of emergency as they watch for oil to reach the coastline. The Harrison County Supervisors are meeting now. The Biloxi City Council will meet at 1:30 p.m. and the Long Beach Aldermen have scheduled a special meeting for 2 p.m. Other municipalities are expected to follow with declarations to protect the health and safety of Coast residents.

Mississippi's first class-action lawsuit filed over oil spill

Weather hurts Gulf oil fight; new drilling on hold~Cain Burdeau

Stench Over New Orleans
~Who's Shoes are these anyway?

Profit From our Suffering ~NOLAFemmes

How You Can Help Wildlife Impacted by the Louisiana Oil Spill ~NWF ~Hat Tweet~EDF_Louisiana

BP's Gulf oil spill reminds us we can't ignore wetlands: a look at books~Nordette Adams

Are Louisiana levees flooding South Mississippi?
~There are 350 miles of levees and flood walls that protect the Greater New Orleans area from the West Bank to the Gulf, closing in on the Mississippi state line.
But the push to reinforce and add to Louisiana's storm protection has raised grave concerns for Mississippians who say flood waters are rising on both sides of the border.
~Editilla Notellas~ Y'all have doubtless caught that we have interrupted our regularly scheduled blog'ramming to bring you this Epic Man Made BP Oil Disaster that is being visited on our shores as we speak. So we all over it. Yet, the article linked above will rise in salience to this issue, as we watch this River of Oil move over the Gulf Coast across Mississippi and Alabama perhaps even Florida and Texas.

Jeudi

Plaquemines president: Oil spill may already be on La.'s coast
~Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said based on his observations from a Coast Guard helicopter just a short while ago, the spill could be hitting the Mississippi River Delta now.
~"We want to be hired to come clean it up,"
said George Baracich of the United Commercial Fishermen's Association. "We have boats, we have knowledge, we know the estuary, we know where we're at, and we're not scared of working fifteen or twenty hours a day as a time. That's what we do when we're catching shrimp."
~Please see Georgianne Nienaber's dizzying UPDATE just filed at Huffington Post!

Oil from Gulf spill is reaching Louisiana coastline

Gulf spill is really a river of oil, environmentalists say
~"This isn't a spill," said Kerry St. Pe, who headed Louisiana's oil spill response team for 23 years. "This isn't a storage tank or a ship with a finite amount of oil that has boundaries. This is much, much worse. It's a river of oil flowing from the bottom of the Gulf at the rate of 210,000 gallons a day that officials say could be running for two months or more.
If that prediction holds, much of the state's southeastern coast will become a world-watched environmental battleground that hasn't been seen in the United States since the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska 21 years ago."

Louisiana fishers fear lasting damage to livelihoods from Gulf oil spill

Nobody Could Have Predicted
~Library Chronicles

Frozen in the Head Lights, Governor Jindal seems Powerless, plays Blame Game
~Gov. Bobby Jindal said this afternoon he has repeatedly asked BP, the Coast Guard and federal authorities for a plan about the number of people and resources that will be dedicated to combating the potentially devastating environmental impacts of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but as of Thursday afternoon he still had not received an answer.~Jindal asked the Defense Dept to pay for 6,000 members of the Louisiana National Guard to assist with the cleanup for at least 90 days. What? Or what?

Fuel smell wafts over N.O. area
~April 29th MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite captured a natural-color image of the oil slick just off the Louisiana coast. ~NASA Earth Observatory
~It is advised that we should go get all the SEAFOOD we can fit in our kitchen since that will be Gone in a few days and after that for the foreseeable future in Louisiana.

Louisiana shrimpers sue BP over oil spill~Transocean and Halliburton also named as defendants~Hat Tweet~Gambit

~Hundreds of shrimping boats sail from here, dragging their nets around the inland estuaries and the rich seabed of the Gulf, which teems with white, pink and brown shrimp. Fishermen, commercial and recreational, scour the area for kingfish, red snapper and marlin. The Gulf region accounts for about a fifth of total U.S. commercial seafood production and nearly three-quarters of the nation's shrimp output, while nearly a third of all marine recreational fishing trips take place on Gulf waters, according to the Fisheries Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
"This is the Delta," said Robert Cossé, the marine division commander of Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office, while piloting a boat across the Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Reserve. "Lots of life."

Gulf Coast oil spill could eclipse Exxon Valdez ~Forbes

Dept of Homeland Security Declares Oil Spill Is Of 'National Significance'~That means that for this #oilspill Homeland Security is In Charge and new laws are in effect. http://bit.ly/bY0ae6 http://bit.ly/buj0Iy http://bit.ly/drImMQ
This also means that the neither the Press nor anyone else will be allowed to Fly Over the Oil Spill as all airspace has been restricted. Press will Only be Embedded with Appropriate Personnel or briefed by Press Conference.
(This was employed in Galveston immediately after hurricane Ike. Much to the chagrin of the local News).
We are in contact with one Journalist, Georgianne Nienaber, who found the Yellow Line, pictured above, to Not Cross and Not Sign-In at the "Designated" "Staging Area" where they sent her --where nothing seems to be happening. She has sent us an example of just how Tight the Press for this is going to get:
Unified Command releases video, photos of oil spill response operations
--and yes, as you can see from their Logo Product Placements, the US Government is now Advertising and doing Public Relations for BP and Transocean. Unified Command to conduct Deepwater Horizon incident joint press conference @ 3pm CST

~House, Senate planning a hearing on Gulf of Mexico oil spill

Gov. Jindal issues emergency declaration in oil leak in Gulf
~Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, whose parish is especially vulnerable, said a wind shift could send the oil ashore. He complained about a lack of information coming to local governments. “We need to look at the worst case scenario,” he said. “Will that oil reach here? If so, we need to put a line in the sand. We haven’t been able to get an answer on what is the worst case scenario. We’ve got to make sure we don’t wait for the wind to bring that oil toward us and then we’re trying to mop it off the shores.” In St. Bernard Parish, which also has a vulnerable coastline on the Gulf of Mexico, an estimated 120 fishermen gathered at a 9 a.m. meeting and Parish President Taffaro said he had in excess of 200 offers of help.

"Don't Get Hysterical"
~American Zombie

Gulf oil leak from rig explosion puts more than 400 species in potential harm's way
~Bob Marshal

BP Oil Drilling Disaster: Gulf Restoration Network Research Brief prepared by Nick Poggioli
~The following summary of the DeepSpill Joint Industry Project—an intentional deepwater oil spill experiment in 2000—suggests that BP and the Coast Guard should have been more prepared to deal with the “unique challenges” of a deepwater spill. The funding of the study indicates that oil companies and the US government were thinking about the problem of deepwater spills over a decade ago. Why then have the Coast Guard, BP and Transocean seemed so unprepared in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon?

Well springs third leak; officials raise spill estimate
~The new leak is near the wellhead 5,000 feet down, and like the other two, is in a now-tangled pipe called a riser that connected the well to the rig on the surface.

~La. Fishermen eye as Gulf Big Slick grows
~Have we now lost the Initiative?
--Times-Picayune is using BP/Transocean PR Graphic Interpretation as Fact despite reality,
--the US Coast Guard is Ill-Informing BP line,
--BP Executives still at large spreading Confusion.
~Governorcist is out doing Press Conferences now
finally, says nothing about arresting BP Execs on site, moving BP out of the area and seizing All BP corporate assets in the State.
~Where'dat SOOPA'FREAK TEA PARTY PALINATE MILF on this BRITISH PETRO #oilspill ? Drill Baby Drill!
Burn Baby Burn Yesssir'ya'mfkn'betcha!

BP Exec out for Corporate Spin on Today Show this morning: "Says BP Would Welcome Military Help On Oil Spill" --fails to surrender Passport.

Reform of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP): Introducing Long-Term FI
~Erwann Michel-Kerjan

Bad publicity can often be used for the public’s good

Journalist eats Crow for using inaccurate, dated levee data
~but still can't wash his own plate after using it to serve Katrina Shorthand

Committee advances bill to increase budget oversight of state housing largesse
~Brentin Mock, The Lens

Forgotten Crimes~slabbed

StoryCorps New Orleans: Lower 9th Ward residents reflect on the power of people

New Orleans' inductees to the Sandwich Hall of Fame
~Francis Lam

Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival celebrates 50th anniversary
~Molly Reid

Treme Life on Facebook

Trombone Shorty to be at Sync Up New Orleans~Treme Jazz

Guitarist Classie Ballou is a zydeco pioneer who is fluent in multiple musical languages
~Alison Fensterstock

Allison Miner stage is named for a woman who help create New Orleans Jazz Fest

Live From Jazz Fest~WWOZ

WWOZ~GAMBIT~ANTIGRAVITY ZEITGEIST~NOLAEats~NOMENU

Mercredi

~~~Bad News UpDate!
Coast Guard: Oil spill much worse than thought: 2.1 Million Gallons!~The Coast Guard says the estimate of the amount of oil leaking from the wreckage of a sunken oil rig is now up to 5,000 barrels per day, a far greater amount than the 1,000 barrels per day estimated earlier.
See Post below on SkyTruth showing just this reality.
Who has Compromised the Integrity of our US Coast Guard?
The believability of their Information has now turned to Shit!
This makes 2 BIG MISTAKES. Is this situation out of control?
Can we arrest BP on site and get them out of the area?
Whaaasup wit'da Governor? Hey Bobby? Lil'Hand Here?

BP Oil Drilling Disaster now officially the largest spill in U.S. Gulf waters~GRN

Coast Guard to Start Controlled Burn of Oil Spill Today
~Georgianne Nienaber
~Help Protect Marine Wildlife
~As the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico came within 20 miles of barrier islands and beaches in Louisiana, the U.S. Coast Guard announced plans to begin setting fire to the leaked oil to reduce the amount that can contaminate ecologically sensitive areas. News reports said that burning could begin Wednesday.
~Hat Tweet~Fofalex

Oh Snap! State's 'Slick' Website!

Gulf Oil Spill Rate Must Be Much Higher Than Stated - 6 Million Gallons So Far? ~SkyTruth
~Based on SkyTruth's latest satellite observations (yesterday) of the size of the oil slick and published data on the thickness of floating oil at sea that produces a visible sheen (1 micron, or 0.000001 meters) we think the official estimate of the spill rate from the damaged well has been significantly too low.
~Hat Tweet~Facing South

Dr. Ivor van Heerden: Oil spill off Louisiana coast 'could prove to be just as devastating as the Exxon Valdez catastrophe'
~To get some clearer sense of what this could mean for the beleaguered coast, Yahoo! News spoke with Ivor van Heerden, an outspoken scientist who was dismissed as a research professor by Louisiana State University last year after he'd castigated federal agencies for poor engineering and levee maintenance prior to the onset of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"Big Slick" Clean-up Not There says Gulf Restoration Network
~The containment and cleanup efforts were obviously inadequate to deal with the scale and scope of the ongoing spill. Despite claims of dozens of boats called to action, we saw three airplanes dropping a chemical dispersant onto the spill, and it was like an eye dropper on a forest fire. Yesterdays weather was beautiful and clear, yet no boats were actively skimming, and no booms had been laid down to contain or absorb the oil.
If what we saw is an indication of the ongoing response, BP and the Coast Guard need to be challenged by the highest levels of authority.
~Editilla gotta'axe~ We're so good at Bombing things....
Ain't no putting a diaper on this Tar Baby. 4 times the size of NO
---and it's headed right for us. Torch It? Next, Light the Bosses?
Where's our forking Governorcist? Hey Bobby! Lil'Hand Here?

Sruprise! Surprise! Surprise!
Big Oil Fought Off New Safety Rules Before Rig Explosion
~Marcus Baram


~Bayou Child, She lay it down, wit'a stroke of her hand.

~Editilla point'o'rillas~ We will probably get over-run with Crocodiles too in the Bayou one day, Asian Crocodiles. So hell, we'll just call'em "Silver Tooth" and put'em on the menu.


Gulf businesses wait as oil creeps toward coast

How would you like your shrimp cocktail?~American Zombie

Journalist sticks with using Katrina Shorthand in Interview with Harry Shearer
~But Treme has Got Our Backs Aw'Dat!

We the undersigned petition ...Release details on Corps of Engineers Internet Scandal

Drainage work moves ahead in Lafayette parish

Levee issue opens public floodgates~Ruth Heide
~The Rio Grande levee, constructed under U.S. Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction, is now substandard by post-Katrina guidelines. Bringing the river dike up to the new 2009 standards will likely cost Alamosa hundreds of thousands, city officials told residents attending a levee forum Monday night.

Hump Day was meant fo'slabbin

First they will tell you how they gon'screw you, then they screw you, then it's time to re-bid!

X-Signs and Obits~Back of Town

Post-Diluvian Follies~Slimbolala
~Editilla Notellas~ We left a General Linkee here so Y'all can please fang back down the past few Post-Diluvian Follies, and I'll try to carry this on through the week.

Cooking Creole: A peek inside the Cajun pantry of Louisiana

Subdudes back in town tonight!
New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund benefit
~Karen Dalton-Beninato

Mardi

Coast Guard May Burn Surface Oil to Reduce Rig Spill ~Bloomberg~BP today began placing floating oil barriers to protect the Delta National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, Coast Guard Rear Admiral Landry said. Barriers will be also be placed in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida as needed to protect birds and areas sensitive to pollution, she said.

Oysters, nesting birds face threat from Gulf of Mexico oil spill
~Dallas Morning News
~Also~this from Cain Burdeau,
~Last night from the Times-Picayune
~Long detail from Fire Dog Lake
~GRN's View from Above
Oil Leak from Damaged Well in Gulf of Mexico~NASA
~These images of the affected area were captured on April 25 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Please click pic to enlarge.And btw, isn't this ability to see the reason we have a Space Program?
~Editilla Gozentas~ Since it was established April 23rd that Oil indeed is flowing from this well head nearly a mile below the surface, we can estimate today 211,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) of black gold heading up and towards Louisiana. Please engage the Earth Observatory site and watch The Blob growing. Oh Snap!


Cook recalls harrowing escape from exploding oil rig

The Man Who Knew
~Bayou Child

The (flawed) 2011 coastal plan will be rubber-stamped in June. Then what? ~LaCoastPost.com

Saved by the Sea~David Helvarg

Cleaning up after the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet

"We think those few extra words are worth the effort."
~Nightprowlkitty


Get a real job Timmy... ~slabbed

Yazoo County shows resilience

From Nagin to Landrieu
~Clancy Dubos, Gambit

Finally cooking with gas: NOPD Superintendent candidates and an emerging fiscal crisis
~Eli Ackerman, The Lens

Please don't peel the onion
~American Zombie

New Orleans master plan returned to City Planning Commission ~Bruce Eggler

Rise of the Generators
~Mike Shields~Hat Tweet~Jondonley

Africa is Alive and Well in N.O.
~Garden of Irks and Delights
~Hat Tip~Humid Beings

Memories Of The Katrina Tour Bus~Cliff's Crib

The sounds of 'Treme' lead one to the source~Dan DeLuca

Represent~Sound of Treme

Sack of Town, blogging 'Creme'
~The Overpassed Up Misery Tour...
~On the 7th Day Goddess Wept...

Celebrate Helen Hill on May 8th
~New Orleans Can Thrive

Food Fight! On Oak Street, beat
de'Po'Boys on de'Battle Front!

LaPlace andouille shop plans to re-open Wednesday after fire
~Joy Herdes

Launch Fest - a fun conference for serious entrepreneurs
~Hat Tweet~pbodenheimer

New Orleans Jazz Legends Rest In Peace in Gentilly Cemetery

Gene Lees, Jazz Critic and Historian, Dies at 82

Lundi

Trees could face axe if Corps enforces strict vegetation rules
~Sheila Grissett
~Some 500 trees along the Mississippi River in East Jefferson and New Orleans ­-- and even the English ivy that has covered a French Quarter floodwall for decades -- are the next targets of a controversial Army Corps of Engineers vegetation policy that likely will require their removal.

Bill allows levee districts to handle work independently
~Jeremy Alford

Wetlands restoration urged in wake of MR-GO damage
~Mark Schleifstein

Plaquemines officials want more dredge soil projects ~Amy Wold

Levees.org makes the NYTs: "Praise for Reports on Hurricane Katrina"
(The Federal Flood, you silly meeses :)
~Editilla Crowtellas!~ 1000 Thanks Youz to the 25,000+ supporters of levees.org for keeping the Light On New Orleans. It is by your efforts that such a pantheon of news wormdom is turning to the truth of what Flooded New Orleans 8/29/05. Yes! Editilla is very Happy Wit'Dis!

Revisiting the Minneapolis bridge collapse

Gulf Oil Catastrophe
- GRN's View from Above

Oil well produces slick the size of Hong Kong, journalists starting to throw out the dreaded name Exxon Valdez ~Jacqui Goddard
~An oil slick covering 400sq miles is threatening a slow-motion catastrophe for the Gulf of Mexico’s delicate marine life, with 42,000 gallons (160,000 litres) a day now gushing from an uncapped well after a rig explosion.
Coast Guard officials said Monday afternoon that the oil spill near Louisiana was now covering an area in the Gulf of Mexico of 48 miles by 39 miles at its widest points, and they have been unable to engage a mechanism that could shut off the well thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface.

Quick end to gulf oil leak depends on robot subs?

On Big Oil and the Wetlands ~Bayou Child

World’s biggest dike finished after 19 years of construction
~JoongAng Daily
~Korea’s attempt to wrest 28,300-hectares of new land from the Yellow Sea has reached a major milestone 40 years after it was first proposed by former President Park Chung Hee. Four giant sea walls, 33 kilometers (20.1 miles) long, now surround the coastal areas of Gunsan City, Gimje City and Buan County in South Jeolla province, creating a massive sea water pool nearly two thirds of the size of Seoul.
Over the next decade, the water will be gradually drained and filled in with sand, creating land for farming and development, and an 11,800 hectare fresh water reservoir.
~Editilla Notellas~ The Koreans are Building an area of Land out of the Sea roughly 10 times the size of New Orleans. Wow.
I guess Ezra Boyd, the geographer commissioned by levees.org, is correct in his assessments of the Economic Benefits of Sound Levees Engineering? And what does this say for any flaccid arguments against going all out for Louisiana's coastal restoration and RECLAMATION? Oh, well, there is that Silly Oil Slick!

State of the Coast Conference
June 8-10 ~Hat Tweet~EDF_Louisiana

Wind damage -this time no flood! ~slabbed

Survivor tales from southern storms that killed 12
~More on MS devastation ~They are Rocking This!

Landrieu team giving boot to top Nagin administrators but keeps husband of Corps/OPP PR'Ho?
~Ariella Cohen, The Lens
~Not all unclassified employees will be replaced. A story published late Thursday, citing unnamed sources, counted Emergency Services Director Dr. Julette Saussy, Public Works Director Robert Mendoza and Emergency Preparedness Director Col. Jerry Sneed among those kept on.
~Editilla Hotellas~ Stacy Mendoza is part of that team of PR Succubi that we have been paying Millions of Tax Dollars to Sanitize the Corps Media Face.
That is about as blunt as I can put it. Nepotism has its place but it is more effective when everyone is on the same One Team.
OPP's PR Media Contract is Up this Fall, and we are wondering how the scene will shake out with the Next PR Firm the Corps prostitutes out to slim down their excess baggage.
For example, after nearly a full Year Of Stone'floodwalling, the Corps has NOT come-off of the bulk of the FOIRs valiantly filed by Levees.org --regarding Stacy Mendoza's PR Firm OPP Optimal Process Partners.
Stacy's husband Robert, as Director of Public Works, will be the point man to implement (or not) the Mayor's new Flood Protection Mandate. I have no idea what Mitch'mo has in mind for his Vice-Mayors or Cabinets or whatever, but it seems like he has the ball in play for New Orleans future flood protection in the way he is handling his Task Force on that score.
He ain't even gotten the keys to his office, and yet Mitch'mo has Plans On The Table. It just freaks me out that this gabby little PR cornflake Stacy Mendoza might end up getting a better look at (and even pillow'talkin over) those plans before the public will.
One of those plans should be to Give da'Boot to Robert Mendoza.
Here is one good reason. Here is another reason


Nashville police chief Ronal Serpas interviewing for New Orleans job ~Tennessean
~Serpas confirmed Monday that he was traveling to New Orleans to interview for its top law enforcement job. Serpas, who has led Metro’s police department since 2004, grew up in New Orleans and served on its police force from 1980 to 2001, when he retired as assistant superintendent and chief of operations to lead the Washington State Patrol.

Why does having a University of New Orleans matter again?

Celebrate what?: A monologue by Jarvis DeBerry

Newly elected Honduran President makes first official visit to New Orleans

High-speed railways to be 40-year project, says FRA administrator~John Rosenthal

Yikes! Cop Troopers storm on Gizmodo bloggers for being, well, Gizmodo bloggers!
~First they came for the Red-headed Step Children...
Born Free by MIA--EXTREMELY VIOLENT IMAGES!

HBO Puts Episode 'Treme' Music Guides Online

Treme' Music Recap: People Come Together, Things Fall Apart~Ben Collins

Hack of Town, blogging 'Creme'
..."Groundhog's Day" in Hell...
~or~Ain't No 'P' fo dis'TSD'...
~or~Who can't handle da'Toof?

'Treme' episode 3: Are you officially hooked Junkies?

They’re not watching Treme?
~Kevin Allman, Gambit

Barry Gifford's Long Road With Sailor & Lula~Chicagoist

It’s about Unfinished Blues –Memories of a New Orleans Music Man~Geraldine Wyckoff

Boots on the Ground ~NOLAFemmes

R.E.M. Join Patti Smith Onstage in New Orleans~Alex Rawls

Meet Lionel Ferbos,
The Jazz Elder Of New Orleans
~Josh Jackson

Flag Fest 2010
~Alejandro de los Rios

Dimanche

Tornado kills 10, dozens injured

Barge loading Benzene explodes in Mississippi River

'Serious spill' from sunken US oil rig
~Oil is leaking from a damaged well feeding a rig that sank off Louisiana on Thursday, in what US officials are calling "a very serious spill". The well is estimated to be leaking at a rate of about 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) of oil per day.
~"So far I hear a deafening silence from the Jindal administration and Louisiana’s oil and gas power brokers who vigorously oppose any new federal energy regulations that were supposed to begin congressional debate on the Hill tomorrow. What an irony, coming on the heels of President Obama’s recent concession to Republican calls to expand offshore oil exploration and production. Drill, Baby, Drill!"~Len Bahr, LaCoastPost

Plans to Battle Oil Spill in Gulf

All is well in the dream state
~Keith Magill~State officials charged with saving Louisiana’s coast from washing into the Gulf of Mexico are finally speaking the formerly unspeakable: Not all of us can be saved.

Louisiana Coastal Wetlands
-A Resource At Risk
~Bayou Child

Gulf Coast Research Laboratory still rebuilding from Katrina
~Harlan Kirgan

Utilizing I-10 twin spans for fishing piers would be good for New Orleans, too~Bob Marshall

On Levee and Human Failure
~Bayou Child

“The Corps is at the center of one of the largest failures of the federal government in its most basic duties – protecting its citizens.
As south Louisianians continued to persevere and rebuild, they are doing so in spite of the Corps,
not because of it.”~Louisiana Senator David Vitter

Ethics laws are our treat
~James Gill

Investors left empty-handed in Orpheum deal~Stories of trouble at the Hurricane Katrina-damaged Orpheum Theater are nothing new since a pair of Texas financiers purchased it for a fire-sale price in 2006 and ran up mortgages on the property. What is new is that the owners appear to have solicited other people's money from around the country to purchase or refurbish the historic theater at 129 University Place, and haven't delivered.

The Winds of Change
~American Zombie

NOLA Women In Action ~NOLAFemmes

Grassroots~Nola Defender
~Hat Tweet~ CharoletteAsh

Wandering
~Casa de Charlotte Della Luna

Sunday Funnies~Citizen K

Greet Tea Party
~Thomas Friedman

Now It's started... Lawmakers: Military Could Quell Chicago Violence
~Wow! And they didn't even have to flood the whole city either!

FEMA Paid for Imaginary Ambulances After Hurricane Katrina, Feds Say~EMS Network

Rebuilding a town: Rachel’s trip to New Orleans~MYLead
~Editilla Crowtellas~ We always like to express our appreciation to the hordes of volunteers who descended on New Orleans in our hour of need, but particularly to these who continue to Stick Wit'It. Since we launched this blog, these 1000s of different groups remain major rungs on our climb outta the nightmare. Really, my rough estimate just from our own postings is at about 40,000+ Americans who have come to help our city
--with about a third of those volutnteers still coming.
I feel it is so important to acknowledge these people, especially in the light of the post below, and David Simon's nauseatingly inaccurate treatment of their characters in Episode 2 "Treme".
If you meet the Buddha on the road home kill him.
The hundreds of people I have met and corresponded with in these groups are none of that white bread horse shit.
I really can't find where they got that.
Some of the people I've met came to town, and they got dirty... got cuts, got sick, got freaked out by some of what they found,
got mugged, got arrested, got religion, got reason... they got it.
Then they went home and thought'n'talked about New Orleans in ways that we can't even imagine in our little fish bowl, and in ways that I suspect surprised the volunteers as many decided to come back for more. Some have decided to buy property in Nola.
Some fell in love. Some just couldn't live in America any more.
Welcome home. Nola loves you as she loves me, Sinn Féin

Hack of Town, blogging Creme' Lo! Da'Line! Still Life in Conflict
Editilla hasn't seen The Line in this story or on this blog.
Following this blog without being allowed to comment has, aside from the painful irony of such exclusion, taken on the feel of watching an aquarium, or even watching one of those wide-screen Video Aquariums you hang on the wall. Look pretty Fighting Fish!
I didn't stumble into this story, it crashed into my life and turned Editilla into a gnarly, ugly, broken, testy, lost and wandering some'bitch. Lemme be the first to toll'ya... we ain't the pretty fish.
We don't School well. We say the wrong things, but we also try to apologize. We see things sometimes through blood tears, which isn't always the most accurate view. But we love our friends made, kept (many of whom are commenting on this blog) and lost since this story, this movie flooded our world and drew for America The Line across its very heart New Orleans ...my heart too.

Enter the Treme New Orleans Music Getaway
for a chance to win a trip to New Orleans, LA
for the ESSENCE Music Festival !

Well... jok'em if they can't take a dumb fuck. Where's The Line?
All about drawing lines, 1st 2nd Lines, Wire Lines, Plot Lines...
--but where lays The Line.
Eureka, didn't the Goddamned Line define the Battle Fronts?
I see The Line missing as quite the Living Metaphor of this Scene.
Perchance we'll see it tonight, still life looking for The Line.

Flood Lines

'A one-man jazz festival'
-Donald Harrison Jr. is such a complex keeper of local culture that it takes two characters to represent him on HBO's 'Treme'
~Dave Walker

Poets and Writers Presents Local Workshop: May 1~Solid Quarter

Keller at UNO St Claude; Projection Bias at Antenna
~Inside Art New Orleans

Festival International de Louisiane

Susan Cowsill Soars with CD Release: Lighthouse
~Georgianne Nienaber

Jazzfest Weekend 1:
David Simon & Garfunkel
~Karen Dalton-Beninato

Chaz And Heritage: The Tin Men
~Josh Jackson

Live From Jazz Fest!~WWOZ
~Jazz Fest Set-Schedule Machine!
~Post-Fest: Week One~Alex Woodward, Gambit
~Days Off, Breaks & Otherwise~Humid Beings