May 20, 2010 archive

Afternoon Edition

Your Afternoon Edition is brought to you by your substitute host, TMC. ek is off this afternoon. This is an Open Thread. Enjoy

BP accused of cover-up

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(Reuters) – BP Plc said on Thursday it was siphoning off more of the oil gushing from its ruptured Gulf of Mexico well, but the energy giant faced “cover-up” allegations over its struggling response to the catastrophic month-old spill.

“The oil plume escaping from the riser pipe has visibly declined today,” BP spokesman Mark Proegler said after the company announced that a mile-long tube tapping into the larger of two leaks from the well was now capturing 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons/795,000 liters) per day of oil.

However, a live video feed of the leak, provided by BP, showed a black plume of crude oil still billowing out into the deep waters.

“It’s just not working,” U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, who heads the Environment and Public Works Committee, told CNN as she watched the BP video. The California Democrat denounced a “cover-up” of the real size of the oil spill.

OTW :: So close yet … so far away

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Can we, as a nation, make the transformational conversion to New Clean Renewable Energy, with a goal of eliminating those energy monsters sources that foul our oceans, gulfs, lakes, waters, mountains, valleys, and  planet? Can we as communal inhabitants of this great earth, the only one we have, choose to nurture and honor her in our global decisions to milk her energies?

Yes. We Can. But only if our leaders will.

Open Drums

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BP’s Gulf Oil Leak 19 Times Larger Than BP & Gov’t Say?

The Real News Network’s Jesse Freeston interviews journalists at McClatchy’s DC bureau to for their latest on the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Journalists believe that BP and the Government may be hiding information on the severity of the leak. Those who fish for a living in the Gulf of Mexico are after BP for compensation. The central question yet to be answered to help resolve the question of how the explosion happened. And, the Cuban government is concerned but not vocal, given it’s own aspirations for deep sea drilling.



Real News Network – May 20, 2010

Markey: BP thinks it’s their ocean — but it’s the American people’s ocean

Markey to Get Live Feed of BP Oil Spill on Website

BP Acquiesces to Markey’s Request, Will Release Video Stream Tonight to Chairman

May 19, 2010 – Following a demand from Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) for a live feed of the BP oil spill to be made publicly available on the web, BP said they would release the feed and it will be shown on Rep. Markey’s committee website at http://globalwarming.house.gov. The release of the live link to Rep. Markey is expected tonight.

This may be BP’s footage, but it’s America’s ocean. Now anyone will be able to see the real-time effects the BP spill is having on our ocean,” said Rep. Markey, who conducted a briefing today with independent scientists where he reiterated the call for a video feed. “This footage will aid analysis by independent scientists blocked by BP from coming to see the spill.” […]

From the Latest News on the Wires it seems the BP’s getting some “stonewalling help” from the Coast Guard too.

Markey: BP thinks it’s their ocean — but it’s the American people’s ocean

Markey to Get Live Feed of BP Oil Spill on Website

BP Acquiesces to Markey’s Request, Will Release Video Stream Tonight to Chairman

May 19, 2010 – Following a demand from Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) for a live feed of the BP oil spill to be made publicly available on the web, BP said they would release the feed and it will be shown on Rep. Markey’s committee website at http://globalwarming.house.gov. The release of the live link to Rep. Markey is expected tonight.

This may be BP’s footage, but it’s America’s ocean. Now anyone will be able to see the real-time effects the BP spill is having on our ocean,” said Rep. Markey, who conducted a briefing today with independent scientists where he reiterated the call for a video feed. “This footage will aid analysis by independent scientists blocked by BP from coming to see the spill.” […]

From the Latest News on the Wires it seems the BP’s getting some “stonewalling help” from the Coast Guard too.

Markey: BP thinks it’s their ocean — but it’s the American people’s ocean

Markey to Get Live Feed of BP Oil Spill on Website

BP Acquiesces to Markey’s Request, Will Release Video Stream Tonight to Chairman

May 19, 2010 – Following a demand from Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) for a live feed of the BP oil spill to be made publicly available on the web, BP said they would release the feed and it will be shown on Rep. Markey’s committee website at http://globalwarming.house.gov. The release of the live link to Rep. Markey is expected tonight.

This may be BP’s footage, but it’s America’s ocean. Now anyone will be able to see the real-time effects the BP spill is having on our ocean,” said Rep. Markey, who conducted a briefing today with independent scientists where he reiterated the call for a video feed. “This footage will aid analysis by independent scientists blocked by BP from coming to see the spill.” […]

From the Latest News on the Wires it seems the BP’s getting some “stonewalling help” from the Coast Guard too.

May 20, 1961: The Freedom Rider Story

In light of what’s been going on in this country, the past couple of years especially, and a highly reported so called populist movement, themselves calling the participants ‘teabaggers’, but really a very loud and even with some media and political ideology backing a minority of the population, I bring you this in the subject title and below.

 

Let’s Get Fundamental

“The generation that made the nation thought secrecy in government one of the instruments of Old World tyranny and committed itself to the principle that a democracy cannot function unless the people are permitted to know what their government is up to.”

—Henry Steele Commager

I took that quote from a recent posting by Bruce Fein on the Libertarian site of the The Future of Freedom Foundation. Commager was a great influence on me as a young student and Fein is a hero of mine. Fine delights me, not because I share his POV completely but because he is one of those rare creatures that do exist in Washington–a decent and honorable man of principle. Fein and other libertarians like him believe in a kind of Constitutional fundamentalism. They believe in limited government, of course, but they believe that the separation of powers is fundamental to a relatively free society. The Founders were intelligent students of political science and had, unlike most people today who write about politics, read the classics. Reading the classics makes one skeptical of mankind and governing systems. So the Founders devised a system that was somewhat inefficient but insured political stability. One of the chief means of doing that was to put the power of the purse and or war squarely in the hands of Congress which is closest to the people.  

On This Day in History: May 20

On this day in 1946,  pop singer, song writer, Academy Award winning actress, producer and record producer, Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, CA. Her father was Armenian and her mother was of Cherokee, French and English descent. After her mother remarried and ran into financial difficulties, Cher was placed in temporary foster care. She eventually dropped out of high school due to severe undiagnosed dyslexia.

She met Sonny Bono, 11 years her senior, marrying him and singing together, eventually emerging as the duo, Sonny & Cher. There first hit was “I’ve Got You Babe” which reached the top of the charts in 1965. They had one child, Chastity, born in 1969.

After a brief career slump, talent scouts saw their act in Las Vegas and signed them for a variety special which led to the popular TV variety show, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour . The show ran from 1971 to 1974 collecting 15 Emmy’s. The show was canceled due to the couple’s divorce. Later that year, Cher married her second husband, rock star Gregg Allman. Their son, Elijah Blue, was born on July 10, 1976. They separated in 1977 and divorced two years later.

She went on to not just a successful career as a solo artist but stretched into acting making her movie debut in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982) which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. In her next role in Silkwood (1983), she played Meryl Streep’s lesbian friend for which she received the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and her first academy Award nomination. Her role as a mother of a severely disfigured boy in the critically acclaimed The Mask (1985), Cher won the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. In 1987 Cher starred in three films, The Witches of Eastwick, Suspect and Moonstruck for which she received the academy Award for Best Actress in 1988.

She returned to singing and concerts. Her Fairwell Tour lasted three years (2002 – 2005). After a three year hiatus, Cher returned to the stage in Las Vegas where she still performs at Caesar’s Palace. The dance hit Believe (1999), selling over 10 million copies world wide ans she is the only female performer to have Top 100 Billboard hits for the last four consecutive decades. During her 40 years career she has sold over 100 million records world wide.

Happy Birthday, Cher

Docudharma Times Thursday May 20




Thursday’s Headlines:

Scientists Fault U.S. Response in Assessing Gulf Oil Spill

USA

In the bayou, fish and oil have mixed for decades

350 immigrants held more than 6 months while fighting deportation, U.S. says

Europe

French cabinet unites to pass burka bill that has split country

Euro in danger: Germans trigger panic over future of single curre

Middle East

No release for hikers jailed as American spies, says Iran

Washington burns its bridges with Iran

Asia

North Korea threatens South over report on sinking of warship

Pakistan court orders blocking of Facebook over Muhammad cartoon

Africa

Malawi gay couple sentenced to 14 years in jail

Latin America

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez allegedly helped Colombian, Spanish militants forge ties

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning


Bejeweled

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Resurrection…

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