Author's posts
Jul 25 2010
BPravity: Cheap ‘n Cheat — Bastards!!!!
(cross-posted at firefly-dreaming)
(Click on photo to enlarge)
This is a “Flotel.” It is a huge barge upon which pods, made of corrugated steel, are stacked two high and three wide. Each pod holds 12 bunks. There are 4 bunks to a “room”
(Click on photo to enlarge)
There is a common area for eating, showering and leisure activities.
The men working for BP, in helping with the clean-up, are expected to put in 12 hour days, for 18 days straight, and then, they are to receive 3 days off. This means workers living in these “flotels” spend 24 hours a day there for 18 days straight. And it means being away from their families for a long time at a stretch.
Although workers had been promised motels, BP brought in these flotels, because of, or so they say,
One of the logistical difficulties in combating the Gulf oil disaster has been finding housing for the thousands of workers brought in by BP and its contractors to work on cleanup and containment operations . . . .
However,
BP told a New Orleans Fox affiliate that the flotels were useful for keeping workers close to cleanup sites, thereby eliminating travel time.
Jun 28 2010
B Pravity ! Slithering, slimey scum!
(cross-posted at firefly-dreaming)
I guess most of us thought that the $20 billion fund to be set up by BP was to be used exclusively for payment of claims to coastal workers and businesses.
Michael Rozen, a partner in the Feinberg Rozen law firm, which is in charge of administering the fund. . . . .
“My present understanding is … that it is available for all manner of costs,” Rozen said, stressing that all legitimate claimants would be paid.
“Twenty billion maybe isn’t sufficient for the mass of stuff that’s aired, in which case BP will have to add more. If that should be the case, people still have their rights and remedies under law.”
. . . . . Robert Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and activist, told Reuters that it was another “subterfuge by BP.”
Toxic tort lawyers Mike Papantonio and Perry Weitz said news that the fund can have other purposes “amounts to a trick,” because the public expects all of the money to go to victims.
“Imagine if BP uses a significant portion for clean-up costs,” Weitz said at the spill litigation conference. “What’s left for the victims?” (emphasis mine)
Jun 23 2010
BP Stopping Rescuers! (Update: With Action Page)
(Cross-posted at firefly-dreaming)
Is there no one, no one that has any control over BP?
BP is blocking access to rescuing turtles and is incinerating turtles in the oil.
(Interview by Catherine Craig)
Venice, Louisiana, Boat Captain speaks!
S I C K!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE!
PLEASE TAKE ACTION!
BP is burning endangered sea
turtles alive.
Click on Photo for Action Page
(h/t dharmasyd)
Jun 23 2010
Clean-Up Worker Alert!
This is not really a diary, folks! But it’s an important action alert (also, cross-posted at Firefly-dreaming).
Please everyone, take a moment to sign FireDogLake’s petition to BP insisting they provide respirators and the proper equipment for the clean-up workers along the Gulf coast. BP is threatening to fire anyone who wears their own bought masks or whatever — seems BP is worried about its PR image (WTF?).
Tell BP: Oil Cleanup Workers Need Respirators and Safety Training
Click on photo to sign the petition.
It seems to me that OSHA should be on BP’s back to get them to buy the proper safety and health equipment for these people, who are exposed to many dangerous illnesses! But, then, it seems to me . . . . . a lot of things . . . . . . !
Thank you, ALL!
Jun 12 2010
Pissed off! (Surely, I’m not saying this out LOUD!
So, I receive this from Sen. Leahy today, as follows:
Dear …….
Figuratively speaking, what BP has done to the communities and ecology of the Gulf Coast is downright criminal.
Eleven workers lost their lives in the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion. Countless more have lost their livelihoods. The environmental devastation to marine life and coastal wetlands is unfathomable.
Yet under current law, if a jury finds BP criminally negligent, the company would not necessarily have to pay any restitution to the victims of the spill — not even to the families of rig-workers who perished or to the fishermen put out of work. Furthermore, criminal penalties are currently too lenient to adequately deter corporate wrongdoers from authorizing risky schemes that damage the environment.
That’s why this week I introduced the Environmental Crimes Enforcement Act (ECEA) to make restitution for violations of the Clean Water Act mandatory and increase criminal sentences for violators.
Urge your members of Congress to support the Environmental Crimes Enforcement Act (ECEA) to start treating preventable environmental catastrophes as serious criminal acts.
This legislation takes important steps towards deterring criminal conduct that leads to environmental and economic catastrophe.
Too often, big oil companies treat criminal fines and penalties as a mere cost of doing business. But passing ECEA would change all that, sentencing corporate wrongdoers to serious prison time and mandating restitution payments be made to the victims of corporate malfeasance.
So please, take a moment to support this important legislation by clicking here.
I fully support lifting the miniscule $75 million liability cap on corporations responsible for environmental disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill, but I believe we must also go further to treat such acts as serious crimes against our communities, our economy, and our environment.
If you agree, please support the Environmental Crimes Enforcement Act (ECEA) today.
Thank you for taking action to hold corporate wrongdoers accountable and ensure something like this never happens again.
Sincerely,
Patrick Leahy
May 30 2010
BP, the government, or Phillippe Cousteau, Jr.? Who would you believe?
Phillippe Cousteau, Jr., the grandson of French explorer and ecologist Jacques-Yves Cousteau:
BP’s oil spill is humanity’s latest strike against against the World’s oceans, according to Phillippe Cousteau Jr., an explorer and host for Animal Planet and Planet Green.
Phillipe Cousteau, Jr., actually dove into the oil, dispersants of this BP soup mix.
Phillippe Cousteau, Jr. was on “Real Time with Bill Maher” this past Friday and spoke of what the country’s worst in oil spill in history will mean for oceans that are already suffering from pollution and overfishing.
This video is not embeddable — see it here.
Philippe Cousteau, Jr., the ecologist grandson of Jacques, joined Bill Maher on Real Time last night to give his assessment of the Gulf of Mexico, where he has been working to help clean up the oil washing ashore from the the open offshore oil well. While he seemed confident that there was a way to fix the problem, he stressed that the ocean ecosystem will not fix itself. . . . .
Maher asked about the situation in Louisiana, where Cousteau had been working for the past weeks- his answer was not incredibly optimistic. He did have a direct answer for people who believe the ocean is strong and healthy enough to fix itself:
“I could cut my leg off, I could cut my arm off, I could gouge my eye out, I’d still probably survive, but not very well, and that’s what we’re doing to the ocean. It’s the life support system of this planet. We’ve been dumping in it, we’ve been polluting it, we’ve been destroying it for decades, and we’re essentially maiming ourselves… ”
Speaking about massive annual dead zones just off the U.S. Coast, Cousteau lets us know that we have exceeded the tipping point:
May 16 2010
War and Secrecy — Secrets Here, Secrets There, Everywhere Secrets!!!! [Update!]
I am very glad to know that Seymour Hersh is shedding/exposing some light to the military dominance in all matters of war! See Ministry of Truth’s Sy Hersh: “Battlefield Executions”. . . .
We’ve had “secret death squad executions” going on in Pakistan and Afghanistan for quite some time now, which were unbeknownst not only to our military, but, supposedly, even to Obama. But, whether it’s secret or otherwise, we’ve just been killing people right down the line, Iraq, etc. See Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan Revealed (Operated by the JSOC, US Joint Special Operations Command, which was Cheney’s original execution squad, if I’m not mistaken) and Death Squads in Afghanistan. Just a couple of other examples of our secretive behavior. Wonder if there’s any count on those activities?
Mar 18 2010
I paid a visit to my Congressman’s District Office! [Update!]
Went to my Congressman’s District Office, this past Monday, March 15, 2010.
Asked to speak to whoever it was that one could speak to when the Congressman was not there.
Out came a young man, his Deputy District Administrator. I had met this young man about two years previously, but he did not recall me.
“What did you come to talk about?”
“I came to talk to you about the health care reform. I would like to know why the Congressman has changed his position with respect to the public option. He promised that he would not sign any health care reform bill that did not contain a public option. He was a signatory to this letter stating just that. So, why has he changed his position?” [I held in my hand a letter of August 17, 2009, with 60 Members of Congress, who had signed on, as an attachment to the letter, stating their position with respect to the public option, i.e., that they would NOT sign any health care reform bill without a public option. This was a letter to The Hon. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, signed off on be Raul Grijalva, Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee, representing the Congressional Progressive Cause and the Congressional Black Caucus.]
“He can change his position if he wants.”
“You know about Cong. Grayson’s bill H.R. 4789, don’t you? The Medicare Option for anyone under 65 who wants to join and pay for it?,” I asked. “What are the Congressman’s feelings on that?”
“He’s against it – there aren’t enough votes for it.”
“Well, I can tell you that since he introduced it, plenty of Americans have signed up in a matter of a couple of days, they are signing up endlessly – it’s phenomenal.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he says, “the votes are not there and the Congressman is going to sign the bill as it is.”
Continuing the “joust” . . . .!
Feb 01 2010
This just may be our BEST chance to turn this country around!
International Criminal Court – The Hague
As they say, “just one individual CAN make a difference.”
“Prof. Francis A. Boyle, Professor of International Law, University of Illinois College of Law, of Champaign, Illinois, U.S.A., has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.), in The Hague, against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleeza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the Accused).” The Complaint is based on the “criminal policy and practice of ‘extraordinary renditions’ perpetrated upon about 100 human beings,” which practice represents “Crimes against Humanity” and are “in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the I.C.C.” * (emphasis mine)
The Honorable Luis Moreno-Ocampo
Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM, The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax No.: 31-70-515-8555
Email: [email protected]January 19, 2010
Dear Sir:
Please accept my personal compliments. I have the honor hereby to file with you and the International Criminal Court this Complaint against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice , and Alberto Gonzales (hereinafter referred to as the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition.” This term is really a euphemism for the enforced disappearances of persons, their torture, severe deprivation of their liberty, their violent sexual abuse, and other inhumane acts perpetrated upon these Victims. The Accused have inflicted this criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” upon about one hundred (100) human beings, almost all of whom are Muslims/Arabs/Asians and People of Color. I doubt very seriously that the Accused would have inflicted these criminal practices upon 100 White Judeo-Christian men. . . . .
[Note: A reading of the entirety of the Complaint can be found here.