Tag: senate

For the past several days, everyone has been speculating on what would be done with the unfinished relief wells and new but ever so slightly oozing sealing cap and 3 ram stack assembly,  should the relatively calm Gulf coast weather turn on them.   Today’s the one week anniversary of the BP oil well successfully being turned off.

Previously no decision had been made, with hints that the well might have to be opened up again, if they had to abandon the Macondo Canyon 252 site because of a hurricane or tropical cyclone.

Per Admiral Thad Allen’s latest press briefing this afternoon, ongoing, they are planning to leave the broken BP oil well capped if they have to evacuate the area because of an oncoming weather system.    

http://twitter.com/BP_America/…

The relief well that is farther along, and only about 4 feet horizontally from intersecting the old Deepwater Horizon wellbore, with just a bit of casing to put in at the very end for the last 100 feet they still have to drill,  has received a temporary plug, called a “storm packer ”   which they stuff down it 300 feet below the sea floor.

Picture of the storm packer plug here: http://www.theoildrum.com/node…

Tropical Depression #3, not looking real organized yet.

Here’s the storm that will be named “Bonnie” if it gets organized.  Right now, Bonnie is still Tropical Depression #3 with a “high” aka 50% or greater, probability of going to cyclone status within 48 hours, and a projected storm track to head possibly for the Louisiana Delta.   T.D. #3 is over land right now, which is keeping it milder.  http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo_a…

Here’s a live, updating, easy to load satellite link to watch “Bonnie to Be” which is currently the leading edges on the very right hand side of this image, Thurs, July 22, at 1:35 pm PDT.   ( pic was taken 2:45 pm local )

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/e…

Here’s that NOAA cafeteria page of every possible weather graphic you’d ever want to see for New Orleans/Baton Rouge, loads more slowly   http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lix/?n…

The Democratic Party holds the majority in the Senate, but increasing forgets why it exists, as it continues to enact the disaster capitalism scenario of a major party which screws over it constituents.

Today (Wed) the Senate voted against extending expired unemployment benefits, with 11 useless Democrats voting with the Republicans to increase human misery.   Oh, and Plantation Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, who just squeaked by in a Democratic primary because of her No Public Option health care stance ?   She couldn’t be bothered to vote at all.  http://www.senate.gov/legislat…      Senate Vote #190 motion to agree with House amend. to Senate amend.  American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act of 2010

At least people like Senator “He’s with us on everything but the war” Lieberman don’t pretend anymore.  He was a NO.  So were:

Nelson NB           cornhusker strikes again

Webb VA            

McCaskill MO

Bayh IN               lame duck still can poop on your lawn

Begich AL

Feingold WI    

Kohl  WI

Landrieu  LA    isn’t she incredible

Menendez  NJ

Nelson FL      the other Nelson. on the Gulf.

Pryor AR

I’m listening to the Primary election results on television and watching on the internet.  Here are the current leads or projected winners for some of the races nationwide.   The polls closed in CA an hour ago.   HuffPo also has a header banner up with this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

First, the biggest suck disappointment of the evening-  Democrat Senate Plantation Blanche over Bill Halter in Arkansas ,   52 to 48%.  

Blanche Lincoln (D, “there isn’t going to be a public option” Walmart, Koch Oil, Arkansas)

Bill Halter

There’s been a lawsuit filed over the closing of polling places, but Halter has conceded.

The Senate broke early, this past Thursday,  for their 11 day long vacation, kicked off with the Memorial Day Holiday upcoming on Monday.   They aren’t coming back into session until June 7 th.   They can’t “do” anything because of their arse kissing fillibuster rules until June 11th, 15 days after that.

HuffPo.  You need to read the entire story, but here’s a taste:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

On June 1, several programs, including extended unemployment benefits, will expire. By the end of the week, 19,400 people will prematurely stop receiving checks, according to data from the Department of Labor. How long will it take the Senate to finish the bill? With Republicans promising to stand in the way, leadership will need to file at least one time-consuming “cloture” motion to break the filibuster and to set up a vote by the end of the week in the best-case scenario. By the end of the following week, the number of premature unemployment exhaustions will climb to 323,400. The week after that, 903,000. By the end of the month, 1.2 million.

It will be the third time this year that lawmakers have allowed extended unemployment benefits to lapse, and the second time they’ve decided to leave town for recess fully knowing the lapse would cause panic and confusion among blameless layoff victims — not to mention what Katz calls a “huge” administrative burden on state workforce agencies.

But this is the first time the Democratic Party can’t even half-plausibly blame the Republicans for the lapse. “This isn’t being done because of Republicans, believe me.  This is done because there’s a group of us, we don’t have a majority, but they listen,” said Rep. Dutch Ruppersburger (D-Md.), who fought to shrink the size of the bill. “I think it’s really symbolic. We have a very diverse party and the party has come together… This is a real victory for the moderates and the Blue Dogs and the freshmen, that our party leadership is working with us to let this happen.”  

The difference between the Blue Dogs and the Progressive Caucus, as I have repeatedly pointed out, is that the Blue Dog contingent is already a sell out to the established domestic energy, pharma, and tobacco industries, from which it takes donations, and said industries also are the financial backers of the Tea Party movement, which is the Republican Party’s astroturf for non thinking, feel good libertarian type older voters already on government benefits.

The House sucked up to the Blue Dog contingent to get their version ready for the Senate, and the Senate, as usual, skeedadled out the door, without taking any action on it,  laughing at them again.   The House also just left the entire month of December 2010 out of the bill, so the budget “deficit hawks” in the flyover states, like Sen. Kent Conrad  (D, ND, Middle East Warmonger, Domestic Budget “hawk”) can look at it again.

“It’s so hard to know what the economic conditions will be at that point,” he said.

Remember that “health insurance reform” bill these clowns just passed with great fanfare a few months ago ?

They are cutting the unemployed COBRA’s benefits, too.  Any person laid off after this Monday, May the 31st, will not be able to get COBRA subsidies to continue to purchase health insurance.  Welcome to the open market and the Emergency Room, folks !  

Source:

http://www.deepwaterhorizonres…

A Press Conference w/ EPA Admin Lisa Jackson & USCG Rr Adm Mary Landry on Monday 5/24/10 3:30 pm Central DT to discuss dispersants.  There’s a transcript of the live blog.

Last week EPA ordered BP to stop using Corexit and look for something less toxic.  BP is still using Corexit.  From the following transcript, it appears that BP will continue to be using Corexit and EPA “will be conducting their own tests  to find the least toxic dispersants.”

Then the conference call goes over to Rr Admiral Landry at 3:58 pm.  “In a crisis mode still, never dealt with a well releasing oil 5000 feet below the water.”

5/24/2010

original caption:

“GULF OF MEXICO – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Senate Energy Committee Ranking Member

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Senate Energy Committee Chairman Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) view response efforts

first hand during a flyover of areas affected by the BP oil spill. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Rob Wyman.”

edit one.  why did this diary post 3 times….

This must be seen across America.

    Stormfront.org, which was founded to support David Duke for senate by another KKK Grand Dragon, Don Black, has been promoting and contributing to Rand Paul’s moneybombs. Palling around with WhiteSupremacists much?

That’s a tweet from Don Black, head of the white supremacist group Stormfront.  Wow.

~snip~

So, Trey Grayson should reject donations from Republicans who voted for the bailout……..but it’s okay for Rand Paul to accept donations from Stormfront?

genuineGOPmom.blogspot.com

   I will state this loudly and clearly. Over and over at the top of my Jewish lungs.

   Rand Paul MUST return Neo-Nazi funds NOW and DENOUNCE Stormfront.org

   But he can’t.

More below the fold