July 2010 archive

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

Words have the power

to both destroy and heal.

When words are both true and kind,

they can change our world

–Siddhartha Gautama

Phenomena XXV: words


Warp

The Cost of Speaking

So many

imagine they celebrate

the right to speak freely

while choosing

on the one hand

not to exercise

their ability to listen

closely and intently enough

to actually hear

and on the other hand

to avoid the responsibility

to respond

which ensures

that freedom

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–April 2, 2008

Late Night Karaoke

Why I Find Myself Shrieking

I sighed uneasy relief with everyone else when BP finally stopped Deepwater Horizon from emptying itself in the Gulf.  Yes, I knew it was temporary.  Yes, I knew it could blow up again any minute.  But there was, nevertheless, a relief.  For a short time anyway, BP would stop turning the Gulf of Mexico into a disgusting oil gumbo garnished with oil soaked pelicans and dead dolphins.

But then I read this article in the New York Times:

A wellhead in southeastern Louisiana was spewing a mist of oil and gas up to 100 feet into the air after being hit by a tug boat early Tuesday morning, officials said. It is at least the third unrelated oil leak in the area since the Deepwater Horizon spill began 99 days earlier.

The well is about 65 miles south of New Orleans in Barataria Bay, which is surrounded by wildlife-rich wetlands and was a fertile area for fishermen, shrimpers and oystermen before the BP spill. By Tuesday afternoon, a reddish brown sheen 50 yards by one mile long was spotted near the well, according to a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard said the well was owned by Cedyco, a company based in Houston.

The wellhead burst at 1 a.m. local time Tuesday after being hit by a tug boat, the Pere Ana C, that was pushing a dredge barge, Captain Buford Berry, though details were still being investigated.

So, not to put too fine a point on it, there is more oil and gas being deposited in the Gulf as you read this.  And they haven’t started stopping it yet, and are booming.  Booming.  Booming with 6000 feet of boom.  Pardon me, but didn’t we all decide in the past 3 months that that is worthless.  Oh, but excuse me again, this is a new day.  And a new leak.  And so we get to try stuff that didn’t work before all over again.  Because we’re crazy and think it’ll be different this time.

And then we have this gem:

No specific flow rate has been determined, officials said.

Mama mia.  Oy gevalt.

And this, dear reader, is why I find myself shrieking.  And uttering strings of profanity.  Join me.


simulposted at The Dream Antilles and The Stars Hollow Gazette and dailyKos

The Defense Dweeb Video

It’s about defending “ourselves” against the evil menace of “terror”.  In this case the “terror” is implied as North Korea, that black space which can be easily seen from satellite at night photos.  It highlights the western world’s obsession with dweebocracy, that pig with lipstick that is globo-corpo-techno-fascism in disguise.  The night lights of the western world shine bright yet nobody is really home.

This to me is a bad joke.  An extension of “our” true predatory nature to dominate or kill marginalized via techno-prowess and with little consideration to the continuation of ourselves as a viable species.

Hi, my name is John Connor, General of the Resistance, Terminator style.

The Future: A Prediction

Schwarzenegger: “I’ll take my toys and go home”: Updated!

Leadership is stated as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.”

What makes leadership is the ability to get people to do what they don’t want to do and like it. ~ Harry Truman

Apparently those inspirational words have been lost on California’s Governor. Swept into office on a wave of Republican propaganda and manufactured resentment of the status quo our current debacle sitting in the Capitol has managed to blame everyone else for his shortcomings.

“If I don’t get all of the things that we need in order to be fiscally responsible … I will not sign a budget and it could actually drag out until the next governor gets into office,” Schwarzenegger told reporters after meeting with the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce on Monday.

State and local governments prepare to cut 500,000 jobs

  It’s the economic timebomb that we all knew would go off, but kept hoping that a heavenly miracle would save us.

  Well, time is up, and miracles are in short supply.

 The report, a result of a survey by the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties, showed local governments are moving to cut the equivalent of 8.6 percent of their workforces from 2009 to 2011. That suggests 481,000 employees will lose their jobs, according to the report, which said the tally may yet rise.

 That’s bad, but the real story is actually much worse.

Open Mist

Photobucket

News at Noon

From Reuters

Analysis: Wall Street loathing for Warren lifts regulator bid

By Maria Aspan and Kim Dixon

July 27, 2010

(Reuters) – Elizabeth Warren, clad in cardigans and pearls, has become Wall Street’s public enemy No. 1, but it’s that very vitriol that could earn her a post heading the government’s new consumer watchdog agency.

“I get disgusted every time I hear her speak. It’s like she’s sitting in some ivory tower, not understanding the ramifications of anything she says,” said Anton Schutz, president of Mendon Capital Advisors. “Any person you put in that role really ought to have some industry experience.”

Warren, a Harvard law professor and outspoken consumer rights advocate, is currently a top monitor of the government’s $700 billion bailout of the financial system.

Breathe deeply… clear the mind of distractions… and focus

So what would count as doing something effective about abrupt climate change?  This diary, then, is a thought experiment: what if we actually made abrupt climate change itself a priority rather than mere window-dressing for another legislative report?

(crossposted at Orange)  

The Meaning And Ramifications Of The WikiLeaks Afghanistan Document Release

On Sunday Julian Assange through his whisteblower site WikiLeaks released what has been described as more than 90,000 secret internal US military documentary records of US military actions in Afghanistan over the past six years, sparking anger and early attempts at political ‘damage control’ from the US government. In reality the WikiLeaks release may be the biggest leak yet of documented war crimes in US history since the 1971 Pentagon Papers leak by Daniel Ellsberg.

The documents were first published online by The Guardian, the New York Times and Germany’s Der Spiegel, and include details of 144 incidents in which US and ‘coalition’ forces have killed civilians in Afghanistan and how a secret extrajudicial black ops special forces unit hunts down targets for assassination or detention without trial.

The Obama White House’s immediate response came through US national security adviser James Jones.

“The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organisations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk and threaten our national security,” ABC News reported that Jones said in a statement, apparently not recognizing that neither he nor the White House is the United States, and that in reality the United States public is who Jones would prefer to keep from knowing what’s happening in Afghanistan.

Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman in their Monday War and Peace report hosted a roundtable discussion about the document release and its ramifications with independent British journalist Stephen Grey, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, former State Department official in Afghanistan Matthew Hoh, independent journalist Rick Rowley, and investigative historian Gareth Porter:




About 59 minutes – transcript below

Also see:

A Reading List to Put the WikiLeaks ‘War Logs’ in Context

Julian Assange On Why The World Needs WikiLeaks

‘Surge’ Smoke Follows Petraeus To Afpak

Our Hero

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